A Perfect Morning in Darien, Blue Skies, Sunny and Not Too Warm

6:35

I was the first one up, at 6:00, and Ramiro didn't straggle down till about 6:45.  It's a great morning so I walked outside to take a few pictures in the early morning sunlight, one of the two golden hours for taking pictures, two hours after sunrise, two hours before sunset.  Rami and I sat around talking cameras and he showed me some tricks on editing photos with Aperture as well as using some of the modes on my camera.  It's amazing what you can do with a photograph these days if you have time to fuss around with a shot.

Yesterday was a lazy Saturday for all but Mitchell who had a three hour practice in the morning.  The extent of my physical activity was to take Cody on an hour walk, going up Fox Hill and Peach Hill, two neighboring streets with amazing homes, lots of trees, and interesting landscaping.  The green, after a winter of black and white is almost overpowering to my senses.  It felt good to be outside in a long sleeve tee shirt, and Cody, of course, loved it, smelling or urinating on just about every bush or tree. While I walked, Ramiro went on a 48 mile bike ride with some local riders, taking over three hours.

Choosing Books With Granny

Early afternoon, Marisa, Evie and I went off to mail some cookies to Tyler, then stopped at the modern Darien Library, with an automatic book check in/out device, no librarians needed anymore I guess. Marisa loves reading so she and Evie made up a list of books she liked (for our other granddaughters), books she wanted and she ended up taking seven out, and starting reading one of them on the way home.  I am trying to get her to keep an annotated list of the books she's read but she's resisting it, not wanting to take the time to write it down.  By evening, she finished her first book.

Mitchell With His New Long Board

Around 4:00, we all gathered in the living room and Mitchell opened his birthday presents, from all of us.  Lots of shirts and tees, but his favorite was a new Long Board, what else.  He was pretty excited about his gifts.

Marisa, Standing Tall

Marisa, With Her Baba

We, then, all went our separate ways.  Mitchell was dropped off at a friends house, Beth and Ramrio went to a movie and dinner, and Evie, Marisa and I went for dinner and a shopping experience at our favorite grocery story in Stamford called Fairways.  We loved the fries there so that became our dinner. Unfortunately, they were not up to snuff, very disappointing but Marisa enjoyed them anyways. We bought just a few things, three kinds of coffee, some Kashkaval cheese from Greece, and a berry pie for dessert.  We stopped on the way home at Weeds Beach, enjoyed the sunsetting on Long Island Sound, walked the beach, climbed some of the rocks, before heading home.  We watched a fair movie called Miss Congeniality, which none of us loved but stuck with.  And we had our pie with ice cream.  Around 10:00, I picked up Mitch from his friends house, over near Weeds Beach, and came home and took Cody for a night walk.  Just was we started out, Beth and Rami came home from a movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and eating at Basso, a good Spanish restaurant in Norwalk.  We then sat around, watched another episode of Archer, an adult cartoon, and went to bed, all of us tired from the day.

7:10 Sunset at Weeds Beach