It’s been waiting all winter for this! Last week this time we could not have imagined that we would receive eight inches in eight days… and 7.5 inches in the last 48 hours, and still going, bringing us to 82% of our normal for this time of year in Napa. Our small irrigation… Read more »
Rainy Day Meditation on Drought
Patient meditation as lower pond fills. Two frogs woke me in the night, croaking back and forth right under our bedroom window. Yes, I welcomed them! I haven’t heard them in weeks! It is raining at last! Almost 3 inches these 24 hours and it’s still pouring, periods of heavy rain predicted throughout… Read more »
Finish Pruning and Rain
Pruned vines and the reminder. Ramon has finished pruning this morning. He always races himself, and this year is his fastest ever, helped by the lack of rain, for sure! Over the weekend we got half an inch of rain, which will make it easier for the next stage: tying the pruned canes…. Read more »
Drain line into lower pond—waiting. Drought as Consultant We have had no measurable rainfall since December 7, and only 2.3 inches in so far this season. It is easy to feel anxious. Our ponds are effectively empty (the heron still fishes for Ramon’s fish in the larger pond, but he can stand at any place… Read more »
Crystallization Period Begins, and two Books to Go With It If there were ever a book to meditate upon during this crystallization period of reception to cosmic forces (January 15-February 15,) it would be Dennis Klocek’s most recent Sacred Agriculture: The Alchemy of Biodynamics (Lindisfarne Books, 2013.) Stand forewarned: it is a book best read… Read more »
Pond bottom. It has not rained for some time, so far only 25% of average for this time of year. Farmer’s Almanac said it would be a cooler, wetter winter. They got the cooler part right! This year in northern California is the driest ever on record. Our small reservoir is bone… Read more »
Drought
Drought The vineyards are quiet; the nights, cold; the goats, rowdy with too much rest. This is the time to sink into the sofa and seed yourself with Spirit, whether that be from meditation, dreaming, or from reading. These books are some of my own reading that I have gotten a great deal from this… Read more »
Wider Perspective: Turning of the Year
Wider Perspective: Turning of the Year Meditating Crow Each afternoon this week I walk the goats and Hijo, our llama, in the meadows around our house. The sun is warm on the south slopes, the grass just barely up, and the last hours of light have that magical feel of transition. On the eve… Read more »
Waning 2013 and Dark Nights
Waning slip of moon, December 29, 2013. The old slip of moon rose this morning, the Valley Oaks backlit by the beginnings of Dawn. It is the end of 2013, the darkest time of the year. I admit: I love the dark, a time that it is easier to live inward. The plants… Read more »
Waning 2013 and Dark Nights
Two young redwoods we planted (left and center) 14 years ago to keep the redwood clump (to the right) company. When we first began using Biodynamic practices, we were advised by our consultant to plant redwood trees at the east end of our vineyard because the clump of redwoods there were lonely and… Read more »
© 2026 Patricia Damery.
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