ripening

two new words are brought to you today by an alert reader who, when shopping, texted me that she was looking at some very fine linens. "matelasse", the message said. "what is that?" i queried back. come to find out, it is a quilting term for relief on fabric and can be used in ornamenting silk, wool or Egyptian cotton (p. 44 of the company store's motto, "we're all about comfort"...and beauty, i might add).

the other word was also in text form. "veraison. this is happening right now in your appelation!" i love this definition; it is all about the onset of ripening. it is literally a change of color in grapes. at this stage a lot of growth takes place as sugar levels rise, preparing for harvest.

let the ripening begin!