stop & smell the summer flowers
slow walks in the neighborhood
This past month, the world felt like it has slowed down. Then on Saturday, July 13th, I think we all felt a shift.
The news Saturday was overwhelming. I feel overwhelmed and frankly exhausted that more fuel was potentially added to the fire.
I’m already nervous about the future and what it might look like for my son. What the future language might look like, especially on the internet. It is also hard to write a blog about “enjoying the little things”, like wine and dogs, when there is so much chaos and pain happening in the world.
In terms of my beliefs, all I will say is love is love, hate is hate, and I think we will all benefit from a little therapy and learning to slow down our racing minds enough to breathe and think about the consequences of our actions, especially in regards to our impact on others. At the end of the day, you can have all the best intentions in the world, but it doesn’t matter when it comes to the impact. All people deserve to feel safe. When it comes to my son and my personal household, I will definitely be teaching that all words, written or spoken, have just as much power as actions do and that that power should not be taken lightly.
Maybe a slow newsletter/ blog/ whatever this is about wine and dogs and all the little moments is also needed. I don’t know. Maybe I just need it.
So, I’m going to show you some flowers I’ve seen on walks recently and give you an update on my writing challenge.
Since I last wrote, my husband and I finished packing up our apartment and got everything into our new home in Utah. We are back in the Bay Area now waiting for baby to arrive.
Last weekend, we visited the Conservatory of Flowers. We have been in the city for almost a decade but have never been inside. As we wait for baby and our move, we have been making plans to go see the gardens and museums that we somehow never got around to, in addition to visiting our favorite spots.
The Conservatory of Flowers was like entering into a miniature rainforest. It was humid and warm, a stark contrast to the cool foggy day outside. I thought it was both funny (and meditative) that they had jungle bird sounds playing over speakers. The plants and flowers were beautiful and bright and colorful. I felt relaxed and enjoyed walking around the space reading about the different rainforest biodomes and where the plants originated from.
I’ve been looking at flowers and plants a lot more lately on my Katara walks. We are currently at my in-laws, outside of San Francisco, but still in the Bay Area, during this transitional period. One of the things I most love about California is how many fruit trees there are— citrus, figs, cherries, pears, apples. The flowers too are often bright and vivid purples, pinks, yellows, and oranges. All colors. I think I love the cherry blossoms that bloom in the spring as well as the flowering purple trees that hang over the streets most of all. When there is a breeze, sometimes the petals or whole flower fall and swirl around before settling on the sidewalk or cars parked underneath.
Recently, walking the mile-long loop with Katara has been a challenge. I feel heavy and Braxton Hicks likes to sneak up on me while out walking. Katara doesn’t really seem to mind the slow, sometimes short, walks though. I think she’s just happy to be out of the city— she’s even more relaxed down here and has taken to hanging out with me.
As someone who still considers themselves an athlete, the hardest part of pregnancy for me has been the drop in energy. I’m grateful that’s been the only real challenge— I know that’s not often the case. Overall, as I near my due date, I’m trying not to be too hard on myself with what I can and cannot do right now. And that applies to all my ambitions and goals, including writing.
Earlier this month, I gave myself a writing challenge to write 500 words per day until baby shows up. It hasn’t been without struggle, too.
The weekend after the 4th of July, I somehow injured my wrist while sleeping. Even with that, I still managed to complete an outline for a story (along with several random scenes), several ideas for Wines & Woofs newsletters, in addition to five pages of a short film script, and write in my journal every morning.
Technically, across the combination of all my writing locations, I’ve exceeded my 500 words per day count— (even though 500 words towards the creative project goal is up for debate) as of this moment, I’m well over 12,000 words total for all writings.
And if baby does come as scheduled, I still have thirteen more days left in July. I think we can call this challenge a win.
If the past two weeks have taught me anything, it is the power of slowing down and resting.
I want to spend time with Katara before baby arrives and hang out with her outside. I want to pick berries out of my in-laws yard. I want to read books and write in my notebook. I want to find a digital typewriter for drafting my stories. I want to get into my new home and be with my family. Overall, I just want to be offline and off my phone. I need rest, especially as I adjust to my new normal as a parent and recover from childbirth.
Being offline means slowing down Wine and Woofs, too, in some shape or form. Starting today, July 19th, I am on maternity leave through the end of the year. I have one additionally post coming out August 2nd with some asks to you, the reader, on things I would love help with in 2025.
I’m looking forward to be able to go out and actually drink a glass of wine. Having a wine and dog-themed newsletter and not being able to enjoy drinking wine (or even go for a substantial adventure with Katara without experiencing extreme fatigue) has been an interesting endeavor. But, I believe I did a good job.
a wine & a woof
Katara, my 10-year-old Belgian Malinois, is an affectionate, intelligent, sensitive and fun dog.
She doesn’t walk, but runs, wherever she goes, her nails click click clicking against the wood floors. I’ve seen her run down a cliff like a mountain goat, only to get to the bottom and look up at us as if expecting us to follow. Honestly, that moment was terrifying. She has also scrambled over giant boulders with me, trying to get back to camp after an afternoon of climbing. It was a potentially dangerous situation for anyone. Not all the boulders were steady or flat to cross. It was a slow process, and I was extremely proud of her ability to wait as I navigated us down and out of the rock field, climbing from boulder to boulder, saying “here” and tapping on the ones I wanted her to go to next. She understood and trusted me to get her out of there safely.
Katara is also opinionated, intense, stubborn, suffers from a serious case of FOMO, and likes things to go her way, on her time.
At times, Katara might as well be my own reflection. Studies have shown that the personalities of both dog owners and their dogs often happen to mirror each other.
In the nine and a half years she’s been a part of my family, Katara as certainly added excitement and joy to everyday life. Especially so when she’s overjoyed to be doing something all together as a family unit, such as trips to the beach, hikes, park trips, morning snuggles, and trips across the country. Her love and excitement is contagious.
For those reasons, I would pair her with a 2018 d'Arenberg The Laughing Magpie Shiraz.
I first drank and paired this wine with pets for my dog in 2021. We were at my parents in Pennsylvania for the summer, when my father brought this bottle of wine out from his cellar to be served with dinner.
This red wine is a northern Rhone blend (Shiraz and Viognier) from the McLaren Vale in South Australia.
It’s a vibrant wine. Spicy, fruit forward, powerful. Overripe black and red berries create a burst of late summer energy that is then followed up with hints of stone fruit, like black plums and apricots, so ripe that they give the impression that the fruit seems to be already separating from the pits. The tannins were intense— dark chocolate and coffee— but drank smooth like silk.
It was a fun wine and it seemed perfect to drink with my dog sitting besides me, patiently hopeful that I would decide to share what was on my plate.
i’ll drink to that
Shows: Le Tour de France 2024 - it’s fun watching the tour this year since I understand where they are and what the topography looks like thanks to all my wine studies in the past year.
Books: The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
Eats: Little Sky Bakery - been eating the pork daikon bao.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
~Kir
*Featured artwork is by me, as are the photographs in this weeks post. If you would like to support me and my art (or my maternity leave) please subscribe!