A Winelover's Wanderings

I am following in the footsteps of my Slow Travel blogging friends in posting about Gratitude Friday. This all began with Diana Baur of Creative Structures, who made a wonderful post last Friday about things she was grateful for and her follow-up today. She asked that anyone who reads her blog also do a Gratitude Friday post about the things they are thankful for.

The whole idea behind this is to concentrate more on the positive things in our lives instead of the negatives. Such a good idea in a world where the headlines dwell on the bad things happening much more often than the good ones.

So, anyone who is reading this, I challenge YOU to begin making Gratitude Friday posts, linking them to Diana's blog. This could be catching - wouldn't that be wonderful!

OK, down to business. Gratitude - it's a word that has many connotations. I went to my go-to source for information, Wikipedia (for which I am grateful), and this is what they said:

Gratitude, thankfulness, or appreciation is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions, and has been considered extensively by moral philosophers such as Adam Smith. The systematic study of gratitude within psychology only began around the year 2000, possibly because psychology has traditionally been focused more on understanding distress rather than understanding positive emotions. However, with the advent of the positive psychology movement, gratitude has become a mainstream focus of psychological research.

So, we are right there in the "mainstream" with our gratitude entries! Good for us! And good for any of you who joins us!

Just so this post doesn't get too long, I will start my Gratitude Friday with just a couple of things that I am extremely grateful for and save some of the others for next Friday.

I am grateful for my family - Bill and our dog Hoochie and my sister JoAnne and her children. I never had any kids, but JoAnne has always shared her kids with me, and I am thankful for that.

I am grateful for my health. All the money in the world cannot buy you good health and allow you to do the things that you want to do in life.

Anne Murray made a recording way back when (I think 1983) about "A Little Good News", and I will sign off with that.

Another week has rolled by (it's funny how fast they go as you get older), and this is my second post about Gratitude Friday. Diana Baur of Creative Structures got us started on this two weeks ago, so I am one week behind the original posters.

When I sit at my computer, I have a view of the backyard. Bill decided I should have something nice to look at because I spend so much time there. While the goatboys were around, there was no sense in planting a lot of stuff because they would eat it.

So, this week I am grateful for:

The roses that Bill is planting right outside my window. He even got some of my very favorite roses, Double Delight.

The patch of strawberries right next to the roses. The plants are beautiful and green. Not many strawberries so far - I think Bill is eating them as soon as they get red.

Our tomato plants are looking very healthy. We've had a few ripe cherry tomatoes and three larger ones so far, but there are lots and lots of green ones coming. I love, love, love summer tomatoes, so I am really grateful for the bounty we will have soon.

All of the herbs that we have growing all around the house - basil, cilantro, chives, garlic chives, thyme, tarragon, and one of my favorites, pineapple sage. I love being able to walk out the back door and clip the herbs I need.

Bill takes such good care of the yard and the garden and loves doing it. I am so grateful for that!

There were several songs called "Gratitude", but this one seemed the most appropriate.

Gratitude Friday was inspired by Diana of Creative Structures, and it has really caught on!

It's less than a month until we leave for Italy, so this week's gratitude is focused on our trip.

1. I am grateful that I was able to get FF tickets in business class, but only on the way there. On the way back only coach was available,

2. I am glad we will have a couple of days to spend in Milan because we haven't been there before. Likewise for Torino. It's always exciting to visit new places in Bella Italia!

3. We have been to Lake Como before, but we loved it so much, we are returning to the same hotel (Albergo Lenno) and will revisit some of the same places. New places are exciting but so are beloved old places!

4. I am REALLY grateful that we will have the opportunity to stay at the Baur Bed & Breakfast for 10 days and visit the beautiful Piedmont area while we are there. I am SO excited!

5. The wine and the food are a big part of any trip that we take, so I am thrilled that we will be able to experience all that Piemonte has to offer.

Our Gratitude Fridays continue . . .

We were all inspired by Diana of Creative Structures to post positive things we are grateful for instead of dwelling on all of the bad news we see on TV. Thank you again, Diana - I think all of this gratitude is catching!

This week I am happy and grateful for all of the birds who have been visiting us. I love watching them out my office window.

