Happy 4th Y'all!

As you can see, we celebrated Indepence Day in style this year! We'd made an appointment for a wine-tasting at the newely renamed Compris (formerly Vidon) winery.

They're  what they call a small 'boutique winery' located in the rolling hills of the Chehalem Mountains, just outside Newberg.

The vineyard is a little out of the way, but the drive out there is a beautiful one and the views from their terrace rather breathtaking!

A boutique wine is typically one of a small-run or limited-production, one that is personalized, from start to finish.
That days flight included a nice Chardonay, a sparkling Rose, several Pinots and two rather unusual Tempranillos.
We'd ordered a small charcuttery plate in advance which was a delicious complement (and keeps us from getting a little too tipsy ... (we're such lightweights!)



The weather was just right, sunny but not too warm and although we weren't that thrilled about the wines, they were certainly drinkable.

            

Dru and Erin are the new owners of this winery, and are amazingly gracious, enthusiastic and really nice people.
All in all, not a bad way to celebrate our independence and precious freedom, I'd say!

 
Since the weather was very nice all weekend we enjoyed some of that traditional 4th of July fare ... hamburgers and steaks (from the BBQ of course), fries, corn on the cob, an overnight salad and triple-berry-bars, made from our own rasp-black- and blue-berries!

 

       

Earlier this week, we'd experienced a little heat wave for a couple of days, with temperatures reaching the 90s! Yikes!

                                                                            

Fortunately it only lasted a few days and we're back into the very comfortable low 70s again, but I sure hope that was it for this summer ... yeah, wishful thinking .. I know.

The warmer weather at least has coaxed some crops to get a little further along, like these Queen Ann cherries (which I was already picking by the dozens of this tree last year) ..

                               

The wild Sweet Peas are finally in full flower (also about 2 to 3 weeks late):  
                                            

The deer had eaten most of my Snow Peas but I managed to save a few and I have a few tiny strawberries ripening every other day or so ..

As for the rest, most of my time is eaten up by something else at the moment, I won't say what yet, it'll be a surprise, but let me just say that I'll be happy when it's over ....

I'll end with a shot of this odd looking Spotted Towhee that's visiting my feeders lately. Now, to compare, this is a how a 'normal' Spotted Towhee looks like:

And this is the one that I see at the feeder:

                          

A little googling learned that this is a Leucistic Towhee.
Leucism is caused by a defect in the pigment cells and results in loss/reduction of all types of pigment (unlike albinism which is just a loss of melanin). Like albinism this usually results in white plumage.
On this bird the affected areas are mostly on the head.

And there you have it, learned something new today!
See you next weekend.