March Rains

7:09 

8:00

It's 7:50 and I have been up for an hour, listening to the rain patter on the roof, melting the foot of snow.  The lake has turned gray, from yesterday's snow white.  The biggest surprise of the morning a couple of bald eagles sitting out on the frozen lake.  An ice fisherman must have left some fish out on the ice because a gaggle of seagulls is also out there on the ice.

Bald Eagle And Crow

Bald Eagle

Sea Gulls

Yesterday may have been the last great Sunday of winter, with its striking blue skies, sun, and virgin white farmlands.  After a leisurely morning, I pulled on my skis and punched my way through the snow in our woods, the snow afoot at times although I could follow our neighbor's snowshoe trail as well.  As always, it was energizing to be out in the woods.

When I returned home, we both showered, then drove off to the Chautauqua Institution for our Sunday constitutional, a walk around the grounds.  Fortunately, the roads were safe enough to walk without fear of slipping or falling and we went about a mile, working up an appetite for pancakes.  After our walk, then, we drove through vast, white, untouched fields to Red's Best Pancake House, our favorite breakfast spot during the winter.  We go a couple of times each winter because it's not only fun but the pancakes and sausage are delicious, the best around.  We have gotten to know the proprietary, so she seated us quickly, even sat down and talked with us about her busy life as a teacher's aid during the week and running Red's during the weekends, a neat gal.  We were in and out in an hour, the log cabin, crowded, cozy, and warm.

Brick Walk On CI

We were home by 1:30, having taken the backroads, some still snow-covered.  And that was it for our Sunday action as we both sank on the couches to enjoy the leisure of a Sunday afternoon, either watching TV, reading or taking a nap as our afternoon routine rarely changes.  We both had enough exercise, happy to stay home.  We had our wine with pretzels and dip before Evie got busy in the kitchen making a curry stir fry of cabbage, ground turkey, ginger, garlic, and hot sauce.  We had it over rice and it was decent, not great and probably needed more veggies and spice.  We watched SNL, hosted by John Mullaney, the comedian, who is always great.  We ended the evening with a couple more episodes of The Americans.

Finally, because we lived in Istanbul, Turkey for seven years in the 1970s, we follow their news. Below is a photograph of immigrants massed at the Turkish border, hoping to get into Greece.

We Drove Through This Border Many Times Into Greece