THE RESISTANCE MAN: MARTIN WALKER

Bruno Courreges is back to his old tricks, with the same cast of characters, different conflicts.  This time it involves some of the famous French resistance fighters during WW II, their exploits and a sensational story about a robbery of a Nazi train with millions of gold dollars. This story, true or not, allows Walker to explore that period of mostly forgotten French history.  Walker fills his novel with lots of trappings around the crimes, this time the death of a French Resistance fighter, the burglary of a British spy master and the death of an antiques dealer.  I know they don't seem to have much to do with each other but Walker weaves a tangled web, and we discover how they seem to fit, if not perfectly. Much of the novel is taking up with a search for the resistance fighter's grandson, also the lover of the antiques dealer and a key element in a case Bruno investigated ten years ago without a satisfactory outcome. Confusing?  In between his investigations, Bruno, an oenophile,  loves to cook sumptuous meals for his friends and colleagues, drops scraps of food for his puppy Balzac, rides horses across the fields of his good friend Pamela's farm and beds her when it fits their moods.

Half the fun of his novels, no, more than half the fun is the life of Bruno outside his life as a police chief.  It makes anyone want to visit the Dordogne.  Only at the end does sadness enter the novel as his former girl friend, Isabelle,  confesses she rejected the idea of marriage to Bruno, aborted a child because she did not to damage her career.  Bruno, in all his novels, longs for a life of domesticity, with a wife and child and her confession wounds him to the heart.

We read Walker's books as much for Bruno's joie de vivre, the good life in St. Denis , as for the investigations which seem, at times, vehicles for Walker to talk about life in St. Denis.  I don't mind.

A Gray And Gloomy Saturday

7:25

7:27

I woke  at 6:00 although I was awake before then, waiting for some light to appear in the hallway. Then I know it's around 6:00 and I can get up. It's a Chautauqua gray morning, lake and sky, some rain late in the day and the same thing tomorrow.  What happened to sunny Saturday, which they predicted?

Blue Heron

Well, yesterday we finally got a rainy day, it did rain albeit reluctantly, or so it seemed.  We wanted a real  downpour but mostly got drizzle until late afternoon when we felt it actually rained enough so we got some puddles in the flowerbeds.  I did get to yoga at 9:30, enjoyed it as always and stopped for a coffee before heading home.  I had another easy lunch of leftover chicken tikki masala over rice and watched Game of Thrones and did some reading.  Evie surprised me by coming downstairs in her workout clothes and went off to the gym, like a good girl.  I thought she was taking a couple of days off but I was wrong.  Around 3:00, as I was sitting in my living room reading, I noticed the lake was motionless even though the sky was overcast.  I could not resist the temptation to kayak, so I quickly put on my life jacket, boots, and launched my kayak, paddling down to Whitney Bay to do some fishing.  Of course, soon after I got to my 'sweet spot', the wind picked up some and it began to drizzle, just enough to wet my jacket.  So I cast my line for a bit, paddled some, down towards Woodlawn, talked to our neighbors, Jeff and Nancy, who also were out kayaking like me but heading in because of the rain.  So I was home, warm in my house by 4:00 when Evie returned from the gym.  She had a great workout, her shirt was soaked, and she was happy because she found some new music.  All she needs is great music to keep her moving.

6:37  PM

7:04 PM -  A View of our View

We sat down to enjoy a Manhattan around 6:00, after all it's Friday, and we particularly like to have cocktail hour on an overcast early evening, as we say, it's nasty out.   Well,  the gray did not last for long, as the clouds disappeared and the sun came out, highlighting the eastern side of the lake, spectacularly, so we ended up running outside and taking photos in between sipping our Manhattans and saying wow, look at that.  It was an amazing metamorphosis from clouds and drizzle to a blue sky and the brightness of a setting sun on an early evening.  Both Tom's Point and Long Point were in full sun, the rest of the coast beginning to darken.  It lasted for at least a half hour.  We also were treated to a blue heron, fishing from several docks, which necessitated more photographs. Between us, we must have taken 100 shots.

Bemus Point's  Lakeside Drive at 7:30 PM

Tom's Point at 7:34 PM

Long Point at 7:50 PM

Finally, another wow as we also listened to Evie's new music find, Norwegian electronic music, with a hypnotic beat.  I felt like I was back in a bar in Cape Town, where everyone stands around the bar, grooving and moving to the beat.  There's no such thing as just standing; you have to move.  Needless to say it was a long cocktail hour, too much photo shooting, too much good music, and we did not get to dinner until after 8:00.

