Dock Décor

Jasper the dog running on the dock to see me.

Our huge dock is only a couple of years old. The previous one was built the first year we had our cottage (1982) and truly reached an unsafe condition over the years. 

We need that dock as part of using an island cottage - it's where you park your boat and unload the contents and sometimes get in the water for a swim, but we really didn't look at it as part of our extended living space. 

Now is the time to change all that. It is a wonderful view, very sunny and we often feel a great breeze coming off the water. We still like to hang out on our not so great pontoon boat while it is moored at the dock, but I want us to enjoy being on the dock too. It is not a floating dock sticking out into the water: it is basically the same as a deck off a house would be, only this is following a shoreline and not the side of a building.

I would like a spot to just sit and read a book. I think we should have a place to eat lunch down there and I think we really need kind of a landing spot or bench for our stuff when we are coming and going. You know how you walk into your house and you have a closet or table to drop your sweater, and hat?  Well, the dock is our entrance to island life, and we need a spot to set down our hats, and lifejacket and travel bags and sometimes our swimming towels.

We took a bench that was onshore and has seen better days and moved it down on the dock. Bob sanded it down and is applying a couple layers of tung oil to protect the finish. We get a fair bit of rain and we can get pretty fierce winds with the occasional storm kicking waves onto the dock, so we have to take that into account with our choices for dock decor and for the functionality of the space.

We hauled out a few plants and pots to start with and to get them growing.  We just bought a couple sunflower plants from Home Depot at a sale price. It advertises that it will have new blooms all summer and into the fall.  I am not sure they will survive the heat and it is not like we are out there every day to give it water like it directs on the plant label but we thought it was the right price for a bigger plant and worth the shot. We planted them in some Styrofoam plant pots we already had added heavy big rock at the bottom and placed them on either side of the slope we use to go up to the cottage. Alicia got a hanging basket from Costco that seemed to manage the conditions by the water, but it was not heavy enough and was blowing over. We put the whole basket, as is, in a heavy metal pot that we had added a few rocks in the bottom to weight it down. 

Alicia's hanging basket, without the hanger.

The path up to the cottage between the sunflowers.

The new sunflower plants on the boat at the mainland dock

The other thing we have so far is a bar height table that can have an umbrella in the center and two green bar height chairs that we got last year at a charity garage sale. I really like them, but it is more of a spot for one or two people to sit and have a beverage than for our family to sit for a meal.  

We are going to see what chairs or tables we already own to continue making the dock more user friendly for this year!

By Our Mainland Dock

Our boat is the pontoon in the middle with a roof. 

Having a cottage on an island creates a few special considerations most cottagers don't deal with. One big one has been having a dock and parking space on the mainland as well as the dock at the cottage. Some cottage areas are set up for island transportation and have marinas and even boat shuttle services but we are in a community that is not huge and most people have cottages on the main shore of the lake. 

We have rented 4 different docks over the years and there have been different challenges with each one. Our very first one was a private cottage on the same bay as us. A friend of the real estate agent we used let us rent for the first year and then informed us that he needed the dock space for his own water vehicles and that was the beginning of the struggle of "what to do with the boat?". Next, we got a fantastic spot with an older couple just across the water from us. They were so wonderful and acted like an uncle and aunt to us and were lovely with our growing family. Eventually, the husband passed away and the wife was not able to take care of the cottage for very many more years after he was gone. The cottage was sold and the new people had no interest in renting.  We wound up with a long miserable period of having to take the boat in and out of the water each time and haul it home to the city with us.  

There are two resorts/ seasonal trailer parks at a reasonable distance from our island that we have used. Both have a very limited number of dock spots to rent and understandably give priority to the people who are also renting a trailer spot. For the most part, we have been happy where we are currently located. It has gone through several owners and the rules kind of change with each owner but the current owner is very business-like and we appreciate that. We rent the dock during the summer and get a place to leave our car while we are away. We have also arranged to leave the boat tarped and in their parking lot over the winter. Our current dock slip is located closest to the resort's little beach.

I thought I would share a few pictures from beside our dock last weekend.

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Banana Bread

We got a big box of very ripe bananas from the grocery store for a really low price and then we had to figure out what to do with the bananas. We froze a bunch and cut up chunks and ate a few and a few whole bananas got packed to go to the lake. The day was pretty warm but cooled off a lot in the evening so I decided it was okay to use the oven without overheating the cottage. Banana bread for breakfast! Yum! I like baking at the cottage. It is a comfortable space to work in, I love having the propane/ gas stove for baking and I have lots of equipment for baking and uninterrupted time. The only issues really are summer temperatures and a lack of air conditioning but if it really is too hot we can do surprisingly complicated baking in the Gas BBQ or over an open fire. Thirty years as a Girl Guide Leader and having the cottage all these years have taught us to be resourceful.  We also need to work with the lack of a real fridge. We do have a plugin cooler that would work with 12 volt or automotive type power so that is not too bad for the essentials like eggs and milk. We use a lot of canned and dry ingredients and we make a lot of food out there so it will be fresh. 

