#312 - Crepes and Kayaking

I slept a lot better last night and got out of bed around eleven.

We were expecting some rain today, so it was nice to see that it hadn’t arrived yet. I’d promised kiddo #2 that I would make everyone crepes for breakfast this morning. I got to work mixing the batter and then straining it to make sure it had a silky and smooth texture.

Crepe batter shouldn’t have lumps in it.

One of the best crepes I ever had was at a little place in Bronte Harbour. They served traditional French recipes and one of those was crepes with ham and cheese. I’d always thought of crepes as a kind of dessert breakfast in the same genre as waffles with fruit and whipped cream, or pancakes drizzled in caramel sauce with bananas and walnuts.

We happened to have some honeyed ham luncheon meats and some slices of marbled cheddar on hand at the cottage. I made up the first two crepes for kiddo #2 and Robyn who had two each. Kiddo #1 was late getting to the table, so I used up all the batter, leaving two crepes for her and one for me. I added cheese and ham while the crepe was still in the pan and then folded it over to allow the cheese time to melt.

I drizzled a little maple syrup over it and dug in. It was as good as I was hoping it would be. Absolutely delicious. The resort of the family slathered Nutella and bananas all over their crepes as per usual.

Like our stop at Webber’s Grill, having crepes has become part of our family traditions when visiting the cottage.

I got out for a late morning kayak after breakfast while the Robyn swam with kiddo #1 and Kiddo #2 went about collecting frogs. He photographs them and releases them, only to hunt them all again later.

The lake was glassy and calm. The perfect conditions for kayaking. There was a slight headwind on the way out, but that meant it would be at my back on the way home. There weren’t very many people about on the lake as it was still overcast and had just finished drizzling.

On the way back that current and breeze were heading in my direction. Off to my right, a lone loon kept pace with me. Not even the slightest bit concerned about me. I imagined that the flicker of kayak paddles was a signal to them that they were not in any danger from this life form.

I felt great to gently paddle beside this iconic Canadian lake bird, like I was in tune with nature. The moment lifted my spirits and made me smile. I costed back into our dock and dunked myself in the water, this time on purpose. The cool water felt amazing after the tiny bit of exercise from paddling. The day was getting a bit humid as well.

Back inside the cottage, I changed out of the wet clothes and Robyn, and I watched an episode of Widow’s Bay in our room since the kids were playing a video game on the tv. Robyn fell asleep after the episode, and I finished the last half of the season finale of Star City.

The threat of rain increased, so we moved the hammock into the screened porch and took down the shade tent. With the hammock now in a bug and rain free zone, I took the opportunity to read my book and occasionally nodded off.

Which is the best way to read in my opinion.

At some point the kids and Robyn left to take kiddo #2 out for some driving experience. I kept reading and getting deeper into the world of an old steam powered gun boat. I admired the author’s ability to set the scene and make it feel hot and steamy. You can feel the humidity in the engine room as the crew struggles to keep the old ship steaming along.

This is something I have been studying lately and is often the focus of my mentor assignments. Setting is such an important aspect of story because it helps to define the characters and make them feel real to the reader. That was an odd concept for me to understand at first and to the lay person it sounds ridiculous.

How can setting define character?

It does.

Trust me.

I headed out for another kayak while everyone was still away. The lake remained glassy and the weather had improved. The sun came out and it lit the surrounding cliffs and trees in warm tones of golden hour.

I passed the same loon from earlier in the day, but we were going in different directions. The lake was still quiet and there were very few people around. The ones I could see or hear were mostly keeping to themselves. The only boats on the lake were on the opposite side and moving slowly, making it hard to even hear them.

I took another dunk in the lake after docking the kayak and then spent a few minutes bailing out the aluminum rowboat that is also available for us to use. With all the recent rains, it was half filled with water. There was a plastic milk jug under one of the seats cut into a scoop, so I started bailing water with it until there was only a little left. One good sunny day and it would all evaporate.

