Category: Sonoma County

Dry Creek Valley Sketch Tour

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Last weekend, the Ready, Set Sketch! group toured the Dry Creek Valley by bike. It’s one of the most beautiful rides in Sonoma County. Resting on a hilltop along Chiquita road, I sketched an owl box standing high above the vineyard covered landscape.

 

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Lambert Bridge crossing Dry Creek, located just outside of Healdsburg in the Dry Creek Valley.

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Quivira Vineyards, a beautiful winery located on the far end of the Dry Creek Valley has both, arresting views and great wine. This sketch shows a nearby barn, neck deep in vineyards.

 

Oak Hill Farm

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Traveling highway 12 just outside of Glen Ellen, it’s nearly impossible to miss the towering tree roots designating the entrance to 40-acre Oak Hill Farm. The roots are what’s left of an overturned eucalyptus that met its fate during a winter storm in 1974. Part of 700 wild acres owned by the Sonoma Land Trust, the farm, in operation for over 50 years, produces more than 200 varieties of heirloom vegetables, fruit, flowers, perennial greenery, and herbs.

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The Red Barn Store, set in a rustic 100-year old barn, offers for purchase sustainably harvested produce, flowers, and handcrafted wreaths and bouquets. Once a small farm stand, the Red Barn Store has grown to support the local Sonoma community for over 30 years.

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CornerStone Sonoma

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If you’re ever in the vicinity of Sonoma, make sure to check out CornerStone along Highway 121. Or better yet, plan ahead and make a day of it. Explore the 20 different innovative garden installations, each with a different theme designed by acclaimed landscape architects and garden designers. Inspired by the International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire in France, the gardens include plants, trees, water features, and sculptural elements.

After a stroll though the gardens, enjoy lunch at the café with organic locally-sourced fair, wine tasting rooms, art galleries, and garden gift shops. Oh, and don’t miss climbing into the seat of the Big Blue Chair at the entrance. It’s impossible to miss with its large size and blue color, but just incase you do, there’s a tiny sign pointing right next to it.

Jack London State Park

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Jack London is internationally famous for his books, “Call of the Wild” (1903) and “The Sea Wolf” (1904). Today the London estate is a public park which includes 1400 acres of trails, pristine vistas, and historic buildings demonstrating early 20th century life. I sketched the Stallion barn with the London’s cottage in the background surrounded by vineyards.

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Petaluma’s Iron Front Building and Classic Coca-Cola Sign

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Back in the last century, it was believed that buildings made with cast iron fronts were more fire resistant. It turns out to not be true, but the practice proliferated anyway. This building is one of several along Western Avenue referred to as Iron Front Row. The classic Coca-Cola sign painted on the back of the building features a young chicken since Petaluma was once known as the “Egg Basket of the World.”

Bodega, California

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Bodega and Bodega Bay are often confused as the same place but are actually two separate towns divided by several miles of curvy roads. Part of the confusion stems from both places being represented as one coastal town in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds.” The old Potter Schoolhouse used in the movie is the second building from the left.

The church next door also appeared in the film and was built by Spanish and Portuguese shipbuilders back in 1859, who dedicated it to St. Teresa of Avila. A California Historical Landmark, the church is the oldest in continuous use in Sonoma County.