It's a beautiful sunny warm day (temps in the 50s -- unseasonably mild) that cries out for a camera. We're on our way to buy some goodies for my Knitter's Coffee Swap pal.
(I'm cheating with the first photo -- this was taken on the way home. Sue me.)
Check out the clingy on my back window:
Hunting is serious business around here.
Now we are in the next little town north of us, where the coffee shop is located. This is the school. Lakeshore is so common around here -- although no longer cheap, by any means -- that even a school can have a lovely view. And yes, that is a skiff of ice on the water.
Any decent weather and you will see some of this:
Right after I took this he caught a (small) fish. If I were braver I might have asked for his picture with the fish.
On the other side of the road is a wetland. I have driven past it at least once a week for fifteen years and never stopped to take any pictures. Today was the day.
Meet my new desktop wallpaper:
We drive through town to Cafe Wren.
which is about a quarter-mile past the gas station. It's in an old house and is attached to a string of outbuildings; you can just see part of one at the right.
Here's the backyard. In the summer there are tables and chairs here and an awning overhead for shade. Stephanie, the owner, is a master gardener, and she has put in native plantings that I didn't quite catch in this photo.
We enter and look to the right. Remember when many houses had a breezeway between the house and the garage? That's kind of what this entry is. If you went through the red door you would be in the community room, where there are concerts and art sales and even a poetry slam. It used to be a bait shop, but no trace of fishy-ness remains.
We turn to the left and see this.
Continuing through the red door in that last photo, we enter the ordering area.
And here is the lovely Stephanie, founder and owner of this wonderful spot. Besides being a master gardener, she is a great cook. Cafe Wren serves the best homemade soups and breads and goodies around. You can see half of her kitchen behind her.
We pass through the glowing golden passage that you could see in the far reaches of the ordering area. Here is the first room and the sit-at counter.
If you walked into the room and turned around, here is what you would see. That's a game table in the foreground.
Walk through the warm yellow and orangeness of the first room and you enter the second room, an oasis of cool green calm. The blue curtains hide the kitchen.
The walls are adorned today with paintings by a local artist (whose name I forgot to write down -- duh). There are always interesting things on the walls. I remember a display of wonderful photos of Tibet? Nepal? Mongolia? a while back.
A couple things I have learned about myself: I am a sucker for things carved out of rocks and for images of bare trees.
I won't show you what I got because it's a surprise for my coffee swap buddy, Susan. Maybe she will put a photo on her blog when she gets the package (hint, hint).
And so, we return home. Here is the current seasonal display next to my front door. Note also the gnat-filled cobwebs so artfully arranged around the window.
