Tuesday, March 18, 2025

A harvest day, and what I'm reading

 
 
Last weekend Paul and I attended a harvest day at one of our local wineries called Alpha Domus. We spent the morning picking grapes, and then enjoyed a beautiful lunch with wine. The weather was lovely and it was a very pleasant way to spend a day overall.
 
 
Doesn't this just look like a painting? That sky :)
 
 
I don't think I was as fast as a professional picker, but I did my best and managed not to nick myself this time. This is the third or fourth time we've attended this harvest day, and I admit, I did manage to cut myself the first time. The snips are very sharp! The secret is to have your hand under the bunch of grapes and let the bunch fall into your hand, rather than grip the bunch. The gripping leads to the snipping, lol.
 

 
 
We picked Chardonnay grapes for their top-tier Chardonnay. When you taste the grapes they are so sweet. I always thought that wine grapes weren't as sweet as table grapes but I was wrong. They are lovely!
 
 
 
 
And after our busy morning picking 2.5 tonnes of grapes (I know! It's a lot!) we got to see our grapes being squeezed and tasted the first of the juice (it tastes just like apple juice), and also tasted the wine from the same grapes we picked this time last year.
 
 
 
 
Lunch tables and umbrellas were set out, and it was so nice to sit down. I really felt like we'd done a full day's work (actually a half day's work but that doesn't roll off the tongue so well, haha).
 
 
 
 
Lunch was so delicious. I had lamb paella and the freshest salad with Parmesan and homemade dressing over top. It filled the spot perfectly, paired with a glass of red wine of course!
 
With thanks to our gracious hosts at Alpha Domus, it was a wonderful day :)
 
 

 
 ~~
 
And in reading news, I just finished this book. omg, so so stressful 😂 but so good! It is suspense genre and I've been into these types of books lately. Would recommend if you want to increase your heart rate 🤣

 

 
Two women who want to disappear from their lives cross paths at the airport and end up swapping tickets, passports, phones, luggages... lives.

It's not gory like The Housemaid book but it is definitely 'thrilling' and a good read. It makes you wonder what is behind closed doors in other peoples lives. Not that most people are 'that' different. Most of us are just very normal, living normal lives. Thank goodness!
 
The Flight book is here on my Amazon affiliate link, or I'm sure you can find it at the library like I did!
 
 ~~
 
 
Our hallway just inside the front door,
in my ‘Inspired by Ralph Lauren’ style

 
A little peek into our home...
 
I love a mix of traditional and modern, just like Ralph does. He goes chrome in his modern furniture though, whereas I prefer gold.

Note the table tennis balls for Nina cat corralled under the glass-topped hall table 💛😉🐈‍⬛

She loves to play with them and sometimes gets one out, and other times likes to bat them around within the confines of the table base.

It’s funny to hear her playing with them ☺️

Who is your main style influence if you have one? And what kinds of opposites do you like to mix together?

Wishing you a great week, whatever you are doing. I have writing planned, of course I do! I am working on multiple new books. It's just the way things work out. Eventually one pulls ahead and that's the one I finish next. And of course, keeping up with my audiobook recording. I am up to my twentieth audiobook, phew! It's actually really nice recording them, revisiting the books I've already written :)

My audiobooks are available anywhere you get your audiobooks from, including the library (you can ask for them to order them in), and they are also available in my eStore as an MP3 download.
 
xx Fiona
 
 
 
 

1 comment:

  1. What fun! I visited a winery in the Central Otago in your beautiful country during the harvest in 2015. They didn't let us participate, but they gave us a tour even though they were closed to tourists because our friend knew the winemaker. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

Merci for your comment. Wishing you a chic day!

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