In the evenings you might want to venture over to the Rafting Company on Friday and Saturday at 8pm for more great music during the Americana Music Festival.

The Soda Fountain and Art and Joe’s will be open this weekend to help fill your belly.  We are all eagerly waiting for Missouri Hick BBQ South to open, but alas, it isn’t in the works for this weekend.

All this, plus of course the winery will be open from 11am-6pm throughout the weekend.  Hope you can venture down our way!

This weekend, our youngest visitor kindly helped her mom by holding up the wine list at eye-level.  What service!

We are open today, but will be closing early so we can treat Clyde’s mom to a nice dinner.  So, the tasting room is open today from 11am-4pm.  Bring mom by for a picnic if you are searching for something to do.  Cheers to you all!

]]> http://peacefulbend.com/2012/05/13/happy-mothers-day-3/feed/ 0 http://peacefulbend.com/2012/05/11/weekend-update-3/ http://peacefulbend.com/2012/05/11/weekend-update-3/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 14:46:05 +0000 Katie http://peacefulbend.com/?p=2863 Hi everyone.  Sorry to be so absent the couple of weeks here on the blog.  I’m popping in quickly to let you know about all the events going on this weekend.

I’ll be heading to Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis this evening for the Art Fair from 6-9pm tonight.  Come on by to sample some wine, enjoy music, and browse through all the great art tents at the park.

Tomorrow we’ll be hosting live music here at the winery.  Enjoy the bluesy sounds of the duo Greybeard from 2-5pm Saturday afternoon.

Finally, I don’t have anything formal planned for Sunday, but the tasting room will be open starting at 11am.  Pick up your mom and bring her by for a little wine tasting and a nice picnic!

I hope to see you this weekend!  Cheers!

The Columbine has blanketed the hillside next to our porch.  I’ve seen at least two hummingbirds enjoying the wealth in this spot the last couple of days.

And we have three colors of Dianthus out at this point.  The white and pink variety that you see above, white, and a pink with red as you see in the next two pictures:

All of these flowers have self-seeded, and are barely any work at all on our part (i.e., more time to sit back and enjoy some wine!)  I’ve noticed other people in the area have irises in bloom, but ours haven’t done anything this year so far.  Maybe they are taking a wine break!  Which is your favorite dianthus variety?

Cheers!

Ed contacted me a few months ago to arrange for a surprise birthday party for his wife Sandy.  They were supposedly going to head into St. Louis to go to the casino to celebrate.  Just before leaving they received a call from another friend who ‘just happened’ to be in the area.  Of course Ed and Sandy swung by the winery to chat with their friends before heading into the city.

So that was the ruse to get Sandy to the winery on Saturday.  The friends met them on the porch and told them they just ‘had to check out this crazy mural in the wine cellar!’  So down to the wine garden and towards the cellar door they went.  The cellar door opened, and all their family and friends yelled ‘Surprise!’  That’s when I caught this fun shot:

I love all those big smiles and out-stretched arms!  Sandy was definitely surprised and had a great time.  She even had a second surprise later when Ed gave a birthday speech and had her turn around to find her kids and grandkids in from Texas to help celebrate!  I have more photos of the afternoon up on our facebook page if you’d like to check out a bit more of the celebration.

Thanks for hosting the surprise here Ed.  And happy, happy birthday Sandy – I hope you treasure the memories of your afternoon here for many years to come!

In any case, to celebrate we are offering you the anniversary present today!  Anyone that makes a purchase at our tasting room today will receive a 13% discount!  Cheers!  :)

What is your favorite anniversary celebration memory (your own or someone else’s)?

]]> http://peacefulbend.com/2012/04/10/happy-anniversary-and-a-present-for-you/feed/ 5 http://peacefulbend.com/2012/04/08/happy-easter-and-a-post-happy-passover-too/ http://peacefulbend.com/2012/04/08/happy-easter-and-a-post-happy-passover-too/#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:43:21 +0000 Katie http://peacefulbend.com/?p=2832

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather and spring holidays this weekend!  We are open today, so come on out to enjoy the wonderful sunshine with a bottle of ‘liquid sunshine’ (as my mom has been known to call our wine on occasion). Cheers!

This was so yummy and fruity!  All the fruit cut down on the sweetness of the wine too, so that was nice for me since I don’t like super sweet wine.  But if you are the opposite, then just add a bit of sugar to the blender to bring the sweetness back up.  Also, this was pretty thick, so you might want to add more wine or water to thin it down a bit.  We just used spoons to eat ours though and enjoyed it just as much.

I promised that I’d share a creamy tropical drink this weekend, and wouldn’t you know we are back to springtime temperatures now!  Oh well.  Save this one for when it heats back up into the 90′s again.  So here is a picture of the second wine smoothie I made:

This was delicious too.  I used Courtois in this recipe since the fruit juices are so sweet, but feel free to use Harvest Mist, Whittenburg or Sweet River White if you like those better.  I’d stay away from the Dry Creek for this recipe though as I don’t think the oak flavors in that wine would pair well with all the tropical fruits in this smoothie.  Hope you enjoy these at some point this spring or summer!

Courtois Wine Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup apricot juice
• 1/3 cup pineapple juice
• 1 cup Courtois
• 1 frozen banana, cut into medium size chunks
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1-2 handfuls of ice

The bleeding heart in front of the winery has steadily been getting smaller over the years.  But it still produced a few flowers for us this year.  I’m looking to see if the hummingbirds will find it this year.

The heuchera is in full bloom right now.  While the bleeding heart may be diminishing, I’m glad to see this little ground cover expanding over the rocky slope up from the driveway each year.

I hope to have our email newsletter out tomorrow, so be sure to check it out to see which of our spring flowers is featured!  To sign up for the newsletter, click here.

What spring flowers are you enjoying right now?