Dearest Family and Friends
57 Cumberland Street, San Francisco CA 94110
Phone Number: +1 415 738 2112
Nadine 415 595 0023
Colman 415 871 9920
Highlights
Pregnancy Update
We are very well and getting our heads around all that is to be done before B-Day – which is only around the corner – yikesarama. We have now got a few things ticked off the shopping list, but many more still to get – thanks Sophia for the cot - my determination to buy as much as possible second hand does take a little longer. Visualisation and relaxing techniques are being practised, swimming twice a week, the latest check ups show a clean bill of health and development all round. 
Best of all, Colman is coping extremely well with impending fatherhood, particularly concentrating on the excellent list of varietals which require consuming before the birth. This weekend we did a 2 day birth course, and very interesting it was too: graphic videos, hospital interventions, placentas, self-hypnosis, different labour positions tried, a huge volume of information imparted and hopefully we've the tools we need to not panic but make informed choices.Lucy and Toni
Visitors of the Month
Cousins Lucy and Toni came to stay for a long weekend on their California road trip – LA – Santa Barbara – Big Sur - SF – Tahoe – Mono Lake – Yosemite – LA. It was fabulous to see them. Lovely to be with them showing off San Francisco in happier times than when we last met at Grannie’s funeral. 
On their first (splendidly sunny) afternoon we did a tour of the murals in the 
Mission district after a picnic in Mission Dolores Park. Balmy Alley has end-to-end murals depicting every aspect of Hispanic culture – social to political to especially San Franciscan.Restaurant of the Month
On Lucy and Toni’s first night we went to Michelin-starred Range, within walking distance of our apartment. Noted for its fresh flavours, and seasonally altered crisp menu, 
Range has a compact dining room and polished metal tables, a decent wine and cocktail list. In the best Slow Food tradition, flavours are subtle, plates simply and effectively presented. Dishes included halibut with delicate baby vegetables in a light creamy sauce, cod on a bed of beans, a tian of fish with avocado and cucumbers, and dark fluffy chocolate soufflé. Colman had the espresso martini called Fog Lifter (raynol vsop, amaretto, coffee, whip cream). We had a lovely giggly relaxed evening – so so nice to see the girls. (Close contender was new local restaurant, Spork, sampled with Sophia and Gerardo, in a former KFC building, complete with vintage sign, yummy slow cooked pork with mussels, peaches with ricotta and watercress.)
San Francisco Moments of the MonthSaturday was initially cloudy; we finally got to tick off a few more of the tourist sights in the city. Especially driving the Lombard Street switchback in Russian Hill. Billed as the ‘world’s crookedest street’ with 10 turns in one block to cope with the 27% slope, you know you’ve come across it when you see the hordes of tourists snapping away top and bottom.
Followed by Golden Gate Park and it’s beautifully landscaped and planted Japanese Tea Garden, complete with temples, a dome bridge, sculpted arbours, winding paths, zen gravel gardens and green ornamental ponds. We didn’t have time for tea in the pavilion which claims to be where fortune cookies were invented.
Via Haight-Ashbury we finished with the very busy but fun North Beach Festival with Adam and Jen – 
which we approached via classic San Franciscan steep hills with long views across to Alcatraz and a visit to Macondray Lane, the inspiration for Barbary Lane in Tales of the City. The festival itself is held in Washington Park – which was divided down the middle into drinking and non-drinking areas; 
the latter a much less crowded space, where we eventually settled to see the Unofficial Rolling Stones. Boy, they took their performance seriously – and are almost as ancient as the band themselves – complete with a strutting Mick, a stage diving Ronnie Wood, a laid-back Keef, and a drummer who simply refused to try to look like Charlie. We danced (and cartwheeled) to hit after hit until they finished with Satisfaction and we had to walk up that hill…Top
Party of the MonthWe took Lucy and Toni to Russian Hill for a party which played so-bad-its-great 80s music (that night I was kept awake by Living on a Prayer mashing up with Michael Jackson’s Bad in my head – not a fate I would wish on anybody), and my cavorting around the dance floor was slightly curtailed when I mimicked pole-dancing deep down and then found I was rather inelegantly stuck at floor level.
