Grape Harvest at Condor's Hope

With the coming of Fall and the intense heat we have been getting the past few weeks the sugars are high in the grapes and the vines couldn't wait. I headed down South to Cuyama in North Santa Barbara County to a small ranch called Condor's Hope own by my Profess. and his wife, to harvest Zinfandel grapes- local, sustainable, dry farmed. Dry farmed you say? These grapes are watered at most once a month- maximizing quality of fruit and minimizing envio. impact and cost:) The grape harvest was a little lower this year due to last years frost, but the quality was still awesome. We wine and dined and slept under the grapes- my friend Tim and I played music in the evening and made the journey back to SC. GReat weekend!

FIGS are here!!

It's the beginning of Fall in Santa Cruz! Finally after three years of drought we got some rain last night- not that we haven't had any but it's been sparse. I've recently taken two gardening jobs on the weekends so I can eat. Yesterday I received some Brown Turkey figs as part of my payment- a wonderful sight to beholden. They were amazing and it's still early in the season- I sure hope this will be a regular form of gratitude:) yum!

Adventures from Mongolia

Took a trip last summer with my grandma and the collectors council fo the Bower's Art Museum- beautiful offroad cultural adventure navigating through the backroads of the Gobi, riding camels through sandstorms, forging rushing rivers and city traffic, managing to stay vegetarian in a carnivorous living on the backbones of subsitence- I even brought my ukulele:) and made some new friends

Logo designs for Ocean Inst.

My friend Cheryl for the Ocean Institute in Dana Point asked me to design a logo for an upcoming conference for teen girls in ocean science- I played around and came up with these designs so far:) My kelp design captivated but it's still being edited