Traditions…and taking a moment to celebrate!

This fabulous weather has been a welcome development at our construction site.   Our framer Dan and his side kick Ray (the two are like characters out of an old Western – Dan is the front man while his side kick Ray says not a word) have finally been able to put the “bones” of our new structure into place.  For the longest time, all the activity revolved around the decidedly unsexy “infrastructure” work and the dour visits of humourless town officials.  With this behind us, we begin the joyous process of creating the vision for our winery!

This afternoon as the sun shone on the large crane that had been brought in to raise the rafters, the construction team of Bolek, Michael, Taddeusz, Dan and his mute sidekick Ray were joined by our architect Stan and his crew.  As luck would have it, our newest “employee to be”, Lisa Haddow had dropped by.  We cajoled Patrick out of the kitchen with Isa  and it was time to “Christen” the building.  I guess this may be where we get the saying “raising the roof”.

Bolek, Stan and Taddeusz had arranged to have a pine bough hoisted to the top of the building in a charming time-honoured European tradition to celebrate the “birth” of the building.  While we sipped on homemade “hooch” (a la Polonaise) and sprinkled the remnants of our glasses on the building site as a “Christening”, we celebrated what seemed like a huge accomplishment.  Yes we have a building – a lovely and wonderful new edifice!  Like every “newborn”, it holds all our hopes for a happy and successful future.  In keeping with our love of food and fun, Stan and his wife Barbara brought an improptu “moveable feast” of cured salmon, dill sauce and crusty bread to ensure that we had a celebration in true Good Earth style with good food & good friends!

For the first time in the months of working on this project I can begin to feel the “soul” of this place.  I’m excited!  Isa and Patrick are excited!  We are bubbling over with excitement and enthusiasm for all the wonderful things that we can share with our “earthlings” when we open our doors next spring!

Traditions are part of the journey.  Thanks to my Polish construction team, I have been reminded to take a moment to celebrate our many accomplishments, even the simplest ones, along the way.  I can’t wait until we celebrate the next phase of this project!   With this enthusiastic and wonderfully wacky group, there are bound to be many more celebrations along the way!