Sailing Expedition of the Month
On the Sunday we took Lucy and Toni sailing around the bay with Cap’n Rob. Another stunning day. The winds were much stronger than previous outings. Never mind, Toni proved to be a most experienced sailor and there’s no doubt it was really helpful having her in the boat. We sailed from Sausalito under the Bay Bridge into a calm, and then back into the ‘slot’ (the wind tunnel from the Golden Gate Bridge) before going around Angel Island. 
The long passage across to Angel Island had us heeling over quite a distance which made Lucy feel justifiably nervous and me very uncomfortable as I hung on for dear life with bump making me off balance. Not helped by the winds gusting so much so that the heeling was erratic and there was a clear notion we weren’t really in control of the boat – and my lunch went on the floor. I was roundly teased afterwards because I apparently cried ‘Help!’ at one point, which naturally I have no memory of…
Eventually we reached more consistent winds and made it back to shore all in one piece, the last third of the journey with some lovely sailing. We finished off a magical and memorable weekend with Lucy and Toni with dinner at Zuni’s, which they unexpectedly and generously treated us (Colman, Rob and I) to – thank you girls!Top
Lake Tahoe
Expedition of the Month
Our Adventure this month was to famously blue and clear Lake Tahoe, North America’s largest Alpine lake (22 miles long and 12 wide), nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountain chain directly east of San Francisco. A surprise for Colman, it unfortunately took us 5.5 hours to get there due to rush hour traffic out of the city, so we missed the approach over the mountains into the huge lake valley in daylight. We camped at Emerald Bay, an inlet resembling a fjord (and glacially created) on the Lake’s south-west shore. 
Our heart sank when erecting the tent (potentially for the last time for a long time) in our pre-booked spot under colossal trees – dogs next door to us, children running around, another party intent on playing the back catalogues of Earth, Wind and Fire and Kool and the Gang. But by 10pm everything was quiet, the stars (and Jupiter and Venus) glistened through stately conifers. We slept despite pillows and bolsters taking up half the space in my already tiny tent.
The next morning was bright, clear and very dry; the air felt coarse and dusty on the throat. It was a while before we set out to explore Tahoe: 
we just had to find exactly the right breakfast establishment (all our camp neighbours were cooking up a storm on camp fires and utilising the bear lockers but we were made of weaker stuff). One of Northern California’s quintessential experiences is surely to gaze on the lake’s myriad blues and hues, breezes ruffling the conifers and rippling the waters in synchronicity.
In the face of busy traffic as the temperatures soared, we played the pregnancy card for only the first time and negotiated our way past roadworks, queues and tourists via aptly named Inspiration Point lookout into DL Bliss State Park. 
We were alone on the 1.5 mile nature trail which circumnavigated glacial erratic, Balancing Rock, before descending along a stream. Ponderosa and Jeffrey Pines and White Firs gave way to Alders and Willows. Colman is developing an interest in tree identification – harder than you may think – so was examining bark, needles and cones with great enthusiasm. 
Our parking angel showed us a spot just near Lester Cove and for probably the first time ever we hung out on the beach for a couple of hours. Colman was the only person swimming, with a flock of bold Canada geese for company. Apparently it was “cold but no worse than Kerry”. Kayakers, water-skiers, canoeists, inflatable ring riders, pleasure boaters, speed merchants and sailors dotted the lake. 
The colours changed from aquamarine to azure to turquoise to cobalt to sapphire as your eyes floated towards the opposite shore. Before dinner we took in Eagle Falls. Now most tourists had gone, we could embark on the 1 mile round trip with ease, sitting beside the cascade as it burbled over granite boulders, jagged peaks to our right, the sinking sun on our faces.
