Shades Of Gray

8:08

It's almost 8:00 and I skipped kayaking because of the wind and waves and the lack of interest on my part.  And I was not up until 7:20, having slept in.  It's 27º, the snow in the front yard melting, the trees shivering, the lake choppy.

Winter Sky At CI

Sunday, a day of rest for the most part, as we were going out for Sunday dinner at a friend's house.  As a result, we did not spend much of the day in the kitchen, prepping or baking or cooking, a day off for Evie. We took our time in the morning, not hurrying with the blog or coffee or kayaking.  By 11:00, however, we bundled up and drove to the Chautauqua Institution for our Sunday constitutional.  We walked for over an hour on a brisk, bracing morning.  It felt good, as always, to be out in the cold air, getting in some physical activity as well as enjoying the view of the lake and Victorian streets.  We browsed the bookstore, the only patrons, before heading home.

Thunder Bridge

Chautauqua's Atheneum Hotel

Of course, I was looking forward to getting home, for our Sunday breakfast and the Cleveland Browns game, on TV because the Bills were not playing until Monday night.  Evie fried up some bacon, eggs, toasted wheat bread and we were both happy.  I watched the first half of the game, ignored the disgusting second half, finding out finally that the Browns won because of a high school friend's Facebook post.  I am still working my way through my book,  Troubled Blood, hoping to finish it in the next couple of days.  It's good for helping me nap.  

Dinner At Wendy's

We left for our friend Wendy's home at 5:30 and it was fun to spend Sunday night with her.  Dinner, a Thai curry, was simmering on the stove and we settled in the living room, with brie, crackers, and a glass of wine to catch up on the Thanksgiving holidays.  She, like us, was unable to enjoy it with her Virginia family.  Dinner was great, the curry along with salad and rolls, with Perry's peppermint ice cream for dessert, much better than Wegman's by the way.  We sat around the table until 8:30, talking about the good old days, college, child-rearing, and 15 years of ministering at various local churches for Wendy.  It was a perfect way to start the week, dinner with a good friend.  When we returned home, we watched some of the Kansas City Chiefs football, or rather I did, before going up to bed.  

A Morning Of Sleet And Gray

8:41

9:10

It's 8:45 and I was out kayaking for forty minutes, a slight wind and sleet made it colder than I expected.  I took my usual paddle, down to Sandy Bottom and back, staying close to the shoreline after hearing about the four hunters whose 15-foot boat capsized yesterday morning and had to be rescued by the fire department at 6:30 a.m., lucky to have been saved. 

Kayak Morning

Yesterday was a gray, cold day, perfect for staying inside and enjoying the indoors.  I started as usual with a short paddle, blog, and breakfast.  Evie then got busy, getting organized for our Middle East dinner, more accurately, Palestinian dinner.  First, we cleaned up the kitchen and cleaned out the refrigerator, making sure we had all the trash so that I could take it to the Transfer Station, always a busy place on Saturday mornings. 

Duck Hunters Brave The Cold Water

Setting Out The Decoys

We were having Linda and Ron over for dinner, again, and we both wanted to try a couple of recipes from Sami Tamini's cookbook, Falastin. Both were complicated and Evie had made neither one of them before.  So some of the morning was spent prepping for both Fattoush, a Middle Eastern salad with toasted pita, and the main course, Chicken Shawarma Pie, a complicated mixture of marinated chicken thighs, seven spices, potatoes, tahini, all baked in a filo dough pie.  

After helping some, mostly doing up some dishes, I had the leftover chicken parmesan for lunch, watched some football, and started a new series, Undercover, from Denmark I think.  I fell asleep watching the Ohio State game, read some, then helped Evie more in the kitchen.  We did not get in a walk, alas, but it was just not that nice outdoors. Once dinner was prepped, Evie quickly put together baklava for dessert, grinding the walnuts, layering the filo dough, baking it, and then pouring the cold sugar syrup over the piping hot baklava.  It's fun to hear the sizzle. 

