Many, many things rolling here in the Logan Square neighborhood. Highlight of the week comes from the returning Rhubarb that I planted last year. Actually, this is a significant moment to celebrate because it is my second attempt at trying to bring Rhubarb through a winter here in Chicago. I suspect it might have been poor planting and care on my part as being the reason for the failure of the initial attempt. Regardless, this Rhubarb started to dance about 10 to 12 - 14 days ago and it prompted a mini-fist pump like Tiger Woods usually does on the golf course after an excellent shot. Now that I have it coming up (and believe me, it was deceptively nice on Tuesday of this week - I was freezing outside as I worked painting a wrought-ironed fence), I can look forward to a repeat of summer pies from this lovely plant.
Also, today as I walked out my front door to move my car (a preventative measure so that I don't need to, once again, donate to the City of Chicago's Department of Revenue), I was greeted by a lovely, lovely sound made by a woodpecker in the tree immediately in front of my apartment. I could actually hear it inside my apartment. Having grown up in St. Louis, we really didn't get too many woodpeckers taking up shop in the area. Once I began to learn the sound of the woodpecker (not a difficult task in the least), whenever I hear a similar sound my memory brings up the file and I have to go out to the place where the sound is being crafted, that's just something I love. I couldn't believe how long this one treated me to the sound. It was amazing. I remained in my apartment for the next few hours (nursing a chest-cold/bronchial something) and later came out to learn that the woodpecker was still in the tree. I took a recording on the trusty old iPod. I'll try to post it on the blogulation when I figure how to do such a thing.
I have encountered a couple of very encouraging pieces in the media as of recent. They are listed below:
Mike Steinberger (Slate.com) recently wrote a great piece about Rhys Vineyards out of California. Part of the writing is chronology and history. It was actually those components that helped a little upstart like what this is make me feel very encouraged.
Click the hyperlink to read said article on slate.com:
Also, learning a bit more about the development of Cadeceus Vineyards out of Arizona. Very exciting and encouraging news out of there as well.
