Have you ever walked through a vineyard in the cool of the evening by yourself?

Ahh, Thank you, bagarad for your kindest invitation to the vineyard! If I ever come to California, I will do my best to keep you in mind! It is very nice to know that there are areas in this world that is free from damage and pollution. It would be very delightful, to be able to experience comfort in the nature of vineyards.

I, too, hope you will have this chance. If you ever come near my part of California, let me know, and I'll show you the prettiest vineyards.

Exactly, today it is too dangerous to camp out alone, always have a friend...

I would stay out of forests at night, too. I like walking at dusk, but I want to finish my walk before dark if I'm alone. If I have someone to walk with, I don't mind walking in open places at night. My friend and I used to walk at night in a neighborhood of 10-acre parcels where the houses are far apart and hardly anyone drives the streets. It's civilized enough to be as safe as any neighborhood can be and the streets are smooth so you don't trip in the dark. We also carried flashlights. I remember my first walk through a forest at night. I was at Prairie Creek State Park in northern California. I had to use a telephone booth (before cell phones) about a quarter a mile from our camp site. It was very dark, and there was forest on both sides of the trail. Although I had a flashlight, it was an exciting adventure for me, since every sound behind those dark trees stirred my imagination. Was there a bear out there? Or merely a raccoon or even a toad? One could not tell. Back in those days, a bad person lurking out there didn't occur to me. Today I'm almost afraid to sleep in a tent or sleeping bag in public campgrounds.

It is wonderful, and I count it as a blessing. I thank God for it every day. There are, of course, some disadvantages to rural life, such as not having water in the faucets when the power goes out, but normally the power doesn't stay off for more than a few hours except during the worst of the storms. And, of course, we have wildlife that eats our garden and the fruit of our trees so that some years we don't get any of it. Raccoons will pick tomatoes, take one bite, and throw the rest away. Ground Squirrels will cut those same tomatoes off at ground level, one plant each day until they are all gone, and don't even eat anything. The deer eat all the apples and grapes they can reach and the raccoons get the rest. But, all in all, I've never been more contented than here. It took working very hard for the first 50 years to be able to move here, and we still work very hard. But at least at the end of the day there is that opportunity go walk in a beautiful place not far from home.

50 years? When did you start? When you were 2?! With all the animals and all I now know I wouldn't last one night! So that Tuscan villa is a dream that shouldn't come true. I'm just a girl from the Burbs.

You're right. My math was wrong.I meant I was 48 before we moved here, and we married when I was 21, so we had to work for 27 years before we got here, and we are still working to stay here. I don't expect we will ever be able to completely retire, but life would be dull if there were not work to do.

The vines I saw tonight were loaded with small grapes. About half of them had turned purple, but they were still sour. I know last year, the grapes in the vineyard across my back fence had already been harvested by this time of year, but that hasn't happened yet this year.

We wouldn´t normally expect to do it until the end of September.

I meant to include a picture I took of the vineyard tonight, but I didn't know until too late that you are supposed to upload the picture before you write the discussion question out. Since I don't have 500 points yet, I can't add pictures to the comments. Now i'm trying to think of another similar question I could ask so I can include the picture this time. A picture shows just how peaceful these vineyard walks are.