The Captain and the Admiral finally getting back on the water

VALOIS POINT, New York - The summer has flown by. It started slow after I had to have a hernia repair (ouch), which meant about a month of relatively limited activity. There went June.

Then the Star-Gazette newspaper and a regional magazine called Mountain Home called me for duty a lot. The assignments were all fun, but all seemed to coincide with the best boating weather.

A great day to head down the lake

We also had a hot spell - a really hot spell - that sent Admiral Fox and I diving not only into Seneca Lake, but into air conditioning. It was actually hard to breath at times. High 90-degree temperatures and 90-percent-plus humidity does not make for comfortable living. Ask anyone who lives in Florida in the summer.

And then, there's the book.

The draft of The Fracking War is now safely in the hands of three expert editors to read, critique and eventually return to me for rewriting, editing or a trip to the landfill. What a relief! (Though this morning I woke up rewriting a chapter in my head...)

Spirit of Louise at Village Marina

Today the Spirit of Louise pontoon boat will head out for a down-lake adventure to Watkins Glen. I just arranged for a berth at Village Marina for a few days - right next to the Sheriff's Boat. We hope to explore the south end lake, perhaps even the wilds of Montour a few miles down the channel.

Then on Saturday, the Spirit of Louise will become a press boat for the day. I will be covering a floating protest against a proposed propane storage project that has the community united - united against it.

About 100 kayaks and other boats will join the floating entourage. I'll be shooting still photos and taking video for the newspaper. I'm really hoping for calm water. Really hoping.

The summer also ended up with virtually no blogging for me - the book and commercial writing assignments took up all the writing energy I had.

But at least until the beta readers return The Fracking War, I'll hit the keyboard more often. In fact, I just finished the latest novel by James Lee Burke - Light of the World. A review of it is definitely in order. A great book. But then, his books are all great.

On our way to out to breakfast, we meet an odd duck

MONTOUR FALLS, New York, USA - After week of cold weather, the temperatures climbed today to over 70 - a veritable heatwave after days and days of burning logs in our wood stove and wearing jackets and hats all the time to keep warm.

But the cold weather was ok, because much of the week was taken up with catching up on medical appointments and other such errands, capped today by my getting my lab work done as part of my annual physical.

Gawd, I hate it when they take blood from me.

But the bloodtaking also meant that I had to fast for 12-14 hours the night before, which automatically means a good breakfast at a restaurant, somewhere down in Watkins Glen or Montour Falls. This time (as the giver of blood), I got to choose the Harvest Cafe in Montour, a favorite spot with great food where the Admiral hopes she and some of her musical buddies will be doing some music one of these nights.


Admiral Fox in front of the Harvest Cafe

We discovered the Harvest Cafe two years ago on a foray in search of a used car. No they don't serve cars there, but the local used car dealer has breakfast there almost every day and that's where we had to track him down.

The food is excellent and this week we met one of the owners, Valerie, who is a transplant from Pasadena, California.

I can't make this stuff up.

She and her husband Jeff sold off their California home several years ago and now live year-round here, with Valerie in charge of the popular cafe and Jeff running their nearby farm.

They are very community-minded and even have a website by the name, Where Community Happens:

Harvest Cafe Website

Valerie and Jeff

On our way to town this morning, however, we encountered a new neighbor a few doors down - a Muscovy duck, who other neighbors (of the human type) told us spent the entire winter at the lake, romancing a flock of white ducks, quite unsuccessfully.

Admiral Fox says she will try to find the fellow a girlfriend so that he isn't too lonely.

Myself, I don't know enough about ducks to tell if the duck in this photo is a male or female. Or if he is lonely.

But he/she certainly wasn't afraid of the camera.

Though I had reasonable cause to believe he is not a native duck,  I didn't ask him for any identification papers.

This is New York, after all, not Arizona.


One of our aquatic neighbors