I've had a tough time lately—all of my doing, of course. I am having a tough time accepting what it is. There is so much more I want to do in my life, but I feel stymied by work obligations. Sometimes my work can be downright boring, and when I try to shake things up, I don't feel that my efforts are acknowledged. So frustration sets in, then anger, then … suffering. Mine. My stomach gets all in a knot.
Month: September 2011
September 25th, 2011 - Unionville Vineyards
It was supposed to be a rainy, dreary day, but it turned out quite different. We picked up our produce from the farm stand at the Honey Brook Organic Farm in Pennington and drove north on Route 31 through the beautiful little back roads of Ringoes. We were to meet up with a small group of food lovers for a wine tasting at Unionville Vineyards.
We were the first to arrive so used the time to look over the tasting "menu". Bhavana and I decided to share the first tasting and after the tasting purchased a bottle to take home. We were joined by Deboleena Dutta and here husband Ravi and their two kids. Deboleena gave us a sneak peek tasting of two new delicious condiments she has created for HerbNZest. I think these can be paired with the wines from Unionville. After tasting eight different white and red wines — and one Riesling and dessert wine — we were taken on a tour of the winery by assistant winemaker Steve "Zeke" Johnson.
Zeke gave us an overview of the differences production methods for white and red wines, about something called "the muck", and the difference between new oak and French oak. Unionville prefers old oak which they buy from various wineries in California. I never knew winemaking was so involved and detailed.
After the tour, we returned to the wine tasting room and tried another tasting with five different wines. "Zeke" was upstairs drinking his favourite and so we had a chance to talk to him some more about the wines and the vineyard.
Wine tasting is new for us but I could definitely do again. We took home two bottles of wines; a red called "Cam Jam" and a rose called "Fields of Fire".
September 24th, 2011 - Lux Nature
I love using natural light in my photography — a flash seems too harsh to me. This is why I was so excited to take Frank Veronsky's workshop on using natural lighting with minimal equipment. We started off in Frank's Carriage House studio. Frank taught the basic of lighting and let us play around with some of the lights in his studio. The models — Jenny, Nicole, and Caroline — were very accommodating.
Some of the more experienced photographers were comfortable directing the models but I had no idea what I was doing. I just tagged along.
