Napa Trip

 I drove to Napa on August 24 to stay with Nick, as Andria was visiting for several days, also.  The three of us, unfortunately, all came down with COVID after 3-4 days.  Andria recovered pretty fast, but Nick and I were hit harder and longer.  I don't recommend getting this disease.  In spite of feeling like we had bad colds, the flu, and strep throat rolled into one, we had some good times visiting and taking care of family business.   On my 11th day of COVID, I finally tested negative.  As they say, we all have a date with COVID, and I had mine.

Can you believe this 11 ft. long vivarium that Nick and Charlotte built for their Savanah Monitor Lizard named Kronos?  Although Nick and Charlotte no longer live together, they remain friends and share in the care of Kronos.

Andria with Nick's two rescue cats, Theodore and Meowgic.

Andria and I felt good enough one day to walk over to our old house about a half mile away.  She lived in this house until about the age of eight.   We talked about our memories living here, including the performance of a play she wrote from the book, Charlotte's Web.  The play was on this little front lawn and was attended by neighbors and even the mayor of Napa, who happened to be the father of one of Andria's friends.  Nick was about two when we moved, so doesn't remember much about living here.  We bought the house in 1978 for $66,000, and thought we made a killing when we sold it ten years later for $145,000.

One evening, we picked hops from Nick's hop vine.  Nick said it would be about enough for one batch of beer.

Nick has an amazing variety of plants in his vegetable garden, mainly because he has to rescue any inferior plants from where he works at a family run garden center.  His home is also a refuge for deer, hence the deer fencing.

Nick's home was his aunt's and uncle's home for many years, and Freda's yard art still remains.

This little creek, not far from Nick's, is home to several beavers.  Right between two hotels, and next to a major thoroughfare, the beavers are fighting global warming.  The rest of this creek is bone dry, but here, the beavers have backed up a pond at least 100 yards long that provides habitat for otters, herons, egrets, kingfishers, and other species.  We came back the next day and did a trash pickup of the area.

Nick has an amazing room of tropical plants, mostly rescues.  Nick's success with often difficult to grow plants is due to his caring and attention to detail.

Look at this beautiful pitcher plant!

This is a vining pitcher plant.

Nick arranged for this memorial bench to be placed in the neighborhood park that Freda used to walk through daily.  She would strike up conversations with anyone, whether they spoke English or not, and often bring them home to meet Marven.  Nick's Uncle Alfred donated the money for the bench.

Nick uses feeding time as a way of getting Kronos to exercise and stimulate his natural predatory skills.