first love

Harvesting the grapes has always been one of my sweetest childhood memories; my family, relatives and friends would come to the vineyards to help us; it was hard work but I still can hear the sweet melodies that people were singing as they were cutting the grapes….. At days end we would all sit under a tree for dinner; the wine, the stories, the anecdotes, the singing, the laughing… all were plentiful! It was just us! A happy family at the vineyards away from it all……

Last fall, I visited Champagne, France, during the grape harvest…..I re-lived – in a different, yet very similar way, those beautiful moments in my young life. The melodies, the stories, the singing were all different – another culture, another language – but the spirit was the same!!

This lovely young girl brought me back to my first crash in those vineyards of Crete…. the beautiful girl around the block – my first love!