nature versus nuture

of course the debate has gone on for decades- but on this 365th day of blogging I am witness once again to the debate.

what brings it up today is my two kitties (the ones no one wants to read about according to Phil)

they are the same age- 6 years old tomorrow and the same sex - spayed females - and they have been raised exactly the same yet Lucy is adventurous and quite the little explorer - always wanting to get out and "see the world"  but Penny never ever ever leaves the house and gets panic stricken if she is taken out onto the deck even if she is being securely held- once let loose she zooms back into the house - only to sit at the screen door gazing at the big world outside.

so today- a beautiful fall day here in Chicago, they are up to their usual behaviors - and today I vote for nature -

below: two outdoor Lucy photos and one of Penny at the screen door...

and I promise no more blogging about "the girls" for a while - we are getting ready for a trip to the Balkans and meanwhile have pretty busy social/business plans for the next so this is it for cute kitties!

and - thanks for following along for the last year- whomever you are!

bibi graetz

last night we went to a dinner featuring the wines of Bibi Graetz.  he is a norwegian-israeli who lives and works in Italy.  he was trained as an artist and now creates wine art by way of his focus on very old old vines around Tuscany. my favorite wine of the night was the Bugia Bianco made with ansonia grapes from the island of giglio.  he uses vines that grow in rocky soil which are more than 80 years old!

the menu was deftly prepared by Chef Bryan Moscatello who is about to open here in Chicago at 1941 W, North Avenue - the new place will be called Store Front.

the event was limited to four tables of 6 to 8 people and gave everyone time to enjoy the wines and food and discussion with the wine maker who is an extremely charming guy who is fulfilling his own vision of winemaking outside mainstream techniques.

his most famous wine Testamatta has been called the best wine in Europe for several vintages and has been rated in the mid to high 90s each year he has produced it.  it is very big red super tuscan style wine made of 100% sangiovese from 35-80 year old vines. 

did not have camera for photos but did bring home the menu to share:

this is a photo of the vines on the Isola del Giglio where the white Bugia is made! you an see the incredible setting for these grapes - right on the sea and growing out of the rocky hillside on what Bibi called low vines...

I am intrigued by this grape and told Phil we should see if there are others working with it at a bit more reasonable price point- it is always good to find alternatives to white burgs (chardonnay based) we drink so much of them when chosing white- and while we always have some pinot blanc and some gewürztraminer and some torrontes - more choices can't be bad...

almost a year

ago- I wrote my first blog entry... time does fly- it wrote it on the 22nd- which is my cats' birthday.  they will be 6 years old on Saturday!  this morning Lucy was being a real pain because she wanted us to wake up and let her go outside.  so first she cried at the bedroom door and then she pawed the door making such a racket... we never reinforce this behavior so she did eventually go away. 

later when I got up she whined at me for more than an hour to go outside even though it was still raining and then the deck was too wet for her to go out.  she was having none of those excuses.  now when the sun is out and the deck dry I had to go looking for her so she could go outside LOL- even though they are six they act pretty much like 2 year olds...

but they were looking so cute I had to take a picture - their pre-birthday photo!

both girls

pretty Penny- she is so sweet  (Lucy's nose in the corner)

you can see Lucy is still kind of pissed at me- LOL- she won't look at me

in the blog entry a year ago I mentioned that my husband said no one wants to read about my cats- LOL- and that still might be true - it is certainly still his opinion.  but I decided early on the blog was going to be about whatever I wanted to write about and so- here they are - another year older- just like me....