Peepers Are Back!

7:24

7:59

Well, for the first time since November, when I walked outside there was no chill in the air, an amazing feeling.  And last night when we said goodbye to our friends, we heard the peepers for the first time, singing in the darkness of night.  And they were singing this morning when I walked out in the fog to get this mornings paper.  Maybe spring IS on the way.

Tree, Fog, And Ducks

Yesterday the temperature rose into the 60's in the afternoon and Evie opened both the doors and windows, letting in a spring breeze, an awakening from the sleep of a long winter.  I had almost forgotten what it was like to step outside into a mild morning, no longer needing a fleece, hat or gloves. These temperatures may stay with us through the weekend before another change, a cooling off.  After breakfast in Bemus, I decided to bag yoga because I was still bothered by pain in my shoulders, what I think might be bursitis, at least that's my explanation.  So I am avoiding any kind of stress on the shoulder area, no kayaking or yoga for a few days, a heavy dose of anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil.  So for me, it was a boring morning although I did fall asleep reading because I had a bad night, bothered by the pain.  It was a strange day, then, with nothing to do, staying home and in, feeling useless and tired.

A Pair Of Mallards

We were having friends over for dinner, Julie and Tom, who both grew up on Woodlawn.  So for Evie, much of the morning and afternoon was taken up with prepping dinner, making a baklava, some lentil soup, and a Greek favorite, pastitsio, a macaroni and ground lamb dish, with a touch cinnamon, oregano, topped with a rich bechamel with eggs.  The afternoon, then, went quickly with a lunch of the last of the vegetable soup, a bagel, and I finished my series, Borderliner, with a cop-out ending, no resolution.  It just stops. I finished my Maisie Dobbs mystery and started a couple of other books, unable to decide which one to read.  I was tempted to go out for a walk but thought better of it and remained on the couch.

Some Afternoon Sun

Julie and Tom arrived at 6:00 and we enjoyed some wine and appetizers until the pastitsio was ready.  Both of them grew up on Woodlawn/Victoria in the 60's and their parents and grandparents have lived on the lake since 1922, so we had fun talking about what it was like to grow up on the lake, what life must have been like when grandparents took a train from Pittsburgh to Westfield, then a  trolley to Woodlawn.  Those were the days.  We had a Turkish/Greek dinner, the pastitsio was great, as was the salad and sourdough rolls.

Woodlawners Dinner

After dinner, we spent a good hour or more going through a photo album of their trip out West in 2017.  They visited most of the great parks in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah on a six-week trip.  It's a trip Evie and I would love to take and Julie's great photographs only whetted our appetite for a road trip.  We were so engrossed in their Western travels that we forgot to have dessert, the baklava, so they took some home.  They left about 10:00, serenaded as I mentioned by the peepers in the woods.  We put away a few things but decided to leave the dishes for this morning, a good choice then, not so good at the moment.