Morning In Black And White

7:08

8:25

It's 7:20 and a light snowfall creates a whiteout,  our maple tree the only black amidst the white.  So far, I have not seen a fishing hut on the vast whiteness of this morning.  It's not as cold as yesterday, already a 22º and we should get a couple inches of snow during the day.

Yesterday was another cold morning, the temperatures stuck in the teens most of the day.  My car was snow covered, the windows froze once again, so it took me five minutes to get ready for yoga.  Class was good, lots of variety and not too many people.  I left feeling relaxed, ready for the rest of the day.  Because we had gotten a couple inches of snow overnight and Shane had cleared our road, it took me at least 15 minutes to shovel our parking area and disperse the wall the snowplow makes along our parking area.  It's the same kind of thing a snowplow makes when it passes by anyone's driveway, blocking them in with a foot or more of snow. 

We knew we had to visit our Amish upholsterer one more time to pick out a material for our porch furniture.  We decided to get it over with after I returned from yoga, so we drove a half hour along snow-covered roads to Raymond's house, a farm nestled among pines, with the laundry flying high from house to barn.  Raymond was eating lunch, so we browsed while he finished and we finally decided on a color and cloth, no easy matter with hundreds of choices.  It was good to get this done.

An Amish Clothes Dryer

We were home by 1:00, in time for Evie to make me an egg salad sandwich and heat up the squash soup for lunch.  I watched the beginning of Season 2 of Bloodline and though Danny is gone, his son has appeared, as sinister as Danny.  And so the saga continues, of guilt and fear.  We did not do much the rest of the day and even though it was decent weather for cross-country skiing, I stayed in, napping, reading and watching some TV and feeling guilty. 

We met friends, Julie and Tom, for dinner at Bellini's, the lounge in Chautauqua Suites.  They have nightly specials and Tuesday night is six dollar burger night, a dollar more with fries.  It was surprisingly crowded and friends told us that sometimes they have to wait in line to get a table.  Everyone likes a deal. 

Burgers and Travel Stories

Both Julie and Tom grew up on Woodlawn/Victoria, so they had great stories to tell about the good old days.  Julie teaches yoga and Tom is an avid bowhunter and fisherman.  They live on 40+ wooded acres, with a pond and lots of woods, a great hideaway in Chautauqua Country.  They are also great travellers, so we spent a good amount of time talking about their trips West the past couple of years, the first to Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona and Southern Utah's Zion and Bryce Canyons in Spring.  This past Fall they hit Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, the Black Hills, etc.  And like us, they like to drive, taking their time and hiking, not just looking and moving on.  Julie does the planning, finding great places to stay, months ahead of their trip.  We left filled with wanderlust.  As for the food, all four of us had burgers, what else, a large family style salad and both were great.  We will be back for sure.

We got home around 8:30, in time to watch a couple of episodes of Divorce and Vice News before bed.