A few days in Boonville

In need of some quiet, reflective time, I spent the last three nights above Boonville, in the Anderson Valley, with my friend Tom in a little rental house.  Up on a hill, the house overlooks the entire valley, all the way to the coast. There is nothing else around,  no traffic, nothing obstructing the view and there is really nothing to do there except be quiet, read, walk the dogs.  It was perfect, although a day or two more would have been better.

Sometimes you can stay at home and relax, do nothing, ignore the dust bunnies, get take-out food and enjoy a few days off that way.  I was way past that.  Had I simply taken three days off and stayed home, I would have been restless and unable to relax.  I don't know why, but I knew enough to get out of town.  Being in a different place forces you to have a different routine. It's OK to sleep in.  It's OK to not walk the dog four times a day. It's OK to read junky books all day long or watch DVD's or old episodes of "Chopped."  We brought up a lot of food and alcohol and we didn't bring much of it back with us.  In fact, we brought none of the alcohol home, having consumed it there over the past three evenings.

The place we rented is part of the Sheep Dung Estates properties.  We were in the Breezeway, a two bedroom, two bath house with a decent kitchen, living room and a very large fenced yard.  Adirondack chairs are perched on the bluff, looking out over the valley.  There are two hammocks under the oak tree, perfect for pretending to read while actually napping.  The dogs can roam around the yard without fear of encountering the herds of wild boar that are around the area.  Connecting one of the bedrooms with the rest of the house is a large, open breezeway where we would sit before dinner and have cocktails, enjoying the warm air and the nice breeze that blew through to keep the temperature moderate.  There is a Weber grill which we used every night.  It's a good spot, not fancy but the beds are comfy, they have good pillows and each room has its own TV/DVD.  Wi-fi and cell phone reception actually are available as well.

It's a 40 minuted drive to the coast, where we went one day and let the dogs run on the beach.  Tom and I have perfected the art of not talking a lot.  There are no "uncomfortable silences" but there is a lot of silence.  Both of us work in the hospitality industry so we are obligated to talk to a lot of people and be nice to them every day. Having a couple of days where we didn't have to talk to anyone except each other (and then only sporadically) was perfect.

Now it's Friday before the big Labor Day holiday, we both are back to work, greeting guests, making breakfast and being nice to strangers.  I am grateful for the days off, looking forward to some more once the business slows down, probably around Thanksgiving.  The next two months are very busy, there will be little time for solitude and a great deal of being hospitable. 

Here is where we were:  http://sheepdung.com/top_brtop.htm

And here is a photo of the breezeway, looking over the valley:

 

 

.