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| The early morning calm. |
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| A quintessential loon. |
I can’t believe that we’ve actually come to the cottage this weekend. Usually we stay home and prepare ourselves logistically, physically and emotionally for the start of the school year. It is so exciting to be here rather than stressing at home.
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| Lauren, Anne and Pippa enjoying a campfire |
After we picked the girls up from camp, we went home to Guelph to do piles of laundry and so that I could go in to the school to plan, prepare and set up. John and I were busy with meetings, conferences and workshops until Thursday afternoon, so once those were all completed, we jumped into the car and headed to the lake! Joy!
Anne and Kate have brought their friend Lauren up for the weekend and they all seem to be having a lovely time. Friday and Saturday were intermittently rainy, but with enough dry, calm times to allow for more water skiing. We played some games and the girls did some artwork and other indoor activities during the rain.
We’ve had some visitors too, this weekend. Our friend Don Mann arrived Thursday evening and helped John out quite a bit with closing-up jobs. Don’t worry he also had time to relax!
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| Lauren, Anne and Kate loving smores! |
John’s brother Bruce and his partner, Cathy joined us Saturday evening and stayed until Sunday afternoon. They made the drive from New Jersey primarily to visit John’s parents in Cobourg. John’s mom is still in hospital and as you can imagine she really appreciated the visit. They also got to see John’s dad who at age 90 still gets around very well. He has never had to prepare meals for himself though, so he is struggling with that a bit. When Bruce and Cathy joined him, he was on his way to a church supper. I had no idea what a church supper was until recently when John’s parents started attending. Most of the local churches offer a meal to the public about once a month. The cost is minimal and the food is good and is along the lines of meat, potatoes and two veg., which is just the ticket for Ev and Don. Their calendar is loaded with the dates and locations of all the church suppers in the area.
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| Cathy and Bruce |
Although rain and possible thundershowers were predicted for Sunday, they failed to materialize and instead we have had one glorious day. John and I got up and jumped into the canoe for an early morning paddle. The mist off the lake was beautiful. We saw some loons up close on the way back and they graced us with the sound of their haunting cry.
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| Sunrise. |
After breakfast the day was all about fitting everything in that will be impossible for the next 8 or 9 months. I think Anne and Kate went skiing three times each today. And...bah, bah, bah, bah...I also went waterskiing, and I got up slalom skiing for the first time in my life!!!!!!! How exciting is that!!!!! I don’t think I skied with much finesse, but hey, I stayed up and that’s what counts. That and hearing my teenaged daughters cheering on my efforts. What fun.
The last time we were in Cobourg, John picked up Bruce’s old archery set. Kate, fresh from her success getting her level 2 archery badge at camp, was very excited to get an archery “range” all set up. So after a bit of creative use of tarps and old boxes, they got a backdrop and target set up. They’ve been having fun with that. In fairness, I should mention that Anne got her level 3 archery this year at camp.
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| Lauren takes aim |
As I sit here, at the picnic table, looking out over the lake and listening to the crickets chirp and cicadas sing, I think about what a wonderful summer we have had and how lucky we are to have a cottage, on such a lovely lake in such a beautiful part of the world. It is so nice to share it with friends.
We plan to come back for Thanksgiving weekend, which is around the 11th of October. It will be much different then--water too cold for swimming, leaves a riot of colour, boats turned over or stored in the garage. There will still be that special calmness and serenity that comes from de-stressing, looking at sunsets and spending time with family and friends.
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| The archery range |
