A Sunny Spring Saturday

Dusk In Lakewood, NY

7:14

7:15

7:55

 Right now, at 7:30, the living room is filled with welcome sunlight, the lake filled with the sun's reflection. When I got up at 6:20, I went out to pick up the newspaper on a 26º morning and the car windows frosted.

7:55

We did not do much yesterday, a too often heard refrain lately.  Because we were going out for a Friday night fish fry, we did not need to worry about dinner, to Evie's delight.  So we had a long coffee hour until I got bored and decided to put together a bread dough I read about on the NYTimes, guaranteeing a crusty product, easy to make.  So I added the water, yeast and salt to six cups of dough and let it rise for five hours, then put it in the refrigerator and will attempt to bake it this morning.  Supposedly, I can leave the dough in the refrigerator for up to two weeks and it will still be good.

The Bell Tower At The Chautauqua Institution

That was it for my morning work.  Evie was busy much of the day, however, with Google photos, like yesterday, trying to finish updating the photos in the album from the 1980's and 1990's. Evie wanted a package mailed, so at 11:30, I drove to the Chautauqua Institution, intending to browse the library, mail the package and take a walk.  Unfortunately, the library was closed but the post office was open.  And I took a walk around the north end of the Institution, varying my walk so that I did not take the same path I usually take.  It was a good choice, and I intend on doing it more often, as too often we get locked into a rut or routine, as simple as taking the same walk each week.

Chautauqua Institution's Smith Library

Lunch was leftover chicken wings from Wednesday night at Steeners.  I put them on a try, cranked the oven up to 350º, left them in for 15 minutes and they were just about as good as Wednesday night.  I also had some cauliflower soup although it might not go gastronomically with chicken wings but my stomach does not care.  The rest of the afternoon was the same, books, TV, a nap and occasionally taking a photograph of the lake.

We left for dinner at 5:30, stopping at a furniture store to look for a kitchen stool.  The sales people seemed clueless and it was up to Evie to find three or four stools.  The only one we thought might work was expensive so we held off, preferring to keep looking.  We then drove to the Rod And Gun Club, knowing it would be packed.  We walked in, however, just to see if we could find a seat but the bar was two deep and we would have an hour and a half wait for a table.  So we drove off to The Main Landing in Celeron, set on the lake.  It was quite a contrast to the Rod and Gun because we were the only ones at the bar, the restaurant 2/3 full.  We had a couple of beers, ordered a decent fish fry with french fries, and talked on and off with the owner.  This is probably the fourth time we have been there. We would have preferred the Rod and Gun but The Main Landing was fine.

Full Moon

We drove home in the twilight, stopping to take photographs of the amazing sky and the full moon.  We had enough time to watch some Colbert and another episode of OCCUPIED before going up to bed to read.

Sleet And Slush

Black Capped Chickadee With Peanut

8:04

It's 8:15 and I have just gotten around to starting my blog although I have been up since 7:00.  Evie has just joined me and it looks like another gray, foggy and wet day at the lake.  Not a very 'good' Friday weatherwise.

A Breakfasting Goldfinch

Thursday was what I started calling, mid-morning, a coyote ugly day, slush, dirt, rain, potholes, and fog.  So to liven up our day, and this is as bad as it gets, we decided to go shopping at the one store we do not particularly like or support, Walmart. With Sam's Club gone, we thought we would give it a try and went with a list.  And to both of our surprise, it wasn't that bad.  We bought 35 bucks worth of dahlias, a kitchen mat, heavy cream, fennel bulb,  food storage containers, post-it notes, two squirt bottles, hair clips, a three-ring binder and four spiral memo pads for eighty-seven cents.  We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons (without) the sun.  It was good therapy and we went home happy with our morning.  Of course, before hitting Walmart, we stopped at Ryder's Cup, said aloha to Joyce, bought a coffee and a carton of organic eggs and stopped at the bank for more cash.

Because I had a big breakfast, I was not that hungry so I just had a tasty bowl of cauliflower soup and watched my show.  Evie, however, got busy in the kitchen.  I had mentioned that Milanese chicken with a fennel/arugula salad sounded good to me.  So Evie had thawed a couple of chicken cutlets, spread egg/mustard on them, then dusted them with panko bread crumbs and made a salad dressing, so that all was ready for our dinner.

