Napa Valley Winter Garden




The simple life
I’m back in Umbria after our trip home to California.  When we arrived to our city there was thick cold fog socked in deep.  It was so pretty, I thought to get  fog in San Francisco and didn’t and it made me feel so happy and that Christmas was on it's way.


We got the heat on right away and it lasted a couple hours, then broke down.  It had been left off for three weeks and let me tell you if you have any romantic ideas about how we live in this Italian Gothic Palazzo that is 800 years old you can give them up, because Gothic equals bone chilling cold, two feet thick stone walls are very good at keeping the cold in. Those Medieval princesses suffered in more ways then one.
 
persimmons and a candle


The heat is now fixed I have a glass of red wine by my side and a few candles lit and I am ready to show you the Napa Valley Winter Garden that I talked about.  When you think of Napa Valley you probably think of the grand rich wineries or fields of grapevines and mustard flowers.  Since I love the simple life I just want to show you some of what I consider to be peace.



A winter garden brings peace because often there just isn’t much work being done.  Bareness can also feel peaceful and sleepy.

I love how persimmons remain on the tree while the leaves fall off.



A t-shirt drying on the line is hoping the sun will come along.  Plus I think that is the compost pile.  I saw a funny sign on the gate in another town outside S.F. that said, "trespassers will be composted".



My nephew is Walker Ryan and he is a professional skate boarder, they stuck the old decks of his skateboards onto the garden fence.  I think it is a nice tribute to all the hard work it takes to become a professional athlete.



I like the one blue tile as a step into the shed and that it isn't in the middle.



garden shed in Napa Valley


Inside the shed the walls and ceiling are painted Pompeii red. 
 
corrugated tin roof and Pompeii red door

I absolutely love a corrugated roof.  It makes me knees weak.

I know my painting studio space here in my home is fantastic and I do appreciate the space, but I have always had the fantasy of having many sheds that have different purposes.  If I had property and I lived in the U.S. (because you sure couldn't do it in Italy) I would love to build sheds all over the garden and make guest bedrooms, a paint studio, a music room shed, maybe even a library and one big cozy chair to read in.

A simple tribute to life in Napa Valley is an old dried grape cluster draping a birdhouse roof.


Cheers,
Natalie

I'm linking with these lovely parties:

3 comments:

  1. Yum! Here's ours with a chance to win a Set of Wool dryer balls for FREE! http://1000hoursoutside.com/2013/12/13/this-momentflash-giveaway/

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  2. Persimmons seem so foreign to me. They certainly don't grow around here and they only within the past dozen years began to show up in the supermarkets. We decided one Thanksgiving about 10 years ago to make Alice Waters' persimmon cake and followed the recipe very closely. The cake was horrible because we didn't know the persimmons were nowhere near ripe. We might try again now that we know. They're such a pretty color.

    I love your shed idea.

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  3. Oh Steve at Urban Cottage I think that maybe and I don't really know that there are two kinds of Persimmons, the ripe mushy types and the less ripe ones. In my opinion both are gross. If you like Mangos maybe you like Persimmons. I do love how when the sun hits the Persimmon tree they light up like lanterns. I'm always just living in design. You maybe could do my shed idea.
    Cheers
    Nat

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