A Warm Welcome Fall Tablescape

Last September I wrote a post called “Fall Fortune.” Although we are now in November, these words capture so nicely my sentiments surrounding fall, last year and this year.

“Just like that, exciting August summer rolled into reflective September fall and we have fall fortune to look forward to. What is your fall fortune? An abundance of vegetables from the garden. Savory new recipes using figs, root vegetables, persimmons, pumpkins, and squash. Beautiful jeweled golden, amber, and rust colors to wear and decorate your home. A subtle intensity change in sunlight. A tarte tatin baking in the oven. Your first sip of warm spiced cider. Crunching of leaves on your morning walk.

Take advantage of all the simple everyday riches that make up your fall. Fall is here, but for a few short weeks, and then gone for another year. That is one of the reasons that makes it so special.”

“Fall Fortune and Abundance,” I have been enjoying and maybe some of these ring true for you too!

-Bringing my fall cookbooks into the kitchen, for ideas, recipes, and making.

-Organizing my kitchen and pantry. Do I have the ingredients I need for fall into the holidays.

-Making three Blondie recipes, to find the best one.

Delicious And Nutritious “Pumpkin Curry With Lentils and Apples”

-Making new comfort food, fall favorite recipes. Pumpkin Curry With Lentils and Apples. Touchdown Chili. Food & Wine’s, Creamy Tuscan Chickpea Soup.

-Decorating with fall touches and color on my dining room tables, and at my front door.

-Finding that perfect “persimmon color” candle for the vintage pewter candlestick.

-Dividing and replanting my iris in flower beds.

-Adding amendment, new plant material and new life to different spots of the garden.

-Raking leaves, and adding them to the compost.

-Finding a tiny perfectly engineered empty bird nest delicately attached to an olive branch.

May The Wine From These Grapes Carry The Spirit of Gratitude

-Receiving harvest blessings from our grapes, macadamia nut trees, and herb, lemon verbena.

-Creating a list of Thanksgiving-worthy recipes for appetizers, sides, desserts, to share with friends at Thanksgiving.

Fall Sunset Over Cardiff-By-The-Sea

-Taking in the spectacular fall sunsets on our horizon and special moons in our sky.
-Enjoying a nice blazing fire on a cool evening with a cup of tea to ponder the day.

The Last Of The Blooming Garden At Domaine de Manion

-Enjoying the last of the blooming garden before it rests.

-Gatherings surrounded by loved ones and friends with a toast and good food.

-Always grateful for all the blessings large and small each day, yet even more so in this fall season.

May your fall fortune and abundance, luminously shine and bring you everyday richness!

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

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A Great Spot Under The Mulberry Trees To Ponder

Pause to ponder, all of the wonderful things in your life, and where you are in this moment. How far you have truly come. Take a moment, pat yourself on the back. It can be anything that is especially meaningful to you. I think many of us don’t take the time to pause, reflect, remember, and pat ourselves on the back. Life itself often gets in the way, but the journey is really where the riches in life lies.

Twenty five years ago, my husband John and I, had just acquired our Encinitas property with an open field of nothing but foxtail. I remember vividly visualizing and wanting a property with two Adirondack chairs facing towards a view and water. Something similar I had seen on Cape Cod vacation.

After a good stab at starting a garden and failing in this field, I quickly realized it had to be a more serious concerted effort to successfully grow something here. Ironically, struggling to figure out what, I happened to see an issue of a Bon Appétit magazine’s “Back of the Napkin” article featuring Peggy Fleming, the endearing 1968 U. S. Olympic gold medalist figure skater, describing her Los Gatos, California, backyard vineyard. A spark of an idea to do the same was started. What about a vineyard as a landscape solution? It had many pluses. Beautiful to look at and onto the ocean, four season interest, drought tolerant, genuinely using the land, and possibly growing a good grape.

Finding a vineyard consultant, and expertise to plant a vineyard in Encinitas took many years. Backyard vineyards are prolific now in San Diego County, but back then I was a little ahead of the times. Finally, in 2006, everything seemed to align. We found a local consultant. Mira Costa College offered a Vineyard Management & Production class. Work finally began. Our field was leveled, measured, staked, planted and irrigated with the help of the entire class. it was a big experiment, a leap of faith, and the rest is history. Next year, our vineyard will be 20 years old.

Our west property backed up to a working nursery originally, early in our time here. I chose and planted a long row of ‘Little Ollie’ olive trees, to aesthetically buffer our view and property line. I chose fruitless olives trees because I wanted the wonderful Mediterranean look, and thought the grapevines were enough to grow and manage, without adding harvesting and pressing olives in the mix. It was a good decision.

