Sharing the view with friends.

Stuart, Charlotte, Lucy and Rosie with the bass Charlotte caught

Dermot loves fishing!

As far as I’m concerned one of the best things about cottage life is the ability to relax, unwind and share time with friends.  A great thing about “The Shire” (still trying out that name--unless someone else has suggestions?) is that once we put in new floors and painted, we were ready for company.  No need to repair roofs, or jack up the basement, or put up additions or anything major like that.  The fact that it is only 2 bedroom could be a bit problematic, but really not a big deal.

Our first friends to arrive (after Bruce who is, of course, family as well as a friend), were Ang and Stuart and their 4 lovely children, Alex, Rosie, Charlotte and Lucy.  Alex and Kate were in kindergarten together and have been friends ever since.  Ang and Stuart are so laid-back and positive and a lot of fun to be around.  Their children are great too and we all had a great time.  I can tell that you are wondering about the 2 bedrooms with 10 people.  The Shire has a loft area with one bed, we have two couches and of course my personal favourite--The Westy!!!!!  We actually all fit in very nicely and got on very well.  In fact the tiny, no-room-to-swing a cat kitchen is trickier to navigate around meal times, but once again we all managed nicely.  

Yikes!  John, Alex and Kate
picking up speed

Of course the main events at the cottage are outside.  I’m pleased to say that Alex got up waterskiing while she was here, the other girls got out tubing, we all swam quite a bit and Stuart, Rosie, Lucy and Kate went fishing several times.  They caught some big ones too.  Kate, Alex and John also went out for a scary sail on the laser.  Alex was a trooper, but we may have turned Kate off sailing forever!  We also played a few games of Bocce, the Italian version of lawn bowling, which is fun until the deer flies get hungry.  

After Ang and Stuart, Arlene, Beren and their daughter Oriana arrived for a visit.  We haven’t really seen Arlene and Beren for two years because we were away on sabbatical in 2011-2012 and they were away on sabbatical this past year.  It was sooooooooooooo nice to see them again and catch up on all the happenings of the past couple of years.  We ate great meals and did all the usual fun outdoor stuff.  Arlene tried to get a run in, but was shooed back home by the nasty deer flies.  I’m happy to say that deer fly season seems to have abated and we haven’t been bothered by them at all since our return.

Arlene and Donna in the sunset.

After that my good friend Claire arrived with her two children, Giselle and Matthew.  Originally her husband, Mike was supposed to come too, but John and I had to switch dates and unfortunately Mike couldn’t switch his time off.  We felt badly about that, but Claire says that since Mike is like a “schlep-rock” (Flinstones reference) he would have hated the deer flies.  Note:  if you are like a schlep-rock, plan to come in late July or August!  Once again, so lovely to catch up with friends.  

The weather was hot and humid while our friends were here and so we spent a lot of time in the water.  John ran out and bought an air conditioner to replace the old one that died on the hottest day of the summer.  Once we had that running the cottage was so much cooler and drier.  All very nice.  

Gee Gee (Beren's Mom), Arlene, Oriana and Beren
enjoying fine wine and amazing Quebec cheeses

When we were driving home to Guelph, on yet another hot, humid day, a cold front came through and the heavens opened and the most torrential rain I have ever experienced pummelled us as were driving along the 401.  The weather reporters were advising people in our area to seek shelter immediately.  Yikes!!!  No shelter in sight.  Happily things moved on rather quickly and there were no tornados in our immediate area.  The weather has been cool ever since that event.  Today we got up to 25*C but no humidity, so very nice indeed.  At night it has been really cool, about 12*C.  All this has resulted in cooling down the lake temperature considerably, but still, all very nice indeed.