We start with a winery visit. We haven't been to one yet and they are all around us. This is Stonehill Winery and is at Herman, on the slopes overlooking the town.
The cellars are impressive and it is sad to hear how the old, barrels, with carvings of the twelve apostles on them , were destroyed during prohibition. These are the largest series of underground vaulted cellars in America and you feel as if you could be in France.
We have a wine tasting and buy some of their prize wines, including a bottle of Norton. The Norton grape is very small. The size of a blueberry. It is consequently more difficult to pick and so costs more. Personally, I don't like it. It tastes homemade and not quite right and certainly not worth the $20 a bottle.
We have a very tasty German style meal in their restaurant and then head back via Graham Cave, which I think is worth seeing. There are some baby foxes inside the cave, who keep on peeping out. Caelia and Ben have super, zoom zoom lenses on their cameras and get amazing shots. I don't. I go for bigger targets!
We are driving in Ben and Caelia's rather large rental car. A SUV, supposedly medium size! I think Ben couldn't resist. He doesn't like that it is an automatic, but that is the norm here.
The spring flowers are starting to appear everywhere and I got rather carried away taking photos of them. I have never seen some of them before, but others are famiiar.
A long stemmed daisy with pink tinge.
This is a pink Dogwood.
This is the more usual white one that looks very delicate, like white lace amongst the green.
We are into the tourist routine now, which we are getting pretty good at. We are off for a session of shooting, this time with Roland on board.
I don't enjoy it so much second time. I think the novelty has worn off. Ben, Caelia and Roland all find it pretty easy to kill, although Roland manages to cut his thumb quite badly while reloading, which lessens his enthusiasm. We are all still amazed by how easy it is to get your hands on lethal weapons.
These are some of the targets you can choose. I hope you can read it.
Interesting shop. Lots of guns, ammunition and ways to kill or maim people. The lady behind the counter is petite and pretty and handles guns with great authority. She is in this place, in the middle of nowhere, all by herself, surrounded by guns and ammunition. I don't think I would be happy with that.
Guns are just part of everyday life here. Strange country.
Ben discovers that Fulton has a bowling alley and we have an afternoon of bowling. Ben goes for brute force but I'm afraid it's a case of the hare and the tortoise. He bowls at twice the speed of everyone else, but Roland goes for accuracy. Roland, the tortoise, wins! and is rather pleased with himself. I didn't manage to capture the smirk on camera.
I insist everyone has a go with their other hand and Caelia wins! Oh well, can't be good at everything.
The revealing scoreboard.
Roland is marking exams, so we go off without him for an afternoon of mini golf, thwacking baseballs and other delights. There is a machine that shoots baseballs at you at varying speeds. I decide my one hand might never recover and give that a miss. Ben thwacks away with great enthusiasm and pretty much hits everything that comes at him. A good way to use up all that youthful energy!
We visit the Berlin wall for 'that photo'. It has just been touched up, which seems a little weird.
And of course, Walmart. A thing of loveliness as you can see. There is no attempt to beautify or landscape. They all look the same- big, brown and ugly.
Ben casts a critical eye around and is not impressed. He is after all a supermarket manager. The main criticism- a lack of fresh produce and a piddling wine section. That just about sums it up.
We do the walk round Stinsons creek and Ben and Caelia compete over who can get the best photos of the bright red Cardinal. It is a difficult subject. It will insist on moving about all the time and posing behind leaves, but they do get some rather good pictures with their superior cameras. This is my attempt!
You need a bit of imagination and good eyesight.
The walk is in bright sunshine, with blue skies. The green is particularly fresh and bright.
This is the flower on the Tulip tree, which I think is stunning.
There are also lots of wild flowers emerging. I think this is the most attractive time of year so far.
I have seen lawns which are almost all violets. Very pretty.
We have all been eating too much all week, but we still have to do the diner breakfast. This place has lots of atmosphere, but is nothing to look at.
There are a bunch of old men up near the counter having a good natter about all things important. Cars, food, tractors etc. They seem to spend a lot of time here.
This establishment is also not pleased with the non smoking regulations that came in at Christmas.
They don't like being told what they can and cannot do round here.
Mid week, we have a little party at the museum to launch Roland's book 'British Prime Ministers and Democracy'. A cracking read and a must for anyone's Christmas list. It's actually very interesting, but being an academic book is priced ridiculously high. The do goes well, with some nice speeches, good friends and wine, beer and food. A pretty good combination.
The swing seat is popular as always and needed for rests between eating and endless activities.
Poole is requested again and Liz from archives and boyfriend Chuck join us for a hamburger at Becks and a game afterwards. Fulton is buzzing. This is graduation weekend and mums and dads are in town.
The bar is fuller than last time and I was interested to note that the young men at the bar were all watching the Playboy channel on a TV at the bar. I suppose if you can't drink you have to have fun in other ways!
Despite the fact that Chuck is not feeling the best, he and Liz win. Ben is good, but he keeps on accidentally potting the white ball. A little too much zoom on the ball. Will he ever learn...
The campus looks pretty good in the sun. It has been spruced up for Graduation.
That's the medium SUV in the background.
I think they have enjoyed their stay in Fulton and caught up on their sleep in time for the city that never does!
Saturday morning the mess in the bedrooms upstairs magically disappears into suitcases and we are left in our little house on our own. It suddenly seems very quiet. No time to ponder though- it's Graduation!!!
The town enters into the spirit of graduation and all the shops are selling graduation goodies. The walk to college is lined with flags.
The hall is full and it is the usual mix of religion, patriotism and sentimentality. The staff and students process in to 'Land of Hope and Glory', which I think of as being rather British, but good stirring stuff.
The emphasis is a bit too much on the grim world they are about to inflict themselves upon and the fact that they have a never ending life of service ahead of them. Enough to make you go away and top yourself. I think it could have been a bit lighter and not so pessemistic about the future. Too much about service, leadership, responsibility etc....... Not that the students look the slightest bit overwhelmed by all this. They are all on a high. The ceremony ends by the whole college processing across to the columns and all the graduating students walk through a line of professors, through the columns and out into the world. All very symbolic and actually rather effective.
Roland is done up in his robes, which are rather too much for the 80 degree heat, and in the procession.
They even have bagpipes. The piper is a rather solid lady, whose a bit wobbly on some of her notes.
Roland's robes are rather fetching!
It's the last time he will wear them. This is the end of term. The students and quite a few of the faculty will leave town and Fulton will revert to it's summer mode. Deserted!
No comments:
Post a Comment