World's Worst Greeting Card!!!!

The Front

The Inside

It is a strange place to be...

...where you shouldn't wish for life, but cannot wish for death.

NOOK-ed!!!!

I got my birthday gift from Saurabh today...early! I'm superrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr kickedddddddddddddddddddddddddd!!!!

ps: I am still in search for a name for this li'l fellow (it might be a girl too, I haven't figured it all out yet)

Wildlife while in Maryland Farmland

Maybe a Turkey Vulture? See.

Canadian Geese

heeeeeeeheeeeeeeheeeeeeee

Black Ankle Vineyard

I thought this vineyard deserved it's own entry because it was such an interesting little place.

The building is made from straw and cob (material made from clay, sand, straw, water and earth). The window of truth shows that it is made from straw. All the wood and material used in the building is made from material from the vineyard lands. It is entirely powered by solar and wind power. They also have a living roof.

Photos will exhibit better what I saw there :)

Solar lanterns to light the winding path

Living roof

Window of Truth - showing the straw structure

Wood from trees on the land for roof, tables and chairs. The walls are all lined with cob

Countertop made with 40,000 pounds grape seed, stems and vines compressed. Isn't it GORGEOUS????

Vineyards in Maryland

Having bought 50% off vouchers for the All Star DC tour we booked our winery tour for today. We set off to meet the tour in front of the Postal Museum at 10:30AM. There we met the tour owner and the driver along with another couple going for the tour.

After driving about 40 minutes out of DC and into Maryland we were in farm country Maryland and it was an absolutely gorgeous drive. The view interchanged between corn fields, fruit orchards, Christmas tree farms and rolling hills with cows and horses. After the farms, for a while we were driving through homes with vast land, these were interspersed with numerous trees, tiny winding roads, ponds, streams of water...it felt so far removed from the city. So perfect to escape to! :)

Farms on the way: top to bottom: orchards, corn, Christmas Tree.
Sorry for blurryness. Photos taken from moving van!

The first vineyard we went to was Linganore Winecellars. It produces a lot of the wine for the East coast...but barely a drop in the ocean when compared to Napa Valley wineries. We got a tour of the winery (how they make it blah blah. I have started to find this wine making tour thing rather boring. I wish they'd take us out to see the vines and fruit) Their wines were nice, but nothing exceptional. However, their fruit wines were really nice. We especially enjoyed the plum one, which we bought. The strawberry wine was really good too and we bought that as well. The raspberry wine tasted absolutely fantastic with chocolate. If I baked, I would have bought that one.

After the winery tour and the wine tasting, Saurabh had some camera fun. Then we sat and had the picnic lunch we brought with us (Sabuda khichdi). We sat with the owner and the driver and it was nice talking to them and finding out more about them and their business. They were really nice and added a personal touch to our experience. They carried fruit with them (strawberries and cherries), which they happily shared with us. It was refreshing to see such people.

You can see the wine levels in the pipe outside these chambers

Photographer doing his thing + lone tree

After lunch, we headed to the other vineyard, Black Ankle. This was a really nice vineyard, sort of a specialty vineyard. They only hade 4 wines to taste (we tried 20 at the other one).We were sat at tables as opposed to standing at a bar for the wine tasting :). The entire building we were in was built from material got from the land. I will write another post detailing more on this. We didn't buy any of the wines from here. After exploring the area a bit and sharing some bread and cheese with our tour group owner and driver we headed back to the city :)

Black Ankle Winery

Black Ankle Vineyards

On a side note, I would like to mention a really pretty sighting. A stream. with a house on one side and a cow grazing. One the other side, 5-6 more cows, all grazing. All the cows facing the stream. Really really pretty. I wish we weren't in a moving car and I could have photographed it.

Mangoes and Memories

I had a mango today, well, half a mango. This is probably the third or fourth time I have eaten a mango in the US. I don't particularly care for mangoes here...they never measure up. Today, I was in Giant grocery shopping when I had an urge to eat a mango, so I bought one. While eating it, I remembered the first time I had a mango in the US. I had gone to Aunty Chandra's and Uncle David's place for breakfast before they took me out shopping for winter clothes. I can't remember what aunty had cooked for breakfast, but I know she had cut up mangoes. I remember getting excited when I saw them (I had no clue then what a terrible let down they would be). Uncle then said that they would never measure up to the Alphanso and he can never enjoy these :)

I have had so many firsts with them in this coutry. I miss aunty! :(

Chirpy Thoughts :)

I love it when I see a bird sitting on the topmost branch of a tree. I don't know why, but there is something incredibly alluring about it. I saw this this evening.

Today, after I left work and while walking to the bus stop, I heard the calls of at least 5 different birds. One of which I was able to trace to the bird making the call. It was a Northern Cardinal, which is a beautifully red bird. Its chirp was odd, a mix between a sound that one expects from a bird and a police siren, but not an annoying sires, as sirens typically are. This might be the first bird chirp I'll be able to recognise and associate with the actual bird without actually seeing it. Apart, of course, from a crow and a rooster :-p

First glass I broke in My home

I made it almost 6 years without breaking a glass. Then, June 28th 2010 happened and I broke this glass while doing dishes. Boo!

My Pistachio Men

A few months back, we are all eating pistachios at work and I told Houda that when I was a kid, I would try to get the nut out of the shell without breaking it and play with it like it was a face of someone. Later that day I found one of these guys on my desk, and then the kept multiplying! :-o :)