Monte Rio Festival

An Early Post-Pandemic Festivals/Events along the Russian River The Friends of Monte Rio [FOMR] thought long and hard about scheduling an event within the whirlwind of chaotic mandates, as to social distance, masks, vaccinations, and dogs on leashes.

The will of the public brought it together and kept them going. The Russian River residents wanted a social outlet: residential, mostly homeowning, mostly Vax’d and Masked. The MRRPD Amphitheater provided the necessary social distancing. West County Community Services [WCCS] supported the idea and were a prime booth attraction. Half a dozen of the other booths were local businesses, Chamber there too, plus other non-profits, like the local theater. The Russian River Library supported the kids “Area”, back of the stage with MRRPD managing readings and games, including free ice-cones and popcorn. A continuous stage show, eatery delicacies: Ice cream, BBQs, and Indian Curries. It all kept you going: Music, Booths, Food, Kids, and camaraderie with your Russian River residents. The attractive poster brought in others and the gate [free] swelled to 700. They were three crowds: (1) walking locals were the first early 300; poster-attracted visitors – another 300 mid-day; the night crowd – a free concert – the stage-side swelled from 100-early, to 200-midafternoon, to 300-late. Will there be Supper Club for 2021/22, the question is open.

A Different July 4th

A Different July 4^th this past 2021

It was refreshing to cut back our usual “Fireworks with thousands attending” this past year along the Russian River.  No communal gatherings in large groups along the River beaches – and to my knowledge, there were no deaths by downing along the River.

Most did BBQs at home: my little unofficial “D-Street” block club in Monte Rio held an afternoon wine & chips party.  We’re all residents, mostly older, and all vaccinated – still outdoors, with a stiff 4 pm ocean breeze cooling us.

It was a time to get acquainted with new homeowners, also time to find out what’s up around the block(s).  It was a very relaxing event, so different than the fireworks events.  D-Street did this in 2020 as well, and hopefully, even after the Pandemic has passed.  It brought us together, rather than defending our parking spaces, a don’t drive ban, and scaring our pets.It was refreshing to cut back our usual “Fireworks with thousands attending” this past year along the Russian River.  No communal gatherings in large groups along the River beaches – and to my knowledge, there were no deaths by downing along the River.

Most did BBQs at home: my little unofficial “D-Street” block club in Monte Rio held an afternoon wine & chips party.  We’re all residents, mostly older, and all vaccinated – still outdoors, with a stiff 4 pm ocean breeze cooling us.

It was a time to get acquainted with new homeowners, also time to find out what’s up around the block(s).  It was a very relaxing event, so different than the fireworks events.  D-Street did this in 2020 as well, and hopefully, even after the Pandemic has passed.  It brought us together, rather than defending our parking spaces, a don’t drive ban, and scaring our pets.

Lines at the RIO ?

 

Yes, there was a gathering Sunday at noon.

30-40 people came to here from the new owners about what was soon to be going on at the Rio.

 

 Money’s changed hands, and each of the five on stage talked about aspects of renovation and innovation coming this Fall.

The detail questions were answered by the three on the left,

 others

 by the two on the right.

 

The WEB site has much more detail,

https://www.MonteRioTheater.com 

 

Monte Rio's Rio Fest tomorrow - Sunday

                               JUST a reminder

                        The Friends of Monte Rio

       invites you visit the Monte Rio Amphitheater

                                  from 2 pm to 6 pm

Robin Hood (1938)

 

Who, but ROBIN HOOD,

 could stand stand toe-to-toe,

  with the Swordsmanship of Basil Rathbone,

   and the Skullduggery of Clause Rains,

    but ERROL FLYNN.!.!.!.!

 

In those days (1938),

 it was real, the swordsmanship.

 

I’d like people to take a hard look at the deadline date, Friday July 16, for the 2021-22 Sonoma County Grand Jury.  I’m happy to help you in any way that I can, to fulfill this community service payback.

Like so many things wrapping up this July 4^th is almost the Pandemic for California, but not quite.  One of those not so quite yet is the Grand Jury, which has just finished a stellar year, zoomed like everyone else, but produced a down to earth set of reports.

I’ve heard that next year’s applicants are unsure about how next year will work: meetings together or apart; interviews – online or in person; classes – video or supervised; plenary decision making?

58 California Counties somehow made it work last year and produced their best reports.  All the answers are there.  I will consult with you, the civic-minded, curious person to make a major decision for you and your County.  Post Q&A’s on Facebook or send me an e-mail, TuesdayPeter@Gmail.com, or call me (707) 865-9517.