This Banana Bread Recipe is Easy!

Ingredients

• 3 Bananas
• 1 Egg
• 1/3 cup melted Butter
  
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 14 tsp Salt
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Instructions 

1.  preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  mash bananas in a bowl with a fork, add eggs, vanilla and butter and continue mixing by hand.
3. add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix until combined.
4.  pour batter into a greased loaf pan.
   
5. bake for about 50 minutes or until a knife poked in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
6. let rest on a cooling rack for a while before removing from the pan.
7. I suggest letting it cool completely before slicing but we don't have that much patience!
   

 

June’s Wildflowers

 

 “Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.” 

– Ralph Waldo Emmerson

After the Storm

We had a torrential rainstorm this past week and Jasper left his toys outside. 

I've never hung doggie toys on a line before. awww

  

Chillin’ with Jasper

Be like Jasper and just enjoy life at the Lake!

Sunset View from the Cottage Shoreline

Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under! 

                                                                   ~C. JoyBell C

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Stepping Stone Mosaic

I have had a stepping stone kit kicking around for years and I am not even sure where I got it from but I am pretty confident that I got it for free. 

The thing with cement is that you have to work on it for a few days in a row and it shouldn't be too hot or too cold. Finally, I decided this is as good as it is going to get and went for it. Basically, you get a small bag of dry cement, a stirring stick like you would use for paint and a flimsy plastic form. It included a bunch of nice pieces of glass like you would use for stained glass projects. It also included a few pattern choices and I went with the dragonfly design.  I thought I would use their pattern this time and learn the fundamentals of this type of craft and get creative with designs when I am not worried about exactly how do we do this.  The dragonfly choice was natural because last weekend we suddenly had 1000's of dragonflies appear around our dock. We have also had a lot of mosquitoes lately so the dragonflies swooping around catching the mosquitoes felt like heroes. 

First, you pour the concrete mix into a pail or container. You really need to move carefully to avoid having a cloud of concrete dust flying up at you. Mix in the water completely and then put it into the mould. Next, we get to place the glass pieces into the concrete and it is a little harder than I imagined

When you are done with your design the cement is already getting very firm but it needs to sit for about 24 hours before the pieces are held securely in the cement. You can then work on polishing the surface of the mosaic pieces and clean bits of stray concrete off of them.

Bob and Jasper kept me company while I was working on the stepping stone.

When you are finished polishing off all your pieces or like in my case you decide that is all the polishing you can stand you put the piece to the side to cure for about a week before removing it from the mould. That will allow it time to cure and be strong enough to walk on. Next time out at the lake I will see how it turned out and find a little home for it.

Flower Blossoms for June

We have not been at the cottage this early for many years and we are loving all these spring blossoms!

Wild Strawberries cover a walkway.

Bees are buzzing from blossom to blossom on the plum trees.

Many plum trees in full bloom.

Saskatoon berries for the future we hope

Gardening Begins at the Cottage for This Year

We stopped at a small local garden centre for the first time and purchased some plants to get us started for this year. It always feels so much more like home when we have a few things we have planted growing in the cottage.

 It was awkward shopping. It was the end of the day and we were among the last customers. Social distancing seemed extra hard and that was considering there were only 5 people plus the salesperson in the building! We had not gotten a cart to put our small arm full of purchases on but it turned out that was a bit of a mistake. Apparently at checkout the procedure is to take the cart to a spot marked on the floor. The cashier gets it from there and carries it to the checkout desk behind a clear plastic sheet. You tap your charge card through the sheet then back off. She carries it back to your cart and you get your cart and leave the greenhouse. I’m not so sure that any cart handle sanitizing happens there. Anyway, we got checked out to disapproving looks after we set our purchases at the far end of her counter and then we physically backed up. I am very pro taking protective measures, just not so pro grumpy salespeople.

The centre was actually very nice. The plants looked good and there was a nice variety. I would go back again in the future, but maybe I will wait until COVID 19 is not the centre of everyone's fears.

Daisy (osteospermum Harvest Moon), Pony Tail Feather Grass, 

Light Yellow Petunia x Calibrachoa hybrid.

2 colours of Geraniums

Parsley and Lemon Basil 

2 kinds of Bell Peppers

Geranium and mixed planter on the front steps.

The bell peppers in the raised bed garden

The herbs will be in the kitchen window.