Joyce And Bill Are Back

5:56

It's 6:45 and what a contrast to yesterday's cloudy morning.  Today it's sunny and bright, a deep blue lake, a cloudless sky, and a cool 51º when I came downstairs.  We had heavy rains last night around dinner time, getting a couple of inches during the early evening, flooding and mudding the road.  I paddled this morning for only a half hour because it was windy and wavy.  I was rolling in the deep.

Kayak Morning

Yesterday was waiting for our neighbors to arrive, their forty-fifth year at the lake. I did get in a paddle early, then had a good yin yoga class in Lakewood.  I stopped for coffee, talked with Joyce and Dave for a while, then came home.  While I was gone, Evie was prepping our dinner for our neighbor's homecoming, a casserole of chicken, artichokes, and mushrooms, as well as a lemon custard dessert.  So she had been busy.

Blue Star

Morning Hostas

Lunch was a big Sunday breakfast without the bacon, home fries, and eggs.  I watched Bosch and around 1:00, relatives of Joyce and Bill arrived, Lori and Tim, to help with setting up the cottage and cleaning up the yard.  They worked like crazy until about 2:30 when our neighbors arrived, having spent the night in Happy Valley (State College).  They are both in their upper eighties but spry and ready for another summer at the lake. They were settled by 3:30 when Bill was able to enjoy a beer in the back yard with their daughter's good friend, Medio, also up to help. While they talked, Evie and Joyce were inspecting her garden and shrubs.  

Around 4:30, we started sprucing up our back yard and house and Evie set the table, got appetizers ready for dinner.  The rains started, of course, at 5:30 so the three of them came over with umbrellas.  

Heavy Rain At 6:40

We were able to sit out on the porch despite the heavy rain, enjoying a libation or two and appetizers, catching up on their lives in Valley Forge, PA this past winter.  Just before dinner, we talked about books we had been reading which is always fun.  Both Joyce and Bill are avid readers. 

First Dinner

Dinner was great of course, the chicken, the salad, the rolls and the highlight, the lemon custard cake.  They stayed until 8:30 when Medio headed home to Pittsburgh and Joyce and Bill walked home, the end of a fun dinner.  We watched some of the basketball after a Colbert before going up to bed tired from the day, always tired these days! Don't Explain, Never Complain, TD!