37º Yesterday Morning, 79º In The Afternoon

First Baltimore Oriole 

6:20

6:21

6:34

Another beautiful morning here on the lake, a cloudless sky, brilliant sunrise, smooth lake, and a 51º temperature.  As I stepped out to take a photograph, a loon called from a distant shore, competing with the beating of wings of a gaggle of ducks or geese.  I just got back from a good hour kayaking, down to the Powerboat Club and back.  I passed within ten feet of a swimming muskrat.  He saw me, dove in the water, swam under my kayak and surfaced about 15 feet away.  And a kingfisher dove in front of my kayak, flying quickly away with a small fish.

A Muskrat Diving

Swimming Away From My Kayak

Heron's Back

Female Mallard

Menage A Trois

Yesterday seemed like the first day of summer, not spring as the temperatures hit close to 80º in the afternoon.  Early morning, however, was cold enough for a fleece when I went out for a kayak paddle around 7:00, never expecting it would warm up to such an extreme.  Evie was up early as well, wishing she could go kayaking with me.  Around 9:00, I drove off to yoga with Julie, eight ladies and moi, a good group.  Afterward, I stopped at Ryders, had to wait for ten minutes as the trio of women could not make up their minds about what to order.  We did talk about the weather, gardening when to put in flowers.  I then dropped another package off, a return to Amazon, then went to the self-car wash as my Honda was a mess from the trees.  I ended up at Tractor Supply, picking up a battery tester and more straps for our dock which I will return today.

First Signs Of A Chautauqua Spring

When I got home, Evie was off to her second chiropractic appointment in Lakewood.  I warmed up the cauliflower soup and made myself an avocado and tomato sandwich on a bagel, for once a healthy lunch.  I watched some of the NBA playoffs, then Jack Taylor,  and finally napped, tired from my early rising and kayaking.

Buffleheads

Evie was home by 2:00 and went straight upstairs, changed into shorts and went out to enjoy the warm afternoon on the dock.  It was a perfect day for sunbathing so I briefly joined her but soon got tired of the sun and the heat and thought about autumn.  I went into a cool house, read some but then could not resist the temptation to get out on the seemingly calm, blue waters of the lake.  I paddled my usual route, down to the reeds but noticed the wind was picking up, so I headed back.  Fortunately, the wind was worst out in the middle of the lake and if I hugged the shore, I was able to avoid most of it. And we can tell Spring has 'maybe' arrived as our neighbors from Pennsylvania, Ken and Margorie, Tom and his Mom, arrived to open their houses and stay for a couple of days.

For some reason, we decided to have a beer inside, rather than out on our dock.  Maybe we had enough sun for a day.  Anyways, dinner was warming up the chili and boiling some pasta for me.  I like my chili on top of pasta, with cheese, perhaps some sour cream, my version of Cincinnati chili, developed by Macedonia immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920's. It's strange eating dinner in daylight, watching TV when we should be outside, enjoying the early evening.  We are, however, creatures of habit, so we watched Colbert, then the final two episodes of Doctor Foster, dramatic and tension-filled but not uplifting as parents, so angry with each other, tend to ignore their son's unhappiness.  They suffer as a result.   It's a series that hard to watch at times, just as hard to turn off.

A Bit Of Nostalgia:

Robert College Plateau, Fall, 1971 - Standing in Europe, Bosphorous and Asia in Background

Pink To Red To Blue/Gray

5:54

5:54

5:55

5:55

6:03

Up before 6:00 once again, to a bright pink, almost red sky which disappeared within minutes, as the clouds took over and it began to drizzle, hardly enough to the wet the ground.  It's 45º, rain forecast for the morning but will stop by noon.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Wednesday was a very busy day for Evie as she spent almost all of it outside, working on weeding her garden, a seemingly endless task. I went to yoga of course, then came straight home because I knew we had lots to do and the day was perfect for working outside.  So, while Evie was weeding, I began raking the area in our backyard that was torn up by fixing our well.  I had already put down mucho buckets of topsoil, so all I needed to do is smooth it out, then scatter grass seeds.  Once that was done, I roughed the area once again and prayed for rain which is why we are getting some this morning.  Evie then took time out  to make a great lunch, spinach and eggs, fast becoming another one of my favorite breakfasts, lunches, or dinners.  I feel like Popeye after eating. While I ate I watched some TV, read and tried to nap, Evie enjoyed a respite on the dock, copping some rays as we used to say back in the day.