We had the leftover enchiladas from the previous evening, a great salad with avocados, hard boiled eggs and a blue cheese dressing and watched our  favorite series, The Americans.  We then watched some Stephen Colbert before going to read and sleep.

Blue Herons Are Back

7:22

It's 7:30 and I have been up for an hour,  to a chilly morning, windy, with gray skies.  As I was sitting here, I was shocked to see a heron, standing on our dock, but reaching down with its long neck to the water.  He then plopped into the water and there was a fish in his beak.  I quickly got out my camera but waited too long as he then flew away.  Herons are part of our summers here at the lake so it was good to see they are back.

Yesterday was not much of a day for either of us.  We did little other than sit around, bemoaning the fact that we had no energy, that it was cloudy outside most of the day, that it had an occasional drizzle but never a real rain.  I did make it to breakfast, however, and we had four of us, the snow birds have returned.  It's interesting that we rarely talk politics although all of us, both liberal and conservative, are appalled by Trump's rise (actually, one of us may be a supporter but keeps quiet about it). Interestingly, I have heard that Trump stickers are just now starting to appear on cars, as if the embarrassment of supporting him is beginning to wane.  Scary stuff especially when Bobby Knight introduces Trump by talking about Harry Truman's courage for having dropped the A bomb.

While I was at yoga,  Evie drove to Westfield for her annual mammogram and a stop at Tops for groceries, the Lighthouse Grocery for a sub sandwich for my lunch.  A thoughtful wife.  By the time she got home, she had a phone call from the hospital telling her that her mammogram was fine. Modern medicine can be good.  I had half of a sub for lunch, watched another episode of Game of Thrones, confusing once again, as seemingly new characters, new tribes have appeared unless I forgot about them from the previous season.  I will marshall on.

Neither one of us did anything of note the rest of the afternoon until dinner time.  I read some, am getting bored with O'Hara's APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA.  I don't much like any of the characters which highlighted, for me, why I like crime novels.  We always seem to like the main character, usually a flawed cop or detective, but they are interesting and likable and that's why we keep reading.  Not so in O'Hara's satire of yuppies in the 1930's.

For dinner, Evie put together chicken and black bean enchiladas, got out the fixings and we had a tasty Mexican dinner, equal to Taco Hut, a local restaurant in Jamestown.  We watched a fairly new movie out on DVD, TRUMBO, the story of the blacklisted screen writer, Dalton Trumbo.  It started slowly but a third of the way through, we were hooked and ended up really liking it.  It's another look at the troubling 1950's, the Red Scare, which ruined thousands of peoples' lives for having been a Communist (it was not against the law), or turning in their friends.  Trumbo spent time in jail for his beliefs and ended up writing screen plays under other people's names.  I taught his antiwar novel JOHNY GET YOUR GUN a couple of times, a novel that was banned during the 1940's, most recently in the 1960's when we were in Vietnam because it was virulently anti war.  It took us awhile to buy into Brian Cranston (Breaking Bad) as Trumbo but once we did, it was smooth sailing.  I still remember loving and having been moved by SPARTACUS, with Kirk Douglas, a film based on a novel by a Communist, the screen play written by Trumbo.  I had also forgotten he film was directed by Stanley Kubrick, a giant of American film.

Red Sky In The Morning

6:03

6:04

I woke at 6:00 and came downstairs to a bright red sky over Long Point.  Unfortunately, my photo does not do much justice to the red which gradually faded away as it got close to the sunrise, and has now disappeared as has the sun, hidden behind clouds.  It's 42º, windy, and rain is expected later in the day.  I will have to see it to believe it.

We began yesterday with great kayak paddle across to Long Point on a lake like glass, no wind, no other boats, just our two kayak and a lake that seemed like it was ours.  This morning, it's windy, the lake rough, the sky gray and I have breakfast with the guys at 8:00, so it's no loss.  Yoga on Wednesdays is always good and I even received some positive feedback from Jen, our teacher.  It's always nice to be complimented even if it may be gratuitous.  I will take it.  I stopped at Ryder's Cup for a coffee and it was empty, perhaps because there was another barista at the counter.

When I got home, all was right in the world.  I heated up the previous days Indian chicken dinner, with rice and watched another episode of Game of Thrones, waiting for someone else to die.  I read somewhere that over the past six seasons, six to seven hundred people have been killed.  No wonder it's a popular series along with its obligatory 'skin.'  Sex and violence most certainly sells.  I then read some more of John O'Hara, set in the States during three days in 1930 and it's so strange to be back in this world of country clubs, booze, parties, infidelity, and the mob.  Things are soon going to fall apart I assume.