Afternoon Of Fog

It was not much of an afternoon, a drizzle outside, a fog-bound Long Point.  We watched some of the news, read, and had our wine time, as we continue to go through dating some of our early photographs on Google Photos.  We have ended up texting my sister, Evie's sister, and our good friend Vickie to get some idea when some of our photos were taken, especially those from the 1980's and early 1990's.  It drives us crazy at times because we are not sure of many dates and just have to guess.

Wine Time

By 6:30, we had enough and Evie put together our dinner, frying up the chicken cutlets till they had a nice crisp, putting together the salad and roasting asparagus for 10 minutes. I helped by grating parmesan cheese on the asparagus.  We then plated the cutlets, topped it with the salad, and added asparagus to the plate.  Dinner was about as good as it gets.  We both loved the chicken topped with salad and though we thought we might have enough for another dinner, it never happened because we both went back for seconds and me for thirds.  Our TV began with the first episode of this year's final season of The Americans.  It's a couple years later than the previous season, as Glasnost and Gorbachev are beginning to bring great change to the Soviet Union and division between Elizabeth and Phillip.  Music or more accurately song (Peter Gabriel's 1986 song "We Do What We Are Told") seems to play a much bigger role in this episode, especially in regard to Elizabeth.

Fog Bound Again

7:04

I was up at 6:30, to another foggy morning.  It's warming up for a day,  43º already, perhaps snow tomorrow.  Because of the fog, there's no striking sunrise to photograph, just a blanket of gray.  It's not my favorite kind of morning.

Yesterday was gray, wet and foggy much of the morning, some in the afternoon, with the sky opening up some mid-afternoon, so it was nice enough for me to get outside and start picking up branches and twigs since the last time I did it, about a month ago when we had a brief respite in the cold weather and snow. Obviously, it did not last long.

Around 11:00, I finally got my good old Honda Accord out of the garage, after sitting in it for most of the winter.  It fired right up and I was off to Lakewood, stopping at Ryders Cup for a coffee to fortify me for the next hour of shopping.  I stopped at the bank because Evie had taken all my cash the day before to pay for her haircut (Jaret only takes cash).  I then hit Evans Wine for a couple of bottles of sauvignon blanc, our favorite white, five bucks cheaper for a 1.5-liter bottle than the wine store in Mayville.  I then went to Aldi's because the Wednesday ad had just arrived and Evie checked it over, picking out a few things we might want.  This time it was dahlia bulbs (two for $1.70) which seemed awfully cheap compared to buying them online from a nursery.  I am sure they are not top 50 which can be quite expensive.  I ended up with only four bulbs and something I seem to buy every spring, a Queen Air Bed With Pump, making sure we are ready for the arrival of families in July.  As a lark, on my way home, I stopped at Walmart and found a large assortment of dahlia bulbs, also at reasonable prices.  I called Evie and we decided we would both go there this morning and pick out a few more for her garden.

2:30 PM

When I got home, Evie had just finished making another favorite soup, an Indian spiced cauliflower and potato soup.  And she had bacon frying so that we could have both soup and BLT's for lunch.  I was a happy husband.  I watched my show, then read some an took another nap, following the advice of Ariana Huffington. I am enjoying my Longmire novel, so it was a good way to spend the rest of the afternoon.

Afternoon Fog Rising

We decided in the morning that wings sounded good and we knew that Steener's Irish Pub had wing night on Wednesdays.  So we drove over to Greenhurst at 6:00, stood around the bar drinking a beer for about 10 minutes before we found two seats at the bar.  The bar and restaurant were both crowded, wing night right.  We settled on smoked wings, then flash fried, then grilled with a sweet barbecue sauce.  They were great, no grease like they had been fire grilled.  We ordered a double, too much, but I  will have the leftovers for lunch. And Evie's was extremely happy because they have hand-cut fries, the best around.  We sat at the bar talking with Bill Steener, the owner, a proud hockey parent because his son's team won the State Championship.  We were home just after 8:00, in time to watch Vice News, Colbert, and another episode of our Norwegian political thriller OCCUPIED.  By 11:00, I was upstairs, happy in our bed, reading my Longmire book.

