A Delayed Sunrise

6:13

I was up at 5:45, mostly gray out, lots of clouds, so there was just an inkling of a sunrise at 6:15.  It's know 6:50 and the sun has risen high above the cloud bank, its reflection shimmering on the lake's surface, a gentle mist also rising off towards Tom's Point.  A blue heron just flew by, compared to the graceful, small martins and swallows, he reminds me of a Boeing 747.  The calmness of the lake makes me want to get out my kayak.  In fact, I just may, following the dictum DO IT NOW.

Kayaking Woodlawn at 7:15 In The Morning

It's now 8:05 and I just returned from a marvelous kayak morning, the lake glistening from the sun smooth, and blue.  I paddled down to Whitney Bay and back, looking to see if anyone was up but no luck.  Most of the houses are weekenders, so there's little action much of the year.  I did see a couple of loons, seemingly oblivious to my kayak.  They are amazing fishermen, as they paddle along, then dunk their heads in the water, like snorkelers, looking for fish.  One popped up about 10 yards away with a five inch fish in its mouth.  Loons usually don't hang around for long but they seemed to have found a treasure trove of fish, thus staying on to enjoy the smorgasbord of minnows.  

A Loon Snorkeling

Yesterday was another warm one, lots of sun, heat, and humidity.  After our coffee and listening to NPR, we tried to decide whether to kayak or walk the Chautauqua Institution.  The walk won out, as we thought we could kayak later in the day.  It was a beautiful day for a walk at the CI, as the shrubs and flowers are just starting to bloom, especially the azaleas, tulips, and forsythia.  It was warm, as expected, and we enjoyed it when we were able to walk under the shade of trees.  It's basically a three mile loop, about an hour walk.  We saw very few people around, so the summer crowd has yet to arrive.  Afterwards, we drove into Mayville, to do some shopping at Tops, then stopped at the Lighthouse and picked up a couple of strip steaks for Mother's Day.

Tulips At Smith Library

We were home around 12:30, time for the Sunday breakfast of fresh eggs, bacon, and toast.  We really notice the difference when we have eggs from Ryders Cup, the yolks orange, the eggs really flavorful.  By the time we were through eating, we had lost our mojo, no problem, as we wanted to spend the afternoon outside, on the dock.  Evie gathered up all her dock stuff, towels, ice water, iPad, sunglasses, phone, and sun screen and was on the dock by 1:30.  I stayed in reading, fell asleep, then went out to join her around 2:30, just as threatening clouds moved in.  We decided to adjourn to the porch and it did rain for about 10 minutes, then cleared up.

Storms Arising

I then watched the Cavs, which I had DVR-ed, but only in small doses, a quarter at a time.  We both went back out to the dock around 4:30 and stayed until the thunderstorms and rain returned around 6:30.  Just before the rain, Evie jumped into the lake for another cooling, rather freezing swim.  I forgot to mention Evie also spent  much of the afternoon on the phone, talking with our three kids, all who called to wish her Happy Mother's Day.  I then finished watching the rest of the Cavs game, watching Lebron give the game away until the last 1.5 seconds when he drilled a 35 footer to win it.  Reminds me of the good old days when I played ball...not.

We intended to the cook the steaks outside but it was raining at 7:15 when we wanted to grill, so we just cooked them inside on a cast iron pan.  They were great, maybe even better than outside.  It was a simple meal, the American standard, steak,  mushrooms, baked potatoes and salad.  We watched another episode of Rita until 9:00.  We then watched Nurse Jackie, followed by The Good Wife, saving Mad Men for tonight.  We have this routine down pretty well.