I am the local Sonoma County Chapter President of the California Grand Jury Association.

The Friends of Monte Rio are back in providing Community services

 

Mother’s Day Reflections

           I wrote 4-5 months ago about my Winter Clematis, erotically aromatic, but the flowering dies back at Springtime.  Then more recently, I wrote about my Springtime Clematis, which has a weak, cloying aroma, but again is a short season.  Today, I saw my first Summer Clematis, a beautiful, fragile flower with only the faintest of aromas.

That’s two firsts this weekend.  I saw my first Passion Flower yesterday.  I wonder if we are going to have to change the dates, millennially stable, of the seasons, now that there is world-wide recognition of Global Warming [with the excepti0n of 0.5% of the world population, who represent a cult in North America that is very powerful].  This cult believes in dying personally rich, rather than their progeny dying healthy.

The Pandemic has allowed those of us, educated in Free States, to watch and understand the effects of global warming on the back-yard gardens we grow.  I am also grateful that I live in a State that considers Public Health of paramount concern .  As a Veteran and Retiree, I depend on the State and the USA to cover my back.

Ignoring Global Warming and its impacts is not good for my back.

ps: My Tater Garden loves the early Summer

My 1st Passion Flower this year - May 8th

           After we went through a week of Arctic chills, 2-3 months ago, I feared I had lost my Passion Flower vine to frost bite.  This vine dominates my north eastern fence line with a new neighbor.

Harmony in Graton somewhat put me at ease last month, when I checked with them.  They told me, “It’s far too early for Passion vine”.  But I was overjoyed today, while I was getting rid of tendrils of invasive Virginia Creeper vine, to uncover my first flower of this year from one of my strongest Passion Flower vines.

To those of you who saw my Mother’s Day card yesterday, you might believe, if you wish, that this flower was a response to my card.

Santa Rosa Computers

 

I had a pleasing, almost-post-Pandemic moment today, after I’d suffered the perennial catastrophe involving a bad computer software driver update being imposed upon one, unbeknownst to them.

There’s the panic moment when you can’t hear, print, or see what your silicon umbilical cord is trying to tell you.  Please, God, give me back my connection, I’ll do anything. [comic lines abound].

This was Sunday night; like a toothache, it always occurs when everyone has closed.  It was a long night – no news, no movie, my problem was a sound card.  I was at the shop, Santa Rosa Computer,  as they opened Monday morning.  “Yes”, I said, “expedite it.!”

The return call came before noon, and I was soon back.

“Hello,” came the familiar voice from the back fixit room, when he must have heard mine in the front, “Peter?”.

For travelers to and from Great Britain, there is no more comforting voice than that of the pilot of a BA aircraft, with a BBC voice, saying, “Welcome Aboard, I am your pilot.

That is the voice I heard from the back room.  I have been a customer for twenty years, and he has been the manager/owner all those years.  It was comforting and assuring that all was right with the world.-We chit-chatted about the impacts of the Pandemic on each of us.  It felt normal.

Tonight’s movie is “Kind Hearts  and Coronets”.

A Post Script

 Today is the day before the third Wednesday of the month; which is my SS check deposit day – tomorrow.  Traditionally, this is my Mac & Cheese day.  But Tuesday’s are also Speer’s Day for Senior’s discounts, so I grabbed this ground turkey as my retiree due.

That’s dinner tonight. Pic 1

And if I have a drop in guest, which sometimes happens, I have enough to share.  While looking for bargains at Speer’s wine shelves, I also ran across this heretofore unheard-of Italian red at $5.99 a bottle.  A palatable nose, and at first taste, smooth (not the expected harshness), with a pleasant aftertaste. Pic 2

I’m still under $10 for two and could add splitting an avocado [2 for $5 at Safeway] as a salad, sneaking under the wire.

 

A Peaceful day along the River

 I went to Kaiser early this am – a regular checkup.

BP 112/64 and my heart still ticked, so all was OK. 

I had my blood assessed for Vitamins A, D and Calcium, since they’re asking me to take supplements for these – eyes and bones.  My numbers came in within ranges, midpoint plus 10%, so also OK.  My cholesterol wasn’t my hospital best of 150 a decade ago, but was a decent 176, considering I drink wine, and eat the occasional steak.

