Back Home After A Great 1800 Mile Jaunt

7:15

7:20

7:30

Believe it, I slept in until 7:45, amazing.  When I got up, I came  down stairs quietly, not realizing that Evie had already made the coffee and been up for an hour.  I must have been tired because I remember waking up around 6:00 but falling back to a delicious sleep for another two hours.  I am sorry to have missed the sunrise but Evie was able to get it.

Southern Tier

Late Fall In The Catskills

What do I say different about yesterday other than we were off early morning, giving all the Albarrans hugs before we left for home around 6:30.  It was a lovely day for a drive, sunny all the way to the lake, skies blue, the hills, a combination of rust brown, chartreuse and yellow leaves, contrasting with the winter gray of the bare boned trees.  What a beautiful part of the country New York State is, from the Catskills west to Chautauqua Lake.  We arrived home around 2:30, to our beautiful lake, a lawn covered with leaves, our two maples, leafless for the most part, bare branches reaching up to the sky.  What a difference from two weeks ago when we still were unable to see the sky from our porch because of the leaves.  Suddenly, our living room is filled with light all during the day.

Leaf Central

We slowly unpacked, in no hurry to finish because we will be at the lake for at least three weeks before spending Thanksgiving in Kansas City with our son Tom and his family.  I tried to relax, read or take a nap but I was wired, so I went out in the warm, fall afternoon, raked some leaves then decided the lawns, ours and Leonards would best benefit from a quick mulching.  I gave myself an hour and cut both lawns chopping thick layers of leaves into bits and pieces, much easier than raking and ultimately good for the lawn as long as the leaves are mulched.

Late Afternoon: Leaves Mulched and Long Point and Bemus Lit Up

After the lawn, I was covered with dust from the leaves and lawn, so I took a shower.  Nothing like a shower after working up a sweat in the yard.  Evie got out one of our favorite cheeses, a brie with blue called Castello and we opened a bottle of one of our new wines (we now have four cases) and enjoyed dusk for the first time at the lake in two weeks.  Evie outdid herself with dinner, wieners and beans, both tasting great.  Nothing like a good Sahleen dog, Stadium mustard, and baked beans. Not as good as Ina's made by my buddy, Trout at Thompson Lake, but decent from a can.  We watched the last two Homeland's, but were again disappointed.  The show has gotten good reviews but we find it tedious, talky, with not much happening.  Who wants to watch Claire Danes seducing a young Arab student.  We were in our OWN bed by 10:30, reading THE HUSBAND'S SECRETS, a book by an Australian writer that has gotten some good pub.

Browns, Rusts of Long Point at Dusk

Today looks like a day to get caught up on everything: yard, house, Wegmans so I better get busy.