I am especially fascinated with hummingbirds. We have three feeders around the house, one of which is right outside my office window so I can watch them, up close and personal. Only problem is that there is a mean bird by this feeder, and he chases all of the other birds away.

The other two hummingbird feeders are jammed though, so that's good.

Then there are the other birds. Lots of little brown birds, blue jays, doves, woodpeckers and quail. Bill gets huge sacks of bird feed from our local feed store and keeps them filled. Here is how the "pecking order" works - the blue jays love the sunflower seeds, so they land on the feeder and scoop out the other seed onto the ground, looking for the sunflower seeds. The doves and quail (and sometimes squirrels and rabbits) clean up the seed on the ground. The balance of nature, I guess.

So, today my gratitude is for the birds - each and every one of them! Now we have to find someone to feed them while we are in Italy!

Another Friday and another heap of gratitude! Inspired by Diana of Creative Structures, along with a number of other bloggers, I have decided to focus on the good things that happen instead of the not-so-good.

First this week, I am oh so grateful that my parents' home in Paso Robles has been sold. Escrow closed last week. The new owner is a career military guy, so that would make our Marine dad very happy.

So, with a lump in my throat, I say goodbye to my folks' home - we had a lot of good times there, so it is going to seem strange going to Paso Robles and not staying there.

I'm sorry that I have kind of been MIA the last couple of weeks. So many things to do to get ready for a trip. Sometimes (Bill says) it just doesn't seem worth it. But once we get on the plane and arrive in Bella Italia, we will forget all of the hard preparation and ENJOY!

Today is another Gratitude Friday (started by Diana of Creative Structures), and I am eternally grateful that we are able to take this trip.

But, before I forget, Bill and I are both happy and grateful that his plumeria plant has finally bloomed! It has been five years since Bill got it, and he has nurtured it and fed it and hauled it inside the garage each night during the winter cold.

And our brand new roses are blooming like crazy.

And our tomatoes are finally getting ripe.

All of this, of course, just as we are leaving home for three weeks, but we are grateful nevertheless!

We got home from our Italy trip late Tuesday night. It was a wonderful trip, and we saw so many beautiful sights. Ate a lot of great food. Drank some wonderful wines.

I know I have been kind of MIA this week. October 15th is the extension deadline for filing income tax returns, and I have been frantically trying to finish the ones that I have to do.

But, that doesn't keep me from being grateful today! Gratitude Friday was started by Diana of Creative Structures, who inspired us to write each week about things we are grateful for.

Today I am oh so grateful that the hot summer is over and the cooler fall is here. When we got back from Italy, it was hot! I mean almost 100 degrees. The A/C ran all day, but it did cool off at night. Now our high is about 80 degrees, and it is actually cold at night. I even turned on the heat one morning (because I had left some windows open overnight).

I am also excited about the soups and stews that go so well with the fall season. And, of course, the scrumptious red wines that go with the soups and stews. Yum!

Fall is here, and that makes me gratefully happy!

Yes, I AM glad that it's over! No, I don't mean the week, like TGIF - I mean tax season.

Some people think that tax season ends on April 15th. Wrong! Lots of people file tax extensions and then have until October 15th to file their tax returns.

So, being a tax preparer, I finished tax season yesterday. It was a close call this year - guess I shouldn't have taken a three-week trip to Italy in September. Oh well, it was worth it!

This is Gratitude Friday, and I am grateful to be a free woman again!

Gratitude Friday was started by Diana of Creative Structures to encourage us to appreciate the good things in our lives rather than dwelling on the problems.

This week I am grateful for the continuing good health of my sister's second daughter Patti. October 21st marks the 9th anniversary of Patti's heart/lung transplant at Stanford University Medical Center.

Patti was born with an inoperable congenital heart defect, and she wasn't expected to survive past her teens. She was put on the transplant list in 1998 for both heart and lungs - her lungs, which included no true pulmonary arteries, had been compromised by her failing heart. Her health was declining by 2000, and she had to carry a portable oxygen tank with her a lot of the time.

After 16 months on the waiting list, a matching heart and lungs became available on 10/21/00 and Patti's transplant surgery was performed. Here she is 30 minutes after the surgery - her sister Kathleen is watching over her.

This photo was taken in the first 24 hours - they have her up eating jello.

For two months she had to live in an apartment close to Stanford for her follow-up care. My sister stayed with her there to be the resident nurse.

This photo was taken early in 2003 and shows Patti with celebrated transplant physician Dr. Norman Shumway and Patti's own doctor, James Theodore, who was extremely proud of her progress. Both doctors have since died. Here is the story of that day.

And, miraculously, at one of the transplant gatherings, Patti even met the family of her donor. It was a bittersweet moment for all of them, but Patti has kept in contact with them and has even visited their home. Can you imagine meeting the person who has your loved one's heart?

Another miracle in this story was the fact that two years after her transplant, Patti ran in the Maui Marathon and raised over $6,000 for the benefit of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She was never allowed to exert herself physically during her growing-up years, so this was truly unbelievable to everyone who knew her.

I am so proud of my niece - she has been through a lot and has had the courage to press on. She is my hero! And I am grateful for the heroes in my life!

Go to page 2 to read the San Jose Mercury-News story on Patti when she ran in the Maui Marathon.

Our Gratitude Fridays began in July when Diana of Creative Structures inspired us to write weekly about the things in life that we are grateful for.

Coincidentally, my post this week is based on our visit to Diana's B&B in Acqui Terme, Italy. I am grateful for the dogs we met while we were there.

There was Max, of course, the wonderful and beautiful mascot of Baur Bed & Breakfast. He greeted us when we arrived and was always around to say hello.

We knew we would be meeting Max, of course, but we had no idea about meeting another wonderful dog when we went on our winetasting at Diana and Micha's friend Domenico's place. His dog is called Kika, and she joined us around the dining room table for the winetasting. She loved the sausage we were eating with our wines.

Here is Bill with Max before the two of them took one of their walks. Max liked having his ears rubbed.

And here is Bill with Kika at the winetasting.

Dogs are wonderful friends to have, and we are grateful for the Italian dogs that we met on our trip.

It's hard to be a woman driving a long distance alone. Especially when the car decides to have a problem.

On my way back from Paso Robles yesterday, I had a flat tire on the 210 freeway just past Pasadena. I had an inkling that there was a tire problem before I left Paso because the tire was way down low, and I filled it with air when I got gas in Paso.

Flat tire just past Pasadena and Arcadia, but I wasn't sure which exit I had passed when I called the Auto Club. I stopped right by a call box on the freeway, and I gave them the call box number, but they couldn't determine the location.

Finally a tow truck pulled up in back of me and a very nice young man changed my tire after we unloaded all of the stuff out of my trunk that I was bringing back from Paso.

I asked him if he needed my Auto Club card, and he said he was NOT from Auto Club but was from a free service called the Metro Freeway Service Patrol, operated on Los Angeles County freeways. Luckily, I had not yet crossed into San Bernardino County, although I was very close. The driver wouldn't even accept the money I tried to give him.

Wow! I had never heard of such a thing! But, I was very glad to see that tow truck. Auto Club called a few minutes later to say that they still hadn't found me, and I told them it was OK because another tow truck HAD found me.

So, today I am thankful for free services that arrive in the nick of time!

Like a lot of other Slow Travel bloggers, the last couple of days have been an on-again off-again situation in accessing my blog. Internet Brands (which owns Slow Travel) has had major network problems which filtered down to the Slow Travel website and all of the blogs it hosts.

Yikes! I feel so isolated! Luckily, Slow Talk has not been affected, so we were able to commiserate with other STers and get updates on the network problem.

I am wondering if Friday the 13th has anything to do with it . . .

It is about 4 pm PST as I write this, and we are up again, for awhile at least. And for this I am grateful!

This has been a LONG week! A good part of the week was spent without blog access. Just like last week, Internet Brands (which owns Slow Travel) had major server problems which affected all of the blogs hosted by Slow Travel.

In California we are pretty dependent on our cars, so when we are without our wheels, we feel isolated and alone. Same thing when our internet access goes down or our blogs cannot be updated.

Woo Hoo! We are back up and running! And I am grateful for that.

Gratitude Friday was started by Diana Strinati Baur of Creative Structures. Diana inspired us to write about the good things in our lives rather than dwelling on the not-so-good. Thank you, Diana!