Gray Skies, Threatening Rain

7:47

7:55

Ever since I got up at 6:00, it's been overcast, feeling like the rain is coming.  It's now 7:30 and its not arrived yet, perhaps in a hour.  There is a nice southerly breeze coming in our front window, heralding another warm day in the 80's, made worst by the thundershowers and humidity.  This evening we are attending the Infinity Visual And Performing Arts Benefit in Jamestown and like last year, it looks like rain. It's a wonderful program which offers free music and performing arts lessons for young people and we try to attend each year. For ten dollars apiece, we get to hear 24 local bands at various venues, Bars, Restaurants, Parks, Squares, Garages, and Coffee shops, from 6:00 to 2:00 in the morning.  Also, the annual Chalk Walk was supposed to be today but has been postponed until tomorrow, Sunday, because of the forecast of rain.

Infinity Music

Yesterday was slightly different from our usual day.  I started the morning with coffee and my blog but also got in a nice kayak paddle, just as the sun was breaking through the cloud cover.  I then drove to yoga and on the way home, stopped at the Smith Library, in the Chautauqua Institution, and picked up three books, which should take me through the next few weeks.  And I checked on the demolition of the old Amphitheater, which is coming along quickly.  By September 20th, they should have the whole thing down.  At the moment, most of the roof still stands although the east end is demolished.  What a project.

Demolition Begins

When I got home, Evie and our neighbor,  Joyce, were off looking for plants and bushes, at Art Samples in Ashville.  He's a good guy and we have gotten both of our new trees from him.  They came back with some grasses, privets and rhododendrons and lots of milkweed seeds for next years monarch butterfly garden.  The rest of the afternoon went as always, with Evie on the dock, enjoying a cooling breeze, reading, and me inside, reading, then napping, then joining her on the dock when it cooled off a  bit.

Around 5:30, we helped our neighbors with some planting and tried to decide whether to get cleaned up and go out for dinner for a fish fry, or just stay home and eat leftovers.  We stayed home, the right choice and had a Western omelet, leftover twice baked potatoes and a salad and it was just right.  We watched an older French film, Amelie, fun and very French but a bit too long.

We are going out to breakfast this morning at the Stedman Corners Coffee shop, meeting friends, the Austins from Erie, and Gregorys, who will be heading back to North Carolina in a few days.  And as I finished my blog, NPR's Weekend Edition had a brief feature on my favorite childhood book, Betty MacDonald's MRS. PIGGLE WIGGLE.  Her granddaughter is updating the book, making it more modern though she suggests the stories are universal, like kids who won't pick up their clothes or wash.  It was good to hear that these stories have not disappeared, are still relevant.