Oct 16th: Plenty of action with the Scotts

Confession: I don't know how 9 days can go by so fast. We packed a lot of fun into the 9 days I was there. As I am completing the blog, I realize remembering the order of our activities is sketchy, there was a lot going on. For those of you in attendance, I am not surprised if some events are chronologically out of order. But then "Who Cares". It was all great fun!

Toasting Linda's wonderful life

Monday September 20th was Linda's birthday. My sister Terri asked if I wanted to do something special. I had mixed emotions, it's still difficult to not think about wanting to have her with me. Especially when I am with friends and family having fun. My brain tells me it's been long enough and that I need to move on. Some days that works better than others. A good friend reminded me recently that although Linda is not with me in body, she will always be with me in my memories and to enjoy those. Terri suggested we go to Christopher's lake house dock and watch the sunset with Docktails in Linda's honor. I truly appreciate having such a thoughtful and fun sister! 

Randy Cindy, Linda, Gigit and Cricket - Bobcaygeon

What a great idea. We had so many wonderful gatherings with friends for docktails while boating. 

While I still miss Linda terribly, celebrations like this help me to appreciate the wonderful life we had together. 

We stayed well after sunset and enjoyed a beautiful evening! Toasted to Linda with our Manhattans, Linda's favorite drink, of course! Thanks Terri for a wonderful idea and Christopher for providing a perfect place for us to gather.

Pickerel

We checked the weather for the next few days to plan kayaking on Christopher's lake, Lake Iroquois. Turned out the next day looked good for kayaking. Christopher was working from home and he was able to join us. Christopher likes to fish so he had equipment for us. I left the dock and was waiting for Christopher. While waiting I saw a little swirl in the water so I cast my line out and caught this nice pickerel. Took a picture and released it. What a great way to start!

Pair of loons

The kayaking was wonderful. We toured a lot of the shoreline and even spotted a pair of loons. They are very fun to watch diving for fish and hearing their calls. Christopher was able to get this picture from a distance. The loons and the Lake houses really took the edge off my missing the summer in Canada.

Lake House from the dock

Christopher had offered the Lake House for me to enjoy. Terri and Scott had errands to run the next day so I decided it would be fun to stay at the Lake. Besides, it would give Terri and Scott a break from their "house guest", not that I was concerned about it. All was going smoothly.

Lake house viewed from
the road to the lake

Front yard and screened in deck

The lake house is very comfortable and located in a nice wooded area. There are very large oak trees that have many acorns. The acorns falling on the steel roof made an amazingly loud sound, especially at night! Still, it was a great place to sleep, a nice little getaway.

As forecast, it rained during the night and into the next morning. It was very peaceful and I enjoyed hearing the rain on the steel roof. Fortunately, it cleared off and I was able to go for another Kayak ride around the lake. It was somewhat windy so I went to the end of the lake paddling into the wind. I stayed close to the somewhat irregular shoreline so the wind really wasn't a big issue.

I was watching for the loons, hoping to see them again. I spotted them diving for fish around a small rock island. The wind was very helpful. I paddled upwind of the loons so I could drift toward them without paddling. They let me drift pretty close. It took several drifts but I finally got some fun pictures, and I got to see them up close.

The loons were losing their summer feathers which are a distinctive black and white. They eventually turn a dark gray for the winter. They do migrate and we have seen some in Florida. Learn more about the Common Loon here.

Great blue heron

As I was almost back to the Lake house I spotted a great blue heron on a dock. It was pretty far away but I took a picture before trying to get closer. It's too bad my phone was not set on video, I could have gotten a great one. The Great Blue Herons are fun because they are very large and make a very raucous sound when disturbed.

Annika's Chocolate Chip Cookies

It turned out that I benefitted from Annika's quarantine. She had to remain home and likes to bake. She made some chocolate chip cookies and Christopher delivered some to me. They were great! Here is a picture of two, there were more before I thought to take a picture!

Terri received a call from my niece, Chris' wife Teresa, with a wonderful offer. She had made reservations at a unique Vermont restaurant for an annual gathering with her friends. Reservations need to be made many days ahead of time. One of her friends had a problem so they had to reschedule. Teresa offered the reservation to us. Coincidentally, Terri's name is Theresa Scott and her daughter-in- law is also named Teresa Scott. We showed up and Terri said "Hi, reservation for Teresa Scott".

We enjoyed a nice setting, great wine with appetizers. The food came and it was very good. I neglected to take a picture of the meals. The wine picture is all anyone took. I thought we were finished and ready to leave. But Stephanie said, "What desserts should we get?" After some discussion I believe a blueberry cheesecake and some kind of a chocolate dessert were order with four spoons. The Scotts know how to enjoy life! Thank you Teresa for thinking of us.

I copied a description from the Kitchen Table Bistro website because I thought you'd appreciate it.

Welcome to The Kitchen Table Bistro, and thanks for checking us out! We are a Chef-owned bistro cooking seasonal Vermont fare in an historic brick farm house. Food, and the dining experience, excites us and we appreciate being able to share this labor of love with our friends and guests.

As good Vermonters, we are very proud to live, work and be a part of our community. We do our part by buying as much as we can from our neighbors and all of our local Vermont producers. We base our menus on Season, changing things often to reflect our constantly changing weather and our far too short growing season. We also base our menu on Personalities. We like the farmers and growers, foragers and producers that personally come to our kitchen, and we appreciate being able to support these personal connections. In summer and fall, we grow lots of fresh herbs here in our gardens. We try to extend the seasons by preserving lots of our beautiful summer fruits, vegetables and foraged mushrooms.

Clearly, we are excited to be here doing what we do. We are even more excited that our guests want to be a part of this, and we are pleased to be able to share our enthusiasm with you. Thanks!

Steve, Lara and the whole KTB Team

I also include this link to the photos since we neglected to take our own!

Photos: The Kitchen Table Bistro 

Stephanie lives 30 minutes away and our dinner reservation was at 7:00 PM. I offered, with enthusiasm, to stay at Christopher's lake house again so Stephanie could stay in the guest bedroom. I truly enjoyed staying at the lake. Terri, Scott and Stephanie dropped me off at the Lake house. There was some question about my being there without transportation, but not from me!

There is more to come but I'm going to post this now. I am sorting through many more pictures from Scott, Stephanie, Terri, Christopher and me. It's fun to see them all. but I know I shouldn't include them all! Next on the agenda were more athletic events, another kayaking visit to Stephanie's and hopefully a family get together after Annika got her COVID test results.