The Sun Has Risen

6:37

Easter Flowers

A beautiful morning at 6:30, as I wait for the sun to peak over Long Point, the sky at the moment a light blue, a pink tinge over the opposite shoreline.  It looks like a spectacular Easter Sunday, clear skies, lots of sun and warm, perhaps in the 70's.  We left the bedroom window open last night, so I was awakened by geese, ducks, and song birds, not a bad way to begin the day if you don't mind rising before sun.  It's now 7:30 and once I finish this, I may go kayaking because it's such a wonderful morning.

I went to yoga in Lakewood at 9:00, just two of us and Chris, the same as last week.  It was a good class, lots of warrior and triangles, not my favorite but  I am getting used to them.  Chris was very talkative, told us some about his early life, a roadie for bands like the Stones and Pink Floyd, a few years in Thailand studying yoga, and his passion for teaching the guitar.  Once you get to know more about a person, the more you find them interesting.  And if you  didn't get that initial peak into their life, you wouldn't pay much attention to them.

After a coffee at Ryder's, to round out my morning, I drove home, then went off to Mayville, to the library to pick up two books I have been wanting to read, both mentioned on NPR, SEATING ARRANGEMENTS and ASTONISH ME, by Maggie Shipstead.  I hope I like them.  After the library, I stopped at the Lighthouse, and picked up a great looking two inch New York strip steak for our Easter dinner.  Today was supposed to be sunny and warm so I felt like grilling.  When I got home, I gathered the trash and drove off to the Transfer Station, then to the Quarry to pick up another five buckets of stones.  As I was driving out, a car drove in, a women got out, the secretary from the Tri James office.  She told me they were closing  the fence because they had heard people were  driving in and taking gravel, like me, but had not paid for it.  She was fine with me, however, since I had paid her earlier in the week, an honest guy.

Molting Goldfinches

A Perching Goldfinch Eyeing Us  While Waiting His Turn at The Feeder

As you can see from our photos, we have become enamored with the goldfinches in our yard, at our feeder, especially the males, who lose their dull olive color from the winter, as they molt, the new vibrant yellow colored feathers pushing through, distinguishing the male from the female.

We enjoyed the afternoon, both in and out, did some yard work, then I went kayaking around 4:00, a slight wind, and I took my fishing rod along, wondering if I would have any luck.  I went down to my sweet spot, among the weeds, but kept getting my lure stuck until my line finally broke off and I lost the lure.  So I spent another half hour kayaking down to the campground and back, enjoying the sun, the breeze, just being out on the lake.

For dinner, Evie put together the Mustard Milanese chicken cutlets and I made the arugula and fennel salad, with a mustard, oil and lemon juice dressing.  Evie refrigerated the panko/mustard crusted  cutlets for and hour, then fried them in oil, and I tossed the salad.  We heaped the salad on top of each cutlet and had what we thought was a restaurant worthy dinner, the crispiness of the cutlet, the bite of the lemon/oil dressing, the combination of the bitterness of the arugula, the anise flavor of the fennel.  We even had a cutlet leftover, but not the salad.  We had no DVD's to watch, so we went to Netflix, searched for something interesting, and ended up watching three episodes of a series we started a few years ago but stopped called WEEDS.  We still are not crazy about it but obviously liked it enough to watch three episodes.  Afterwards, I was glad to get back to my book RED STATION,  by Adrian Magson, set in the Republic of Georgia, just after the fall of the Soviet Union.  Disgraced MI5 agents are sent there, just as the Russians are about to invade, reminiscent of what's happening in the Ukraine this past month.

Finally, I did want to mention a fascinating interview from Friday's Charlie Rose; he interviewed Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, who has been with Obama since 2005 when he was still a Senator.  She's candid, bright, interesting, always championing her Boss, but you believe her. A great interview if you have any interest in one person's view from inside the White House.  And what was most fascinating, she never blamed the Republicans for their antics, their attempts to block anything that Obama endorsed or presented.