Evie spent most of the afternoon puttering around the yard, weeding and trimming, and made good progress.  As for me, I finally rose from my couch and did my good deed of the day.  I stood around in the front yard for at least a half an hour or more, watering our new grass areas.  I am getting pretty good at it, a result of lots practice

Hiking Above French Creek

We wanted to do something different on Wednesday, get out of the house, shake up our routine, so we drove off to the Clymer area, the French Creek Preserve, about a twenty five minute drive through rapidly greening farm lands.  We had walked it back in January when there was a dusting of snow. This time we took the right path, through open fields, then woods, set up above French Creek.  It was perfect hiking weather, in the high forties, so we really enjoyed this walk.  It's not strenuous, in fact, it was shorter than I remembered because we were out only forty five minutes.  That was enough, however, as we were happy to be on our way to one of our favorites, Pine Junction.  It's been renovated, with an amazing atrium, with a huge tree-like structure in the middle, acting as a column to hold up the roof.

Pine Junction's Atrium

We sat down at an empty bar and ordered our first beer of the day.  It was exceedingly quiet for the first 15 minutes before four guys from Buffalo, loud and boisterous, sat down, after a round of golf at Peak and Peek. They were in their 40's, all high school classmates, together for a day out.  They were fun to talk with and, of course, we had a connection.  When we started talking about where we were from, the most talkative asked if we knew David Dorson.  We did of course because he was teaching at Reserve at the same time as me.  Well, he dated David's daughter, Meredith, for four or five years. And of course, I taught her in AP English, knew that she was a pharmaceutical rep for my brother-in-law, and she was my son, Tom's, prom date senior year.  We had a good laugh about this connection. He seemed to like Meredith quite a bit and his buddies were on his case about losing her.  He, however, did well and married Cleveland Browns old coach, Sam Rutigliano's daughter, a coup I suppose.  They sent a picture of themselves to one of their high school teachers, and argued about the greatness of Paula's Donuts.

So they were amusing us as another guy sat down next to Evie.  He was also fun to talk with.  He lives in Edinboro, works for PNC bank, managing accounts for businesses, and also has a house on Findley Lake.  We are sure we have walked by his house on our around the lake walks.  I wish we had had more time to talk with him because he was easy to talk with and interesting.  Unfortunately, we did not get his name.  We both got burgers, Evie the Down Under, with mushrooms and cheese, me the Bourbon Burger, with cheese, bacon and a bourbon sauce.  We left about the same time as the guys from Buffalo.  A couple of them could hardly walk they were so sore from walking the hilly, some might say mountainous Peak and Peek Golf Course.

We had an easy ride home as it was starting to get dark.  We watched two more episodes of DICTE, the Danish series, then listened to some of Bobby Knight introduce Donald Trump, one dictator introducing another.  And we got a brief dose of Carly Fiorina, a perfect match for Ted Cruz.  Both are hard to look at,  and difficult to listen to, with their nasal, know it all voices.  They make Donald Trump look Trumpion.

Steam Rising On Chautauqua Lake On A Chilly Morning

6:03

6:27

7:15

I was awake at 5:30, cold, because Evie had taken the quilt.  What to do?  Chance waking her up by pulling the quilt over or just get up.  I pondered this for about five minutes and took the safer road, taken before, and just got up.  A good choice because it was another sparkling morning on the lake, the sun rose just above Long Point, a light blue morning sky, a single fishing boat just off the reeds, up early to catch his fish.  It's chilly, 32º out but I don't think there was a frost, at least I did not notice it.

Over Booked Martin Hotel

Yesterday's morning kayak paddle is becoming a happy routine. I still have two hours until I head to yoga and I cannot wait to get out on the lake even though it's going to be cold, just above freezing. And I just remembered that yesterday's paddle could have been in October as Long Point reminded me of the fall, barren trees, ground covered by fallen leaves and cool temperatures.  Strange to feel that way in late April.  I did head to yoga around 9:10, a 15 minute drive, to a better class, as our new teacher is getting more confident and introduced some positions I liked.  It was nice to see her happy at the end of class.  I stopped at the store to pick up a few things for our chicken tikka masala, or something approximated it, made with a Trader Joe's quick sauce.  When I  got home, Evie was firmly ensconced on the couch, working on Shutterfly, moving closer and closer to finishing up our photo book for the summer of 2015.  By 12:30, she had enough and gathered up her things, drove off to the gym, to work out, clear her head, and get ready to return home to finish off the book.  She can only concentrate for so long before things get fuzzy, confusing and she needs to come up for air.

