A Blinding Sunrise

6:40

7:58

8:00 Fog

8:05

It's 7:45 and I have had to move to another chair because the sun is so bright, not complaining by the way.  When I woke at 6:15, the sky was a azurel and rose and the fog was rising on the lake off towards Long Point.  Later, streaks of orange appeared over Bemus Poiint, then the sun began to rise, taking over the sky and lake.  It looks like a spectacular day to be outside, perhaps a hike in the Allegheny State Park.

Evie From The Chautauqua Institution

The Rare Fall Colors Of A Fringe Tree?

Yesterday was a mostly sunny, fall day, with falling leaves, some wind, mostly sun.  We took it easy much of the morning, listening to NPR, then some of the news shows on Sonos before rising and putting our walking shoes on and driving off to our weekly constitutional, a walk around the Chautauqua Institution on Sundays.  It's always a revelation, a tree now a different color, an interesting house we don't remember seeing, a chat with a homeowner or a walking couple we have never seen before.  Rarely have we met someone we know.  

1:00 PM

We were home by 12:30, ready for the big breakfast, of fried eggs, bacon and a bagel.  I am so lucky because Evie does not seem to mind making it for me each week.  While she got it ready, I got out the pressure cooker, put in a pound of Roman beans and cooked them for 12 minutes and viola, they were done.  After breakfast, after watching another great CBS Sunday, we put together a recipe for Drunken beans, basically beans with onions, garlic, chicken stock, a jalapeno, and a can of beer.  It was ready in a half hour, surprisingly tasty, very soupy or liquidity, the way I like it.  

Early morning, before we went walking, I had a hankering for a healthy cookie (there's no such thing) but I thought  of oatmeal raisin cookies, found a recipe I liked and emailed it to Evie.  Well, after lunch, she put together the dough, put it in the refrigerator for later and then began the laboriously task of making homemade potato chips because mostly she had a hankering for chips.  So she washed, dried, washed and dried again, then fried them out on the back porch, mid afternoon.  After they were done, we went for a walk through the Woodlawn/Victoria woods, and I took along a saw because a couple of small trees had fallen, blocking our path which would make it difficult for cross country skiing this winter.  It took about 15 minutes and sweat to get rid of two, but now the path is open for hiking or skiing.

Walking Woodlawn/Victoria Woods

We could hardly wait to get home to settle down for a sundowner, and yes, the sun was down by 6:00 and we were in total darkness and we dipped our homemade chips in blue cheese dressing and sipped a beer.  

5:20 PM

For dinner, we completed our unhealthy day by having hot dogs, after bacon, both terrible for you according to the most recent health guides, the drunken beans, and we were happy despite the warnings.  We watched the first episode of a mini series called A Casual Vacancy based on a book by J. K. Rowlings that I read a few months ago.  Around 7:30, Evie baked a batch of the cookies, for us to enjoy during Homeland, a show that is losing its gusto, too much talking and long, boring shots. We need  Brodie back...too bad he died two seasons ago.  We also watched parts of the World Series but ended up going to bed when the game was tied in the 9th inning, finding out only this morning that Kansas City won in the 12th to the delight, no doubt, of our son Tom and his family, avid fans.

Our major decision of the day looms: whether to kayak, the lake is spectacular at the moment, or go hiking in the Allegheny National Forest this morning.  It's nice having tough decisions like this.