Cottage Highlights

As promised, here are some pictures and highlights from my vacation week at the cottage:

My birthday dinner, celebrated with as many family as could be there. (The best way to celebrate family, in my opinion!). Truth is, it's not just a celebration of my birthday, but all the July birthdays and anniversaries in the family - there are many in July. But I got to pick the cake: a Lime Coconut Cheesecake. Thanks, Mom!


My very first pedicure. I don't usually go for frivolous things like pedicures, but it was one of those things I'd always been curious about. It was fun, and I was pleased with the end result. It's not something I'll do very often; the price is a bit hard to justify.

Peace and quiet with only the sound of birds, the occasionally plopping of fish jumping in the water, the wind through the trees.

Perfect spot for hulling straberries, eh?

 Gorgeous sunsets that never disappoint.(Click for larger images)

And the best seat in the house

There were also some stunning sunrises...though, admittedly, I missed the first few. 

 

I went for a few bike rides, to check out a couple spots I had never been on the other side of the lake. Like this old cottage.

There was some "communing with nature", mostly in the form of spying on a bunny that frequented the lawns around the cottage, and pestering a very large (bull?) frog under the wharf. Seriously, this frog didn't even blink at us for a good few minutes. It wasn't until we "tickled" *giggle giggle* it with a stick that it actually moved. And, yes, we are grown-ups. I couldn't bring myself to actually try to grab it; I'm okay with the baby frogs, but the big ones make me shudder!

There was also a rescue mission (well, for my mom, not me): to rescue a baby bird from certain doom where it was in the middle of the dirt road. Mom figured it had fall from his nest, and that the nest was nearby given that the parents were flying around mimicing broken-wings. We searched for the nest but couldn't find it. Also, we think the birds were yellow-bellied warblers.

There was a whole lot of reading on the porch swing, and knitting whilst watching long period dramas. Very few photos of those activities.:) And there was a visit from friends, during which we had a spectacular thunder and lightning storm. Our power went out for about 6 hours and the lightning lasted for at least 2 hours (started around 10pm, ended around 12:30am). Taking photos of lightning over the lake proved difficult, but I did get a pretty great video which is about 8mins of me narrating the storm. If you're interested, here it is.

I'm already looking forward to next year's stay at the cottage. Or, maybe, with a little arm-twisting, I can squeeze another weekend in before the summer is over?

Solitude

There's something really special about having quiet time at the cottage. Since it has been so busy lately (see my earlier post), having time just to do things without being interrupted, to not have to rush to get things done inbetween commitments, to not have a day filled with routine and schedules is really, really delightful. I can do what I want, when I want and for as long as I want. Sounds rather indulgent, doesn't it?

I actually associate the cottage with family-time. And this vacation will have some of that too (friends and family will be popping in here and there through-out my stay). But for the most part, I've got the place to myself.  And I've got plenty with me to keep me busy:

I brought a couple Victorian lit books to keep up with Item # 2 on my 2011 To Do List. I'm currently reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and next will be A House To Let (1858) which is a collection of short stories edited by Charles Dickens.
And speaking of Dickens, I brought with me the 2009 BBC series Little Dorrit. It's got to be my favourite of the period dramas and is perfect to knit to, since I've already watched it in it's entirety twice. 
I've started a Feather & Fan Shawl. This should help deplete my wool stash, but with 390 stitches to cast on and knit row by row, it's going to take awhile. Thankfully the pattern repeats are simple, and I think I might have just enough yarn, even if I did cast on with the wrong colour. (sigh!). I also brought a box of David Lewis material  to appraise. I haven't made a whole lot of progress with the appraisal process of DEL's scrapbooks since my last post on the other blog but my goal is to get through the first box this week. I've got 5 of 12 volumes appraised,  and with some time to dedicate to it, I think the rest can be done.
I also brought my bike and my swimsuit. I plan to use both this week. In fact, I'm considering a swim as soon as I get back to the cottage - it's been hot and humid these last couple of days and a swim would be refreshing (as long as I've got my watershoes on!). I've been hesitating with the bike as there are hills everywhere, and I'm intimidated by the hills. We'll see....
I brought my journal. I'm about as faithful to journalling as I am to blogging, and so have some thoughts to put down to paper as well as to put up here on the internet.

Who knows how much I'll get done, but I've got lots to keep me occupied should I wish to be occupied. This week isn't so much about being busy as enjoy the quiet and opportunity to not be busy!  I'm not going to lie to you, the first afternoon on my own at the cottage was not spent in the sunshine by the lake, it was spent on the cot sleeping! (That other delight of the cottage!)

My solitude has been broken up a few times today, first by telemarketers (4 today! ugh!), and a door-to-door Jehovah's Witness. The latter was completely unexpected (as you can imagine), and his knock just about startled me out of my flipflops! I had my back to the door hulling strawberries at the kitchen counter when he knocked; and thought initially maybe he was a friend of my grandparents until I saw the tell-tale "Watchtower"+ Bible in hand. I politely declined his offer for literature to read on my vacation (seriously!?); and tried to shoo him away without being rude.


Well, that's it from me for today. I'll probably pop back here later to post more before the end of the week. As much as I love being unplugged, I also enjoy being able to plug in and catch-up on the blog.

P.S. Forgive any grammar, spelling mistakes. I'm on my netbook and find it tricky using the smaller keyboard. I'm also not doing my typical read-over to check for typos and edit my post (which is why this one is longer than most). 
P.P.S Pictures will follow later.

Hiatus

Well, life has been busy and the blog has been put on the back-burner for a bit. I keep thinking of things to post, but never really get around to it. And that's just fine; I refuse to feel guilty for my absences. Afterall, blogging is not an obligation.


So, here I am, on my vacation, sitting in a diner, eating pie and sipping ice water, overlooking the river and considering what to write first. It's slightly ironic that I'm using my vacation time to try and catch-up with blogging, considering I'm without internet access at the cottage.

It's been fun finding free WiFi in the area. Last night's spot, on a picnic table overlooking Digby Gut was by far the best yet.