I built a chair into one of my raised garden beds (Pic 1), so I can sit amid the aromatic fragrances - Jasmine and Spring Clematis, in the late afternoon, and sip wine while the sun sets, Pic 2.  Sorry, the winter Clematis has finished for the year; but summer’s blue is coming soon.

Only Jeff might not question why I built this seat so cock-eyed onto a garden bed structure, or what and why the strange yellow object hanging next to the seat is.  I was not trying to create a Santa Cruz Mystery Spot type of place.

It’s a level and I use it religiously, and Jeff has already guessed that the board and the seat on it are DEAD, bubble in the middle, level.

The Taters are in the ground

 … along with Asparagus which I have never grown before.  It had the same instructions that came with the potatoes; 3-inches below ground level and then add ½ an inch a week until achieving ground level.

This slow filling in of the trench means that I can’t plant my carrots, onions, beets, etc. until May.  No problem, I’ve got seeds in pots growing in my window sills for all of these.  The problem is, I didn’t label them, so I need to wait anyway, until they are recognizable.

The “Netherland Bulb Company” in Easton, PA packages these packets of Seed Potatoes ( 4 different packets).  They are from stock grown in Idaho, and locally available at Dorothy’s Stumptown Nursery.  One other recommendation is that the soil should be richly organic, loose with good drainage.  I have gardened my backyard organically for over twenty years now.  For this potato trench, I have mixed 1/3 my own compost, 1/3 the native soil, and 1/3 Stumptown Nursery’s Barnyard organic compost.

Here are the trenches, three of them.

The first Pic is a halfway point, …

 

 

The comes the final Pic, when they’re watered in.

 

…

Bright Eyes (1934)

 

Anyone who watches this picture these days, begins tearing up as soon as they see the rickety aircraft, bi-wing planes on a rudimentary airport they remember that her father died in a plane crash.   – but it’s not that – they quickly remember that Shirley’s parented only by a mom who’s working as a maid for the worst couple in the world, with the most spoiled brat child in the world.  This is the first ten minutes of the film.

We are sobbing already.

Then her mother dies, in a freak accident.

We continue sobbing the way through, while she’s singing, “The Good Ship Lollipop”.

It ends well.

It’s been a good day in River Town

 

PP and I decided the Potato [root vegetable] Bed was ready for planting.

The first step was reading the instructions.  She was disappointed when I told her today’s step involved the cutting into smaller pieces with one or two eyes.  We took a vote and the ayes had it.  But they then had to sit in the sun and dry out for one day, so Pic 1 is: “drying and quartered potatoes”.  

We next dealt with our every 3-4 weeks minimal garbage: all of our scraps go into compostable recycling; most of our packaging is dropped at the local dump once a month for free; I dump my kitchen garbage bag 2-3 times a week into a back deck garbage bin, which is a can with a “Contractor’s Bag” in it; 2-3 times a month, I move a full Bag to the rear of my property, and every 2-3 months, I take a load to the dump for $37.50.

While looking at the back deck, PP and I decided to begin the cleaning process.  Chopping up and stacking the remaining wood was the initial task, See Pic 2: “Next Year’s Starter Stack of Wood”.  Chopping wood with an axe was interesting.  When I had two “good” eyes, I always aimed wrong, guided by my dominant right eye.  Now that my right eye has Macular and is effectively sidelined, I make no more mistakes: neither in picture taking, nor in wielding an axe.  I was like Jack the Flyswatter in the Beanstalk today, almost every blow, a deadly hit.  It gave me a powerful feeling.

That still left us with a sweep-up job for tomorrow, Pic 3, “Empty Winter Wood Pile”.

So, this afternoon PP and I decided that Peter was getting too old to manage a full, sunny front yard, as well as a back yard, which he has recently downgraded to two beds: Salad Bowl bed and Root Crop bed.  So, we have partitioned the front yard area into at least a dozen beds of undetermined purpose or management, as of yet.

We have laid down eight-foot timbers, often with four-foot adjuncts, laying out pathways, and bed boundaries.  The dozen could as easily be two dozen.  The purpose is to be able to focus on single beds.  I certainly would contemplate sub-letting a bed or two to sunny-loving, redwood inhabitants.  They could be the needed labor to get the front yard under control.  See Pic 4: “Garden Beds in Front”. 

A Final Early Spring Night Tonight

 

The temperature is dropping 30+ points along our micro-climate River tonight.  Ah Well, we got good things done today.

