We have been on a little watermelon obsession lately, especially since it pairs so deliciously with our other summer addiction of French style dry Rosé wine. You can find many wonderful Rosé wines with refreshing fruit aromas like strawberry, raspberry, cherry, watermelon, honey and citrus to name a few. It is equally beautiful to sip these summery wines along with a sweeter fruit salad made of watermelon, fresh berries and citrus or a savory salad with watermelon, arugula or spinach and topped with salty feta. We just loved how fabulous a Curtis Heritage Rosé tasted with both of these dishes.

If you have a bottle of Syrah or other fruity red wine like Merlot, some honey and thyme you can make this adorable Poached Pear in wine for dessert. Because it was a chilly gloomy day in Santa Barbara the aromas of wine were really welcome in the house. The pears are now resting in their wine bath in the fridge until tomorrow.

               A restaurant called Italia.  Brings up a lot of memories in my life, since the time I was a child.  Long before the Fairview Center was what it is now it was still a bustling shopping center but was much different in design and stores when I was growing up.  Instead of OSH you had Builder’s Emporium.  Instead of places like the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch and Panda Express you had the great steakhouse called Jasper’s Saloon and Anna’s Fairview Bakery as well as Penguin’s frozen yogurt.  Vons was still Vons as well as Radio Shack but there was also TG&Y, Captain Video, Fairview Auto Parts and later Tempo Music and Video long before there was Bed, Bath and Beyond.  And then there was a pizzeria right between Radio Shack and Jasper’s called Italia Pizzeria.

It's good to have Sundays in Santa Barbara when the sun is out and the breeze plays across the waves and you sit in your backyard and enjoy a lovely early dinner risotto with shrimp. Sundays are full of hustle and bustle with many tourists descending upon the town with cameras and bicycles, overjoyed with all the activity Santa Barbara has to offer.

The beauty about living close to the the wine country in Santa Barbara is that we can walk on the beach in the morning and in the afternoon just drive over the hill in 40 minutes to enjoy the rolling hills dotted with majestic oak trees and neat rows of vineyards that reach as far as you can see. The tended rows made us feel like the world is still alright. Our trips up to the Santa Ynez Valley are a jaunt into nature with cows and horses grazing in endless green pastures and hawks flying overhead in the cerulean blue sky.