Well, I knew the closing of the store and the too many hours of retail boredom would mean more living and less time writing for this blog. I can't believe that summer has come and more or less faded into a magnificent autumn. The fire wood stacking is all but done. The gardens have yet to be put to bed. Indeed, remarkably, to date, we have yet to have a killer frost - or a frost of any significance really. That is quite unusual.
John and I spent much of the summer at the lake. Indeed, because we were building a bunkie, we were there much of June. It felt like we actually lived at the cottage for the first time, and only occasionally visited the homestead to tend the house and gardens or to work for a few days here and there.
Although we have been at the lake now for 24 summers, this year exploded into a round of socializing like never before. And of course, I had my new sailboat/rowboat, christened "Whisky". Sailing on our small lake is quite a task. Sometimes the wind will come at you from three directions at once, or just when you think you have a steady wind, it will trick you and come from an entirely different direction.
I capsized on the maiden voyage trying to dock on our point; and another time I was thrown out of the boat while I was rigging it. What I really enjoyed, and what I had initially intended to buy it for, was rowing. And that I did abundantly, tracing the perimetre of the lake and all its bays. Of course, we had our usual canoe outtings and kayakiing. At time it seemed like we were the only ones enjoying this pristine beauty: sunrises, sunsets, rainbows and magnificent cloud formations.
Since I wrote last, I have had my sixtieth birthday in May. And in the same month, we had a wonderful trip to the east coast, touring Cape Breton for the first, but definitely not the last time. The boat was my present to myself, built by a local boat builder. It is not grand, but it is a joy.
At forty I bought a motorcyle and at fifty I bought a Jeep TJ. In the intervening years I decided on a PT Cruiser convertible. What next?
