After The Fourth

Fourth Of July Picnic With Our Neighbors

Early Morning Visitors: 6:11

6:15

6:27

6:30

7:07

 I woke just after 6:00 to another spectacular morning sky and a family of geese on our lawn.  After walking towards them they reluctantly fell into the water and paddled away as I took photograph after photograph of the sky.  It's mornings like this that I am glad I get up early.  It's like being in an art museum, like Monet's waterlilies series.  It's after 9:00, I have just returned from a half hour paddle and am eating breakfast as Evie's picks out photos and edits the blog before publishing.  At 9:40, I will head off to yoga, then Wegman's, again, as I forgot a few items from yesterday.

Kayak Morning

Yesterday, the 4th of July, was classic, sunny, windy and warm most of the day, perfect for boating, swimming, picnics and ending with fireworks.  No yoga, of course, but after an hour long kayaking, I picked up my smartphone with my Wegman's list and drove off to Wegman's, to join the mass of shoppers who, like me, waited until the last minute to shop for a fourth of July picnic.  Idiots, all of us.  My list was fairly extensive as we are having my sister and brother in law over for a couple of days, so I slogged from aisle to aisle, trying to find things like Rolos which Evie wanted to put inside of marshmallows later in the day, a kind of self contained smores.  I did find a fairly small check out line, the upside of shopping yesterday.  When I got home, Evie was out on the dock, after cutting the lawn, fishing, hoping to catch a perch, fat chance.  We put away all the groceries and decided to go for a cruise before the lake got too busy and choppy.  So we cruised over to Bemus and back, trying to avoid some of the weed patches in the lake.  The lake seems to be pretty bad in some areas, so I have to be careful not to get them caught in the outboard.

Neighbors And Their Cousins

The Pensive Chief

Bean Baggers, Isabelle And Evie

For lunch, I had a leftover burger, heated it up in the microwave and it was not bad.  I watched SPIRAL until I joined our neighbors, Bill, Joyce, and family, for a picnic.  We sat around much of the afternoon, playing bean bag, grazing on appetizers, and listening to their amusing cousin Laurie, entertain all of us with her stories.  Both Evie and I took timeouts, Evie to swim with Barnie for a good half hour, playing ball, and me, to just cool off and get my mojo back.  After two beers and the heat, I needed a wake up call.   Around 5:30, David and I grilled the burgers and hotdogs, to accompany Evie's potato and tomato salad, Kathy's tabbouleh, Chris's baked beans, and a cucumber and tomato salad.  So we feasted on a typical Fourth of July fare, and I was happy to just have a couple of hot dogs, with Ted's sauce, a  Buffalo hot dog classic.

Not Quite Ready

La Lennys

Mom And Daughter

We were all tired from the afternoon festivities, the food, the beers and did not see how we could make it until 10:00 when everyone puts out flares around the lake.  But we managed, as Kathy built a fire in the fire pit and we roasted marshmallows, talked, played more bean bag until the fireworks began.  We lit the flares, watched the fireworks at Bemus and from neighbors on both sides of our houses before we decided around 10:30 we had enough of the 4th, cleared the tables and went home to sleep.  It was a good day.

Flares And Bonfires at 10:00 PM