Foggy Dawn (Bucovina, Romania)

7:10

7:54

It's 7:30 and I have been up for an hour, waiting for the fog to lift to no avail.  I can just see to the lake's edge, Long Point invisible, just our hulking trees are apparent.  It's warming up, 38º, probably the reason for the morning fog.  When I walked outside, I could hear somewhere in the gray the honking of what I assume is the return of Canadian geese.

Yesterday was one of those miserable spring/winter days here at the lake, a wintry mix earlier, a gusty wind most of the day, gray skies, melting snow and puddles everywhere.  So it was a good morning, day, in fact, to just hang out in the house.  Evie, however, had to be up and out by 9:15, for a hair appointment in Lakewood, then a big shopping at Wegman's because it was Senior Citizen's Day, a 5% discount on groceries.  As a result, I had an unusual morning, all alone so to speak, an empty house with nothing but a few dishes to do. So I did something unusual; I turned off the internet and for the rest of the morning, I was unable to use my computer, phone or TV.  The house was quiet, soundless, as the usual sounds of Michael Smerconish on Sonos were quelled.  I have to admit I enjoyed the silence, the discipline I showed by not turning on the TV or computer for a couple of hours.  What did I do?  I finished my book and thought about life (just kidding), waiting for Evie to get home.

By noon, I had enough of being a Luddite and plugged the power cord back in the outlet and the wifi and TV quickly lit up and I was back into the 21st century.  Evie returned around 12:15, the car groaning with bags of groceries.  I helped unload the car and let Evie put things away because my lunch of a toasted cheese sandwich and a can of clam chowder soup were ready.  So I watched another episode of La Mante, ate my lunch, while Evie put away groceries and reorganised the already crowded pantry.

The rest of the afternoon went quickly and neither of us had any desire to go outside.  I started a new book, William Johnson Longmire novel, napped, and joined Evie as we watched some of the breaking news about Stormy Daniels.  Just kidding.

Dusk

We had a glass of wine after I made dinner.  I brought in the slow cooker from the porch, plugged it into the wall socket, hit the button and warmed up our previous leftovers from a corned beef dinner.  Evie made a salad and that was dinner, more cabbage, potatoes, carrots and corned beef.  We watched a new series called TRUST on FX, about the J. Paul Getty family and the kidnapping of Getty's grandson.  We ended the night with Vice News and Occupied and some home improvement programs, a night of viewing variety.

A Bit Of Nostalgia:  Bucovina, Romania, An Amazing Group of Painted Orthodox Churches (the Interiors Are Plain). By the way, we could not find a campground so the Mayor took us to a family farm, where we slept under eiderdowns, kids bathed in a wooden tub heated by a wood fire, and they fed us all for about five dollars.  We were probably 10 miles from Russia.

Exterior Frescoes, Summer, 1973

THE WIFE BETWEEN US: GREER HENDRICKS & SARAH PEKKANEN

As the title suggests, this is a book about a marriage gone bad, really bad.  It's a thriller with many twists and turns, perhaps one too many but I kept reading.  Vanessa (or Nellie) seemed to have met the perfect man, considerate, wealthy, handsome, and loving.  We get to see the wooing and the marriage through Vanessa's eyes.  And as always, she is not who we think she is.  Nor is her husband, in fact, no one in the novel with the exception of Vanessa's Aunt is what they seem to be.  To find out what I mean, read on.

Wet And Windy

The Easter Bunny

7:36

7:40

 It's a gray, wet and gusty morning, the bird feeders hitting against the house, tree branches waving.  It's 37º and we are both up at 7:45, thinking about what today will bring.  Weather wise, we will have a wintry mix this morning, rain the rest of the day. 

Monday was a classic early spring day, lots of sunshine, occasional wind, the temperature in the 40's, perfect for a walk outdoors.  I was up and out of the house by 7:30 because I had an appointment for a test in Westfield.  It took me longer to check in then to take the test!  Afterwards, since I was in Westfield, I drove down to the Barcelona beach and had breakfast at an empty Jack's Barcelona Drive-In. 

