Sleeping In and Dobbins Woods

I actually slept in till 7:40 this morning, a new high for me.  A typical Chautauqua day outside, gray, snowy and cold, about 19 degrees, with a dusting of snow overnight.  We are going off to Dobbins Woods this morning, as the snow is wonderfully light and it will be great skiing and beautiful there, with the pines and forests.  We went out to the Lakeview in Mayville last night with Ron and Linda, as they came up last night for a week.  We had not seen them since before Christmas so it was nice to catch up on their holidays, the same with us.  They are in good spirits and had a great holiday in Palo Alto with Linda's sister's family, the 21st year they have celebrated Christmas in California.  The Lakeview was hopping on a Thursday night, mostly with snowmobiliers who, have a ride through the local trails or lake, have stopped off for a beer and food. I am not sure I would want to be out for a ride in the middle of the night with some of these guys, as they were hitting the beer pretty hard.  We shared a batter deep fried pickle and it was surprisingly good, not healthy, but good.  Last night, I went for a brief snow shoe walk on the lake, and its still quite wet beneath a layer of snow.  I think the snow, if it's deep, insulates the lake, so that the top layer, above the ice, is still wet.  It did not stick to my shoes but it was not much fun.  Alert...the sun just came out, a miracle.

We just got back from Dobbins Woods, and it was a great morning to go, the sun was out, no one was in the woods, and there was a easy trail to follow, as someone had snow shoed earlier in the day or last night.  It took about 40 minutes to do the entire loop. with me skiing and Evie snow shoeing.  We started a part of the second loop, then headed back so overall, we were out almost an hour.  Evie made cauliflower soup this morning, so that's going to be our lunch.  And this afternoon, we are going to make a healthy cookie, as we both miss having a treat in the evenings.  I looked up about five recipes, mostly with oatmeal, raisins, and nuts, though some of peanut butter as well, or coconut.  If we find a good one, not to fatty but tasty, I will spread the word.