Look! the Bat Signal! And some wine

So far this spring and early summer has been lushly rainy. A few evenings ago we were treated to a display of mammatus clouds, the word, it seems, coming from the same Latin root that gives us "mammary." They do look breastlike. 

In snapping pictures, I was lucky enough to catch a seagull in mid flight. He poised himself perfectly so as to recreate the Bat Signal. 

                                                        

All the rain has made it simple to collect runoff for the patio plants. You place your ceramic seashell just so beneath the eaves, and wait. 

And you drink some delightful wines, whites for summer. 2011 Reinhold Haart Piesporter riesling. The aroma is, mysteriously, of bread; and then of lemon, and there is a bit of syrupy mouthfeel; then all throughout, a steely core which bespeaks riesling's ability to be so much more than just "oh they're sweet aren't they." Retail, about $18. 

Below, 2013 Naia, from Spain's Rueda region. If you are accustomed to the scentlessness of pinot grigios and many chardonnays, Spain's floral, cool, and slightly weighty white wines will be a nice change. The grape is verdejo, the most important white grape of Rueda, and not to be confused with either Verdelho, the (Portuguese) grape predominant in Madeira, or with Viura, a white grape of the Rioja region also known as Macabeo.*  

One more. 2014 Muga rose, to add to the collection of lovely roses trying to compete with Fenn Valley's "Cabaret." Still delightful, of course. The blend in our Muga, below, is primarily garnacha, which helps give it a bit of flavor that Mourvedre-based roses -- and many seem to be Mourvedre -- don't always have.

*We consult, as so often, Ron and Sharon Tyler Herbst's New Wine Lover's Companion, 2003.