Cape Fear Winery

If there is one thing that Tony and I do well, it's finding new places to go to sample wine.  "Flight", a new wine bar opened up very near us and we enjoy stopping in for appetizers and sampling different kinds of wine.

 

Last week  we ventured out and found the Cape Fear Winery about 45 minutes away.  What a nice place!

 

Instead of the usual wooden bar and wine related gifts for sale, this was an animal haven and a trendy restaurant.  There were various sizes of horses roaming around, birds in a large cage on the front porch, llamas eating and watching guests watch them and rabbits and peacocks in the back--even a white one.  Throughout the front area, there were pieces of art in the form of large, metal frogs.  You could walk the vineyard and enjoy the animals, you could sit at the bar and watch whatever football game was on or you could sit on the front porch and enjoy Christmas music. 

What a good time we had.

A large welcome!

A meditating frog

An aloof Llama

An artistic frog

 

 

Two artists sharing techniques

A peacock roams the grounds

A white peacock looks on

Running for food

 

 Tony check out birds on the front porch

 

 



A bunny waiting for next Easter

The view of the woods from cabins that you can rent to relax

 

 

We Gather Together To Ask The Lord's Blessing....

How often I can remember singing that song in church around Thanksgiving....we gather together to ask the Lord's blessing....

 

I read Jenna's blog and she said that this was her favorite holiday because family came together and ate good food.  The world stopped, she said, and the focus was on the family being together.

 

I think she is right, for parents of children who are small or still in the home in which they grew up.  But, when you are older, gathering together is different.  The "family" is often just the two of you...and that's OK.  Tony and I spent our Thanksgiving mixed among work.  He worked early, I worked late...but we managed to have Thanksgiving dinner together and had a nice time.  As always, Tony did a fantastic meal.

 

For us, the wonderful part of Thanksgiving is knowing that our children were spending the day with people they love and who love them.  Tony, Marie and the kids went to Cleveland and spent the holiday with Marie's family--always a time when their family comes from all over the country to celebrate together.  David and Brenda spent their first Thanksgiving as a married couple alone (with the dogs of course) and Jenna, Jon and the kids spent time with his family. 

 

The unit we called our family has branched out and are making their own traditions.  They are setting their own tables and enjoying blending tastes from each family into what their children will know as "what our family always had for Thanksgiving dinner...."   And they too, will take parts of that tradition and blend them into their own, far, far down the road.

 

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing...and we are all truly blessed...today and for so many days of our lives.

 

 

Here is Tony photo bombing the pumpkin pie he made!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, sweet potatoes and a good Chardonnay!  Perfect

 

 

 

 

 

Just like our "kids" whenever you wanted them to look at the camera, smile and say "cheese," they had other ideas.

 

After Dali

There was another event at the Dali Museum that was kind of interesting....a food exhibit.  Not to eat, but to look at as art.  Now going back to my "a tree has to look like a tree" thing, this was pretty far out there.  But, I must admit, some of the exhibits were pretty cool.

 

In the first section of the exhibit, there was a photo of an object.  The exhibit goal was to make an edible dish that looked as  much like the picture as possible. 

 

The top is a picture of  a butterfly on a leaf.   I'm not sure of the ingredients,

but the food exhibit on the bottom sure looks like a butterfly!

 

 

The photo on top is of leaves on the ground. 

The bottom, made of real food,  mirrors the image.

 

This is a photo of a  vineyard showing grapes on the vine. 

I think the exhibit is a carrot with food coloring to make it brown

with celery stalk greenery on top and a few small grapes.

 

 

There was one thing to taste test....Pata Negra, Iberico ham from free range pigs that live in forests on the border of Spain and Portugal and eat only acorns.  The picture is of one not yet carved.

 

 

 

 

This is a chef that was cutting pieces of the ham.  It was very salty and tasted like bacon.  The size of the piece of meat that he is carving would cost $1,100 to serve and takes 36 hours to cure.  

