Now you see'em...

I'm keeping an eye on the grape harvest, but I haven't gotten outside to take many pictures. Partly, that's because Callie the collie is very nervous around cars, tractors, and grape harvesters. However, on my walk yesterday afternoon, I saw that several big parcels have now been vendangées — just white grapes for now, I think, meaning Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

Some animal — a bird? — has been sampling these grapes...

...but whatever it is had better hurry, because I'm seeing more and more
stems like this one up and down the rows of vines.

Weather forecasts show rainy conditions starting later today and continuing through the rest of the week. The vignerons will be working furiously to get the rest of the grapes in, I'm sure. It's already a late harvest, after less-than-ideal growing conditions for most of the summer. It would be bad to lose grapes to mold and mildew at this point.

A winery worker waiting and watching with his "tractor-trailer"

for the harvester to bring him a load of grapes

Too bad about the rain, because we have visitors from California arriving mid-week. In the garden, all our ripe tomatoes are harvested, and the red bell peppers too. So we are ready for the rain — rain that will make the collards and chard happy.