Chestnut Hill Stairway, In Progress

I had lunch, tuna on a bagel and some ramen and started the new season of Game of Thrones.  I then read, took a brief nap, making sure I was up by 2:30 and drove off to Jamestown, for an appointment with the local dermatologist but I stopped at the Prenderghast Library before, picking up a couple of books.  My appointment went well, as he froze a number of areas, none dangerous.  And we talked about cross country skiing; he recommended a place just inside the Pennsylvania line called the Wilderness Lodge.  It's a cross country ski area, with rooms to stay overnight as well as a restaurant and a bar.  It's adjacent to Peak and Peek, and there is a fee of 17 bucks to cross country ski their woods.  It sounds like a neat place.  Doctors and I seem to always have something in common to talk about, ignoring for the most part, the reason I am there.

I was home just after 4:00 and Evie was back to working on the photo book, having first put together our Indian dinner.  She worked on it through wine time and took time off while we ate, a tasty and easy dinner, with rice and naan.  We then watched a series we started a couple of months ago but forgot about called DICTE, set in Denmark, as we follow a woman crime reporter.  We like it and like the fact that there are subtitles; we won't have to worry about understanding an English accent.  After finishing two episodes, Evie decided to order the book, had some trouble with finalizing it and ending up talking to a very helpful but foreign Shutterfly person and finally was able to order the book. Hallelujah...it's done for another year.  We then watched some of Hillary and Trump's responses to their overwhelming victories and that was enough politics for the night.  It's beginning to feel like every Tuesday evening is like Groundhog's Day.  I could not wait to get up to  bed and read.  I finished Philip Kerr's PRAGUE FATALE, loved it and started John O'Hara's, APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA, something quite different from the Bernie Gunther novels.

It's after 9:00 and Evie and I just returned from kayaking over to Long Point, skimming it's shoreline to the Marina and back to Chestnut Hill and home, a great way to start the morning.

Another Photo Of Long Point, The Lake, From Yesterday Morning

It Rained Some (Really)

7:33

7:54

8:25

A surprise to wake up to a wet yard as it did rain 'some' last night.  We needed it.  It's a neat morning of clouds, the kind an artist might attempt to paint, various shapes, colors and moods above a shimmering gray lake.  In the middle of the night, the wind suddenly picked up, waking both Evie and me,  and all I could think about were the chairs and table on our dock.  When I got up this morning to look, both chairs are now sitting at the bottom of the lake, the table still standing, the bench knocked over forward.  I guess we need heavier chairs on the dock.  It's 47º out and will not get much warmer, perhaps into the low 50's.

I should head out to kayak right now but I am too lazy.  That is, however, how I started yesterday and it alway feels good to be out on the lake, a solitary figure, cutting lines into a smooth lake's surface, the loneliness of an early morning paddler.  Afterwards, I went to Yin yoga in Lakewood, always a good class, led by our leader, Danielle.  She always has a nice touch, knows the right things to say or do.  Then on to Ryder's Cup, to say hi to the regulars, Dave, Joyce the barrista, Janice, her sister who was working at the bookstore, and their parents, always there for a cup of coffee and a bagel.  Nice people.  I then drove to Sam's to pick up our dinner, a rotisserie chicken, some salad, and I found a pair of rubberized garden shoes for 20 bucks.  They look and feel great and the are 'a deal.'  Then I stopped at the local Auto Zone to pick up a spray on detailer, so I don't have to wash the entire car to get off some bird doo.  Got to keep that Subaru shiny.

When I got home, Evie was organizing the upstairs and starting to think about what she needs for our trip West in a couple of weeks.  So I made my lunch, ramen and a leftover steak sandwich with horseradish and finished  (I know I said it finished it before) Game of Thrones, Season 1, and I am now ready for Season 2.  The rest of the afternoon, for Evie, was taken over by Shutterfly, the app where you can create your own photo album.  Each spring, she puts together an album from the previous summer and it's a vast undertaking.   For the first half of the book, she's putting together close to 100 pictures from our week in Topsail, North Carolina.  The second half, which she will work on later in the week, will be photographs of our family at the lake.  She did not stop working until 5:30, as she can get pretty obsessive with it by the end of the day.

