Thunder Wine

I wine, rain or shine. When I started off for my winery visit this Saturday, it was sunny and bright. But as I approached wine territory, the sky got darker and darker and soon I found myself driving through a violent thunderstorm, complete with high winds and hail. The main force of the storm had passed, by the time I came to my destination winery, Chateau O'Brien in Fauquier County. But it was still raining. I drove up the gravel road towards the wine lodge and was waved back by a man holding a purple umbrella. (He was the owner of Chateau O'Brien.) Why couldn't we go through? Because a medium-sized tree had been blown down by the storm winds and blocked the road completely. I parked in the lower, "overflow" lot and crawled over the tree trunk to get to the tasting room. There I sipped some excellent wine, while the thunder still rumbled above the green hills. With a glass of Cabernet Franc and some warm bread, I sat at a table on their sheltered wine porch and drew the drawing above.

When it was time to leave, the tree had been cut up and removed. No vines or people were hurt in the storm. The sunlight had returned. I sat on the tailgate of my car and drew the picture of Chateau O'Brien's gateway, seen below, using my recently acquired iPad. This is the first iPad drawing I've posted to this Blog. To fulfil artistic honesty, I must say that I adjusted and did some more work on it in Photoshop once I got it home. Now to download some wine apps.