Painted Rocks At Jack's

Three or four locals walked in while I was eating and sat at what seemed like the local roundtable.  They all seemed to know each other.  I had a couple of eggs, my favorite, hash browns not home fries, and toast with homemade jam.  A good way to start my morning.  Earlier, I noticed that Jack's was advertising a local artist who painted Lake Erie rocks.  I was struck by their colors and originality enough to buy a bunch for presents and to act as examples for our families rock painting each summer. 

Fly Fishing For Steelheads

Chautauqua Creek

The Mouth Of Chautauqua Creek

When I walked outside, the sun was bright, the lake still frozen, a striking white with blue out beyond the ice.  I decided to park next to the  RT. 5 bridge over Chautauqua Creek, and take the quarter mile walk down to the beach, along the creek.  A fly fisherman was near the bridge when I started out, fishing for steelheads but did not seem to have much luck.  The beach was littered with an amazing amount of driftwood, some logs forty feet long, a result of the power of a winter storm.  And the beach, usually sand, was mostly stone and rocks of all sizes.  My daughter Beth would have loved walking it with me, looking for the perfect rock to paint. 

Driftwood On The Beach

 Frozen Lake Erie Ice Volcanoes

A Beach Of Stones

After my walk, I wondered if any waterfowl, perhaps swans, were in Barcelona Harbor.  I found a still frozen harbor, however, with guys out fishing on the frozen water of Lake Erie.

Barcelona Lighthouse

Fishing In Barcelona Harbor

Finished For The Morning

I drove home, hoping Portage Pie would be open in Westfield but it was closed.  I stopped, then, at the Westfield Library, to inquire about rock painting classes and found out there would be a class on April 4th.  I didn't get home until after 12:00, to a wife in a happy mood, full of ideas of things to do this spring around the house and yard, things to buy that we did not need but might like.  I just nodded my head and hoped she would forget about it all.  Fat chance. Lunch was more beans, my Turkish fasulye and the second episode of the French La Mante.

After lunch, Evie put together a boiled dinner of corned beef, potatoes, carrots, celery and cabbage and put it in the slow cooker for the afternoon.  And dinner was done.  I read, napped and mid-afternoon, drove back to Westfield to pick up a few more painted rocks for Easter presents.  While I was gone, Evie was tres busy in the kitchen, making Easter cookies for our granddaughters and the kitchen showed it, a mess that took me a half hour to clean up.  But she was able to get them all made and packed, ready to mail by 7:00.  What a girl. 

We were both happy to sit down to our corned beef dinner and watch TV, and Evie was ready to relax.  It seems like a luxury, to just sit down to a dinner and TV.  We watched the first episode of a new series on HBO called BARRY, then watched BILLIONS, but its hard to remember what happened a year ago.  We finished the night with OCCUPIED, Season two's opening episode. And I am almost done with my book, THE WIFE BETWEEN US.

THE HUSH: JOHN HART

Not my favorite John Hart novel as he swerves into the supernatural, with ghosts, past history, the supernatural, as the dead come back to wreak vengeance on the living, especially in this southern town.  The story moves back and forth between the town, filled with the rational, the lawyers, the sheriff and his deputies and the Hush, where Johnny Merrimon lives alone on his 5000 acres, the mysterious and haunted Hush.  Only Johnny and his childhood friend, Jack, now a lawyer seem to understand The Hush.  When a couple of locals disappear in The Hush, the law gets involved, blaming these disappearances on Johnny.  It's much more complicated than this as the history of the Hush, its treatment of African Americans, their enslavement, haunt the story.

Clear Skies And Still Cold

7:22

7:24

I was up at 6:20, in time to see an orange glow begin to edge out the darkness.  It's not quite as cold as the past few mornings, 26º and will get up to the 40's later in the day. And when I walk outside to take a photograph each morning, I am welcomed by the chirping of birds, a sign that Spring has arrived even if it's not convincing. 

