Winter woes.

I've never been a lover of January in England..its always wet and windy...windy and wet..take your pick. This January it seems we are having floods again...lets see..build houses on flood plains and....they flood, surprise! Nulabour reckon we need another couple of million houses for our new citizens fresh from foriegn fields...my advice...wear wellies! I could tolerate the weather if we had snow and ice but we never do...just grey grimy days. Meanwhile over the water I took a trip up to Napa and Sonoma again...weather...62 degrees...ha!...global warming,bring it on. I started day with a walk through vineyard with vinodogs major and minor...what a great place to build a house,something I have planned for sometime in the not distant future. In U.K. I would have to jump through hoops just to build a red brick box on a piece of waste ground and yet here I can make plans for a house incorporating anything I can think of...the difference between England's not so closet socialist state and Americas individualist outlook couldn't be better illustrated. In the afternoon a quick trip to Sonoma valley for a tasting at Ledson winery....good wine but an architectural nightmare...way too much money out here and not too much taste I,m afraid. All in all a fine winters day...and not an umbrella in sight!