A Trip to the Farm

First stop on our trip to California: Bloomfield! Where, you ask?!? Half way between Sebastopol and Tomales, in Sonoma County, is a sweet little community of 500 and that's where our friends live on their 3-acre farm.

When Maya was eleven we moved to Bloomfield, shortly after my dearest buddy Valorie and her husband Eric (also a dear buddy) bought their farm. That was before they had their twins Forrest and Mirandi (also known as Bubbie and Roro), their three dogs (Natalie, Fireball and Georgie), a chicken coop full of chickens, etc, etc, etc.

Maya and I lived there for her 5th grade school year, in our yellow school bus, which we painted sky blue on the top and pine green on the sides in hopes of blending in with our surroundings. We shared a kitchen and meals with Valorie and Eric, planted and re-planted bearded irises around the property, and for the most part (not always, but almost always) had a good life together on their little farm. And so I have very fond memories of Bloomfield and consider it a home away from home.

Below are Valorie and Mirandi out on the deck, where we spent alot of our time, soaking up the California sun and just generally relaxing.




We stayed over two nights and on the last morning I took Courtney's camera around and found so many beautiful touches, not all of which I'll share with you because of space, but here's a few.




Valorie and Eric have the amazing talent of creating beauty together. Everywhere I looked around the farm there were signs of their creativity and hard work. Below is the chicken coop...




...and beside it is the pond, a sandy beach area, flower and herb gardens, an orchard.




Their farm is on a hillside, overlooking Bloomfield, with black and white cows as their neighbors on two sides. It's quite and peaceful and private. What better way to start our trip.




And if all that wasn't enough, our also dear buddy, Kerry, came up from Pacific Grove to be with us. And on top of that she cooked for us!




Here's just one of her masterpieces.




Also Mirandi, an up and coming great cook, made a vegie saute from the vegetables in their garden and shows off her culinary success below, with her proud dad beside her.




Their home was originally a barn and after they moved to the farm a good long time was spent finishing out the interior--alot of which they did themselves. (Smart cookies that they are.) Below is a shot, taken from the upstairs landing, of Forrest and Mirandi playing cards.




Valorie has an amazing eye for color, as you see in the kids' room below.




And in her new paint job in the upstairs bathroom.




I've always loved taking showers in this bathroom. It's got an open shower, with glass bricks on one side, plants and shells at the end, and skylights with a view of the pine tree tops.




Now, enough about humans and decor. Here's the real stars: Natalie...


...Fireball...



...and Georgie. They live the good life too.




Below is a shot from the deck, looking down on another great spot to lounge--among the raspberry vines, though I couldn't stop picking long enough to sit down.




So that was our mini-vacation in Sonoma County in mid-August. We relished every peaceful, relaxing and regenerating moment of it, knowing that we'd be heading into Berkeley next. Jer and Pamela's wedding was sure to be fabulous, but peaceful and relaxing...probably not.



More soon,

Valori