Bright, Shiny Winter Morning On A Frozen Chautauqua Lake (Red's Pancake House)

6:33

7:13

Spring Ready Kayaks

It's 7:30 and I have been up for an hour, waiting patiently for the sun to rise on a crisp clear morning sky.  By the way it did, about 15 minutes ago.  All's right with the world.  I have been listening to Morning Joe make sense of this past weekend's primaries.  It looks like Hilary and the Donald.  And so it goes.  If you don't want more of the same, vote for Donald...that's it, a simple explanation of why people vote for Donald.

Yesterday turned out to be another fine Sunday on the lake.  We dissed our usual morning routine of a walk at the Chautauqua Institution and then a big breakfast and instead, we were picked up by the Linda and Ron around 10:30 and we took the half hour drive to Red's Pancake House, where the Sherman/Clymer Road intersects with Bailey Hill.  Contrary to two weeks ago when we went, the parking lot was almost full and cars were parked along the road. Fortunately, lots of people were leaving as we walked in so we easily found a table in the back of the log cabin, away from the fireplace, with a view of the chicken coop and garden.  Within minutes of having sat down, we had orange juice, coffee, and three steamy pancakes a piece, with two sausage patties.  We drenched them with maple syrup so it was almost as if we had maple syrup with pancakes.

At Red's, AGAIN, with Mc Clures, AGAIN

For some reason, we all agree that they are about as good a pancake as we have ever had, rivaling Evie's sour cream pancakes, the top of the list.  They are made from the Good Hope Buckwheat pancake mix.  We quickly finished our first course, hesitated about 10 seconds before ordering seconds, and we even had thirds they were so good.  I had to finally stop myself even though I think I could have eaten more.  Ron was the clear winner, having downed eight, with mounds of butter. buckets of syrup.  Driving to Sherman, to Red's, was clearly a smart decision, a good way to start our day.  We left fat and happy, took a drive towards Clymer to see the Methodist Church, then drove home on the backroads, like the Sunday drives we used to take with our parents.  We enjoyed it.

Straight Outta Fargo

When we returned home, we had the entire afternoon ahead of us with nothing we had to do.  So we relaxed, watched some TV and read but both of us felt like we should be doing something.  A busy boy is a happy boy.  So Evie decided to drive to the YMCA, to workout, and go to the mall to return some ninety dollar Brooks running shoes which did not quite fit right.  She left around 2:00 and by 4:00 she was still not home.  So I went out for a great walk in the Woodlawn/Victoria woods, just as the sun was setting, crunching through six inch deep snow, taking lots of time to take photographs of whatever interested me, trees, creeks, the lake, the snow paths.  It was relaxing, interesting, and it's always enervating to be out in the woods, seemingly away from civilization.

Running Water, Rocks Snow, Deadfall

Dusk Along Woodlawn

When I got back at 5:00, Evie was driving in, with four boxes of shoes.  FOUR.  As she was checking out, both she and the cashier realized that the two pairs she was buying were only fourteen bucks apiece (originally $70 Reeboks).  So back she went to get two more pair, different sizes by a half in case the first two did not fit.  So she came home with four pair, which cost less than the one pair of shoes she returned.  What a bargain hunter.

We relaxed with wine, listened to music, as the lake darkened, and because there was not much to dinner.  About 6:30, Evie went into the kitchen, made a salad, browned a couple of Sahleen hot dogs and warmed up the mediocre cabbage and sausage stew and we had dinner.  And, surprisingly, we both really liked the stew, as Evie doctored it up some and I think letting it sit outside on our porch in the cold for a day brought out its the flavors. And we always like the Sahleen hot dogs, even though they are not particularly healthy, me with either Stadium mustard of Ray's Hot Sauce from Buffalo, and Evie's with ketchup.  We watched the first hour and a half of 1961's Oscar Nominated JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG, still riveting even in black and white, then some TV, waiting for The Good Wife, only a few episodes left as they are ending the series.  It's time.  And we went to bed at our usual time, at 11:00.