A Famished Oriole

By 2:30, we were both back out in the yard, working on clearing weeds and leaves from the privets, then fertilizing them, and hoping they form a nice green wall along our yard.  While Evie continued to work, I cleared some of the weeds from the bare area where we keep our dock during the winter.  It always kills the grass, so once again, I seeded the area, then spread a thin layer of top soil over it.  By 4:30, I had enough and my back was starting to bother me from bending over a rake or weeding, a wimp no doubt.  So I pulled out a yoga mat, put it down in the middle of our green yard and sun bathed for a half hour, a delicious end to my busy day.  Evie, however, did not have enough so she fired up the lawn mower, cut the grass, then potted more dahlias before coming in to the house for a beer as the day waned.  We both felt good about our progress in the garden and yard, a day well done.

Sated With Grape Jelly

Fortunately, we had another easy dinner because by the time Evie had her beer, she had enough 'doing' and making a dinner sounded terrible.  So she heated up the leftover Mississippi beef and mashed potatoes, made a salad, and we had a fine dinner.  It was hard to escape the news and what seems to be the lies, 'the cover up' of Trump's reasons for firing of the FBI director.  We watched the most recent episode of THE AMERICANS, once our favorite series but it seems to be running out of gas this season.  They need to pick it up, make something happen rather then agonize over Paige.  By the way, I spent much of the day running our water from having shocked the well Tuesday night.  As of this morning, we still have the odor of chlorine, so I will have to keep running the water on and off till it's gone.

Just In Time For The Sunrise

6:12

6:13

6:15

I was up around 6:00, about ten minutes before sunrise.  It was a spectacular beginning to the day, clear skies, blazing sun, motionless lake and me.  The lake is so inviting, so tempting but I am too comfortable at the moment to get up and get outside.  Maybe in an hour I will be more motivated.

Hello

Loving That Grape Jam

Yesterday was sunny but cool, with a wind that kept us from sunbathing on the end of the dock, even in the side yard.  We had our first sighting of a Baltimore Oriole at our special feeder yesterday, always a thrill to see that bright orange and black bird, sipping the grape jam.  We did want to get some exercise so we took our usual Sunday stroll through the Chautauqua Institution which seemed to be finally waking up, spring wise.  Bushes and flowers were beginning to bloom, trees to leaf and the tulips were in fine fettle.  We are not quite in full spring, but some of the lilacs are out, the azaleas for sure.  We needed a jacket as we walked north, into the wind, not so on the way back.  On the way home, we were tempted to stop at Reverie Creamery but common sense took over and we drove past it.

Pink Tulip

I think we must have overdone it the past two days with our yard work because once we got home from our walk, had our breakfast, watched CBS Sunday Morning, it was 1:30 and neither of us was too excited to get out and start working.  So we relaxed inside, reading, watching TV, getting some things done before both of us went out around 4:00, to weed, water, trim some of the privets.  The chill of the wind surprised both of us because it was a sunny afternoon.

Dinner was easy as Evie ordered a pizza from Coppola's in Bemus Point and drove over and picked it up around 5:00.  We celebrated Mother's Day with wine, cheese, hummus and endamame, enjoying the waning of the day, the lake settling down.  We ate around 7:30, pizza and a salad.  We are glad we finally have found a pizza place we like and they are now starting to bottle their own pasta and pizza sauces, available at local grocery stores.  We watched another outrageous Real Time with Bill Maher and the final episode of The Good Wife.  We are both glad to bid adieu as we think its lost its way the last couple of years, predictable and silly.

It looks like a fine day on the lake, a perfect day to start packing (not Evie's strong suit) for our trip. And I just got back from a 45 minute paddle on an empty lake except for me and the ducks...a good way to start my morning,

Kayak Morning Along Long Point

Fog Bound On Chautauqua Lake

Dawn On A Foggy Morning at 6:10

Dusk at 8:47

Martins And Sparrows Nesting

It's 6:45 and I have been up for forty five minutes, looking out the windows at a blanket of fog covering the lake.  I can just make out the end of our dock, then the fog envelops the vista.  It's 64º out at the moment, a whiff of wind.  No spectacular sunrise this morning, alas, and I have breakfast at the Bemus Point Inn in a little over an hour with the guys.

