Cold with Pink/Blue Morning Skies

Sunday's Sunset

Monday's Sunrise 7:58

It was 15 degrees when I woke up today at 7:00, the sky mostly clear, with a few pink clouds off toward Bemus, mostly clear though.  A good weather report for today, sunny through late afternoon though it's going to warm up, perhaps rain tonight and tomorrow, unbelievably, it  is supposed to have a high of 48, which will make a mess of the roads, yards, and trails.  This is the worst of Chautauqua weather, I think, a lack of consistently cold weather jumping from a low of 7 below on Saturday, to a high of 48 three days later.  I remember locals telling us about this kind of winter but the last two have been pretty consistent, the lake freezing early, people enjoying it for months.  We have yet to see a snow mobile on the lake, only a  few cross country skiers on it edges.  In fact, we hope to go out today before it starts to warm up and ski along the coast line out to Tom's Point and back, staying close enough to the shore to stay safe.

Sleighs at CI Parking Area

Yesterday morning, we did go to the CI, Evie walked and I struggled with my cross country skis. For some reason, the skis did not slide much, either the skis were iced or the snow was so light that it was not good for skiing.  So I struggled through most of our hike, working up quite a sweat by the end.  There were few people around though out in the parking lot, the horse and sleighs were in a competition, to see who could go though an obstacle course in best time.  Later in the day, they were taking people for rides through the grounds.  Despite it being in the low teens, neither Evie nor I were cold during our walk, perhaps because there was little wind.

Horse Pulled Sleighs

I felt like some  good old comfort food, so we headed over to the Lighthouse to pick up some ground chuck and pork for meatloaf.  We basically vegged the rest of the day, watching some football, reading, clearing the parking lot, and going for a short walk, just to get invigorated before our dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was just what I wanted, filling and unhealthy I suppose, but tasty.  We watched part of the Golden Globes, were gratified to see our favorite shore Homeland win the award for best TV show.  Clearly, it was the crowd favorite as well.  I am about 2/3's of the way Murikami's 1Q84 but my digital copy from the local library runs out today; I solved it by picking up a hard copy at the Lakewood library on Saturday, so that's how I will finish it.

I felt energetic so I just boiled some potatoes to make George Lang's potato caraway bread, one of our old favorites from James Beard's book on Bread.  It makes a nice white loaf, great for sandwiches, a good contrast to the Black Bread we are just finishing up, which we loved by the way.  But variety is the spice of life, to use a cliche.  Tonight just might be our Slovenian favorite, Evie's Mom's beans and potato soup, with pork chops and sauerkraut.  Why think about going out when you can eat like this.

We hope to either ski on the lake today, before it warms up, or go over to Long Point and ski there. Right now it's bright and sunny, the snow glistening from the sun's reflection.  Time to head outside.