A Chilly 52º Morning

6:46

6:47

It's 6:38  and  I have been up since before 6:00, waiting for the sun to rise.  It's chilly enough that I put on a fleece and sweats, harbingers of what's to come, fall, then winter.  I am sure, however, we will still have some 80º days, usually when school around here starts. 

Kayak Morning

Yesterday was another sunny but cool and breezy day on the lake.  I kayaked early of course, always a good way to start the morning.  We then sat around reading the paper (on our devices) before deciding it would be a good day to go for a walk, something we have not done in ages.  So we cleaned up the kitchen, then went for a forty-five-minute walk through Long Point State Park.  I have to admit I missed walking or hiking in the woods. 

Lushness Of Ferns In The Woods

It's like kayaking on the lake in that both are places of quiet and awe. As Oliver Sacks says 'My religion is nature. That's what arouses those feelings of wonder and mysticism and gratitude in me." And as usual, we met no one on our walk despite it being Sunday and a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  We also checked out the pavilions set back in a  wooded part of the park where we don't usually walk. They are neat areas where families 'used to picnic' but it seems like that's a thing of the past.  They are rarely if ever used, like the beach house and swimming area, relics from the late 1960s.

Long Point Picnic Areas

We were home by 1:00 and both of us were ready for our big breakfast.  Evie fried the bacon, lots of it because she was making a pasta salad for dinner and I grilled some corn on the grill, also part of the salad,  We ate on the front porch and then Evie got busy prepping dinner for our friends, Jim and
Tina, who were coming over at 6:00 for dinner.  I, of course, fell asleep reading but Evie left the mess for me to clean up after my nap.  We are a good team, she makes the dinners, I clean up the dishes. 

Jim and Tina arrived at 6:00 and we sat on the porch for a good hour, with vodka tonics, pretzels, and shrimp cocktails.  It was a cool evening, too chilly to eat outside but since I  put the porch curtain down, we were comfortable on the porch.  Dinner was grilled chicken thighs marinated in lemon, garlic and olive oil and a pasta salad, with corn, tomatoes, and bacon.  And to top off the meal, we had peach/blueberry pie.  It was fun to get to know them better; we usually meet on the lake because they are also avid kayakers.  They live north of Pittsburgh but have been coming up to their cottage in Victoria for years and like us, love living on the lake. They are both retired so they are able to come up most weekends or whenever they want.  It was a fun evening.  After they left we still had enough mojo to clean up the kitchen before going up to bed to read.