The Honey Oak House

Honey Oak House, our family home in Templeton, California, is surrounded by the gardens we designed and planted as we were remodeling the old ranch house, planting our vineyards and olive orchard. It is also a Bed & Breakfast where we welcome guests, sharing with them the changing seasons. It is a relaxed and comfortable place, a place where family, friends and guests enjoy the beauty of the open countryside around them. Each Season brings its’ own beauty to the land and to Honey Oak House. We would like to share these with you.

Spring brings a profusion of roses that surround Honey Oak House, the wisteria bloom and the air is filled with fragrance. The weather is crisp and clean, the hillsides a rich green, strewn with lupine and California poppies. The sparrows begin throwing out their old nests and building new in the rafters of the porches, twittering and fluttering their arrival. Visitors increase and wine ents are frequent . The chill of Winter is left behind. The longer hours of daylight warm the ground; the grapes awaken from their winter sleep and the olives flower.

In Summer the nights are soft and cool the days hot and dry. The grapes are turning from green to deep purple. The afternoon breeze that blows through the Templeton Gap brings welcome relief. As the day cools we congregate on the front porch with friends and guests, enjoying the soft evening, chatting and sipping a glass of wine while the setting sun casts shades of red and orange above the vineyard. The night darkens, the stars forming heavy clusters, the moon is bright enough to walk by.

In Fall the heat of summer is recedes slowly as the year comes to its close. Porches are less used and the work of harvest intensifies. Days are warm but getting cooler. Nights are a bit chilly and the family moves inside to enjoy meals prepared in the family kitchen. The colors turn from lush greens to rusty reds and oranges everywhere you look. As Thanksgiving approaches the harvest of grapes is over and the chestnuts are falling. By the end of November the olives are harvested. Leaves are strewn along the roads and rows. The canes, once abundant with fruit are barren of leaf and grape. The cold is settling around us, the new wine is in the barrel, the olive oil resting. The feverish pitch of harvest is behind us the new year ahead.

Winter arrives slowly. Some winters are mild, some are a surprise of snow that touches the vineyards then disappears in the pale sunlight. Christmas approaches and the kitchen is busy with cookie baking and decorating while the vineyards sleep, the olives bend in the sharp winter winds. The family gathers around the fireplace for warmth and companionship. The conversation is about the year past and the year ahead. We celebrate the years passing with remembrance and look forward to what the new year will bring. Soon the sparrows will arrive to build their nests in the porch rafters. The winds will blow and the rain will pound against the windows, thrashing the dried canes and the olive trees mercilessly. Around us here at Honey Oak House the year opens softly and closes with a flourish.