EARLY RISING ON CHAUTAUQUA LAKE: JAMESTOWN CHALK WALK 2014 A Blue, Bright Cloudless Morning Sky

A daily journal of our lives (begun in October 2010), in photos (many taken by my wife, Evie) and words, mostly from our home on Chautauqua Lake, in Western New York, where my wife Evie and I live, after my having retired from teaching English for forty-five years in Hawaii, Turkey, and Ohio. We have three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson, as you will notice if you follow my blog since we often travel to visit them. Photo from our porch taken on 12/15/2024 at 6:46 PM

Monday, September 8, 2014

JAMESTOWN CHALK WALK 2014 A Blue, Bright Cloudless Morning Sky

An Artist And Her Work- Chalk Walk, Jamestown, 2014

7:20

Dinner At David and Pat Jones

I did it...slept in till 7:20. Don't know how I did it but I did. An amazing morning, as I can hardly look at the lake the sun is so bright, its reflection of the water glimmering and blinding. It's 54º and it looks like another perfect day. How lucky are we to be here at the lake to enjoy it.

Yesterday was another sunny, pleasant day, perfect for a boat ride, or to be outside on the dock enjoying the afternoon, both of which we did. I started the morning baking my bread around 8:30, as it had been rising for almost twenty hours. After it was done, we started mid morning with a boat ride to the Chautauqua Institution about 10:00 and it felt like it was our lake, hardly a boater in sight. We docked at the CI and walked the perimeter, as the village continues to empty, leaving the remnants of a summer season. We did shop briefly at a shop in the St. Elmo which Evie likes, then boated home along the shore, checking to make sure no new houses were going up. What a great way to spend a Sunday morning, a walk, a boat ride, and then home, to a big breakfast, of eggs, bacon and my toasted homemade bread.

The rest of the day was a wash if you expected something to be done. Evie read on the dock, and I watched some NFL, soon tired, and joined her it was so copacetic. It may sound like we spend a lot of time on the dock, well, we do. We know what's coming, the gray and cold of winter, we want to take in each day as much as we can. Around 4:00, we packed up our dock life, jumped in the car and drove down to Jamestown as the ChalkWalk, a Jamestown tradition of chalk art, was finishing. We enjoyed it last year so we wanted to see all the art. There were 37 venues if I remember correctly, artists from their teens or younger, to golden agers. They either chalked originals, or they copied a master, like a Van Gogh or DaVince. Some were so large and complex that it must have taken at least eight hours to finish. One, my favorite, was a history of Jamestown, in six to eight panels, was explained to us by the artist. Pretty neat. Evie's favorite was long ribbon of multi colored fish that turned magically into birds. We really enjoyed our stroll and I also met a young French women, selling her French pastries at a booth. She is called The Little French Baker, moved here from France with her husband, and sells her pastries at the Mall's market on Wednesdays. We bought two of her tarts and I am just finishing her raspberry tart as I write. Excellent!

We were home by 5:30 and left at 6:00, for dinner at our neighbor's, the Jones', joined by the Leonards. We enjoyed wine in their comfortable living room, the lake view on one side, a wall of interesting paintings on the other. We have not all gotten together this summer, so it was good to catch up. Both Leonards and Jones will be heading home in the next couple of weeks, so it may be the last time we really get together. We had a great lasagna for dinner, lots of fine wine, cookies for dessert, and we stayed and talked at the dinner table until 10:00, a good night.

A Panoply of Chalk Art: