White Nights: Ann Cleeves

Cleeve sets this group of novels in the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland. This is the second in the series, the first being Raven Black. The island is a tourist trap in the summer and Detective Jimmy Perez hunts down a killer of three, one a tourist, two, locals. Cleeve's modus operandi is to give the reader brief biographies of practically everyone in the novel, making it difficult to figure out who done it till the end. 

Sunday Gray

2013 Oldie -- Missing Them!

8:16

An unremarkable Sunday morning, gray skies and lake, as I am listening to Terry Gross interview Sasha Baron Cohen on Fresh Air.  It's a nice change from politics, some humor in the morning. It's 32º and we may get some rain later in the day as Spring weather creeps closer.

Yesterday was a get ready for dinner with Linda and Ron kind of day, something Evie looks forward to. It meant being busy much of the day. To be brief, neither of us skied or hiked, mostly because of the icy trails.  Around 10:00, I gingerly walked out to our car and drove off to the Transfer Station to get rid of our trash.  And that was it for the day except that I served as chief bottle washer for Evie who was busy in the kitchen.  By 11:30, she had the brisket in the oven and was making a banana cream pie, with apricot jam spread on the crust and rum added to the custard.  Needless to say, it was the hit of the night.  

Once I washed and dried up the first batch of dishes, I heated up the leftover spaghetti and meatballs and start watching a series that we stopped watching a few weeks ago called Watchman on HBO.  I want to finish it so I hope to stick with it. My afternoon was as usual, as I had lots of time to read and nap briefly before helping out in the kitchen.  Evie also had time to relax after making the cabbage and noodle side dish, sweet-sour green beans,  and salad with blue cheese dressing.  We were done easily by 5:00, the kitchen spic n span, dinner ready.

Those Were The Days: 2013 at Pine Junction

Linda and Ron arrived early, at 5:00, and Evie had big bowls of popcorn ready and we were going to watch Nomadland together before dinner.  For libations, Evie made panaches, basically half lemonade and half beer, a perfect drink for a film. Everyone loved the film and it gave us lots to talk about over our dinner of beef brisket, noodles and cabbage, green beans,  salad, and the perfect ending, banana cream pie.  We all wanted seconds but were too full to have them.  It was a fun evening and watching the film before dinner was a good idea, something we will do again since we cannot go to a movie theater as in the old days.  Linda and Ron left at 10:00 and we did a mini clean up of the kitchen, leaving most of the mess for this morning.  Ugh. 

We Tried!

7:27

Morning Rain 

It's a miserable morning on the lake, 40º and a drizzle dots the windows s the snow continues to melt. Still, a few hearty ice fishermen are out but not many. I have been listening to CSPAN listeners discuss the 1.9 Trillion stimulus bill, some for it, many against it.  It's certainly a cross-section of opinions.

Fishing This Morning Off Of Long Point

Fishing Friday Afternoon At Long Point

Yesterday 'we tried' to get in what we thought might be our last morning of cross country skiing.  So after breakfast,  Evie put together a pie crust and I made a pot of white bean stew or kuru fasulye in Turkish.  We then thought about cross-country skiing on the lake but decided it would be too icy.  So we decided to drive to Webb's Trail close by and a straight shot out and back.  Also, the trails were closed to snowmobiles because of the thaw so we thought it would be good.  Well, we could hardly step out of our car because we were parked on a vast parking lot of ice.  The trails, as well, were icy so we packed it up and went home, not willing to risk a fall.  I was determined to ski so I put on my skies and went out on the lake but it would have been fine if I had on ice skates, not skis, so I came in discouraged with our morning.  

A Whiteness Too Icy To Ski

By the time I came in it was lunchtime, the leftover tas kebab on mashed potatoes, and I watched the last episode of the Balthazar series on Prime so I am now open to suggestions as to what to ready to watch during lunch. The afternoon was sunny, with blue skies yet we stayed inside because of the ice not only on the lake but our road and parking area.  At 3:00, however, we drove off to Wegman's for another big shopping day.  While Evie shopped, I went to Aldi's to pick up and few things, then joined her as she checked out with a cart full. We didn't get home until 4:30 and spent another 15 minutes putting things away or trying to find space to put them.  We need another pantry. 

