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.