Meanwhile, I did some reading, took a too brief nap, then decided to get some things done outside. So I washed our front windows, those looking at the lake, which should be done every couple of weeks to keep our view crystal clear.  It was surprisingly quick as I used a new spray rather than my preferred method, a squeegee, and it only took about 15 minutes.  I then got out a ladder and worked on cleaning off the roof of our garage, littered with branches leaves and moss.  I used both and rake and a broom and it looks much better but I will have to use something to kill the remaining moss.

As I mentioned, Evie finished up with Shutterfly around 5:30, so we adjourned to the couch for wine time, to relax and enjoy the view.  Dinner was rotisserie chicken, a salad, and burro russo, a pasta with a sauce of tomato paste, milk, butter, and sage.  The chicken, unfortunately, was not up snuff, a bit tough but we had lots of salad and pasta.  We decided to watched an award winning documentary called AMY, on the tragic life of the singer Amy Winehouse.  What a tragic and sad life, an unhappy childhood of divorced parents, a rebellious teen, into alcohol, guys, then drugs. A singing contract at 18, fame in her early 20's, a life on display because of papparazzi, more drugs and alcohol and at 25, a death from alcohol poisoning.

Well, I could not pass up a quick paddle over to Long Point and back.  The clouds were incredible, the sun peaking through the trees of Long Point a la Ansell Adams.

Long Point From My Kayak

Kayak Morning

A Calm, Quiet Monday Morning

6:00

6:49

6:50

I was up before 6:00, surprised to see threatening clouds and thundershowers predicted for later in the day.  At the moment, the sun has peaked out between the clouds and there is light off towards Bemus. The lake looks incredible, not a wrinkle, with various shades of light and gray, depending on the sunlight.  It's 47º and should warm up to the low 70's later in the day.

Kayak Morning

It was a pleasant morning to be out on the lake early, kayaking to Long Point and back to Wells Bay and home.  Lots of ducks cruising along the shoreline, quacking and flying away when I approached. And the martins are making a return, inhabiting a number of the houses along Victoria, still waiting for the Woodlawn martins.  It's nice to have them around, hearing their singing early in the morning.

Mallards

Lake Dead Fall

Yesterday was a typical Sunday for us and the weather was pleasant the entire day.  We had a leisurely morning, listening to NPR and reading on our devices.  We wanted to get a walk in and decided to stick with habit and walk the Chautauqua Institution.  It was perfect weather for a walk, as all we needed was a fleece. The trees and front yard gardens around here are still at an early stage, with little in flowering except for the daffodils.  I forget how early we still are in the spring season and our area is always later than Ohio.  There were actually a few people out like us, walking the streets of the CI.  We stopped and walked in and toured two homes that are being built, the only two we have noticed.  Both are interesting, though neither will be done in  time for the season.  And we stopped to talk with a couple from Pittsburgh, who have a small apartment on the grounds.  They were walking their two dogs, both Westies, Emma and Will.  I love other people's dogs.

We were home by 12:30 and had our big breakfast of eggs, bacon and bagels and instead of watching CBS Sunday, it was pleasant enough to eat breakfast our on our dock, as the wind cooperated.  It was great to finally have a meal al fresco.  We also cast a few lures, hoping to catch a perch or two but no luck.  After breakfast,  Evie began the process of putting together a photo album for the Summer of 2015 on Shutterfly.  I downloaded over 100 photos from our week in Topsail, so she's ready to start putting them in order.

Most of the afternoon, however, Evie spent outside working in the yard while I lounged inside, reading, napping and watching some basketball, a lazy sloth.  Evie cut both lawns, enjoying the exercise.  I finally got up off my couch to do some watering, as I was getting bored watching basketball.  And I washed our Outback, which had been bombarded by the birds over the past few days.  It's difficult to find a spot where it's safe from them.

Around 5:30, we had had enough and sat down to enjoy some wine and cheese, as the day slowly ended, the clouds began to arrive.  We were having steak for dinner, so I fired up the grill and cooked them outside around 7:00 and Evie put together a salad, sauteed some mushrooms, and made some potato pancakes from leftover mashed potatoes.  Dinner was delicious, what's not to like when you have a steak and salad.  We watched CBS Sunday Morning, then some Bill Maher because there is not much else on TV on Sunday nights.  We both miss not having a series to watch so we are going to have to start a new one.