Sunday was a day for basketball, March Madness as I ended up sitting around and watching two games in the afternoon, hogging the TV room.  We did, however,  manage to get in a good but shortened walk around the Chautauqua Institution in the morning.  We waited until 11:00, enjoying our Sunday morning of coffee and news and getting the house organized.  It was colder walking than we thought, especially the wind when not protected by homes, so we stayed away from the lakefront, keeping to the narrow streets.  It's still a quiet and seemingly uninhabited place because we rarely see anyone on our walks despite the fact that there are a few hundred year-round residents.  The streets were snow free, the yards still snow covered, with no sign of spring.  I forgot to mention that in our March on Saturday in Dunkirk we did notice a few crocuses in bloom along a narrow stretch which gets lots of sunshine.  What a surprise, spring life.

By the time we were finished with our walk, I was already thinking about our big breakfast and couldn't wait to get home.  We had leftover mashed potatoes so Evie not only fried eggs and bacon but also potato pancakes.  Nothing like fried eggs and potato pancakes on a late Sunday morning.  We watched CBS Sunday Morning, a welcome antidote to the usual 'breaking news' as they purposely seem to avoid mentioning DT although Jim Gaffigan had an interesting 2 minute soliloquy titled, "That Topic."  So for an hour, we can feel good about life, enjoy the triumphs of the human spirit.  By the time I got around to watching basketball, the game had already started so I was able to fast-forward through the commercials.  I did get bored towards the middle of the first game, took a quick nap and did some reading, waiting really for the Kansas/Duke game to start.  It was a great college game, went into overtime, and Kansas won, even though Duke seemed to have more talent.  Kansas players just rose to the occasion and played their best. 

Dinner was marmalade glazed salmon, rice, salad and broccoli, as we hurried into the TV room with our dinners to watch the Stormy Daniels Show, which, as I thought, was a nothing burger, just CNN hype non-stop throughout the week.  Evie is so fed up with CNN and their repulsive pundit Rick Santorum, his stupidity and heartlessness towards the Parkland students saying they should be learning CPR instead of marching, that she fired off missive after missive to the higher-ups at CNN, even calling, asking them to replace him.  The damage caused to the 17 students by an Ak-15 is unimaginable, nothing any of us should see let alone teenagers.  We are very worried about the long term consequences for these brave young souls.  It seems lots of other people feel the same way.  We ended the night watching an old Trading Spaces, a bit of deja vu before turning to Homeland before going up to bed. 

A Happy Fifteenth Birthday To Our Granddaughter, Marlena

Another Morning Of Blue Skies And Sun (March For Our Lives, Dunkirk, NY)

Marching For Their Lives

7:18

7:22

7:58

It's 8:30 as I begin my blog, the living room filled with sunshine.  It's still chilly, 21º, despite the sun and I have been up since 7:15, drinking coffee and listening to C-Span and NPR discuss yesterday's March For Our Lives. 

For us, Saturday was not the usual although our morning was typical.  Once we got the trash together and I drove off to the Transfer Station, Evie got out two old placemats and starting making signs for our participation in a March For Our Lives in Dunkirk, New York, the nearest city where there was going to be a march. 

Diane And Jack

We drove to Jack and Diane's 60 acre property which includes a kitchen garden, 40 acres of forest and also an acre of hops in Amish Country, on the Chautauqua Ridge around 12:30 and they drove the backroads through snow-covered farmland to Dunkirk, about a half hour away.  We joined other marchers at the middle school parking lot, gathered there for a prayer and song We Will Over Come, then marched to Washington Park, about a half mile away. 

Marching to Washington Park

There were probably 300 of us, mostly adults I might add, and we listened to a couple of speakers, then about 20 students from all ages, who were encouraged to step up on the dais and speak their minds.  Some were quite articulate, others stumbled with their thoughts but it was great to see that all were greeted with applause and enthusiasm.  We ended the afternoon with a five-year-old Joey leading us in singing 'This Land Is Your Land.' 

Supporting Our Young

We were back in our car by 3:00, happy with our afternoon, the first march we have participated in since 1967 when we were part of some of the Vietnam protests in Hawaii.  Jack drove so we said our goodbyes at his house and drove home, stopping at Tops grocery to pick up a  few things for dinner. 

