Sunny Days Are Here Again

Dahlia Daze

6:53

7:18

7:36

I woke late, just before 7:00, to a blinding sun, filling the lake, the living room, the sky, with its welcome light.  Clouds have hidden it much of the last few days, so it was a welcome sight to wake up to it this morning, even if I missed its rise over Long Point.  And it looks like a a few days of sun, no rain predicted till Thursday, not too hot, just perfect days on the lake.

Another Dahlia

Yesterday was not your typical weekend Saturday, more like a work day for both of us.  We were determined to get some things done, both outside and in and even though we did not get to finishing up the attic, we did get our yard in order so that by 6:00, we were happy to sit down, admire our yard and a have a Manhattan, cheese and crackers, hummus and pita chips.

Our biggest effort went into to skimming a strip of grass along our parking area, enlarging it, then putting down newspapers as a temporary block to weeds, then covering the newspapers with pea gravel, at least an inch thick. Once this was done, Evie placed the painted rocks done by our kids and grandkids over the past few summers, framing the parking area and garden.  It's a bit tacky but cool too because it's grandchildren art.  Anyways, we and many of our neighbors seem to like it.

Once that was done, it was time to hit the Transfer Station, first with an SUV full of mostly cardboard boxes from our attic, the second time, filled with trash from the week and leftover floats that no longer hold air.  The guys were surprised to see me a second time.  When I returned I had lunch, leftover spaghetti, and meatballs and tried to nap but once again, could not fall asleep.  Where did my nap making skills go?  So, while I was trying to nap, Evie was manicuring her garden.

I finally gave up trying to nap around 2:00 and went out to set up a water system for our lawn, bushes, and garden.  I hang a sump pump off our dock, so it sits in the water, attach two or three hoses to it, then run an electrical cord to our porch, and viola, with have water, for our trees, our shrubs and bushes, and privets.  While I was setting this up then moving the hose after five minutes, Evie was powering up the mower and cutting the lawn.  This took her a good hour because of having to move the hose occasionally.

6:35

We were not sure what to do about dinner, whether to go out or just stay home and enjoy 'the best if not one of the best views of the lake.'  It won us over, so we ordered a pizza from Coppola's in Bemus, to make dinner easy and I picked it up around 5:30, lucky to find a parking space as Bemus was busy.

Cocktail Hour

By 6:30, we were enjoying drinks on our porch, the appetizers, and the views.  We could have sat out there all night but the smell of pizza brought us in for dinner.

7:53 Pizza Time

We followed for a while the terrible news of what had happened in Charlottesville. Ironically, our daughter Jill and her husband Drew were celebrating their anniversary in Charlottesville Saturday but they smartly stayed out of the city, enjoying the surrounding wine country.  We ended the news with more outrageousness from Bill Maher but he, fortunately, surrounds himself with really smart and interesting people.  This week it was Richard Dawkins, Fareed Zakaria, Jon Meecham and Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory before going up to bed.

A Final Bloom