Yesterday's Sunny Morning Redux

6:40

It's 7:30 and I have been up for an hour, in time to find out the exciting news that my niece, Kirsten Holzheimer Gail was elected mayor of my hometown, Euclid, Ohio.  Euclid, like many bustling cities in the 1950's and 60's, has seen a decline in its tax base and population over the past 20 years.  It will be a challenge for her but she has the quiet confidence, the understated chutzpah, to make a difference.

It's 54º out, the high in the 70's, not your typical November day and the sunrises are getting boring, no clouds to make them interesting.

Hiking Dobbins Woods With Our Friend

Yesterday and I am not getting tired of saying it was a perfect day, cloudless, windless, temperatures in the high 60's, a day made for hiking, kayaking, and tree planting, so we did all three.  It was a bit cool early morning, so we decided to take a short hike, after Monday's marathon.  We drove to our nearby go to walk in the woods, Dobbins Woods, five miles away.  It's a preserve, a couple hundred acres through woods, of deciduous and pines, great for cross country skiing as well.  It's an easy hike, flat, over a couple of rivulets, and takes about 40 minutes.  This time we were accompanied by a neighbor's golden retriever.  He led the way, much like he did a couple of years ago when our granddaughter Marisa was visiting in February.  He is an intelligent, well trained guide, knew the trail, led us the entire way, then went home.  It almost made me want to get a dog.

Dobbins Woods -- Why?  How? 

Afterwards, we made the mistake of driving to Art Sample's, to see if they had a tulip tree which Evie has been wanting.  He had two left and I got him to sell it to us for 40 bucks, a deal.  I drove home, got the Pilot and came back and Evie had also bought three more privets for our fence.  We crunched them all into the car and drove home with what I hope is the last plantings of the year.

I had lunch, a quesadilla and drunken beans, watched Longmire, read some,  a brief nap then got up to work with Evie, who had been reading in the side yard.  We dug a hole for the tree, mostly stones for some reason, and we wondered if we were getting into the French drain we put in three years ago but we weren't.  We then filled the hole with water, as we were told, and will have to wait until this morning to put in the tree when the water has settled.  And, ironically, we forgot the docks were blocking the area where we want to plant the privets, so we may have to wait till next spring to plant them.

Our Neighbors, The Johnstons

About 3:00, we saw our neighbors out in their scull, so we put on our life jackets and went out to paddle, a bit choppy until we got into the curve of Long Point Bay.  Lots of action at the Marina as they are putting in new sewer lines, the noise annoying to be honest.   We like a quiet, empty lake.  There were a few fishing boats out as well as a kayaker with her dog who paddled by, so I took their picture.  We headed back as the sun began to peak behind the shoreline.

Kayaking Long Point Bay

Lady And Her Dog

It was only 4:30, so we relaxed until dark, reading, listening to NPR, with a glass of wine.  Evie had bought a couple of thin Delmonico steaks, so she marinated them in teriyaki, sauteed some mushrooms, made some rice and I grilled them quickly outside.  They were excellent, of course, reminding us of our favorite Hawaiian meal, teriyaki steaks with rice.  We watched Fargo, the best show in our minds on TV right now, violent and quirky, then a PBS series called The Guilty, about a child who has been missing for five years.  It's decent but like most British series,  hard to understand because of their accent.

Dusk