A Blinding Sunrise

7:25

7:36

7:45

8:12

It's 8:30 and the living room is still so bright that I have to move occasionally to avoid the sunlight, though I am not complaining.  It's looks like a beautiful day.  It's 46º out, will stay in the 60's during the day.  The lake is beckoning for a kayak paddle, the woods for a hike, perhaps both.

Yesterday was a typical fall day, cool, sunny, some wind early but the it calmed down mid afternoon, smoothing the lake.  We decided to take our Sunday walk through the Chautauqua Institution's grounds, our weekly constitutional.  Compared to Saturday's wind and rain, the walk was heavenly, making us think of the poor couple, both waiters at the Casino, who were married Saturday, supposedly outside in the CI's Hall of Philosophy.  We have no idea what they might have done with the terrible weather.  We walked for an hour, bothered much of the way by annoying lake flies. We thought the season had ended but I guess not, and we don't have them here in Woodlawn.  After our walk, we drove into Mayville, to Tops grocery because Evie loves their apples, your choice of kind for 88 cents a pound. She makes the best homemade apple sauce out of them.  We also picked up some stuffed pork chops for dinner, a deal, two for less than five bucks.  How could we pass it up.

We were home by 12:30 and Evie went straight to the kitchen and made our breakfast, eggs, bacon and toast, of course.  After breakfast, she made up her applesauce, using her hank cranked food mill to separate the seeds and skins; she loves it.  When she finished, I made a pot of Senate Bean soup, with a pound of beans, in water overnight, two hamhocks, and potatoes.  I have yet to try it but it looks good.  My only worry, something they never mention...the ham hocks are very salty so I may have to add more potatoes if it's too salty.

Evie Of The Lake

By 2:00, we were through with our chores, so Evie, because the winds had modulated, decided to brave it out on the dock.  She wrapped herself in a blanket, took out her book, and spent a couple of hours on the dock, enjoying the sun, as the wind subsided.  Our neighbor, Joyce Leonard, joined her for a half hour, just as I decided to go out kayaking.  I fished down by the reeds for about 20 minutes, until Evie paddled down, and we both then took off for Long Point, the bay, then home to start getting dinner ready.

Evie seared the pork chops, then baked them, as she made garlic spinach, a salad and baked a few potatoes in the microwave.  And, to our shock, the stuffed pork chops were really good, especially the seasoned dressing.  So we had a tasty, filling dinner, as we watched four of the five episodes of the first season of the The Affair.  One more and we will be ready to watch this season's first episode which aired last night.  We will do the same thing with Homeland, which also started it's fifth season last night.  We find that we have forgotten what happened a year ago on these programs, so watching a few of last seasons episodes helps.  The Affair is really quite good, compelling TV, with amazing performances by the Dominic West of The Wire, Laura Tierney as his wife and Ruth Wilson as his lover.  Watch it on Showtime.  And I finished by book last night, THE COLDER WAR.  Read it.