The Sun Also Rises (Empty Bowls at St. Hedwig's Social Center, Dunkirk, NY)

7:50 Sunrise

Fishing Early On A Cold December Morning

Another sleep in, till 7:30, the sky blue, the sun yet to rise above Wells Bay, about as far south as it's going to get.  It's cold out 26º, and it looks like a perfect day for a walk at the Chautauqua Institution, something we have hardly done all fall.  It used to be our routine to walk it every Sunday but not this year for some reason.

Yesterday was a different Saturday, as we had waned too leave for Empty Bowls by 9:45.  Since we got up later than usual and it took longer than I expected to finish my blog, we had to hustle to get our morning together.  I was able to head off to the Transfer Station, however, by 9:15, and we were on our way to Dunkirk by 9:50, a little over a half hour drive.  The last two years, we got there just before 11:00 and people were already browsing for bowls so we wanted to be one of the first to get in, the first to choose our bowls.

Early Birds Get The Best Bowls

One Of Four Rows Of Donated Pottery

Enjoying Soup

So, we were there by 10:30, wondered if they would let us in and viola, there were ten to fifteen were already walking around the tables.  We were told not to pick the bowls up off the tables until 11:00 but within five minutes, they announced the hall was open.  We gathered the bowls we liked, browsing the four tables,  over a thousand bowls I think, then sat down and picked out the top six, a difficult task because there were so many we liked.  After we made our decision, we paid for them, one hundred dollars, a nice way to make a donation to the Food Pantry.  Then, our bowls were wrapped, except for two, which we then used to get soup.  First each bowl was washed and dried, then soup was ladled into them, and we were given a slice of bread and a cookie.  We sat down, along with others, and listened to a classical music group play.  The soups were quite good, made by the local culinary students, makings donated by local restaurants.  I had potato leek, Evie vegetable.  We finished up, and our bowls were again washed and dried and wrapped.  One of the volunteers I recognized from last year because we had both been students in a yoga class at Studio Panterra in Westfield.

Empty Bowls is a wonderful way of bringing together a community in support of those who are needy.  As I mentioned, everything is donated, the money for the clay, the time of the potters, the food for the kitchen, and all the workers are volunteers. And people like us can feel good about buying the bowls because 100% of the proceeds will go to the Food Pantry.

Happy Volunteer Bowl Washers and Dryers

Student Culinary Volunteers

We left about noon and stopped at Tuscany, an interesting deli and kitchen store in Fredonia.  It has lots of kitchen goodies that Evie liked, but we left with only a sub sandwich.  On the way home, we stopped in Mayville at the Lighthouse, had them cut us four nice pork chops with bones.  We would have bought them at Tuscany but they only had boneless, an increasing habit at the local stores as well.

We were home by 1:00, time for a lunch of a sub sandwich, and football or basketball.  I had hoped the Ohio State game would be one but discovered they were playing at 8:00 in the evening.  So I watched some games I could care less about before falling asleep for a nice nap.  Evie, too, relaxed most of the afternoon, reading, listening to music, surfing the Internet. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, just what we wanted.  Around 4:30, as Evie was putting together our dinner of chicken, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, I went for a walk in the Victoria woods, bushwhacking most of the way, which means not walking on paths but through the untrammeled woods.  For some reason, I love to do this.  I feel like I am discovering new paths, like the early frontiersmen who mapped this country.  Most of the undergrowth has died out, the floor of the woods strewn with leaves, so it was easy to make my way up and down low hills and gullies.

Around 6:00, we sat down with cheese and crackers, a glass of wine, to listen to Garrison Keeler's Prairie Home Companion.  I wondered what it would be like if he ever retired, if anyone one could take his place.  I doubt it; his show and character and skills are one of a kind.  With his retirement or death, Prairie Home Companion will end.  We watched mostly junk TV as we could not find anything we wanted to watch and ended up watching Bridesmaids on regular TV, where the movie was hardly longer than the commercials.  When you are used to watching shows on DVR, it's maddening to have to sit through a commercial.  We were tired, left Bridesmaids before the end, and went up to bed to read and sleep.  Another good day at the lake.