Frost On A Sunny Morning

6:30

6:31

Up just in time to catch the sun rising over our dock, another bright and shiny morning on the lake.  A few guys are out fishing already, joining the raft of buffleheads in front of our house.  We did have a frost overnight; the car windows frozen though the lawn just seems wet.   I hope it does not effect the trees and plants around here.  We heard that the peach trees were starting to blossom, so let's hope this does not harm them like last year, when we had no local peaches.

Yesterday was overcast early, thwarting any idea of doing something in the morning, like kayaking and there was a heavy wind as well, so we stayed inside till late morning.  Evie put together our dinner, a  baked cauliflower and pasta dish.  And we straightened up the house, made sure all the trash was taken out before I drove to the Transfer Station, meeting my neighbor on the way.  It's quite a Saturday morning gathering spot because everyone has trash, local or weekender.

Vineyards Of Lake Erie

Around 11:00, we decided we wanted to do something despite the gray skies, so I suggested driving up to Barcelona, on Lake Erie, and going for a walk.  So that's what we did and it was a good idea, as just as we were heading down the Portage Trail, the sky opened up, the lake turned blue and we had sun the rest of the day.  We stopped at Noble Winery which was quite busy with a wine club, and number of women walking out to their cars with a case of wine.  The winery has a great view of the vast stretch of vineyards that stretched down to the blue of Lake Erie.

Chautauqua Creek Leading To Lake Erie

Driftwood And Evie

We then drove down to RT. 5 and parked next to the Chautauqua Creek bridge.  There's a path of around a quarter of a mile that follows the creek down to the outlet to Lake Erie.  A couple of guys were fly fishing for steelhead trout near the bridge.  The beach along Lake Erie was strewn with driftwood and lots of flat rocks, as if there had been a vicious storm.  We walked down as far as Zebros and back, as the wind was fairly strong, making it uncomfortable on the walk east.  We walked a couple of miles total, were out for an hour I would think.

A New Discovery...Cupcakes In Westfield

We then drove to Westfield, stopped at a nursery, hoping to pick up a plant, but they were not in yet. We then stopped at a cake shop which I passed a couple of days ago called Brandy's just off of the Westfield square.  It's a cute shop, a tiny building, and seems to be doing well.  When we walked in, a couple was sitting at a table, eating cake, trying to decide which they might want as a wedding cake. We bought two cupcakes to go and were disciplined enough to hold off eating them until late afternoon.

We did not get home until 2:00 and had passed on eating at Jack's because we both had in mind a leftover salmon salad, with avocadoes and hard boiled eggs for lunch.  Evie quickly put it together and we devoured it.  This salad is a good reason to have salmon for dinner, enough so that you have leftovers by the way.  We wanted to then relax and enjoy the sunny day but the wind was too strong to sit on the dock or kayak so we watched some TV or read much of the afternoon away.

Seaplane Landing Off Of Long Point

Around 5:30, it was wine and cheese time, which we were obviously looking forward to and as an added surprise, Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion was on live.  We thought he had retired so it was great to know he was still on the air.  It was a particularly interesting show because he was broadcasting from Austin, talked about the University of Texas at Austin where our grandson Mitch will matriculate next fall.  We stretched out wine time until around 7:00 when Evie popped the cauliflower and pasta into the oven for a half hour.  We both thought it was good, not great, a bit bland but we both had seconds.

And we watched Sarah Silverman's outstanding performance in I SMILE BACK, a tough movie to enjoy, about a Mom suffering from depression which lead to drug abuse and alcholism.  Silverman, usually a zany comedian, was amazingly convincing in a very serious role.  It's no wonder she was nominated by the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Actress.  The movie is an eye opening window into the world of  depression and it's not easy to watch.

We went to bed around 11:00, to a full moon over Chautauqua Lake

11:00

THE PATRIARCH: MARTIN WALKER

Another enjoyable Bruno the Detective novel and in this one, you better read it on a full stomach because if you don't, you will want to rush into the kitchen and make what Bruno and his buddies are having.  And, like me, you will want to get a basset hound like Bruno's Balzac.  The novel begins with a party to honor the Patriarch, Marco Desaiz, a famous fighter pilot during WWII, one of a few Frenchmen who flew for the Russians against Germany.  He is much admired by Bruno, who read about him when he was a boy.  Bruno is invited to the party by the Red Countess, who he saved in a previous novel.  She was one of the patriarch's many lovers. We also meet Madeleine, Marco's ambitious daughter in law, his son by his Russian mistress, Yevgeny, his grandchildren, and his best friend from the flying days, Gilbert.

