Sunday, May 09, 2010

Wine and Buddhists on a Sunday

In prospecting for how to spice up my Geology of Kern County (and wine) community class for the fall, I decided to add the "and wine" component. This came easily after being introduced to the wine of Sagebrush Annie's and the location of Triassic Legacy. Not having tasted any Triassic Legacy wines, and knowing that they only opened in December of 2009, it was imperative that I take a pre-field-trip field trip. That occurred today.

The place is charming and owned by a charming man, a retired geologist, and a conservationist. These three owners are in fact one person who decided to save a gorgeous piece of the Cummings Valley from strip malls by buying it and planting wine grapes. I was impressed before I even tasted the wine. The grapes used currently are grown in Paso Robles because their grape vines are still a wee bit young (and are being ravaged by gophers and blackbirds), but I hope they pull through and have a successful first harvest this fall. They are growing Zinfandel, Syrah and Viognier grapes, and I am thoroughly impressed with the creatively delicious Syrah-Viognier blend. So, if you're in the Tehachapi neighbourhood, you should definitely pop in for a taste, and tell Chuck & Sherry that I sent you!


After wine, a lemongrassy (read: yummy) lunch at Blue Ginger was consumed and followed up by a jaunt to find the mysterious Mountain Spirit Center; a Korean Buddhist retreat of some sort. Once it was found, there was nothing by silence and wind - it must have been prayer time or something. Perhaps "or something" means "poke around and take photos of stuff with your cell phone". Well, that's what I took it to mean anyway.


the sign for the road in... almost as cute as the map on their nearly indecipherable website


more signage...


apparently Buddha's birthday is coming up on the 16th... who knew?


peace bell - I'm interpreting based on their website where they list "peace bell" as a project - though it suddenly occurs to me that a bell of that size might not be all that peaceful


mural - there were lots, but I figured I'd just show this one

1 comment:

Unknown said...

maybe the peace bell is rung when peace is about to happen but the usual din hasn't fully died down yet?