We relaxed with our coolers until 5:30 when Evie got busy with our dinner shrimp and grits, a new favorite, first enjoyed at Rita's in Folly Beach, South Carolina. She used the recipe from the NYTimes although she made creamy grits for the shrimp with tomatoes, spices, and the addition of asparagus, to make it special. We loved it of course as we watched Colbert.  On a previous Colbert, he interviewed pop star Billie Eilish and we were impressed with her poise, confidence, and humility.  So when Apple TV announced they were putting on a documentary on her called The World's A Little Blurry, we decided to watch it. We loved it, the story of her early years with her family, the first song, Ocean Eyes, on Instagram at fourteen, the meteoric rise to fame, with the collaboration of her brother and supportive parents.  Much of the film is set in the modest family home, where she and her brother Finneas write and produce most of her songs, in her brother's bedroom.  There are no mansions, limousines, just family and of course a dog,  We see her perform on early tours in Europe, Australia, as well as the US.  And it ends up with her winning five grammies for her first album, an unbelievable accomplishment for someone still in her teens. We admired her relationship with her fans, treating them as friends, wanting to always please them, give them her best.  She is an amazing entertainer and young woman, grounded and caring, supported by a great family.  I was most impressed by the lyrics of her songs, sensitive, thoughtful, more like poetry than most repetitive pop songs. We also loved her clothing choices, iconoclastic and bizarre, never boring, never sexy, just her, 

On Apple TV+

Sunshine, Blue Skies, And A Dusting Of Snow

6:40

7:06

7:38

It's a beautiful winter morning, no sign of Spring other than birds chirping.  It snowed some last night and temperatures dropped to19º from the highs a few days ago of 49º.  Winter remains for now.  The lake is now a vast whiteness, the snow covering yesterday's thaw.  It makes me want to put on my skis but I know that beneath the white is water, making it hard to ski.  

Typical Long Point Trail

Thursday was just another day, like the others.  We decided early on to snowshoe at Long Point because we thought the trails would be slushy, a result of the warm weather and it would be difficult to ski.  So after breakfast and getting a few things done, we drove over to the end of Lakeside Drive and snowshoed for a good hour.  Instead of following the usual trails, we trekked through the fat tire bike trails which were fun because it was like walking in an entirely new environment although it was still part of the park. We met just two women, walking their dogs so we basically had the woods to ourselves.  The fat tire bike trails crisscross the park and are used all seasons.  They even have a Facebook page alerting members to the conditions, when to bike, when to stay off the trails. 

Fat Tire Trail

We still had some mushroom barley soup leftover so that was my lunch along with a half of a Greek burrito from Wednesday.  And I watched another episode of Balthazar then returned to my depressing book, Four Winds.  The family has just fled the Dust Bowl to California only to find conditions just as bad if not worse there. I was happy to fall asleep to more pleasant dreams.  The rest of the afternoon was filled with leisure although I did chip away at the ice on our brick walk and Evie dusted and oiled our wood banister so we both could say we did not waste the afternoon.

For dinner, Evie sauteed mushrooms, added previously frozen meatballs and a jar of marinara sauce and we had a surprisingly tasty dinner.  We watched Colbert, then started an older series on HBO called Enlightenment, starring Laura Dern.  It's decent so we ended up watching four half-hour episodes before bed. 

Mostly Gray But A Touch Of Blue

Red-Shouldered Hawk This Morning

6:56

6:58

8:06

It's 7:40 and I am listening to a new Spotify podcast called Renegades: Born In The USA, a conversation between Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama where they discuss both being outsiders when young. A whiff of Spring in the air, 28º, as the lake begins to puddle in spots even though it's still frozen enough for ice fishermen.  

