A Brisk, Windy Independence Day Morning

6:26

Up just after 6:00, to the sounds of Amish children next door, excited because they were going out fishing early in the morning with their fathers.  It's a beautiful, fall like morning, cool and breezy, 57º, the lake glistening in the sun, fast moving like a river because of the wind.  No scorching 4th of July for us, as it will stay cool but sunny for the next couple of days.  A great weekend for The Great Blue Heron festival in Sherman, twenty minutes away, the closest thing to Woodstock, a three day festival of bands, crafts, dance, camping, food and drink, which happens once a year.  For forty bucks, you can spend the day, listening to bands on and off till after midnight, dance, participate in workshops, buy crafts, and of course eat and drink.  They even have yoga once a day.

Yesterday was a strange day weatherwise; every time we thought it was going to clear up it would rain, so it was a day of both.  I started with yoga, a crowded class of 'foreigners' as the tourists or Chautauquans have invaded our small, private class.  We had better get used to it.   I stopped at a crowded Wegman's, every cashier busy, as expected, the day before Independence Day.  I came home to a kitchen of dirty dishes, as Evie made her first batch of stuffed shells.  Thirty six are stuffed with spinach and ricotta, then covered with a pasta sauce, with many more to make.  Fortunately, the weather was beginning to change and though it rained while I was gone, it was not as hot or humid as the day before.

I cleaned up the kitchen and by the time I had lunch, around 1:00, Wimbledon was done and there were no futbol matches, so I had nothing to watch as I ate.  Bummer.  Today there are two great matches, tomorrow as well.  The World Cup is slowly winding down, an amazing month of games for soccer fans all over the world

A Man And His Boats

Not much happened the rest of the afternoon, as Evie moved on and off the dock depending on the weather.  It rained a couple of times, then cleared up, and tended to be that way all the way into the evening.  At dusk, it still looked like it might rain.  We both are into our books.  I finished THE VACATIONERS, a 'hot summer read,' which I enjoyed, mostly because it was light, a quick read about a dysfunctional family...what else?  Evie discovered, halfway into Kent Haruf's PLAINSONG, that she had read it, probably 15 years ago.  I cannot remember (obviously) how many times that has happened to me, especially with thrillers.  The plot, the characters, disappear within a week in books like the Jack Reacher series; they all meld into one.

Shadowland at 6:30 PM

We celebrated the night before Independence Day with wine and cheese and crackers on our porch, until 7:00.  Evie had made a packaged Indian Butter Chicken sauce, with broccoli, to put over rice and it was quite good though it had quite a bite to it. We watched another episode of Orange Is The New Black, a few other shows I cannot remember then went to bed.  I am now into THE SILKWORM, a Cormoron Strike novel, written by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rawling).  I read the first of what I hope is series, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING and really enjoyed it.  She can write, can tell a good story, create interesting, believable characters...who would have thought?