Morning Showers Bring Fall Flowers?

7:55 AM

Up later than usual, about 7:20 to rain on the roof, and a much cooler morning, a misty lake.  The sun has been out briefly but it's cloudy once again, a mist like rain on the lake.  The weather this week sounds much more palatable, cooler with possibility of rain most days.  Fall is on the way after a humid, warm end to August.

Long Point, Kayaking Early Morning

Yesterday because I was up so early, 5:30, I went out fishing and kayaking, paddling towards Long Point by 6:45 on a placid lake, no boats, just me.  I love being on the lake by myself; it's as if you are paddling on your own private lake.  And now that Labor Day has ended, mornings here on the lake will be just like that, as Evie and I will be the only kayakers on the lake if we head out before 8:00. Anyways, I was out for an hour, fished but no bites and watched a king fisher dive from its perch repeatedly into the lake, trying to get breakfast.  Within ten seconds, he had dived three of four times, amazing to watch.

Labor Day Storm at Noon

When I got home, I walked up the hill and then through the campground, feeling energetic and I wanted to see how my hiking boots felt after not having used them for a year.  The campground was overflowing with weekend campers in tents as well as the regulars, in their trailers, the last major summer holiday of the year.  I got home just in time to avoid a fairly violent storm, heavy winds and an inch of rain as well as some hail.  Fortunately, we did not lose power and only a few small branches came down. Lakewood, however, suffered much damage, with trees down, docks and boats overturned along the shoreline, quarter inch sized hail.  Here, it cleared up so the rest of the day  people could enjoy their boats, even tubing and skiing. 

Chicken Marbella

Nora Ephron's Peach Pie

Since we were having the Mc Clures over for a labor day dinner, Evie spent a good part of the afternoon in the kitchen, making Nora Ephron's peach pie and Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate.  I helped in the usual way, by doing the dishes, cleaning up the kitchen.

Enjoying Dinner

Around 5:00, the Mc Clures arrived and we were finally able to sit on our front porch and enjoy a couple of beers and some appetizers.  It was a perfect afternoon to sit outside, cool and pleasant. Around 6:30, Ron and I went and sat out on the dock, to enjoy the amazing clouds hanging over the lake while Evie and Linda went to the back porch and deep fried two eggplants which Evie had cut up and breaded earlier in the day.  The eggplant was amazingly good and all of us we eating it before we even got it to the table.  We had a great dinner, the eggplant and chicken the hit.

Deep Fried Egg Plant

We ended the evening by watching a movie together, a chancy affair since we often have very different cinematic tastes.  Fortunately, we all enjoyed EDTV, a funny yet thoughtful look at reality TV, the TV industry and their willingness to put just about anything on the tube if they can make money.  It's a prescient film, made in 1999 before any of the reality shows took off.  If you have not seen it, we all recommend it.  Mid way during the viewing, we had our peach pie, not popcorn, but better.  Another good evening, a great way to end the summer so to speak.