Early Birds

Yesterday we took a day off from skiing, alas, partly because of the 38º temperature and my doctor's appointment in Jamestown.  So after breakfast, I drove to Jamestown and had a good talk about my health, it's fine and basketball with my doctor, always fun.  Afterward, I stopped at the Labyrinth Coffee shop for a lunch burrito and a cup of java. I also got a few things done, stopping at a self car wash, then the bank to cash a check, finally stopping at Save A Lot to pick up pork steaks, for a new recipe I read about where they will take the place of beef steaks.  I also ran into old friends, Sam and Donna, from Busti, and neighbors Jim and Barb from Woodlawn, a small world. 

Lunch was easy, my Greek burrito with garbanzo beans, hummus, feta cheese, and cucumbers.  It was large enough to share with Evie and I also had a bowl of her mushroom barley soup. I watched my series, then got back to my depressing new book, Four Winds, a story set during the Depression in the Great Plains when drought and dust storms forced millions to trek West to the Promised Land Of California, kind of a modern retelling of Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath. Earlier, we had decided on Turkish tas kebab for dinner, basically a simple meat stew, with tomato paste, Turkish spices and some chopped onions so around 3:30, Evie put it together and let it slow cook in the oven under low heat for a couple of hours.  

Late Afternoon Shadows/Sky

We sat down to a dinner of the tas kebab, mashed potatoes, and a salad at 6:30 and I had a good idea of what I wanted to watch, a film from 2017 by Nomandland's director, Chloe Zhao, called The Rider.  She not only wrote it but directed and produced it.  It's set in the Dakotas and tells the story of a rodeo cowboy who suffers a debilitating head injury and must reimagine his life.  It's based on an actual cowboy and like most of her films, she used non-actors to play most of the roles. It's slow-moving but touching and true, like great films, and we both loved it. Like her other films, she does not complicate the story with romance and avoids the cliches of modern films, gratuitous violence. She shuns the Rocky-type endings and uses landscape as another character.  It's available on Amazon Prime for 3.99. Rent it. Watch it. 

The Big Melt Begins

6:42

6:48

7:35

It is bizarre to wake up in the morning, step out on the front porch, and hear the birds chirping in our yard and lake still covered with snow. At the moment, the sun is fighting its way through some clouds with little success but by 8:40, we had full sunshine and blue skies.  And later today, it's predicted the temperature may rise into the high 40's with rain predicted.  YUCK.

7:52

8:04

8:39

Tuesday began as always, with an early rising for me, listening to Morning Joe, then a podcast until Evie got up around 8:15.  We then finished the blog and then thought about our day, what to do, what to have for dinner, the only two things that seemed to shape our day.  We decided on a breakfast for dinner since we missed having it on Sunday brunch.  We knew, also, that we wanted to get in another cross country skiing morning before the conditions deteoriated.  

Groomed And Gliding

Around 11:00, then we drove to Mayville and decided on Webb's Trail again because we thought it would be groomed and still good enough to ski.  We were right as the snowmobiles had made it easy to glide although six or seven of them did fly by while we skied. We always forget that going it's all a slight up hill, making it work, but heading back is a lark, as we are on a slight downhill.  We were out for an hour, having skied through light snow, rain, and sleet as the weather gods cannot make up their mind.

Different Coat, Different Cap

Before we left to ski, Evie had made a pot of mushroom barley soup and left it to simmer as we skied.  So it was ready when we returned home.  I had a nice piping hot bowl along with a toasterd ham and cheese sandwich and was a happy camper, having gotten in a good morning of skiing and a tasty lunch.  We both spent most of the afternoon as usual, reading, napping or watching the non stop news about Tiger Woods car accident, giving the media something else to talk about than the Covid virus or Fled Cruz.   Midafternoon, Evie put together the dough for oatmeal and chocolate ship cookies, letting it chill till 5:00, then baking them just before dinner.  

