Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Hail, Mother Nature!

With the flick of a switch, and coinciding with the end of Daylight Saving Time, autumn has well and truly arrived in the Napa Valley. Halloween's daytime warm 82° temps, gave way to heavy rain on the night of November 1st; then thunder, lightning and hailstone on November 2nd. Cosily warm in the tasting room at TWWIAGE, me and a number of my coworkers gathered and watched Mother Nature's rather protracted spectacle of rampant precipitation. Yountville, just south of Oakville, seemed to be hardest hit during the storm, as there were widespread power outages.  There was still plenty of hail along the Silverado Trail, just north of the Yountville Crossroad, when I drove to work the next morning.
The past few days have been rather cool, so tonight I gave in and fired up the wood stove: it felt good.  It also felt like winter is just around the corner.

3 comments:

New Hampshire Wineman said...

Winter in Napa? I suppose! Having read that the Sonoran desert experiences a winter season, who am I to be incredulous.
Oh, I love this short phrase: "Mother Nature's, rather protracted spectacle of rampant precipitation." I know, I'm an obsequious vino-slave, but really, deny as you will, Vinogirl is a word-smith! :-)
Cheers!

Thomas said...

Yes, Dennis, she is, but she doesn't want to believe it.

As for autumn: we are still in the mid 70s F at Keuka Lake.

I've got 2 fig trees bursting with that sweet, raspy fruit. I even have a couple of potatoes I left in the patch-green-that have developed into full plants.

Talk about incredulity. The peach tree leaves have only just turned and started to fall!

Vinogirl said...

NHW: Yes, it can get cold here, but it is the relative lack of precipitation that makes it sunny California even in the winter.
Not really a wordsmith, but thank you anyway.

Tomasso: All the flora seems to be shutting down right on schedule here. Did see some California poppies blooming on a neighbours property...don't normally see them until December.