I hired Julian Diurni, Jessica’s son, to churn my compost bins.  He emptied my Bin #1 [Pic 1], sharing the 2 yards or wormy compost amongst both front and back yards.  It completed my new Potato Bed trench garden [Pic 2].  I will plant my seedlings there as soon as they open their eyes to Springtime growing season.

He worked deeply to the bottom, scouring into the transfer buckets every tasty morsel of fresh recycled compost.  There are fresh service piles in the front yard, ready for my re-visualization; he also filled the new raised-bed  in the back yard by the once-leaning trellis; and left a few buckets for my withering Clematis.  The bottom of Bin #1 has been scoured to its’ depths. [Pic 3]

Bin # 1 will start a new cycle of composting.  For me it starts in the morning with yesterday’s coffee grounds.  If I cooked with veggies in one of my WOKs the night before, I may clean things out into this handy. foot-opening, specialty, mini-garbage can.  Back from shopping at noontime, I will chop off the leaves and tails of things like beets and carrots – compost, even for fruit like pineapple; and oranges that I eat all day long.  At dinner, often in the WOK with Kale, onions, and asparagus; and an avocado somewhere along the line.  My mini-can fills up every day or two.  I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.

So, the excess from Bin #1 went to top off Bins #2 and #4 [pic 4], putting them to sleep for another year.  I’ll open Bin #2 in Spring 2022.  It’s a cycle – I add new worms every six months.  Other than that, I don’t touch them – normal rain – normal stirrings.  

But as I said to open, it’s chilling down tonight.  We’ve only got one or two more nights like this before late Spring kicks in,

10° Centigrade, over 50 F.  That’s when seeds start perking, etc.  Many things can’t wait – my cat and I have a hard  time waiting.  I’ve started a very late seasonal fire in the fireplace tonight. [Pic 5].  It’s not really like a winter “warm us up” type of fire; it’s more of a camping trip “doesn’t this feel comfortable” type of fire.  The cat can’t wait until the mid-seventies afternoon tomorrow, she’s pacing and looking to get into trouble.

Brief Encounter

 

Tonight’s movie was “Brief Encounter”, a classic British, 1945, B&W movie, which touches all my movie buttons:

  British, pre-Post-WWII, tied to classical music (Rachmaninoff), and starring Celia Johnson, a Mary Astor style woman, who is instantly and completely appealing. 

She leads a normal life, and accidentally runs across an appealing man in Trevor Howard, who is a Doctor moving to Africa to conduct research.  Her husband does the Times Crosswords.

The movie revolves around the train station, where they meet.  Very Shakespearean with the comic relief provided by the waitress and the station attendant. 

It is the investigation of a delusion – that the grass is always greener on the other side. 

They have a fantasy relationship, which seems so real, even though it’s just moments out of the normal, hum-drum week.

It’s an entirely romantic, escapist fantasy film.

He says to her, on first meeting, formally, “You’re too sane and uncomplicated, but you could never be dull.”

The power of this movie,

  and it is overwhelmingly powerful, is the train scenes,

    both coming and going, as well as on board.

This is a train movie.

It is a masterpiece.

 

Independent Spirits

 I could have not picked two more disparate movies than:

 “Sand Pebbles” w/ Steve McQueen, 1966, and

 “The Far Country” w/ James Stewart, 1954, to watch, these last two nights.

Different historical eras. 1926 vs. 1896; different themes,

  power versus lust;

or are they that different?

A key dialogue line in both films, tying them together was,

 “Prepare Ship to Repel Boarders.!”

It was a standard Hollywood line to raise audience apprehension.

For the Scriptwriters, it was a shift to the “Rebel Force”.  The American patrol boat was now morally led by Steve McQueen; the steamer to Dawson by Jimmy Stewart.  “Don’t Tread on me” is the rebel’s motto.

The underdog wins against all odds.  It’s the American Way.

The generational gap between film production merely signifies,

the public’s coming to grips with the reality of death accompanying moral conviction more often than the miraculous escapes, repeatedly, of Jimmy Stewart.

Realism.

 Pride & Prejudice the 2005 movie with Keira Knightly

 

All the critics say, “A timeless saga”; and I couldn’t agree more.

A brilliant movie.

Keira Knightly was perfect for spicy, “z”, Elizabeth.

 

I especially liked, Donald Sutherland, the vapid father.  I thought he  died decades ago, after Animal House., but he was up for this role.

He perfectly made no decisions, of any sort, in the film.

 

Judi Dench has become a character actress in the classic movie

  sense from the post-war era.  She was great as a nasty bitch,

    never will plot lot lines reconciled her, as all the others were.

