Breezy, Cool, And Partly Cloudy

 

Evie And The Birthday Girl

5:37

6:13

It's 6:22, the sun is peaking through the clouds, the leaves are rustling,  and all's right in the world of Chautauqua.  I have been up for an hour, watching the lake slowly roughen up.  By the time I get out there, it will not be much fun to kayak.  The fishermen, however, have been out since 5:40.  At the moment, four are anchored just off of the reeds.  As I write, I am also listening to as Bill Simmons' podcast as he takes apart the Golden State/Raptor series but also talks about some of his favorite TV series and at the moment, he is interviewing Adam Scott from BIG LITTLE LIES, a good friend of his.  Finally, I paddled over to Tom's Point, photographed a couple of herons, making my morning paddle worthwhile.

t

Kayak Morning At Tom's Point 

Heron Hanging Out 

Yesterday was busier than usual because we were having Linda and Ron over for dinner and Linda's birthday is in a couple of days so we wanted to make it special.  We decided to have a typical Turkish or Greek dinner, lamb, moussaka, and roasted potatoes.  Yum.  Evie actually started making the moussaka, by roasting the eggplant on Thursday afternoon.   Early morning, however, was typical for me, with a paddle, then a good yoga class and a coffee at Ryder's Cup, before a quick stop at Home Depot.

A Curious Heron

When I got home, the kitchen was a mess but dinner was practically ready, the moussaka made and the lamb roasting in an oven.  And Evie was in the front yard, trimming the rhododendrons.  I cleaned up the kitchen, started taking all the stuff off the back porch and swept it before lunch.  Evie took time out to make me a couple of BLTs before getting back out in the yard. Because most everything was done, we then spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the outdoors and getting a few things ready for dinner.

We decided to sit outside and enjoy a beer and appetizers but we only lasted about 20 minutes because the wind picked up and the sun hid behind the trees, sending us to our front porch, protected from the wind.  Evie brought out the presents while we were on the front porch and they had a feline theme, of course, since both Linda and Ron are cat lovers.  Dinner was great, reminding me of Sunday dinners with our family in Istanbul when we would always have a leg of lamb and roasted potatoes, the best. 

Ron And Linda Celebrate

For dessert, we had Wegman's carrot cake, a great way to finish off Linda's birthday celebration.  They went home around 9:15 and Evie and I got busy, cleaning up the kitchen which strangely went quickly and did not seem irksome.  It's always nice to wake up to a clean kitchen.  We watched some TV briefly before going up to bed.