It felt like a miracle last week that I was able to join with two men to prune grapes in the church vineyard. Yay, I’m not totally decrepit yet! There weren’t enough of us to make much of a dent in the work, but I do believe that every little bit helps. Several planned vineyard work days had been cancelled because of rain; it will be a challenge to get the other fifteen rows done…and more rain is in the forecast 🙂
Even some of the healthy vines had lichens on them.
Inside the church, the altar cloths and vestments have been changed to purple for Lent. You might remember the pink camellia on the church property that I took a picture of last month; we also have red ones that the “flower ladies” used in a brilliant way!
The little vineyard is lovely!
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The red and purple is lovely. And I was completely taken with the church’s vineyard. What a lovely way to “literalize” the verses about the laborers in the vineyard. Is there a chance that your sacramental wine is made from your own grapes? That would be wonderful.
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Linda, for the Eucharist we typically use a sweeter wine than these Syrah grapes produce.
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What satisfying work it must be to prune the vines. Will the heavy rains produce an extra yield of grapes this summer? I think it’s really something that your church has grape vines. Does your church make its own wine too? The Camellia are lovely!
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I will have to ask about whether we are likely to get a bigger grape harvest because of the rain. We do make wine when we are able to coordinate all the tasks involved up to and including that one! Our rector just told me that there is some left from the last batch, which we will drink tomorrow in honor of my late husband. 🙂 The grapes are Syrah.
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Our flower ladies sure know what they’re doing!
D.
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How nice to be able to do pruning like that. I think it is one of the most peaceful things to do.
It’s really warm here right now. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be 89. We haven’t had rain in 10 days. I was surprised to read that you have continued to have rain. Have a lovely week.
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What beautiful Lenten color in your church. And I think it’s very cool you have your own vineyards and, I assume, make your own wine. I guess that would a natural as you live in wine country!
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What a beautiful landscape, Gretchen, and to be able to personally nourish such fruit producing, precious earth must harvest a divine feeling of gratitude within yourself.
The pink camellias adorning the Lenten purple are perfect. How wonderful that your church has so many kind and thoughtful members that devote their time and talent in assisting with the parish’s upkeep.
Lovely photos, thanks for sharing.
Poppy:)
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Long grapevines, especially the old gnarled kind, are beautiful and interesting to me. I’m glad you got out there to help. You have had so much rain lately! I hope it is a blessing after such a long spell of drought.
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