 

 

 

 

 

The grounds outside of the museum were beautiful.  Now, if this doesn't scream Dali, what does?

 



Beautiful flowers....

Garden trails.....

 

...and a "Dali Bird!!"

The Salvator Dali Museum--Walking In Dreams

The first thing I realized when I started on this blog, is that I have been spelling the name "Dali" incorrectly.  For whatever reason, I was putting an "h" in there.   At any rate, "Dali" or "Dahli" was an incredible artist.

 

I am the type of person who, when looking at a painting, likes to be able to identify the content.  In other words, I want a tree to look like a tree.  I find works that are large and done in mass media to be confusing and not as truly artistic as one that is balanced in content, done in one media and is of a scene I can identify.  Art of the Renaissance is more to my liking.   And while I find the "fuzzy" paintings of Monet colorful,  I tend to dismiss them as not serious work.  Don't even get me started on cubism.  Naked women with long, square faces and upside down features--really?

 

So, after all of that, it would stand to reason that I would not like the artwork of Salvator Dali.  Wrong.  It was fantastic. 

 

One of my favorite features of the work is that it appeared as many small paintings encompassed into one work.  And, it looked different if you were standing right in front it and then, when you moved 5 or 10 feet back to view it. 

 

Dali was born in 1904 and died in 1989.  He was 12 when he started to study art at the Institute of Figueres in Spain.  At 13, the institute awarded him a diploma of honor for his work.   His first art exhibit happened when he was 18. Wow.

 

Early on, Dali considered himself to be a "surrealist."  He painted his dreams.  Our tour guide told us that he slept with a tea cup on his stomach to wake him when he moved around while having a dream.  He would get up, outline his dream and turn it into a painting. 

 

If you are ever in the St. Petersburg area, go and walk in his dreams. 

 

 

The 1958 wedding photo of Gala and Salvador Dali

 

 

Taken at the gallery:  "The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus," 1958.  You can see the feet of Columbus stepping onto the soil of the New World.  Above the ship is a small rendition of Ferdinand and Isabella receiving Columbus.  Most interesting--the "ball" in the front of the painting represents man stepping on the moon in the future. 

Taken at the gallery:  "The Hallucinogenic Toreador," 1969.  I love this one.  At first glance, did you see the large face in the background that is made up of the center Venus figure?   This is the face of  an "invisible toreador.  The roses are for passion, the bull is near the bottom of the painting next to the center Venus figure.  This is Dali's vision of life and death. 

Taken at the gallery:  "The Ecumenical Council," 1960.  Part of this refers to Pope John XXIII's meeting with the archbishop of Canterbury in 1960, which was a gesture of religious ecumenicism. It is divided into two parts:  heaven and earth. 

Taken at the gallery:  Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid:  "Homage to Crick and Watson," 1963.  Crick and Watson identified the molecular structure of DNA.  The title means:  Gala = his wife.  CID = tribute to the Spanish soldier, El Cid.  Ala = God.  The rest is the full name of what we call DNA.   This is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.   The "blocks" on the right signify DNA building blocks. 

Taken from our Dali book:  "Fountain of Milk Spreading Itself Uselessly on Three Shoes," 1945.  Probably my least favorite of his work, this represents his post war feelings.  Dali saw the war as senseless and destructive.  The milk signifies nursing the world back to heath.  The rock represents ruin. 

 

 

Taken from our Dali book:  Daddy Longlegs of the Evening--Hope!," 1940.   This is also a war related work.  The main "face" is of a man with jaundiced and loose skin.  A face of death.  The woman in the painting is melting away from the fatigue of war.  A horse emerges from a cannon, but the "daddy longlegs" on the man's face,  appears as a symbol of hope for the future. 

 

Taken from our Dali book:  "The Average Bureaucrat," 1930.  Ah, from my real working days.   Love it.  At first glance, you see a round, highlighted area with holes.   Look again, this is a man with a bowed head.  We are seeing sea shells in a hole in his head....representing protective armor and only hearing what he wants to hear.   The figure is large--important to himself.  How true!