 

But the best character actress,

  I hope and predict to be a legend in the future is

    Rosamund Pike.

   Only her name will hold her back,

   She has the background, staging, education, and experience to become one of the greatest legendary actresses of all time.

High Noon

 

CoVid has got me watching movies for the n^th time these days. 

Tonight, it was “High Noon”.  I first watched this movie, just short of 70 years ago, the spring of 1952 in Los Gatos; I was 14.

It was a coming of age experience for me.  I watched it twice, back-to-back.  I fell madly in love with Katy Jurado, [who got billing ahead of Grace Kelley see poster bottom].  She was a woman who would fight for her man, which seemed like a good test in those fifties, couple’s rules.  On the other hand, it was Grace Kelley who ran back from the train and shot one of her hubby’s foes.

I didn’t like the quip in this movie poster, “… too proud to run!”.  It wasn’t pride, at all, that I observed, but character.  He had a job to do, and he was going to do it.  It’s like going in the Army or being on the football team: you sign up and you’ve got to meet your obligations.  There’s no backing out on technicalities, or lack of support.  A man must do what a man must do – that was my 14-year-old lesson.  The movie ingrained this in me at that time, and I have followed that dictum ever since.

It’s a cultural, male burden, at least in my WASP background; I can’t speak for other cultures or societies.

It hasn’t particularly served me well.

I did not fail to note, even at 14, that older Gary Cooper had romances with both Katy Jurado, and Grace Kelly  He was a stud.

Chinese WOK cooking

 

I’ve been using a WOK for twenty years now, ever since I retired into a bachelor life in Monte Rio.  Ten years ago, I bought a second 0ne, exactly the same (at Whole Foods).  This allowed me to WOK-cook two nights in a row without having to clean up [bachelor mode].

I’ve focused more, in recent years, on home-grown vegetables and herbs, and followers of me know that I have a totally organic garden.  So, now with the Pandemic keeping me away from restaurants, I often fall back on my WOK skills to create an entertaining meal quickly, and from items on hand.

Two things came together tonight, prompting me to write this discourse.  I had a friend stopping by downstairs to do their laundry.  She complained about pains and ill health, after switching from a meat-based diet to a Vegan one.  I offered to share my planned dinner of tiny lamb chops [see Safeway-1]

with a massive 

stir-fry vegetable

 side [see Safeway-2]. 

I use a big scoop

 of Classico Basil Pesto, 

a lot of fresh ground pepper, copious splashes of Trecini Merlot, and a splash of Knudsen’s “Very Veggie”. 

While my friend was folding her laundry, I was turning the lamb, et al, in the WOK.  I had started earlier with some garden beets, which were now candied with red wine.  The meal came out perfectly, the lamb rare, tender, and delicious; each of the vegetables were amazingly good, fresh and chewy.

I drove my friend and her dry laundry home, and on my way back, listening to KQED on the radio, I heard

This week we sit down with Grace Young, one of the greatest culinary historians of Chinese American food to talk about her career and her mission to save Chinese restaurants in the age of Covid.

She explained wok hei.

Wok hei translated into English means 'wok thermal radiation' or, metaphorically, the 'breath of the wok'. ... In fact, creating wok hei is so tricky to get right that often it is used as a measure of a Chinese chef's skill, and these chefs often spend years trying to perfect the art.

I experienced wok hei tonight in that informally brought together meal.  It was indescribably perfect.

Peter's Winter Vegetable Soup

 

Peter’s Winter Soup

  

A colander full of Tuscan Kale leaves, cut into 1” pieces – I thought today about the fact that my Kale from last summer had not only survived the winter, but was thriving, and growing new leaves.

2.    Beans & bread – I Googled recipes and learned that most Countries toss the kitchen sink into a Winter Soup, so I started with a can of Kidney beans that had been on my shelf for years; and half a loaf of organic seeded bread that was in my airing cabinet for about a week – I crumbled that up.

3.     Root vegetables were common in the suggested recipes, so I diced a fresh packet each of onions and carrots, as well as two handfuls of just-sprouting new potatoes .

4.    For fluids, I dumped in a half a jar of “Very Veggie”, a staple for me; the last inch of a wine wine; and a half jar of Sonoma Roasted Garlic Sauce.

5.    For spice, I added half a pack of artisanal salami, diced.

6.    So far [Tues 4pm] , I have added two pints of “Osmosis” water, which brought the liquid level to the top of my copper pot.