Dinner was just what we wanted. Bob Evans sausages, eggs, a toasted bagel and a salad, a nod to health. We were happy to see Colbert is back on and he interviewed Bill Gates who has written a new book called How To Avoid A Climate Disaster.  Unfortuahtely, the world is not listening, reminding me of a Wendell Berry quotation: "To damage the earth is to damage your children." We ended the night with a  powerful, well acted but depressing film called Diane,  about a despondent widow who spends much of her day helping others to assuage her guilt, making casseroles for the housebound, serving meals at a Food Bank, visiting relatives in hospitals, or trying to save her son who is addicted to drugs. At least three relatives or friends die despite her efforts and when her son is finally clean, he attempts to force Jesus down her throat. The film then jumps to Diane years later, suffering from dementia, in the  back yard of her home, alone,obviously dying, wondering if she turned the oven off.  If the film weren't so sad making and depressing, I would recommend it. 

A Morning White Out

7:08

Trudging Home

First Signs Of Spring: Goldfinch Returns

It's a 30º morning as winter seems to still hang around.  Snow, wet snow, is predicted on and off much of the day.  The car is covered and I will be out shoveling the driveway once again, like yesterday morning and many mornings over the past month. A few fishing tents are out already, taking advantage of the warming mornings.

 

Monday was the beginning of warmer weather by that I mean the temperatures rose into the 30's part of the day.  We knew we wanted to get in as much cross-country skiing over the next few days before it becomes too mushy to ski.  We decided to wait until late morning, not sure why.  We were off by 11:00, looking for a good place to ski, driving to a couple of possibilities but none had a place to park so we ended up parking at the former Medical Building on #426 just outside of Mayville.  It's the Portage Trail/Trolley Line Nature Trail.  We have walked it during various seasons, perhaps skied it once a couple of years ago.  So we know it.  We were surprised that it was groomed but no one had been on it in quite a while so that the trail was basically virgin, untouched by snowmobiles or skiers.  We were out a good hour, stopping and heading back only when we hit a brief blizzard of ice and snow pelting our faces. Evie loved it of course. It was fun and easy skiing,  with a firm base, lots of snow-covered trees, a great place to cross country ski.

Blizzard

We did not get home until 1:00, tired from our drive looking for a trail and skiing.  Fortunately, we did not have to worry about lunch, just throw a couple of pieces of pizza in the oven and heat them up.  After lunch and an episode of  Balthazar, I returned to my Swedish detective novel, The Man Who Went Up In Smoke.  By later afternoon, after a nap, I finished it.  It's an old fashion detective novel, with too much description and very slow to develop.  It's by a Swedish couple, the harbingers of Swedish noir, Maj Sjowall, and Per Wahloo, That was all I accomplished during the afternoon and Evie kicked back as well.  

Before

After

For dinner, I felt like hot dogs for some reason.  So Evie fired them up, made a salad, heated up some man n cheese and we had dinner.  My dogs were smothered in mustard, onions, and topped with a dill pickle, sort of Chicago style.  We watched a couple of episodes of Apple TV's Losing Alice, a series neither one of us is crazy about but will stick with it.  We also watched a depressing documentary called Free Britney, about Britney Spear's meteoric rise to fame, the deleterious effects on her, the result of paparazzi harassment, and media frenzy, leading to her depression and loss of freedom,  a court-sanctioned conservatorship by her father for the past ten years.  It's eye-opening and sad to see how the media took advantage of her, treated her as something to be used for their profit, with no concern for her well-being, her family, her sanity. 

Transcendent Kingdom: Yaa Gyasi

Like her best-selling Homecoming which I loved, Gyasi mixes autobiography with fiction to tell the story about a Ghanian family in Alabama. The narrator is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University, She seeks answers to her brother's death from drugs both in her science and the evangelical religion of her youth. It's a portrait of a Ghanaian immigrant family ravaged by poverty, addiction and grief.  I did not like it as much as her first novel, Homecoming but am glad I read it. 

Snow In The Morning

Wonder Woman

7:34

It's 7:00 and because of the snow, I can hardly make out Long Point. It's windy as well although the temperature has risen from yesterday's 3º to this morning's 30º, the beginning, I fear, of the big thaw, the end of winter.  We have had an unprecedented month of a frozen lake, ice fishing, groomed trails, great mornings of snowshoeing or cross country skiing.  No complaints. 