Towards the end of the gathering, Bruno is called away because of a tragic car crash, a result of an overpopulation of deer on the property of one of the Green party members, Imogene, a neighbor and friend of Bruno's.  This necessitates Bruno making it clear to Imogene that the deer must be culled or she may have to move.  This is a minor theme of the story.  The next morning, however, Bruno gets called back to the Patriarch's estate because his good friend, Gilbert, has been found dead, from what everyone assumes is alcohol poisoning.  By the time Bruno gets there, his death has been pronounced an accident, his body taken away before Bruno can get organized, the body is cremated.

The quickness of all of this peaks Bruno's interest, and the rest of the novel follows his instincts, as he's right to assume there has been foul play, that someone has wanted Gilbert dead.  At first, it seems like it might have been his daughter because she inherits over two million euros.  But that is soon proven false, and the guilt soon falls on the patriarch himself because of his ties to Russia, the fact that some think he may have been their double agent.  This too ends up being a dead end.

Bruno finally settles on the beautiful, ambitious daughter in law of the Patriarch, up for a seat in the government.  He only comes to this conclusion after she has seduced him, then sent a rogue to his house to dispatch him with an axe.  Bruno fights him off, sends him to jail, and slowly comes to an understanding of why Madeleine wanted Gilbert dead.  Gilbert was her daughter's father and if this were made public, she would surely lose the election.  Thus, she felt she had to do away with Gilbert.

As in all the stories, Bruno has some love interest.  But in this novel, his relationship with Pamela, his neighbor, an expatriate from Scotland, comes to an end as she takes up with Jack Crimson, a retired spy from Great Britain.  Both she and Bruno realize it would not work out between them because Bruno wants a family and Pamela definitely does not.  So though they part, it hurts Bruno even though he knows it's for the best.

An Overcast Saturday Morning

Evie's First Perch Of Spring

6:41

Overcast skies when I rose at 6:20, a decent wind, a wrinkled lake and 41º, as it looks like it will cool off for the next few days.  It may clear up later in the day, but I am not counting on it.  We have a full weekend ahead of us with no plans.  Let's see what the day will bring.

Yesterday began with coffee, writing my blog, then a quick paddle on a calm lake but gray morning. We were hoping for rain and it was predicted but we got just a whisper although when I went to yoga, it looked like there had been a cloud burst in Lakewood.  Yoga was interesting, as our teacher is a novice, very unsure of herself, so I felt like I had to be supportive of her rather than the other way around.  She is a little younger than me, very nice, wants to do well, but lacks confidence,  always asking is this ok.  On my way home, it looked like it had rained again but when I got to Woodlawn, the roads were dry, so we had missed most of the rain.  Evie, however, had been busy in the yard and had done some watering from the lake, on the newly seeded areas of our lawn.  She also made sure to water the two new trees we planted last fall.  They seem to be doing well.

I had a couple of schnitzel sandwiches for lunch, with the leftover pork, and watched the final episode of Games of Throne, Season 1.  Unfortunately, the one character I liked, the only seemingly good guy in the entire realm, was beheaded in the last scene, quite a surprise as I thought he would be a major player in the ensuing seasons.   Evie took off for the gym around 1:30, did some shopping and I did some reading, tried to sit out on the dock but it was too chilly.  So I came inside, read and took a nap, watched a few minutes of the NBA playoffs before getting bored.

Evie was home at 4:00 and though she stopped at T. J. Maxx, she did not buy another pot.  Just another quilt for our beds, which makes it perhaps quilt #9, as we have an attic full of quilts from my Mom, sister, nieces, and our kids.  Since it was a Friday,  TGIF even though we are retired, neither of us felt like fussing in the kitchen so we drove off to Steeners Irish Pub since we haven't been there in a couple of months.  We knew it would be busy, tried to time it so the after work drinkers would be about ready to leave the bar.  It was a little early, however, as the bar was still packed, though we were able to garner a seat for Evie, then I pulled over a stool from another area.  So we were happy to be sitting at the bar once again, hoping to strike up a conversation.  Everyone, however, seemed to be drinking with friends, so we were stuck with talking with each other.  Horrors.  We ordered beers, then looked through the specials.  Evie ordered a portabella sandwich with bruchetta which ended up mediocre.  I risked a heart attack and ordered, for the first time I can remember, their homemade french fry basket with five bean chicken chili and cheese.  It turned out to be big enough for two or three people although I did a pretty good job of it.

