Hollyhock Farms

Paso Robles wine experience

We have been operating our "Farmstay" (B&B) since 2002 and it has evolved into pretty much a wine tasting experience.  When we moved here in  1994, there were, perhaps, twentry wineries...now there are about 180 and 70 more in the permitting pipeline.  What is great about this "experience" is that we have the benefit of hearing all the plusses and minuses of wineries we haven't visited yet.  As you might expect, we now have a wide ranging list of wineries to suggest to new guests who arrive.  So, throw off those shackles, come to Hollyhock Farms and sip some wine...take it all in...Valhalla!

Chippewa Ferguson is born

The old guy is moving on into a new phase of his life.  I have decided that I will adopt the somewhat fanciful name of Chippewa Ferguson...I will use this name for writing, for painting, and for other industry as I see fit.  I like my name, but using such a nom de plume will, I think, prod me into making something of the name.  I came by it honestly.  When Kim and I bought the farm, I returned to Sierra Madre one day with a brand new pair of Chippewa boots...they were spiffy, but they were not practical for use on the farm.  they were trash in about two months.  When I next returned to Bean Town in Sierra Madre, I told of buying a new (quite old) tractor called a Ferguson TO30.  It is now 53 years old, but runs nicely.  Someone in the coffee shop then referred to me as Chippewa Ferguson...I liked it.  So, if you ever read or see something attributed to such a person, it is most likely the old guy.  Buy whatever it is...it will be worth millions.

At the violet hour

Cecelia and Becky...not young ladies with heads of straw...but two white leopards sitting under a juniper tree.  Their laughter twinkled like like marbles in teacups.  They dared to eat a peach, but left the white flannel trousers to the beach goers.  They had the strength to force moments to their crisis.  We went there...they and I...or is it them and I?  Becky would know...because her wings do more than fly.  Here I am, an old man in a dry month with no boy to read to me...the world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated...what permutations are there in this?  They are music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but they are the music.  So, let us go then...you and I.

Cecil B. De Ushma and Sweetie

That is quite correct...we were privledged to have two sisters from India (they are from here now) who are just graduated from film school.  They are tending toward documantary films and seem to have focussed on food and what we, on the spinning orb, are doing to ourselves.  If I had zillions of dollars, I would not hesitate to underwrite their efforts.  Both Sweetie and Ushma (these are their nicknames they shared with me) are equally committed to this effort.  I would love to be able to sit on their shoulders as they work into this idea.  They are extremely bright and are well read on the subject.  Besides, I have adopted both of them as daughters.  Oh, that half of our young people had half the enthusiasm of these two.