Back to the campsite for a quick brush up before dining out at American Gourmet Café, Evans, which boasts a French-Cal menu and calls itself the finest restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. We stuffed ourselves silly on beautifully tender venison on a bed of root vegetables, scallop quenelles in lobster-sherry sauce, glazed quail, amuse-bouches, halibut in balsamic reduction and a fruit sabayon. Colman drank the best part of a bottle of Napa Cabernet so slept soundly.Top
Walk of the Month
We struck camp early, and set off from the campground along a part of the Rubicon Trail, traversing the side of Emerald Bay for a 3.5 mile round trip through the woods. For the first 2 hours we didn’t sight another person – bliss. Birds sang all around, the conifers stretched high into the sky, the blues of the lake intensified as the sun arched higher. 
We saw butterflies feeding in damp granite sand at the shore, vivid green caterpillars suspended from the sky; the forest’s palpable cycle of decay and renewal all around us – most evident in the textured beetle-ridden tree trunks which eventually fall to the ground and rot in wonderful shapes as new growth bursts forth beside. We dipped our hands in the clear water as a final talisman before turning back,
and headed for San Francisco. And a dream run home of 3.5 hours, very luckily as it turned out because a fierce forest fire broke out just an hour later which closed the roads and destroyed 250 homes and many hectares of forest, before it was finally contained three days later. Turned out it was caused by an illegal campfire south of the Lake, whipped up by strong winds and fuelled by the driest winter since 1988.Bird of the Month
Perhaps because of the heat of summer we saw few birds in Tahoe. However, the walk along the slopes and shores of Emerald Bay on our last morning introduced us to the Pygmy Nuthatch Sitta pygmaea – a mother and two newly fledged chicks, who were very busy among the branches and as the name suggests, are very petite at 4.25”. However, the month’s accolade is for a bird at the other end of the spectrum – the magnificent cream and brown Osprey Pandion haliaetus with a wingspan of 6ft. A couple of hundred yards onwards from the nuthatches we found a big nest of sticks adorning a ramrod straight tall dead pine, and a head and tail intermittently on view as the bird busied itself with chicks. To our excitement, the partner bird arrived in the adjacent dead tree, preened itself all over and dissected a fish. Although I’d seen these unique raptors in Australia, Europe and also in California before, it had not been so close to the nest. Fabulous sighting.Top
Pregnant Ladies of the Month
It’s clearly catching. Everybody is up the duff. Including my dear friend Jane who came to stay with us for one night while passing through from Napa to San Diego via DC. She is due 10 days after me and we had a wonderful gossipy dinner and catch up. Thanks for the sesame seed recovery operation and invaluable advice Jane! 
And last week we entertained new friends Laurel and Kristan, and their partners John and Steve, while bonding over our impending lifechange. Much merriment, good food, wine, political and baby discussions – a really fun evening. Wine of the Month by Mission Boy
Here’s a tip that will improve your drinking and and save you money: its better to drink a lesser red wine at the right age then a great red wine too young.
Chateau de Mont Olivet 1998 (shared last week with Sloan visiting from London at a fabulous dinner of sea bass and smoked BBQ duck with Bebe and Ned) is not a famous Chateauneuf du Papes.
Chateauneufs can be expensive, beloved as they are of the uber-critic Robert Parker. Southern France is Hot. So these tend to be rich, tannic and alcoholic: all indications that they should be left to age.
But most wine merchants don’t stock old examples of the very top wines and when they do they are very expensive.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to follow fashion and compete with millionaires. The well-made aged examples give huge pleasure – even when they received lowly scores all those years ago.The young wines are like an over-grown teenager. They may be strong and impressive but they are gawky. Big fruit, big flavour but its all disjointed. In 10 years time they too will develop into rounded, integrated ‘iron fist in the velvet glove’ style beauties. They’ll have most of the original fruit but several added layers of secondary flavours.
Mont Olivet gave us wonderful spice on the nose and meat and burgundy-like undergrowth in the mouth all laid over yummy textural tannins. Stunning.
Bumper Sticker of the Month
Check out this number plate we saw in Tahoe - it says it all.Love and hugs Nadine and Colman xxx
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