Good day, tribe. I just popped out the top of this moody summer fog bank, from my perch in the hills west of Healdsburg, and now I’m watching the sunlight try its best to touch down on our little valley town. So cute! What a glorious speck of Earth we found this lifetime, y’all. And there are so many ways to maximize our incarnations in Healdsburg this week, at community events like…
An outdoor World Cup watch party in the plaza today
A soccer kick challenge on the community center field, measured by Healdsburg police with radar guns!
Access to our public library’s new fleet of sewing machines
Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” under the night sky
A winery dinner honoring the local fig tree older than any of us
A fried-chicken popup from Healdsburg’s future Chinese spot
And plenty more marvels of the sunny season… all obsessively listed by yours truly in the calendar below, by date and time 🗓️
But first, a wee favor to ask. If you’re loving this newsletter, make sure to keep sharing it with everyone you know! You can send them the following subscribe link, or just forward them this email. Cause lord knows I won’t sleep til the whole town’s on board. 🕯️
NEXT UP: HOW’S THE WEATHER?
Hoping that all of you (and your pets, and your gardens) made it through that raucous little heat wave OK. The crispy plants and overheated souls of Healdsburg are now getting some sweet relief this weekend, thanks to “an increase in onshore winds and a deepening marine layer,” per the Bay Area office of the National Weather Service. However, the agency says these same “breezy onshore winds” are making for “elevated fire concerns” in our area. So keep an eye out for smoke signals and Watch Duty alerts! Good news is that the blazing summer sun-star overhead will continue to be tempered by cooler, airy nights and soft cloud covers over the coming week. Here’s our full local NWS forecast:
Today ⛅️ Partly sunny. High 84° Low 55°
Tomorrow 🌤️ Clouds turning to sun. High 82° Low 56°
Tuesday ⛅️ Partly sunny. High 89° Low 58°
Wednesday 🌤️ Mostly sunny. High 86° Low 55°
Thursday 🌤️ Foggy in the morning, then mostly sunny. High 86° Low 54°
Friday 🌤️ Fog then sun again. High 87° Low 54°
Saturday 🌤️ Same deal! High 88° Low 54°
This also seems like a good time to update you on the weirdly early wine-grape harvest already kicking into gear in the vineyards surrounding Healdsburg. The Press Democrat reports that it could be our “earliest harvest in 40 years” — owing mostly to that crazy heat we got back in March. “Following a record-breaking heat wave that triggered early bud break, wind and rain disrupted pollination, resulting in smaller clusters with fewer berries,” the PD writes. “With less fruit to ripen, the grapes reached maturity weeks ahead of schedule.”
The PD posted this footage last Thursday of vineyard workers at Dutton Ranch — located down at the south end of the Russian River Valley, near Graton — pulling in their first haul of Pinot Noir grapes, for sparkling wines made by the Schramsberg winery in Calistoga. “This is by far our earliest pick — and completely unexpected,” a winery rep tells the paper. “We’re caught off guard, but very excited.” (Video: Press Democrat via YouTube)
I’ve also heard some reports of mildew and “shatter” affecting this year’s fruit. So, yeah — our total 2026 crop is expected to be much smaller than usual. Which might actually be fine, seeing as demand for wine grapes has been plummeting, and tons of fruit was left to rot on the vine last year. And the grapes we do harvest could end up being extra fat and juicy and pampered. 🍷
AIR OVER HEALDSBURG
I snapped this shot earlier today, as I watched a mystical tide of fog wash over Healdsburg and the Dry Creek Valley. BTW — your usual “Air Over Healdsburg” photographer, my mom Holly, is off visiting family in New Mexico right now. I pray I’ve done her proud. 🙏 (Photo: Simone Wilson)
PIC OF THE WEEK
Healdsburg dad Cass Nall — who went to Healdsburg High at the same time as me! — took this amazing panoramic pic over the Russian River last weekend. “Taking sunset photos is an art, one I’m not great at,” he wrote in his photo caption, “but when your 13 year old daughter asks to go down and take shots… you just do it.” (Photo: Cass Nall via Facebook)
ON THE CALENDAR
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