Quarantine Adventures: Virtual Garden Walk

When I saw Kimberly-Little Chute Library was doing a virtual garden walk, I signed up. I always wanted to do a garden walk and see other people's gardens. I have a black thumb but I do appreciate a good flower garden.

The Virtual Garden walk was done via zoom. There were 3 gardens and you could ask questions to each gardener between visits.

I have to admit these gardens were impressive and HUGE. Each garden featured different flowers, plants, and trees. There usually was some sort of theme to the garden.

Besides plants, these gardens feature many decorative features as well. I was impressed with the amount time, energy, and money people spend on their gardens. Some of these gardens were like having their own botanical gardens.

I was slightly disappointed by the format of the virtual garden walk. I was assuming each gardener would be walking through their garden live and explaining their plants and features. Instead each gardener put together a Powerpoint presentation about their garden. I get the limits of technology and video sharing but I really wanted a walk through not a Powerpoint. Alas the times we live in.

Hopefully next year we can have in person garden walks where we can stop and smell the roses. Until then I will live through Powerpoints and Zoom presentations.

Quarantine Adventures: Wine, Alpacas, and Yarn

A few weeks back, Shannon tagged me a Facebook post about some event to do with alpacas. It sounded interesting but while I was scrolling through the other events I found alpaca yoga and Knit, Crochet, and Wine with the Alpacas. All these events were at the London Dairy Alpaca Ranch in Two Rivers. I knew Heather would like the Knitting one and asked her if she was interested. I told her she could knit while I would drink wine and make knots. She was and I signed us up.

Knit, Crochet, and Wine with the Alpacas is exactly what it sounds like. Taste some wine and work on your yarn project while the alpacas wandered about. It was set up so everyone was at least six feet apart too.

For $6, we each got 4 wine samples and a glass of wine to sip while working on your project. I had Heather's wine as well. All the wine, like the alpacas, were from South America. We tasted

Tierra Brisa Chardonnay -- I am not a fan of Chardonnays. Most of them are way too dry for me. This one was amazing. Definitely a sweet chardonnay. I did use Heather's free glass on this one.

Bodega Norton Merlot -- It was good. I'm not a red drinker but this wasn't bad.

Another sweet Red that I can't remember what kind or the name. I have no pictures of the front of the bottle. It was good.

Bodega Norton Moscato -- This was another really good wine. It had the perfect sweetness to it. This was my choice for my glass of wine.

The the alpacas came out. I spent most of my time trying to get pictures with the alpacas since I didn't have any yard to play with. Getting a selfie with a baby alpaca is not as easy as it sounds. They were constantly on the move. It was fun trying anyways.

Towards the end, one of the workers did bring around an older mama alpaca that we could pose with pictures.

Even though I didn't knit and had way too much wine, it was a fun evening. I would definitely recommend them for any group outing. Check out their Facebook page for upcoming events. I'm sure I will get back over there again. Maybe for yoga....

Social Distancing Winery Tour Stop # 3 -- Sunshine Winery

Our final stop on this year's winery tour was a new winery my sister-in-law found on Facebook called Sunshine Winery in Cedarburg. I was stoked because they had mango winery and my cousins thought it was different enough to try.

Sunshine winery has been opened since March. They opened around the time of the pandemic hit. It is 100% tropical fruit winery and all their wines are gluten free and vegan. There is not one grape to be found in any of their wines.  The actually winery is in Florida and they are the only place in Wisconsin allowed to sell Sunshine winery. 

They serve about two dozen different fruit wines along with two sparking wines. Plus they have wine smoothies. Their smoothie mixes can be used with or without wine.

For our tasting we sampled 6 wines each plus the two frozen wine smoothies currently on tap. Oh! The choices of which ones to try. This is when I'd love to try sample some of my cousins' wines. I couldn't make up my mind and ended up changing mind my half way through.

My six were

Hurricane Class 5 -- This is just like a hurricane cocktail in wine form. It is their best seller. There is a strong pineapple flavor which stopped me from getting it only because I wasn't sure the hubby would like it.

Mango Mamma -- This is the sole reason I wanted to go to this winery. And it didn't disappoint. It tastes just like a ripe Mango. I did bring home a bottle of this. I can't wait for the hubby to try it.

Juicy Watermelon -- I was disappointed by this one. I wanted a strong watermelon flavor and it wasn't there. It was good but not what I was looking for.

White Gold Peach -- This was a last minute change. My cousin loved it and it is a so clear that it's white. It's good. I won't say it's the best peach I've had but it's right up there.

Coco Polada -- My face said it all. I'm in love. This is amazing. Best wine I've had in a long time. My cousins' bought me a bottle for my birthday because I was torn between the Mango Mamma and this one. 

St. Pete Sangria -- It's your typical sangria. It wasn't a favorite and was slightly disappointed I wasted a selection on this one. 

Strawberry Wine Smoothie -- Not.A.Fan. It tastes too much like strawberry. My cousins loved it though.

Watermelon Wine Smoothie -- Not bad. Liked it much better than the strawberry one. It might have been better with a straw.

A couple wines my cousins sampled

Millennium Gold Sherry-- The bottle is waxed sealed and looks like something you'd find on a pirate ship. The wine had to be pretty amazing since they both bought a bottle

Midnight Sun -- An orange coffee blend. My cousin loved it. She said it wasn't as overpowering as the coffee one from Down Time Wines.

Hot Sun -- Bloody Mary Wine. Imagine your classic Bloody Mary in wine bottle. 

This is going to be a must stop in the future. Good thing it's only 20 minutes from my parents. Check out them out whenever you are in Cedarburg. Heck you could do a whole wine tasting day just in Cedarburg with their three wineries. 

