hot air balloons and bubbles

hot air balloons and bubbles

Don’t tell anyone, but I took this photo while I was driving yesterday morning. (Hey, I didn’t want to miss a close-up shot!)

The day before, I snapped these leaf-changing vines at Mumm on my day off:

If you work IN the wine biz like I have been here, you rarely get to run around and go tasting yourself, because you are so busy serving others the good grape juice. I managed to weasel some time in for bubbles, after all- they are my favorite. I love fall, I grew up in Vermont and changing leaves of an kind have always been beautiful to me. In Vermont I’d be drinking cider and eating apple doughnuts looking at the beautiful changing colors through the windows with good company. Here in Napa I have done the same- just with a bit of sparkling instead.

I will never again have a first harvest season in Napa, with a first time working for a winery. I will probably not live in a lot of places where I can see hot air balloons filling the sky each morning or where I’m able pop in on my way home from running errands for a sip of some wine or food that’s known around the world. For these, and many other delicious reasons I am giving my thanks this year.

Cheers to never taking any moments good, bad or bubbly (hee hee…) for granted.