By the time I got back to the cottage, Robyn was whipping up our dinner. She made spaghetti and had some garlic bread ready to go into the oven. I suggested we add the leftover taco meat from the other night to the pasta sauce to make it a bolognaise. Even though the meat had been cooked with all the taco spices, you couldn’t tell once it was in the tomato sauce. It filled out the meal and made for a good sauce.

The oven in the cottage isn’t the best, so we burned the edges of the garlic toast a bit. I added a bit of shredded cheddar from taco night to one half of the bread and let it melt. Half of us are garlic bread and cheese lovers, the other half like it with no cheese.

Some friends gave me a glass with a device that sits on top of it to allow you to smoke your drinks. You add wood chips into a wire basket and the wooden base sits across the rim of your glass. You light the wood chips and smoke is supposed to flow into the glass and escape out little grooves cut into the space. It came with three cans of old-fashioned mix and some cherry woodchips.

I could get the chips burning, and the smoke smelled great, but I couldn’t for the life of me get the smoke into the glass to affect the liquid. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I have more wood chips and two more cans of old-fashioned left to try it on. I wondered if the bourbon needed ice in it to create a temperature difference, but supper was ready and I gave up trying to smoke it and just drank it as it was. Which wasn’t too bad!

Tomorrow I’ll go on YouTube and see if I can figure out what I might have done wrong. Maybe you need one of those more serious looking butane lighters?

I was looking forward to having a fancy drink this evening and was even ready to do a little photo shoot of it sitting in the dock with a cloud of smoke rising from the glass and the lake in sunset as a backdrop. You know what they say about the best laid plans.

After dinner the kids split up, one went into their room to edit their video, and the other to the hammock to read her book. Robyn and I watched the last two episodes of Widow’s Bay which got even more crazier than the previous ones. I liked this quirky little show, and it seems to be doing well in the ratings as well.

That got us to ten o’clock and that was enough tv for Robyn. She loves reading her books when she is here at the cottage more than anything else. It’s not often she gets to read undisturbed and I think she cherishes these moments. Who can blame her.

I took the opportunity to start some writing for the day. I had meant to do a little every hour or two throughout the day but didn’t for some reason. Not that it matters, the word challenge quota is well in hand for this first week of August and looks like I will be able to continue putting the daily minimum to keep things moving along.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is our last full day at the cottage. Time moves so fast when you are enjoying yourself. I think we could all use a second week of this, but it’s jut not in the cards at the moment. I still have two weeks of vacation to use up. I might take some time off around my birthday and let the leftover week carry over into next year.

The last few days I have been putting my phone on Do Not Disturb mode throughout the day as well as at night. Not carrying it around has been great. Not wanting to look at it has been even better. I don’t think you can really relax if that little dopamine monster is constantly in your hands and mind.

As of this evening, I played 199 consecutive days of chess. Have I improved by playing every day? No, I don’t think so. At least my chess rating is still about the same as it ever was on Chess.com. But the point was to keep the streak going and see what happens. Chess for me is entertainment. I’m not out to become a master. But I do enjoy the mental challenge the game provides and often use it as form of distraction or as a break.

Still, 199 days of playing at least one game per day is pretty good. The strength of the streak is strong enough that I would hate to miss a day and break it.

Even this blog counter is at #312. I’m getting close to a full year of never missing a blog post. And for the 2026word challenge per day I have managed to stay in it for the last 218 days. Another significant streak that has been strengthen with time. I might have given up last month if the streak had been smaller.

And this week, being on holiday has made the task of writing the minimum all that much easier. A joy even. I hope I can keep this up when things get busier back home. It feels so much better to be on track everyday and sometimes even to be ahead of the game.

Getting some writing done early in the day has worked great here at the cottage and I think it will work for me when I get back home. Even just getting up an extra half an hour early would result in five hundred words being written before my workday starts.

I think I’ll end the night with some more reading. It’s a great way to wind down for the night and helps to make sure I get a good night’s sleep.

That’s all I have for today.

Until tomorrow.