just spent the past weekend taking in the okanagan wine fest. i had originally planned to get away with a.m. but her life took a hard left and she was unable to make the trek (she knows that i missed her presence immensely :( )
in 'subbed ' my spontaneous and high energy friend ..AC..i am grateful she was able to go with on such short notice.
we started the day early on the friday and i decided to travel via hwy 3 as the colours are spectacular now and with all the time to spare, you can take in any sight that catches your eye.... and often the ones that occur during any given pee spot.
this season is my favorite..the unique hues of natures pallet give you a visual buffet..enjoy the hints of reds, the splashes of orange and the floods of yellow. along the stretch of highway 3 you will find winding raging rivers, fields dotted with specks of cows and multi colored horses, blankets of bug wood and the changing leaves of maple trees. the local markets switch up the experience based on the harvest. this time of year the squash litter the landscape and adorn the markets. from pumpkins to ghost squash to turban squash the varied hard veggies leave one in awe. truly a great sight and as the picture above shows, the harvest allows the artist in everyone to express themselves!
we spent the weekend moving between kelowna and the naramata wine bench.the highlight was a gospel experience at the blasted church winery, headed up by the ever impressive jim byrnes blues experience. then off to a day of winery hoping and sipping fruits of the gods for breakfast! overall a great weekend had by all.
2 comments:
According to some facts provided to me by a wine merchant, Blasted Church was given its name from the time the Grandfather purchased the land where the winery sits today. There was an old church on the site and he wanted to salvage the wood from the strucutre to build a new building. Due to tongue and groove construction etc he was having a terrible time pulling all the wood out. After days of frustration, Grandfather threw in sticks of dynamite and blew the church up!
Another winery, which was not visited was See Ya Later. It got its name because the gentleman who owns it named it after the note his wife left in the fying pan when she decided to leave him. "See ya Later." Lables on the bottles often have dogs dipicted on them because the owner had/has several pooches. Even some of the wines are named after the dogs. At the winery, there are two grave markings for dogs who have since passed. We should have visited this one. It has also won several awards!
The actual story of how Blasted Church actually is about a small group of men who set out to bring a small church that sat in a mining area 16 miles out of Okanagan Falls back to the town of Okanagan Falls. In order to dismantle the church they used 4 sticks of dynamite to produce a controlled blast to loosen the nails that held the church together. Odd as this may have been, save for the steeple the plan worked and the men were able to dismantle the church completely and bring it back to Okanagan Falls.
The vineyard chose this name 'Blasted Church' to honour and pay respects to the innovation of these men.
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