Baltimore Oriole Feeder

A Striking Guy

Hanging Out

Yesterday started out well, an easy early morning, listening to the birds, sipping our coffee, finishing up the blog.  At 9:45 I left for yoga and Evie was busy, making an asparagus soup, working with the family photographs which we hope to hang.  And Evie hung the Baltimore oriole feeder, so she spent much of the day taking pictures of the oriole, a bright orange, contrasting with the bright yellow of the finches, the red of the rose breasted grosbeak.   Yoga was its usual self, a couple of new students, a good class.  Afterwards, I stopped at the bank, deposited a check from Delta Dental, a rare occurrence these days, then stopped at the hardware store to pick up a few whole house filters.   I think I mentioned we just put in a whole house filter, to remove the sediment from our water.  It seems that there's quite a bit because we have been changing the filter weekly, not monthly especially since the pump has been turned off several times recently which stirs up the sediment.  We hope our well settles down.  Finally, I went to Mike's Nursery in Lakewood, to see if they had any privets yet but the staff seemed totally out to lunch and did not seem to know what a privet was.  I walked around to see if they had any but it's too early or the won't have any.

Close Up

Profile with Seed

Enjoying A Sunflower Seed

After a lunch of asparagus soup and leftover city chicken, Evie decided to get things done in Lakewood:  returning stuff, shopping, errands.   I was left home alone, to read, watch some basketball and take a nap.  I was soon bored with my book, could not take a nap, so I went out to my garage, a mess from the past six months, and started my once a fortnight routine, cleaning and organizing my garage.  I also have begun to 'tidy it up,' meaning throwing out things that I have not used in years.  I found various half empty paint cans, so I will have to get some kitty litter today, fill the cans with it, so that the Transfer Stations will take them.  As I was finishing up, Evie drove in with good and bad news.  The good news, she managed to get the Honda Pilot home safely, the bad, the brakes had failed.  When I checked it out, I had to push the pedal completely to the floor to make the car stop.  So I called Keystone and Ray told me not to drive the car, so I called AAA and they came and towed it to Keystone where they will check it over this afternoon and fix it.  Not the way to end a sunny afternoon.  I seem to measure my life in car bills.

Late Afternoon Hikers On Long Point

For dinner, Evie sauteed spinach with garlic, cracked eggs on the top, then baked it in the oven for a couple of minutes.  That was our dinner, along with garlic toast and a salad, just right on a surprisingly pleasant evening on the lake.  While we taped the Cavs game and American Idol, we finished the BOSCH series on Amazon.   As I said, we liked it enough to keep watching but were not thrilled with it.  I finally concluded that the main character Harry Bosch was the problem, lacking charm, interest, and predictably in his inability to get along with anyone.  For me, he never rang true, an actor playing a detective.  I was happy to go up to bed and read, as my book has taken a right turn, from life in a Japanese labor camp, to a tumultuous love affair, early in the main protagonist's life, before he leaves for the WWII.

It Finally Feels Like Spring (for a day)

5:56

6:16

Up before 6:00, to a great sky off to the north, as the sun has yet to rise.  I can hear the martins down the lake, other song birds, a single loon call, much like yesterday morning.  As my title suggests, it feels like spring at last.  It's 64º at the moment, the high may get into the 80's, then return to normal over the weekend, with rain forecast.

Yesterday began like most Thursdays, with a rushed morning coffee and blog post before heading over to the Bemus Point Inn.  For the first time since probably fall, five of us were in attendance, all the snow birds back, everyone fat and happy that spring was around the corner.  Most of breakfast was spent talking about the personnel changes at the Chautauqua Institution, as it sounds like they are embracing the business model of efficiency and cost cutting, much like most institutions over the past twenty years.  We are all glad to be retired from these places where loyalty rarely seems to matter. An older women always comes in every Thursday, for breakfast with a book in hand.  She laughingly said the waitresses called to say they need a woman since there were only men at breakfast.  I looked around, thought about it, and realized how true.  Most Thursdays, the breakfast spot is filled only with men, rarely with a woman or a group of women (I can remember it happening once).  I am not sure what this says but its probably true that men tend to gather as a group more often than women (probably because men had more friends from work, perhaps sports while women were stuck at home) though that also seems to be changing as more women work, participate in sports.

