tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-367188 2009-11-28T21:16:33-08:00 A web blog dedicated to people, places and expresions in lives lived with grace, beauty and hands in the earth. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef012875ea250b970c 2009-11-28T21:16:33-08:00 2009-11-28T21:09:28-08:00

My friend, Kirk Probasco, has closed Stokes Adobe. The fact that he is a veteran of food and wine is a no-brainer when you watch him work the room. Since I live two blocks away and that this was the last real local joint around, I need to relate some history here and celebrate his passion and the community.

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef012875ce81e6970c 2009-11-23T19:58:13-08:00 2009-11-24T06:55:20-08:00

Back in April 2008, Damaris Colhoun got in touch with me about a book that she and Samantha Nestor were putting together on custom wine cellars. She asked if they might include some of my client's cellars in the book and of course I said, hell yes. My friend Alice Feiring was writing the text so it sounded like a great project and long overdue.

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef0120a6af5d0b970c 2009-11-05T19:35:38-08:00 2009-11-05T19:35:38-08:00

Roald Gundersen is designing wonderful spaces. His company, Whole Trees Architecture in Stoddard, WI, has a quiet and thoughtful approach to structure and form. He was just featured in a New York Times article but I don't think that will change his focus.

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef0120a5ef2ee7970b 2009-10-16T21:27:54-07:00 2009-10-16T21:27:54-07:00

OK ... I'm drinking albarino, reading Hemingway and jonesing for Le Sud. But here's a reprint from Bruce Weber at the NY Times: A headline in The New York Sun on Sept. 4, 1940, captured accurately, albeit with amused condescension,...

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef0120a562cd1f970b 2009-09-10T20:34:30-07:00 2009-09-10T20:34:30-07:00

Lately, as all the land around where I grew up, is being auctioned off to the lowest bidder, I have been rereading my great, great, great grandfather's diaries. He wrote almost every day from 1826 when he, his family, cattle and chickens boarded a rickety vessel in London bound for Tasmania till he died in Alameda, CA in 1882. And I thought I had something to complain about!

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef0120a4ddd443970b 2009-08-12T17:31:43-07:00 2009-08-12T17:31:10-07:00

In 1985 I met Steven McRedmond. He was fighting to refocus a family property which was once the 100,000 sf Neuhoff meat packing facility on the banks of the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville. Long shut down, his vision was to bring in architects and create an arts centered community. A little backstory ... Nashville is a huge US transportation hub, a major university center, the state capitol, the country music center, etc. In any other US city, this site (with a panoramic view of the downtown skyline 10 minutes away) would have been scooped up years ago for development. Some of us were excited.

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef0120a4dd9064970b 2009-08-09T20:16:04-07:00 2009-08-09T20:17:00-07:00

A dear friend, David Hart, who owns Nashville Wine and Spirits in said Tennessee city, called out of the blue last week and put me on a plane to "the Athens of the South". They actually do have their own full size replica of the Acropolis with manditory Athena statue. When David calls, its bound to be challenging but I will always dive in because I don't want to miss out on something interesting. But I digress...

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef0115723ebdd7970b 2009-08-09T19:15:41-07:00 2009-08-09T20:19:19-07:00

We have demented friends, John Keller and Leslie Harrison, who live on a pristine Sierra ridgeback. Leslie is a renown, pastel artist specializing in unique portraits of animals. John, on the other hand, is harder to describe. Read more?

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341f0de453ef011571ea454a970b 2009-07-09T20:15:20-07:00 2009-07-09T20:15:20-07:00

It's wackytime in Monte Rio again! For those caught unaware, Bohemian Grove is the long private playground for the rich and infamous in America. Nestled amid the pristine old growth redwoods in western Sonoma County lies a rustic getaway for the Captains of American Industry. This is where the greyhairs let it hang down in an ultra-guarded compound fed with all the bounty of northern CA.

Albion News tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67033703 2009-06-03T20:03:20-07:00 2009-06-04T20:58:57-07:00

In the midst of all the lavaflow of current capitalist flameout, Nancy and I retreated for a walk up the hill to where the great blue herons have been nesting for years. The newborns stand three feet tall in deep nests of thick dead branches. The elders come and go. Next to our little 1897 cottage is a huge 150 year old monterey cypress tree and these herons seem to use her as some sort of fulcrum. They fly on side while going down to feed at the estero and back to their nest on the other side. As we sit on our backporch at dusk with a bottle of wine, we notice their neighborhood orbit. At the end of our day, we speak of the external pressures we feel. We always stop when we hear the prehistoric cry of the heron as it passes overhead, loping in it's gangly yet light motion. I think about the mutual community we inhabit.

Albion News