routines and Old Creek Ranch

It's been a long while. Still extremely busy at work and trying to focus on finding ways to get in ultimate relaxation both before and after work. Yoga on YouTube, burning rose scented candles, sleeping at 10pm, roasting fall vegetables with friends, eating lettuce from the garden that tastes like a burst of herbs, attempting to meditate after taking too many months off, laughing as hard as I can with Mona, scooping tea into little bags and brewing chamomile at night, reading Sunset in the bath. This is how I stay afloat. If I don't try hard to do all these things, it's just too easy to plop on the couch and watch TV and eat Doritos with sour cream, Tapatio and lemon. Gross, huh?

Another thing that keeps me calm is daydreaming about past and future trips. This might be unhealthy and greedy, but it works. This is after a bike ride in Ojai from the middle of town to Old Creek Ranch Winery that took us on a .9 mile stretch of the highway against a mountain next to zooming, weaving traffic. I really thought we would have to call a cab to pick us up on the side of the road, because I almost became paralyzed to keep riding or even walking my bike. The rest of the ride is on a very nice trail shared with a horse lane, you dip and climb with views of the valley and backyards with chickens and art sculptures. It was all perfect weekend vacation feelings until we got on the highway and came close to dying. But the thrill of riding into the winery on the long farm road after the panic, kind of made it all ok.



This was the best wine tasting experience we've had yet. We're usually the youngest, only non-white, non-professional wine people at a tasting, and that was still the case here, but we didn't feel out of place, in fact, I felt very at home there. I could have stayed talking to the ladies all day, and after 9 pours, we were very very happy.

After the wine, we ate a picnic lunch outside with the dogs that run around the property. They were really into our tofu sandwiches. Cheryl, an elementary school teacher, part-time wine pourer, offered to drop us off back at the trail head so we didn't have to get back on the dangerous part of the road after she listened to our story. She said they all drive trucks so one of them could take us back, it was so sweet of them. So we hauled our bikes in her pick up and went back into town. We couldn't believe their generosity.





And then we went for smoothies to continue calming our nerves and to absorb more of the hippy relaxation that's in the air around Ojai.