Lots Of Gray

7:29

A drab morning here on the lake.  It's cold, 24º, may snow a bit later in the day but the best news, I slept in until 7:30.  Yippee as my buddy Mac would say.  Only a few ducks are floating by in front of our house, but off to the south, around the reeds, many more are feeding.  The lake is partially frozen so I don't think I will be able to get in a paddle.

Tundra Swans Among The Reeds On A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday we took it easy, no surprise, after a busy weekend of fun.  We both were up at usual times, had our coffee, worked on the blog and published it by 9:00 when I left for a Yin Yoga class.  It's always popular, sixteen ladies and me.  I have been wanting a Mexican blanket, the kind we use in class, so I finally bought one after class.  It's all I want for Christmas. When I returned home, Evie was sitting in the living room, fireplace on, with her iPhone, working on a couple more cards.  She makes them through an app. called FELT which allows her to not only put a photo on the card but handwrite the message using her iPhone.  The app also allows her to send money to our grandchildren if she likes although she prefers newly discovered Applepay.  She's been doing this now for four or five years and the cards are really neat though time-consuming to make.

She took time off to make me an avocado quesadilla with tomatoes and I zapped the cauliflower soup in the microwave.  I started a new series, or rather the third or fourth season of NARCOS on Netflix.  This series is set in Mexico and seems just as entertaining as the first couple of seasons.  After lunch, I started a new book recommended by many of my friends called EDUCATED, a memoir about a girl growing up in a Mormon and survivalist family in Idaho.  It reads like a novel and I could not put it down.  I also napped and read some more but Evie hardly moved from her chair as she continued working on the cards and also made a couple of phone calls.  What patience and persistence. I finally was bored with reading but not energetic enough to go for a long walk so I satisfied myself with a walk down our street to pick up the mail.

We had our usual wine time before dinner.  Around 5:30, Evie got busy and made one of our favorites.  I know we have lots of favorites.  This time it was scallops with garlic, vermouth, chicken stock, and lemon served over linguini.  We loved it.  We treated ourselves to tin roofs for dessert and watched the fifth episode of MY BRILLIANT FRIEND on HBO.  We like the series but the filmmaker is too enamored with long, slow close-ups of the two girls.  We then watched a movie, one of the ten best this year according to the NYTimes called PRIVATE MATTERS, 'an infertility comedy' about a couple's attempt to have a child using in vitro fertilization methods.  It's complicated because the donor ends up being their niece.  It's worth watching, has some humor,  well acted, but is not a 'pick me upper.'