Ten years later, I decided to create a nice alfresco seating area close to the vineyard. A social area for entertaining, possibly cooking, and overall enjoying the vineyard. Borrowing from my travels in Provence, where I saw fruitless mulberry trees commonly used as shade trees in courtyards, I thought to plant three fruitless mulberry trees. Fruitless because fruiting mulberry trees, although the fruit is divine, are messy, easily stain, and are not best for social areas.

Not easy to find, Village Nurseries near UTC at the time, said they had fruitless mulberry trees in their retail inventory and could have them transferred to San Diego from their Sacramento growing area. I remember driving up Highway 5 with my precious trees filling and hangin off the bed of my truck, hoping that the trip home would be uneventful. At first the newly planted trees struggled a bit, then a gopher nearly killed one, but, the trees came around and started growing nicely. In fact they need a good yearly trim, to keep them in check. I have shaped them to easily reach and cover the alfresco area with wonderful shade.

Around 2016, the nursery property in front of us sold, and is destined to be developed. Knowing that there was to be a development coming, I searched for taller trees for a west hedge that would work nicely with the view, horizon, existing olive trees, and the vineyard. I choose the Arizona Cypress, because it is a tall cypress that can be trimmed to a suitable height, is drought tolerant, has a lovely gray-green foliage that would work beautifully with the horizon and sky, and it has a fairly long life span. In short, it has the capability to hide what I want, and complement the existing landscape.

When I look out at this view, I do have to pause to ponder and remember it all. The challenges, the unknown, the triumphs, the appreciation.

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

The Garden is Awakening

Although we can always use more rain, the late winter rains we have had are perfect for waking up your garden. I wanted to share with you a few photos of spring emerging at Domaine de Manion.

The all-white narcissus bulbs come up first in the barn lawn. White flowers and green grass make for a traditional classic color combination.

Jennifer Rebecca Iris At Her Best

A sweet friend of mine gave me a some Jennifer Rebecca Iris a few years ago. I have moved them around in the garden trying to find the best place for them. I finally decided they needed a more central focal sunny location in about the center of the garden. A great spot for them, I have never seen them so happy blooming as now.

i recommend planting iris in your garden. They require little care, are fairly drought tolerant, leaves look great even when not blooming, and when iris do bloom, they look fabulous in your garden or your flower arrangement.

Wisteria Over The Storage Shed

Wisteria are especially spectacular this year in our area. A few of my friends have shared their gorgeous blooming wisteria with me. My wisteria spruces up my storage shed in late winter with a showy splash of cascading purple blooms that are all too brief but memorable. Wisteria are great pollinators too, but be aware they need strong support and their roots can be invasive.

Across many cultures, wisteria symbolism varies, but generally they represent love, romance, longevity, resilience, good luck, and sometimes, humility and reflection.

Blossoming Peach Tree

My orchard was an orchestra of blooms this spring, and so I am hopeful it is an excellent year for fruit, and for the budding vineyard.

French Blue Flowers of Yankee Point Ceanothus

My Yankee Point Ceanothus is showing off this spring too. A great drought tolerant ground cover, I have it planted between my Crape Myrtle Natchez hedge for a little interest. When it blooms, it is a French blue bonus.

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

Last Scoop of Tomato Truffle Bisque

Tomato Truffle Bisque

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced small

3 carrots, diced small

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. tomato paste

2-15 oz cans or 1-28 oz can, San Marzano tomatoes

2 tsp. Herbs de Provence (optional)

1 -1/4 cup vegetable stock

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

½ cup heavy cream

2-3 tbsp. black truffle oil

1-2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

Grated Gruyère

 Directions:

-In a medium saucepan, sweat the onions, carrots, and garlic until translucent; add tomato paste and cook for two minutes.

-Add San Marzano tomatoes, Herbs de Provence, chicken stock and cream; simmer for 30 minutes.

-Add truffle oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste.

-Blend carefully in a blender until smooth.

-Return soup to saucepan and heat slowly before serving

-Finish the soup with a drizzle of truffle oil and a sprinkle of Gruyère cheese

-Serves 4-6.

Last year I lovingly adapted Jeffrey Scott’s recipe from Tablas Creek Vineyard, Paso Robles, California, in a menu for one of my cooking classes. His recipe further inspired me to create my own version. In my area in South France, near Uzès, En Provence Occitane, the culinary treasure—black truffle is found, and is in season from November to March. This being March, and the end of the season, I thought to share this recipe with you.