Amish Country

We both were tired from our afternoon activity, so we relaxed until around 6:00, when we decided to celebrate our participation in the March with a Manhattan and some good cheese, a wedge of Fromage D'Affinois.  Evie did not have to worry about dinner because we were having the leftover chicken and black bean enchiladas, which were warming up in the oven. 

7:45 PM

It was a beautiful evening to enjoy dusk, as the sky turned a bluish-grey before it got dark.  Dinner was just as good as the night before and we watched some basketball, some home improvement shows and Bill Maher's Real Time.

Not Quite Record Setting...Yet

SOURDOUGH: ROBIN SLOAN

Yep, this book is about sourdough and the starter is the major protagonist of this novel.  Lois Clary, born and bred in Michigan, decamps to San Francisco, to code for General Dexterity.  Tired of the slurry they serve at the Dexterity lunchroom, she takes a chance on a takeout Clement Street Soup and Takeout.  It changes her life.  When the owners go out of business, they leave their 'special sourdough starter.' with Lois and thus begins her journey into the world of baking sourdough bread.  She eventually quits her coding job and makes bread full time. It leads her to a utopian farmers' market called Marrow's Fair, set in an abandoned munitions depot in Alameda.  There she meets all kinds of mostly organic food entrepreneurs.  Her special sourdough, its DNA, ends up disrupting the market, setting the market's owner, think Alice Waters, off on a new 'kind of food' venture.  I really liked the first half, the second half less so.  But I like the idea of sourdough bread enough to send away to Missouri for a free sourdough starter, supposedly the original 1847 starter.  I will let you know if and when it arrives, how it works.

A Bright And Shiny Saturday Morning

7:21

7:22

7:50

It's almost 8:00 and we are listening to Mike McGrath's 'You Bet Your Garden,' on NPR, a gardening show we used to listen to back in the day but we soon got tired of his 'know it all voice.'  He does have good ideas, like building a raised garden out of pavers rather than wood.  More expensive but it will last forever and can be moved.  Evie and I were both up at 7:00, in time to watch the sun pop up over the eastern sky, now filling inside and outside with its light.  Not a cloud in the sky and it's 17º but should get into the 40's later in the day, perfect weather for the March For Our Lives.

Yesterday was a day of recuperation for Evie from her epidural.  She was uncomfortable most of the day, most likely from the combination of valium and steroids.  I did not do much either despite the fact it was a nice day.  Early, I decided to make up some Turkish kuru fasulye, a white bean stew.  So I got out the pressure cooker and cooked a pound of Great Northern beans for 25 minutes before putting them in the pot of sauteed onions, tomato paste and Aleppo pepper.  And that's it, just let it simmer until the beans are tender.

And while Evie was organizing some of the upstairs and doing the wash, I had the sad task of putting away all our winter gear, the cross country skies, snowshoes, poles and shoes.  Although we still have snow and it's in the teens, neither of us were ready to get back out there and ski or snowshoe.  The upside of it all is that we could start thinking about summer and thinking about where are the life jackets, flip flops, and bathing suits.

Lunch was delicious, of course, because I made it,  the kuru fasulye. I had a few slices of sausage and crackers to go along with it and started a new series my sister recommended for my lunchtime viewing, La Mante, a French crime thriller.  A bit implausible but, so far, so good.  Around 3:00, I broke out of the house and went wild, going for a walk at the Chautauqua Institution and browsing a few books at the Smith Library.  Walking north, along the lakefront, was uncomfortable because of the still bitter winter wind, but returning was fine, the wind at my back or blocked by homes.

Friday Afternoon Clouds

When I got back, Evie was putting together some chicken and black bean enchiladas, using the leftover rotisserie chicken.  We were able to relax once she was done with a glass of wine until 6:30, when the enchiladas were done and the salad was made.  We were not sure what to watch so we went back to another Colbert before getting lost in Season Two of OCCUPIED.  We decided to go back and watch the last two episodes of Season One which will certainly help us figure out what's going on in Season Two. Since I finished SOURDOUGH, I started another thriller like GONE GIRL, called THE WIFE BETWEEN US.