A Bright Shining Saturday Morning

6:40

A Long And Winding Road

Daffodils

Spring time in Chautauqua County

I woke, briefly, at 5:30 but fell back to asleep, waking at 6:40 to light in our bedroom and, when I came downstairs, the living room was filled with sunlight, the lake glimmering and shiny, the sky clear, a light blue. It's going to be a greet day at the lake.  32º outside, colder than I thought but it will get into the 60's later in the day, perfect for putting in my purple martin house.

Much like today, yesterday was sunny and cool, a good day to enjoy the outdoors.  Since I don't have yoga on Friday, we decided to walk up Stedman Road to the Stedman Coffee shop and back home.  We drove up to the beginning of the road, as I didn't want to walk up the hill (wimp).  So, it ended up being a more pleasant walk than I thought, likely because it was so cool outside. I thought walking along the road would be boring, monotonous, but I found I enjoyed it, observing and noticing the beauty of the farms, the pastures, trees, just being alive to my surroundings.  You can tell I am working, on mindfulness, on paying attention to what I am doing at the moment. To quote Thich Nhat Hahh: "Don't do any activity in order to get it over with.  Resolve to do each action in a relaxed with with all your attention,  Enjoy and be one with your activity." I try.  It took us about forty minutes to walk the two miles to the coffee shop.  If we had started from our home, we would have added another twenty minutes.  So, our walk was an hour and twenty minutes, total, two hours if we had walked from our house.  I am not sure why I am obsessed with distance and time...reminds me of a line from 'The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.  "I have measured out my life in coffee spoons."I enjoyed a cup of iced coffee, Evie some water, and we enjoyed a talk with a neighbor and his wife.  He drives a steel truck for a living, basically between Hamilton, Canada, and Gary, Indiana, twice a week.  He lives across the street, two houses up.  And we talked some with the owner and his girl friend, both nice enough.  We got home around noon, and for lunch, Evie made me delicious fish tacos, with the leftover tilapia, cabbage, siracha sauce, and tartar sauce.  Yum.

Signage Along Stedman Road

An Old Barn's Foundation

We then spent the afternoon working in our yard, trimming, raking, cutting down the grasses, pruning our bushes and trees.  I took three garbage cans of twigs and leaves up to the hill.  And even though we still have little green, no color to speak of, it felt like spring.  Evie also did some quick sanding on our garden fence, getting it ready to paint today.  Both of us really enjoyed being out side, working in the yard, something we have not done since late October.

We had chicken and biscuits for dinner, with a salad, after enjoying a glass of wine before dinner, relaxing after our work in the yard.  We watched a new series on Sundance which I had read  was good called Rectify, by the people who gave us Breaking Bad.  It's about a guy who has been on death row for nineteen years before being released because of DNA evidence.  He returns home (why?) to a uncomfortable family, a often hostile town, and he has to find his way, in a very different world.  Great acting and riveting scenes, though it's a bit rough at times, as you would expect from a movie that's about prison life, its effects on the inmates.  We will continue watching it, Monday's at 10:00 on Sundance.