Social Distancing Winery Tour Stop # 2 -- Ziegler Winery

Our second stop on our winery tour this year was supposed to be Trout Springs Winery in Greenleaf. I happened to notice a post on Facebook that they would be closed on Thursday and Friday due to a death. I saw this on Tuesday. Now I had to scramble to find another winery. The other wineries on our list either we've been to or didn't overly appeal to us. A quick Google Search came back with Ziegler Winery in Malone. It fit all the criteria and even had truffles.

Ziegler is in the middle of no where. Even with the GPS and a big flag that said winery, I missed my turn. The road I was supposed to turn on looked like a driveway. After turning around and finally getting there, it is an actual gorgeous winery. They have only been in business since October. The winery is in an old barn. There is are several indoor and outdoor seating areas to enjoy a glass of wine.

For $8, we got four wine samples and a tasting glass. They had fourteen different wines to choose from.

My four choices were:

Brianna -- a semi-sweet white that had tropical undertones. It was good but not earth shattering. It is a good sipping wine.

Pink Diamante -- This is the perfect cheese tasting wine. I really liked this one.

Marquette -- A sweet red that was really good.

Bella Rouge -- Another sweet red that pairs well with everything.

The problem with social distancing wine tasting is you don't get to taste your cousins' or friends' wine choices. You stick to your own glass.

We decided since we had some time, we would get a bottle, some truffles, and relax. My cousins selected Recherche, a off-dry wine. I had a small glass along with my truffle. We started to sit outside but then the wind picked up and we moved to the covered outside seating in back. It was just nice to relax and sip wine.

I would definitely recommend this winery to anyone that is looking for a good winery to visit with family or friends. Just north of Fond du Lac, it is a true hidden gem.

4731. Follow the Fox Valley Wine Trail -- Kerrigan Brothers Winery

Before COVID hit, my cousins were going to go to Door County and I was going to meet them some time to do some wine tasting on their way to my parents. Then COVID hit and plans changed. They ended up just going to Green Bay for the night and then hook up with me to do some with wine tasting on the way to Saukville.

After figuring out what wineries were open during the day and doing tastings, I sent them a list of possibilities saying I have only been to the same wineries you have. They sent back the list of Kerrigan Brothers, Trout Springs, and Sunshine Winery. Two of them being on the Fox River Valley Wine Trail which I still have not followed completely.

Kerrigan Brothers Winery in Freedom was our first stop. They opened at 9 AM. Who says it is too early for wine?? No we didn't get there at 9.. we met at 10:30. We were the only people there. We still practiced social distancing prior to drinking wine.

We could taste up to 4 or 5 wines for free. They have about 24 wines plus 10 or so fortified wines. Most of their wines are fruit based wines and have fun names such as Green Leprechaun or Bah! Humbug.

I tasted

Gaelic Snow which is semi-dry white. It wasn't bad. I just liked the name.

Pear -- Your typical pear wine. It was good but as I was told it's not pear season. I think he was right. I might like this better in fall. Still looking for a really good pear wine.

Winter Melon -- I didn't know what to expect with this wine since I never had winter melon. I was hoping for a watermelon flavor. They was definitely a melon flavor just not the watermelon.

Muddled Old Fashioned -- Being from Wisconsin, nothing is better than a fish fry and an old fashioned. This is an old fashioned in a wine bottle. This came home with all of us. I could get into a lot of trouble with this wine.

Since we only sampled a few wines, I'd like to go back and sample a few more. It's a nice winery with a wide variety and close to home for me.

Quarantine Adventures: Friends and Fiction Weekly Chat

Back in April, I discovered the Friends and Fiction Facebook page that is moderated by five wonderful authors: Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Harvey, Patti Harvey, and Mary Alice Monroe. I've been a fan of Mary Kay Andrews and Mary Alice Monroe for years. The others are new authors to me.

Once a week, the five of them do a Facebook Live event with their readers letting them know what is going on their lives, how they are surviving the pandemic, and to talk about their books. All of them have books coming out sometime this year. I think they do it to keep their sanity of not being on book tour.

I joined them for their first live event. It was right around the supper hour which made it difficult to get dinner on the table (or cleaned up) while watching these ladies interact with each other. They are an amazing group of ladies and the banter between them all makes joining worthwhile.

After several weeks, they decided to have guest authors come and join their show. What going me back on the Friends and Fiction Facebook live bandwagon was them having Debbie Macomber on. Debbie is one of my favorite authors and it is how I discovered Brenda Novak. Debbie talked about her new book, A Walk Along the Beach, which I can't wait to read. The five regulars take turns asking the guest author questions and then if there is time they pull questions from the comments. It is so much fun seeing the authors and guest author interact with each other.

This past week, the guest author was Delia Owens, who wrote Where the Crawdads Sing, which we read in book club last year. It was a wonderful book. Not only has Delia wrote Where the Crawdads Sing but several non-fiction books on wildlife including several books set in Africa. Not only did Delia talk about Where the Crawdads Sing but the non-fiction books as well. They also talked about how descriptive writing is dead and how the setting is really a character as well. The banter was alive and well this week too. Mary Kay killed her first person this week. Kristin didn't expose herself to anyone. The best part was them signing off. I think they forgot to the end the Facebook live feed and they were chatting amongst themselves and it was delightful to watch them interact "off-camera."

They have a guest author about every other week through the end of summer. One week, they are having the Twisted Sisters on. After that we will see if this continues. Even with just the five of them, it is very entertaining. As my schedule allows, I will continue to tune in especially now that the hubby has games again.