Chicken Shawarma Pie

Most of the dinner, putting it together, especially the Shawarma, had to wait until 5:30.  I read the directions as Evie layered the filo, potatoes, spicy chicken, tahini, and more filo.  It baked then for an hour. Linda and Ron arriving at 6:00 while it was still baking, and we had our drinks, appetizers, and cheese while doing something different.  We sat around the dining room table, coloring the tablecloth, talking, and enjoying our drinks and cheese and crackers,  

Coloring With Appetizers And Drinks

The pie came out at 6:30 and Evie let it sit for 30 minutes.  It then came out of the springform pan perfectly.  While we cleared off the table and set it, Evie made the fattoush salad of onions, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, and pita with a vinaigrette flavored with pomegranate molasses and sumac seasoned onions.

Fortunate To Be Together

We sat down to eat around 7:30 and devoured our dinner, enjoying the Shawarma and Fattoush with its many Middle Eastern spices.  It felt like we were back in Istanbul.  We sat around the table talking until we decided it was time for dessert, so Evie served lemon sorbet with a couple of pieces of baklava, a perfect ending to our meal.  Linda and Ron left just before 10:00 and we spent 15 minutes washing and drying most of the dishes.  It's nice to wake up to a clean kitchen.  We watched some of Trump's crazy rally, addicted to his whining and lies I guess, before going up to bed. 

A Slow Thaw On A Windy Morning

8:52

It's 8:50 and I just returned from a ten-minute paddle into the wind, making little if any progress so I just hung it up and returned home.  No sense in battling waves, wind, and duck hunters, parked on the shoreline between Woodlawn and the campground,

Kayak Morning

Northern Winds

Duck Blind

Friday was one of those days where you wonder what you did all day, kayaking, yes, but no hiking, no yoga, mostly sitting around I suppose, reading some, thinking of little things to do, like the dishes, or untangling Christmas tree lights, a quick vacuuming, after setting up the tree and hanging the lights on the tree set outside on our porch this year. I can't say the same for Evie who seemed busy with something most of the day, usually in the kitchen, prepping for tonight's dinner, and cleaning and organizing of course.

I had the chicken chili for lunch and finished my series, which I ended up liking despite the record-setting 42 minutes of shagging, the most in any series according to The Guardian critic. Both young actors were exceptional and one, who played Connell, is up for an Emmy.  Many disliked the ending, the same as in the book, but I didn't, thinking it was just right for their relationship.  I am getting bored with my Cormoran Strike novel, wishing I was getting close to the end so I could start the new Jack Reacher, on my Kindle.  Whenever I got bored, I walked down to watch the beginnings of a new lake wall put in along our neighbor's lakefront, quite a job. 

Working Inside A Dam

 Railroad Ties Bridge In The lake

By 5:00 I had a nap, read, looking for a new series to watch on either Netflix, Hulu, or Prime Video while Evie finished up prepping and making our dinner of chicken parmesan.  We relaxed with something different, tired of wine, a couple of what my parents called highballs, basically gingerale and whiskey in a tall glass. They tasted good, even healthy!  As an appetizer, we had horseradish cheese on crackers, a nice change as well.  Dinner was good, as chicken parm is always a favorite.  We watched a Colbert, then the rest of the silly but fun series, The Other One, on Prime before bed.  

Not Much Of A Morning

7:13

It's 9:00 as I got a late start this morning, not getting up until 7:00, getting out on the lake after 8:00 until a gray morning,  When I woke, the last thing I felt like doing was kayaking but once I got out there, it acted as a restorative and I felt better, ready for the day.

Kayak Morning

Thursday was an easy day, not much going on, just things we wanted to do.  After kayaking, blog and breakfast, we decided on a walk which we have never taken before, the Riverside Walk from Clifton Ave, just past Greenhurst into Jamestown.  I have ridden it on my bike but we have never walked it.  It follows the Chadokoin River on one side and industrial development on the other.  It's a ten-foot asphalt path all the way into Jamestown and a short walk from McCrea Point where the Chautauqua Belle is moored for the winter.  It's not particularly interesting but worth walking at least once,  Afterward, we drove to Tops, deciding to shop there since it was nearby and it usually has few shoppers, making us wonder how it survives.  We found everything we needed for our dinners and as we expected, few shoppers were moving through the aisles.