Fries Smothered In Chili And Cheese

And just as we ordered, the friends who introduced us to Steeners Pub, Barb and Dana Johnson, walked in and sat down with us.  Evie was happy.  We got to know them last spring when Barb painted our upstairs bedrooms.  They are a fun couple, both residents of the area all their lives.  The last time we saw them, in February, was at the Viking Club, when their grandchildren were up from Florida to visit.  We talked with them for a good forty five minutes, trying to get bites of our dinners in between the talk.  It was a fun way to end the evening.  We finally headed home around 8:30 as I had had enough of my fries, chili and cheese.

At Steeners With Barb and Dana Johnson

We were happy to be home, threw on our sweats, settled down to watch some TV and have another piece of raspberry pie with ice cream, the best.  We watched a couple of week's old CBS Sunday Morning and I was surprised to see a section on one of my English students from Western Reserve Academy, Sonia Vallabh, being interviewed with her husband.  They have a tragic but also amazing story.  A few years ago Sonia found out she carried a gene which doomed her to Prion disease, a rare form of Alzheimer's and death by 50.  Neither she nor her husband accepted this.  So even though she had just gotten her law degree and he had a great job, they both quit their jobs, enrolled at Harvard and got degrees in biology and now work in a lab at Broad Institute in Boston, doing research into a cure for her disease.  What a couple and inspiring story.  

Sonia And Her Husband

A Prince Of A Morning

Northern Sky at 6:26

Northern Sky at 6:30

6:45

7:17

It looks like the weather gods cannot make up their minds.  It's cloudy, a gun metal gray sky to our east, but some open skies and light to the north.  We hardly got more than a drizzle overnight, alas, and it does not look like we will get much rain today although we need it.  The lake is calm, untouched except for some ducks bobbing for vegetation, a few seagulls flying by, some purple martins swooping back and forth to their houses.  It's nice to have them back, to wake up to their sounds.  Well, it's now 8:45 and I just returned from a quick paddle down to Whitney Bay and back. Wouldn't it be nice if I could get a paddle in early each morning before yoga?

Northern Flicker Ground Feeding This Morning

Yesterday was our first overcast day in awhile, what we call Chautauqua gray.  Neither of us minded as we had things to do.  I went to a good yin yoga class, came away feeling energized after a few days of mojo-lacking.  When I drove in our yard, the sky and lake were gray but calm, so I quickly put on my life jacket and took a quick paddle down to Wells Bay and back, just to get in some exercise and enjoy being on the water for a half hour.  After kayaking, I had an easy lunch, a pork schnitzel sandwich with mayo and tomatoes.  Yum.  And I watched the final episode of Season 1 of Game of Thrones.  I am beginning to follow the plot.  At 1:30, I drove to Erie, to get an oil change at the Honda dealer.  I figure once a year it's worth it to have them check the car over carefully.   It took forty five minutes to get there, an hour wait for the car, and I came home via Rt 20 and Westfield, stopping at Portage Pies for a raspberry pie, so I did not get home until around 4:30.  It was worth the extra miles to get a pie.  I asked about their plans for a coffee and pie shop.  They have bought the building, in between Key Bank and the Diner on Main Street and renovation will start this summer though they are in no hurry.

A Raspberry Pie From Portage Pie, Westfield, NY

When I got home, Evie was still off shopping for bargains at T. J. Maxx and Wegman's and came home excited because she had found a 'great pot,' yes a pot, like we need another pot.  It was made in Germany, by Fissler and appears to be a high end product.  My wife has a fetish for pots, beer glasses, and small bowls.  It could be worse.

How Bout This Pot!

Since it was almost 5:00, we decided it was wine time and Evie got busy in the kitchen, prepping the salmon, making garlic spinach, and cooking the rice, in her new pot of course.  We ate around 6:30 and all was great, nothing like a marmalade/balsalmic/mustard/crushed red pepper glazed salmon with rice and garlic spinach.  We watched the next episode of a tension filled The Americans.  We cannot wait until next week.  This is a great series.  We then tried to watch the second season of a British police show called Happy Valley but gave up after a half hour because we cannot understand the strong British accent.  How frustrating.  So we watched an exceptionally profane Real Time with Bill Maher as he took on organized religion and churches, arguing they should pay taxes like any other institution. His argument: 22% of Americans are non believers, so why should their taxes support an institution they don't believe in.  Atheism and marijuana legalization seem to be his shtick.  We ended the night with Chopped before going up to bed.

I am not sure what today will bring other than yoga at 9:30...the rest of the day is open.