Easy to make, with almost everything readily available in your pantry, with possibly the exception of black truffle oil. Trader Joes, around the holidays stocks a black truffle oil /white truffle oil in a two pack. Other places to find black truffle oil are online, and where specialty foods, vinegars, and oils are sold.

For these blustery March days, make this creamy dreamy bisque, and pair it with a yummy grilled cheese sandwich, a French Croque Monsieur, or even a Trader Joes warmed Garlic Naan.

Black Truffles for Sale at Local Village Truffle Festival

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

Our Original Living Room, 25 Years Ago

Yes, it is hard to believe, but this was our living room when John and I first moved into our new home and property we now affectionately call Domaine de Manion. It looks quite different now, and many of you know the story and the transition over time of how our home and property evolved.

I want to call your attention to the clear stain glass windows above the windows in the photo above. There were a total of three in this room. I don’t know a thing about these stained glass windows. Who made them? The story behind them? How long they had been in the house?

With our home remodel in 2010, these stained glass windows didn’t fit with the house anymore. We carefully stored them away for 15 years down in our little basement. Last summer I advertised I was selling these stain glass windows for $75.00 each in my newsletter. There were in wonderful condition, and too good for the dump.

Two of the Three Stained Glass Windows Shown For Sale

There were no takers. Classic Consignment wouldn’t take them. We advertised on Craig’s List three separate times, and still no takers. We couldn’t believe someone couldn’t be creative with these three stain glass windows.

Finally, out of the blue, a gentleman called and said he wanted to buy the windows. He had seen the ad. He was going to make a greenhouse/potting shed for his lucky wife. We were surprised. He said he was pretty handy with tools and construction. He said he would send a photo when he was finished. He did, and look how amazingly he transformed these windows for a second life, beautiful, functional, and re-purposed!

A New Life Re-Purposed For These Stained Glass Windows, One Lucky Wife, One Lucky Gardener

We were so amazed when we saw his photo above. I confess, I was a little jealous I hadn’t thought of something like this. It pays to be very creative, and think outside of the box. What one person discards, it can become another person’s treasure. Before you throw away or discard something, take a moment to think how it might be re-purposed, or who might be able to use it in some other way.

Related Posts:

Remembering Miss Dior

Celebrating 25 Years

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

Walking Towards Blue Skies and Blue Water on the Garden Path

I am always hopeful for the new year ahead, and what unknown opportunities, good fortune, and adventures are ahead. Sure, there may be bumps, hiccups, and wrong turns to cope with along the way, but we determine how we soldier through with our thoughts, experience, and intuition. And of course, with the help of those that are close to us.

As I am sure many of you do too, I write out my vision for the year, and what I hope to accomplish. It is a road map, sort of speak, to refer back to frequently to keep me on course. This helps me determine where best to spend my time, what makes me the happiest, and how to create my best everyday, as my every days unfold quickly into a year. I am planning to do this year.

1) Savor and appreciate even more the little and big things.

2) Celebrate little things, as well as big things.

3) Keep my awareness in the present.

4) Set the intention of resilience, for the long term outcome to manifest.

5) Think confidently, and outside of the box.

6) Plan to do different things.

7) Not sweat the small stuff.

8) Keep an open mind and a full heart.

9) Plan my work, and work my plan.

10) Be ready when the luck happens, borrowed from Ina Garten.

Wishing all of you the very best in this year ahead…Bonnie

It looks like we are going to have a good harvest this year at Domaine de Manion. This will be our 18th vintage. The weather cooperated this year which is a huge factor in a good vintage. The grape clusters have turned inky black in color. The brix (sugar percentage) of the grapes is over 20, and heading towards 23 or 24%, the range where we like to harvest. The yield looks good, maybe above average, but really can’t guesstimate how many pounds. We will have to wait until harvest.

Last year, if you recall, we had to drop all of the fruit. There was no vintage 2023. We are grateful to see the vineyard bounce back with a good grape crop. We don’t take anything for granted when it comes to our vineyard, and recognize each year is different, and what makes each vintage so different.

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

Last Days of August at Domaine de Manion

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” —Marcel Proust*

That is the way I feel about all of you! I love sharing ideas, recipes, philosophy, tips, travel, styling, in other words, a “Taste of French Country Living” to live by, no matter where you are. A few pillars of this life is simplicity, awareness of living in the present, and embracing everyday simple richness.

I hope you all had a marvelous summer, full of excitement and everything you like to do with family and friends!

This is a post from a few years ago, I love as summer ends, to pause and be grateful and thankful for those in our lives, and especially to all of you. Merci!

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

*Marcel Proust was a French author, literary critic, and essayist who is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. He was born July 10, 1871, and died on November 18, 1922.