Chadokoin River

Moored Chautauqua Belle

go

Riverside Walk Looks Like A Golf Cart Path

We didn't get back until after 1:00 and I had a quick lunch, Evie's white chili with avocado, cheese and lime.  I loved it.  I watched another episode of Normal People who don't seem normal, then read and napped until 2:30. We relaxed until 4:00 when Evie decided we should put up our faux Christmas tree on our front porch.  I managed to squeeze the box out of our attic and we put it together easily, too easily obviously because it won't light up even though we took it apart again and then put it back together.  Frustrating.  

Buffleheads Thursday Morning

We decided to worry about it Friday and got ready to drive to Linda and Ron's at 6:00 for pizza and a salad.  We had hoped to get to a winery, sit outside on their front porch but it was closed so we had to make do with pizza and beers at their house, a bummer, not.  We picked up pizzas around 7:30, from a local Mexican restaurant, go figure, and sat around enjoying it until 8:45 when all four of us were getting tired.  We were home just after 9:00, in time to get on our sweats and watch some TV before going to bed earlier than usual.

Words to Ponder from conservative commentator Charlie Sykes:

“This is actually the most dangerous 60 days of the Trump presidency. There are no norms that he’s not willing to violate. There’s no standard of decency that he’s not willing to shred.”

Sun, Snow, And Icing Lake

6:53

7:10

8:23

Buffleheads Are Back

What a surprise to have a sunny morning; even the moon was out at 6:30 when I got up, projecting shadows on our front yard.  I just returned from a 45-minute paddle, dodging ice, as I made my way down to Wells Bay and back, Lots of mallards and seagulls, a few buffleheads off in the distance.  It was chilly, 27º but little if any wind which made it pleasant.

Kayak Morning

Sun Rising

Lake Freezing

Victoria/Woodlawn

Blinding Sun

Wednesday was like Tuesday which was like Monday, etc.  I did not kayak because of the wind and waves.  So we had a long morning coffee, listening to Michael Smerconish, deciding on dinner and where we would walk that morning.  We decided, because of the 6-8 inches of snow, to walk around the Chautauqua Institution.  It was close by, three miles, and is always attractive when it snows, resembling a Victorian village with all the brightly painted houses with front porches.  Fortunately, the roads were plowed so it was not icy although both of us used our walking poles.  As far as we could tell, we were the only ones out enjoying the morning and we walked for close to an hour, enjoying the cold and snow.  Because we decided on hamburgers for dinner, we stopped at the Lighthouse Grocery for ground chuck and Utz chips.

Morning Sky

Thunder Bridge

Plowing The Snow

Lunch was the last of the schnitzel on a sandwich bun, with mayo and tomato and I watched another episode of Normal People, sent to afternoon viewing because of too much shagging.  I stuck with it and have two more episodes.  I spent the afternoon, as usual, reading and napping and watching a NFL football game, on a Wednesday because of Cov19 problems.  Fifteen minutes was enough to send me back to my book.  While I was wasting the afternoon, Evie made a pot of white bean chilly with chicken and did a load of wash. 

Bald Eagle

Around 5:30, we had some excitement during our wine time as Evie spotted a bald eagle perched in our neighbor's tree. Around 6:00,  Evie put some shoestring potatoes in the oven and fried up burgers for our dinner. I cracked open a beer to have with my burger and fries and was happy, imagining we were sitting at a bar.  We watched Colbert, some Shepard Smith, then started a new series on Prime Video called The Other One, a bit of fluff but amusing, a nice respite from all the violent, often sick crime shows. We watched four 30 minute episodes before deciding we had enough. 

 

White And Windy

First Snowfall

8:22

It's just about 8:00 and I have been up for over an hour, looking out at the contrast between the snow-covered yard and the gray lake's rolling waves, making it too difficult to kayak.  It's 32º and I think we are finished with snow for a while.  