I was home by 9:15, changed and went off to Yoga at 10:00.  Class always ends with a reading from some Indian tomb, quite often The Sutras of Pantanjali.  Most are worth thinking about, a good way to end class.  Many revolve around the idea of attachment, how it often gets in the way of our happiness. As Buddha says: "The root of suffering is attachment." After class, I stopped at the bank because I received a strange telephone call early morning saying my ATM card was cancelled.  I thought it was probably a fraud and had no trouble getting my money from Key Bank.

In Flight

When I got home, Evie had made a pot of Madhur Jaffrey's Cauliflower soup, heavy with Indian spices and creamy, from the milk and blended cauliflower.  Yum.  I made toasted cheese sandwiches (with jam on it) and soup for lunch.  The  rest of early afternoon was spent enjoying the warm afternoon.  Evie got out a chaise lounge, and went out to lay on the dock for a couple of hours as it was a perfect afternoon, temperatures in the high 60's but most importantly no wind, the lake like a pane of glass.  I read for awhile but then was drawn by the warmth and calm lake, and took my kayak for a paddle up to Whitney Bay and back.  It was warm enough so I wore sun tan lotion and a hat, the first time this spring.

Fishing and Kayaking

Around 4:30, we both decided to get some work done in the yard, which meant for Evie cutting the lawn for the first time this spring.  While she cut the lawn, I did some raking and seeding of the lawn where our dock had been during the winter.  Our working in the yard discouraged the finches and orioles, as every time we walked by the feeders, they would fly away into the tree limbs, return when we were gone. By the time we were done, the lawn looked like a putting green, very green I might add, and the long day was beginning to wane.  Before cutting the lawn, Evie had put together our dinner, Greek lemon chicken, and it was baking while we worked outside.

The Quiet Shadows of Dusk: 8:35

So we had the chicken for dinner, with rice and a salad, watched a couple more episodes of Friday Night Lights, and American Idol before bed.

A Sunny But Frosty Morning

7:30

Flags a Flying Yesterday Afternoon

Fish Bone Wind Chime, A Gift From The Albarrans

Up just after 6:00, lots of sun and unseasonably cool temperatures for June, 51º outside, cool enough that I got out my fleece.  It looks like another great day, and may get down in the 40's tonight, great sleeping weather.  Not much action on the lake, just the music of the purple martins, an occasional fishing boat, a great morning to kayak.

I spent yesterday morning in Jamestown, getting my car fixed.  I dropped it off at 8:00, then walked into and around Jamestown for over an hour, through decrepit neighborhoods, downtown where a number of buildings have been restored, to the recently renovated train station, overlooking the Chadakoin River, a 7.8 mile tributary of the Conewango Creek.  I took some pictures, walked along the Riverwalk, and ended up on 4th street at the Labyrinth Press Coffee House, where I relaxed, with a coffee, burrito, and Internet.  My car was ready about 9:40, so I picked it up, noticed they charged me for two hours of labor, though it obviously took probably an hour and a half or less and they changed the bill, saving me eventually 75 dollars.  It pays to ask questions.  Evie also went shopping and started getting things ready for our trip to visit our daughter Jill and family, as we leave tomorrow, for four or five days.  Around noon, I went kayaking over towards Long Point, caught a couple of sun fish, a miracle, then fished over towards Wells Bay, with no luck, and came home for lunch.  A great day to be on the lake.

Jamestown Train Station, Looks Like Something In Moscow

Arches Holding Up Bridge in Jamestown

Entrance to Where Robert Jackson's Offices Used to Be

The rest of the day we relaxed again, enjoying the leisure of a beautiful afternoon,   Not much action on the lake, windy and cool, it was a lovely day to do nothing, something I am good at.  A few days ago, we had put up a new Baltimore oriole feeder, didn't think we would attract any orioles this year but around noon, there she was, noisily attacking the grape jelly in the feeder.  We tried to  get a good picture but she flew away each time we got near.

Female Baltimore Oriole

At 6:00, we went to Mc Clure's for dinner, where else, as they are leaving for Spain for twelve days on Friday and we are leaving for Virginia tomorrow.  Linda made one of my father's and my favorite dinners, lamb shanks, with sides of minted peas, polenta, and a salad.   We sat outside on their porch with beers until it became too cool, then came inside for dinner.  Around 8:30, Ron built a fire outside, a great night to sit out side and eat strawberries with chocolate, a great way to end the evening.  We won't see them till July 4th.  Bon voyage!

Dinner Is Ready

Time to go kayak for an hour, see what kinds of fish will follow my lure.