Breaking Ice While Kayaking on Lake Chautauqua, Walking Dobbins Woods

Paddling Through Ice

Breaking a Path

This Morning at 7:40

Up at 6:34,  to either wet snow or rain, hard to tell which and a warmer morning, 32º at the moment though a winter storm advisory is out, most likely because of icy road conditions. Another gray day on the way, probably a gray week.  We better get used to it.

Ice Bound

Creating a Path Through The Ice

As I mentioned yesterday, the lake edge's were frozen, tempting us to kayak, breaking the ice as we went.  Well, I had to walk our kayaks along the shoreline in front of Leonard's, to in front of Bergen's, where there was open water.  Then, we were off, paddling along the edges of the ice, till we were stopped by a large section of frozen ice, just in front of the reeds.  We did not want to tempt fate, get stuck in deep water, so we headed back, paddling along the shore to the campground and back.  It was cold, 16º as we paddled, much colder heading back into the wind.  It was still fun to be on the lake this time of year, especially with parts of the lake frozen.  Tomorrow, we hope it may snow and if so, we will be out again because we love to kayak when it snows.   Interestingly, when the wind picked up in the afternoon, the ice disappeared, a result of the waves, perhaps the warming weather, too

The  Humble Abode, Iced In

After kayaking, we came home relaxed for a bit, had some coffee and did the dishes from the last night before going off to a walk in Dobbins Woods.  It just sounded good to us to get out in the woods, thinking it was cold enough so the wet areas would be frozen.  Wrong.  Still, we loved walking there, and I noticed for the first time, how different the light is depending where you are in the woods, among pines or deciduous trees. Duh!  And with the leaves gone, it's a different woods, lots of vistas, filled with dead fall, all the kinds of stuff you miss in warm weather when all is green and overgrown.  Every time we walk there it's like walking in a new woods.  And if we walk the loop in the opposite direction, everything changes too.  After our walk, we came back for our Sunday breakfast, eggs, bacon, and bagels today, watching Sunday Morning, then relaxed the rest of the day, listening to the Browns lose on Sirius.  Unbelievable, only the Brown could lose like that but hey, I am used to it after sixty years of it.

Barren Dobbins Woods

For dinner, Evie took a pork tenderloin, sliced it, pounded it out, breaded it, then fried it, what we like to call schnitzel, and with braised cabbage and mashed potatoes, we had a typically great Sunday night meal.  O, yea, we did relax with a Manhattan, some Castello cheese before dinner, well deserved after both kayaking and walking in the same day.  We watched the penultimate episode of Homeland, gripping and started an older series called Treme, set in New Orleans just after the hurricane, written by David Simon of The Wire fame.  We are not taken with it yet; I wonder how long you have to watch a series to give it a chance to grab you.  Any thoughts, let me know.  Also, I am beginning to see Steve Jobs as a combination of Jimmy Swaggart, Jimmy Connors/John Mc Enroe, the brats of tennis, Ebenezer Scrooge, with some Buddha, Bob Dylan, and Henry Ford thrown in.