A Bittersweet Weekend

closing the cottage for the season

It’s always harder to close the cottage when the weather is so lovely. It had to be done, though, because Kevin and I are taking a road trip to the east coast before Thanksgiving. I drove up Saturday morning and only brought enough food for one dinner and one breakfast. I didn’t have to worry about turning on the fridge because I wasn’t staying long.

The line up for the ferry was half way up the hill when I arrived and more cars arrived. Luckily everyone got on the next ferry.

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When I arrived at the cottage I took some time to go to the beach and go for a long walk. It was surprisingly busy for September. You wouldn’t know it from my photos.

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Dinner consisted of potato salad that I picked up in Tiny Village, a couple of slices of bread from the Inn with ham and cheese, a cup of soup and of course a glass of wine
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Breakfast was the same bread but toasted on the BBQ and a cup of coffee. Before I started to work I read a few pages of my book and had another walk on the beach

Closing up the cottage involves stripping all the beds, storing the pillows, cushions and blankets in storage containers, taking all the liquids and canned good out of the cupboards to take home (otherwise they freeze over the winter and the cans bulge), packing away all the candles and anything that the mice like to chew on (hopefully they’ll stay away this fall), closing and locking all the windows, moving the BBQ and covering it, bringing all the outdoor chairs inside and boarding up the doors. It was a lot of work but I managed.

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I left at 2:20, dropped the garbage and recycling at the top of our laneway and headed for the ferry dock. I knew there was a 2:30 ferry but I didn’t expect to catch it. I thought I would be waiting in line for the 3:30 boat. When I got to dock the boat was still being loaded and to my surprise I was the last car on the ferry. I don’t very often get this view going across the bay to the mainland.

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Au revoir, Christian Island. See you next summer.

Which Way Photo Challenge – August 18, 2023

thanks to Alive and Trekking for hosting the Which Way Photo Challenge https://aliveandtrekking.com/2023/08/18/which-way-photo-challenge-august-18/

The Sand Dunes at Big Sand Bay overlooking Georgian Bay and beyond.

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An Evening Walk on the Beach

this past weekend I went to the cottage

After an afternoon of sharing a meal with the neighbours and playing a long game of Crib Wars I went for a walk along the beach. It was a somewhat cloudy evening so there was no sunset to speak of but I enjoyed myself nonetheless.

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My Happy Place

yesterday I went north to open my cottage

With the help of my dear friend, Liz, I drove to the cottage to open it up for the season. I always dread the first visit because it is often a lot of work. This year, however, the cottage was very clean. There was very little evidence of mice. They hadn’t run over the dishes or gotten into the cupboards.

We raked the leaves off the deck and the pathways, set up the BBQ, filled the water barrel, made the beds and put away the clean linens, blankets and pillows that I had brought home last fall to clean. When most of the work had been done we made dinner and took a walk on the beach.

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This morning we woke up early and Liz actually went swimming. June is very early to be diving into Georgian Bay but Liz did it and actually swam for about 10 minutes. She went for a second swim later in the day. We went for another walk along the beach but this time we walked to both ends and took lots of photos.

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Our first meal at the cottage
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Heading down to the beach for a swim
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She did actually go under and swim
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I on the other hand, paced up and down the beach to make sure she was okay
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This is as much as I could handle…it was very cold
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It was difficult to leave because the cottage truly is my happy place and the day was perfect. I can now go back up knowing that everything is in place and most of the hard work is don

At 5:30 we caught the ferry to go home. I wanted to be home for Father’s Day so that our daughter, daughter-in-law and I could take Kevin out to celebrate this special day. As the ferry headed for the other side I noticed that it took a turn and was headed west instead of south. We soon discovered that we were in pursuit of a disabled boat with three passengers. When we reached them they climbed on board but before that one of them fell into the water. Thankfully he was all right. Then the crew tried to tie the disable boat to the ferry. After some trying moments they succeeded and we headed back to the island to drop off the exhausted boaters. Eventually we were headed back to the mainland and arrived about 40 minutes later than expected. Being a Saturday night the rest of the trip home was quick and uneventful.

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Final Trip to the Cottage

….one more trip to finally close up for the season

We got an early start to the day. It was a cloudy day with a touch of rain but the colours were spectacular.

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View from the car window
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On the ferry
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Last walk to the beach
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A windy and blustery farewell

Thanks to Jez for hosting Water, Water Everywhere https://jezbraithwaite.blog/2022/10/03/casino-on-the-clyde-water-water-everywhere-146/