Baby, It's Cold Outside

7:47

Home Through The Reeds

It's after 9:00 as I start this because I kayaked on a 22º morning for close to forty-five minutes.  Fortunately, there was little if any wind so I was comfortable with my layers and a windbreaker.  It was an interesting paddle, as I dodged frozen sections of the like and was able to photograph both a red hawk and a muskrat, paddling along our lakefront.

Kayaking Along The Frozen Lake

Woodlawn

Heading Home

Hawk

Muskrat

Tuesday was overcast and cold with little if any snow.  I had no interest in paddling because I was busy shoveling our parking area and in front of our garage so I could drive my car out. That took me a good half hour so I literally had no time nor desire to kayak.  After breakfast, I drove off to yoga class at 9:30 with Courtney, new to Tuesday mornings.  It was as always a good class, not as crowded as Thursdays.  I stopped for a coffee at Ryders and talked with a friend who spent a couple of weeks in France in late October.  It was interesting to hear him talk about having to prove his vaccination status almost anywhere he went, on trains, in museums, and in restaurants. 

Evie was going to Wegman's and TJ so before she left, she made me a couple of eggs salad sandwiches to go with her soup. After she left, I had my lunch and watched another episode of Foyle's War.  I am glad they have a warning that the episode will have alcohol use. I put aside The Master, a biography of Thomas Mann because it spent too much time on his personal life and not his writing. So I started the latest Lucas Davenport novel, Ocean Prey, by John Sandford. I tried to nap, couldn't, made myself some Turkish tea, and spent a good part of the afternoon reading and drinking tea.  Evie didn't get home until close to 4:00 and I helped her unpack the car and put away the groceries. I was anxious for her to get home so I could go for a walk in the Victoria/Woodlawn woods.  I was out for forty minutes and it was a gorgeous walk in the woods, the trees frosted with snow.  It was my first real winter walk and I loved it.

Winter In The Woods

Victoria Creek

Woodlawn

Woodlawn At 4:45 PM

Before Evie left to shop, she put together a scalloped potato and ham casserole at my request.  So when she started her Zoom call with her sisters, she popped it in the oven so it would be ready around 6:15. It was just what I wanted, creamy potatoes and salty ham.  We watched a Colbert and Jeopardy and another episode of Cormorant Strike's series, ending the night with another cooking show, Padma Lakshmi's Taste The Nation where she explored the cooking of South Carolina's Black Gullah influence on Southern Cooking.