A Crisp And Cloudless Morning

Dinner With Judy And Fred

6:56

6:57

A beautiful morning for a paddle, blue skies to the south, building cloud banks to the north a chilly 51º. It was an extraordinary morning for bird watching, a number of herons, a red-tailed hawk, and an osprey. I hated to come to shore. 

Kayak Morning

Breakfasting Heron

An Osprey

A Red-Tailed Hawk

Friday seemed like Saturday because we were having friends over for dinner. Everyone we know has the same problem, forgetting what day of the week it is. It felt good to get out on the lake with my new camera and it made quite a difference in my attitude.  I was now kayaking with a goal, not just mindlessly paddling.  I know that's not very zen-like but the truth.  After breakfast on the dock, paddling, and the blog, I helped Evie out some in the kitchen, then went for a bike ride.  I drove over to Greenhurtst and bought peaches and tomatoes from Peterson's Farm Market.  I left my car in their parking lot and biked up to the start of the Riverwalk Trail and biked it to McCrea Point on the Chadokoin River and back.  I was out just over an hour which was my target.  

Biking To Mc Crea Point

When I returned, Evie was pulling the tomato and corn pie out of the oven, the centerpiece of last night's dinner.  She then made me a great lunch, a salad with the leftover salmon.  With a bagel, it's the perfect lunch.  I watched the unbelievable finish of the Celtic/Raptors game as Toronto won on a three-point shot with less than a second left on the clock. Amazing.  

On A Tree Stump

In A Tree

On A Dock

Evie spent a good hour or two on the dock in the afternoon reading while I read and took a nap.  We started getting ready for dinner around 5:00.  Evie had parboiled the chicken thighs earlier, so I slathered them with barbecue sauce and grilled them briefly.  Evie made the dessert and coleslaw and by 6:00 we were ready.

Judy and Fred arrived just after 6:00.  They will be heading down to their place in Davidson, NC in a few days so we were glad to get to see them before they leave town.  We sat as usual on our front porch and had Manhattans, their favorite drink as well as ours.  They are friends with our next-door neighbors, Bill and Joyce, so they stopped by to say high before dinner.  Fred and I have much in common because we both have played basketball, Fred into his 70's in three-man tournaments.  Judy is a well-known artist and both Evie and I have been to a number of her showings. We sat around enjoying dinner until 8:30 then adjourned to the living room for dessert, blueberry, and raspberry parfait.  We bid them aloha around 9:30, hoping to see them either in the fall or winter because they try to return for a few days each season.  We were good soldiers and did up the dishes before bed.