Sunday Morning

Yesterday was a spectacular finale to our winter fun if, as the meteorologists predict, it's beginning to warm up. We had sun and blue skies the entire day and most of us took advantage of it, either on the lake or on the trails. The lake was busy with snowmobiles flying by, ice fishermen, families out for a walk on the lake, and a few cross country skiers like us.  Because it was so bitter cold early, we waited for it to warm up to 18º at 10:30 before venturing out to ski. 

Made It To Tom's Point!

I thought we would be out for a nice easy trek but Evie had other ideas.  She wanted to ski around the lake to Tom's Point.  I stuck with her part of the way, to Sandy Bottom, but then wimped out and turned around and headed home, as she went on her way. I was out for an hour and returned drenched in sweat. I then relaxed in my warm living room and watched  Evie with my binoculars trudge along Tom's Point, a smudge of gray in the distance.  She was out for a good two hours, skiing over three miles.    

From A Distance

Neither of us was very hungry so we both had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on toast for a late and easy lunch.  Needless to say, we were both tired from skiing, so the afternoon was spent on couches, reading, or watching TV.  It felt good to have gotten in our skiing but then just relax and not worry about doing anything. We both felt like a pizza for dinner so I drove over to Bemus Point and picked up a pizza from Coppola's.  

Snowmobiles Cometh At 7:45 PM

We had a pleasant cocktail hour, with popcorn, and great cheese, compliments of Linda and Ron.  Dinner was warming up the pizza, pouring a Pepsi over iee and we had dinner. We watched  SNL and some home improvement shows before ending the night with the news and some NBA. It was another fine winter day.

3º On A Sunday Morning

6:52

7:12

7:21

7:13

When I walked out on the front porch to take a photo of the sunrise, I was hit by the cold and knew the temperature was in single digits, the coldest morning so far this winter.  It's a bright, shiny morning, with a cloudless azure sky, a blinding sun.  It's been a while since we have seen it.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Fishing Alone

We were looking forward to Saturday for a couple of reasons.  It was a Saturday, after all, the weekend but more than that, we were having our weekly dinner at our friends', Linda, and Ron's house.  That meant no worry for Evie about what to have for dinner, knowing, too, we were having a restaurant-quality dinner Saturday evening.  So we had a whole Saturday morning and afternoon to waste if we wanted.  And we wanted to because neither of us had the gumption to snowshoe or ski.  Our better souls, however, or guilt took over and we made ourselves gather the trash, drop it off a the Transfer Station, and drove to Long Point to snowshoe.  We were not very happy as we started, the wind bitter in our faces but by the time we got in the woods, our peek had disappeared and we were happy to be in the woods even if we ran into a crowd of six skiers at a crossroads.  We helped them find their way back to the parking lot and went on our way.  We were out for an hour, covered a couple of miles, and were home by 1:00.

Lunch was vegetable beef soup and the rest of my sub from Thursday.  I watched my show, finally finished my book, Leave The World Behind,  a novel of a modern apocalypse, set on a Long Island vacation home. We both wasted much of the rest of the afternoon until 4:30 when Evie gave me my monthly shearing, trimming my hair and beard.  I needed it as I was getting wooly.  

Dinner With Friends

We both showered, got cleaned up whatever that means, and were on our way to dinner by 6:00.  We like the routine of trading making dinner every week.  Next week, it's Evie's turn.  Linda had Tom Collins ready to serve, looking forward to the coming of summer, sitting on the Lenhart Porch.  We sat in their cozy living room, cat on our laps, and enjoyed a garlic and bread crumb shrimp appetizer. By the time we had finished it, we were practically full.  Dinner was a tasty salmon wellington, the salmon nice and moist engulfed in a great pastry crust. A salad, and wild rice were the sides to finish off our dinner. We waddled into the living room for dessert, a Brulee with cookies, and a glass of ice wine. It's easy to see why we look forward to dinner at Linda's once a fortnight. We stayed until after 10:00, driving home on empty roads.  It was a good day.