A Gray, Quiet Morning On The Lake

7:02

7:47

It's a very gray morning as the morning sky begin to waken, a vivid contrast with my photographs from late yesterday afternoon.  It's 38º and should stick around that temperature most of the day.  I want to kayak but it does not look too inviting at 7:20.  I have been up since 6:00, listening but not really listening to Morning Joe...it's  becoming elevator music, the same tune over and over again.  I just noticed a touch of rose is beginning to gather over Tom's Point, as the sun begins to powder the morning's face. 

Yesterday at 4:49 PM

I did get out this morning on the lake, as it was calm, perfect for a paddle over to Long Point, back to Sandy Bottom and home.  Earlier, I did hear duck hunters out, their shotguns, but they were not near me, not in the weeds like a month ago.  I did scare off some coots and finally saw a raft of mallards, thus the duck hunters still out on the lake.

Kayak Morning

Mallard Couples

I started Thursday morning with a breakfast with the guys at the Bemus Point Inn and it was good to catch up on the goings in the neighborhood.  And yesterday was another day of catching up, getting things done that needed to be done after a three-week hiatus, like pay the bills online, write a check or two.  As for Evie, she has been catching up on the wash, on making sure all the bedrooms had clean sheets, the rooms in order.   Around 10:30, I had some errands to run so Evie made up another list for me at Wegman's.  So I drove off to Greenhurtst and stopped at Peterson's Farm Market to pick up the 50 pounds of sunflower seeds I ordered for our bird feeders.  I then drove to downtown Jamestown, stopped in at the Viking Club's Jamestown office and paid my eight seven dollar dues to the club, the annual fee to enjoy their lakefront club.  Afterwards, I picked up a coffee at a new coffee shop on 3rd Street that I would like to see make it in a difficult area.  So far, so good.  It was then on to Wegman's, again, and fortunately, it was not very busy so I was in and out in 20 minutes.  My penultimate stop was Aldi's, to pick up the proverbial Christmas ham.  My last stop was the bank, to make sure I have enough cash for Saturday's journey to the Empty Bowls fundraiser in Dunkirk.  We like to attend when in town and the proceeds go to the area's food pantry. 

4:36

4:41

Lunch was a couple of hot dogs, made healthy no doubt by my use of Stadium Mustard.  I then fell asleep reading my Longmire novel and woke up refreshed, not always the case.  The rest of the afternoon we both stayed inside because it had clouded up and started to drizzle until around 4:30 when the sky suddenly changed, the sun broke through, and the lake started to change colors.  I ended up taking lots of photographs on and off for a half hour as the sky and lake, their colors blurred, continued to change. 

4:49

4:50

Around 6:00, it was wine time and we enjoyed it, listened to Evie's list of favorite tunes with some cheese and crackers.   Around 7:15, Evie sauteed some mushrooms and grilled two steaks on our grill pant and pulled the baked potatoes out of the oven.  Dinner was great, the steaks perfectly done, covered with soy and butter flavored mushrooms. It's difficult to grill steaks so they are done just right and last night was one of those nights.  We have yet to find a series we want to start so we watched the usual suspects, CNN and MSNBC, with Colbert and This Is Us and Vice News.