Close Encounters Sunset

Anne and I fixed dinner tonight. The main course was steaks. As sides there was corn-on-the-cob and asparagus. The asparagus was roasted, after it had been drizzled with olive oil, parmesan cheese and spices. The asparagus turned out really well and this is now my new go to recipe for that vegetable. Anne made a mushroom sauce to put over the steak, which was tasty and I was fortunate that she did, because the steaks ended up being a little over done. The electric stove broils a lot faster than our gas one. Dessert was the diner’s pièce de résistance. Anne made a rhubarb and strawberry crisp. While we finished all of the rest of dinner, we still have plenty of crisp left to enjoy tomorrow.

During dinner prep, I chanced to lookout on the lake and saw a flotilla of almost fifty cormorants swimming close to shore, right in front of the cabin. I snapped some pics of them, but we’ll have to wait and see if any of them turnout well enough to show. Cormorants are not particularly photogenic birds, IMHO. It has been an exceptionally still and windless day. The calm before the storm. There was some wind, but it was an east wind, which is always blocked by the trees here and on the beach results in an offshore breeze. When I walked the beach this morning I was initially greeted by the audible and steady hum of insects that were still in the woods and the beach grass, but they stayed there and I was able to walk the beach in peace. Later, Anne joined me and we did the circuit again.

This sunset photo is from the other day. Tonight’s sunset is masked behind a uniform and thick grey blanket of clouds. This photo reminded me of the cloud formation in the climax scene of the Spielberg movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Looking at this photo, with the sun peaking through its circular base, you can almost see the mothership poking through to reveal itself.