Trail Begins

Monday was an exciting day for us, the first real snowfall of the late fall.  We probably received five or six inches, maybe a bit more but nothing like parts of northeast Ohio.  I did manage to get in some kayaking while it snowed before the blog and breakfast.  We definitely wanted to hike somewhere and thought Long Point State Park would be striking and it's not far.  So around 10:30 we drove over to the end of Lakeside Drive and hiked through the woods, the tree limbs frosted with a thin layer of snow.  The paths were snow-covered mostly but also muddy and wet in some areas.  Just as I commented on the fact that we finally had the park to ourselves, two guys and a dog walked by, the dog obviously loving the snow as he carried a piece of wood in his mouth. We did not walk out to the tip of Long Point because of the bitter wind hitting our faces.  We were out, however, for 50 minutes, long enough to get our blood moving,

Snow And Mud

We were home by 12:30 and Evie had the grand idea of making me pancakes for my lunch.  I was excited, needless to say, a change from the usual lunches and they were just as good as I hoped, dripping with Red's Maple syrup. I finished my show but cannot even remember the name.  I am glad it's over.  Because of the snow and winds, we did not get outside until late afternoon, preferring to hunker down on our couches, read, nap, or watch some TV, the usual these days.  

Kinney's Run At 4:20

Around 4:00, the sky was filled with soft snowflakes, making the outdoors look so inviting that we decided to hike up Kinney's Run and down the road to our house.  It was a good choice, the Run heavily frosted by late afternoon with snow.  We were out for just about a half-hour, working up an appetite.

Late Afternoon Sky

Evie had a zoom call with her sisters, then, from 5:00 to 6:00, followed by wine time with great cheese, brie with blue cheese, our favorite.  We enjoyed our wine, as the snow stopped and started out our living room window,  We had no worries about dinner because we were having the leftover Wienerschnitzel in sandwiches along with twice-baked potatoes Evie had put together just before our walk up the hill. I loved the sandwiches, with tomatoes and mayo of course as well as the potatoes.  We watched another amazing interview with Obama on the Colbert show.  How refreshing to listen to a President speak with intelligence, humor, and self-deprecation.  We sure do miss him.  We ended the night with another episode of Normal People on Hulu. 

 

Paddling On A Snowy Morning

Filtered Kayak Morning

9:00

It's almost 9:00 as I start this and I just returned from a forty-minute paddle on a gray sky and lake, as light snow filled the air.  Needless to say, I loved it, the first time to kayak on a snowy morning here at the lake.  It's a wet snow so I am not sure how long it will stick but for now, it a wonderland of white.

Monday was a long day, mostly because of the rain which fell on and off most of the day until late last night when it turned to snow.  It rained so hard that I didn't get in a paddle and many of the yards were filled with puddles.  So it was an extended leisurely morning, with only the blog and breakfast to worry about.  What, me worry?  By 10:30, however, Evie had put together a shopping list for Wegman's on her phone and I was off to get the week's shopping done.  I went early enough so that the store was not crowded and everyone wears a mask now.   I was able to get in and out quickly and needed an umbrella, compliments of Wegmans,  to get out to the car without getting soaked.  This was the most rain we have had in months or seems that way.  

I was home by 11:30 and decided to get some yoga in before lunch since we were not going out for a walk in the rain,  I practiced with Adrienne for 35 minutes, just enough to make me feel righteous, and then I had lunch, some of Evie's vegetable soup, just thawed, and a tuna and tomato sandwich.  I then read having started a new book, the fourth Cormoran Strike novel by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowland). While I was reading and napping, Evie drove off to Mayville to pick up a prescription at Rite Aid, braving the rainy afternoon.  When she returned, we spent a long afternoon waiting for wine time and dinner.  Around 5:30, Evie started prepping our dinner, a homemade pizza, with sausage, mushrooms, and cheese. We put it in the oven around 6:00 because we were both hungry and ate by 7:00, watching the final episode of The Tunnel and I guarantee there will be no season four.  We then started a new series that I was looking forward to on Hulu called Normal People.  It's based on a novel by Sally Rooney which I loved.  We have watched the first three episodes and neither of us is loving it yet (too much noisy smooching) perhaps because we both have read the book and know the story.  We will stick with it, knowing that it has received glowing reviews from the critics.