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

.

I Love How Beautiful Fall is at the Lake

We load up the boat at the dock we rent on the mainland and head out through the bay into the lake.

It only takes a few minutes before we have turned the corner and are approaching our little island. Most of the year it is hard to spot our cottage but once the trees start to lose their leaves the white cottage starts to pop out. The large rock out from really shows up too.

Here we are approaching the dock and cottage and if you look carefully you can spot

our big white dog, Jasper, waiting for us. The line of white along the dock is a series of bumpers to protect both the side of our new dock and our boat.

Arriving at the cottage

 

 

 

When we approach the cottage we slow down and do a little bit of maneuvering to get lined up at our island dock. I must admit my heart does a bit of a pit-a-pat when we get near, I love this view of the island and the cottage.  Maybe it is not because of the look of this spot but more the memories it evokes.

 

See that white building? That is the cottage peaking out from the trees.

 

 There is  Ol' Blue.. our old boat taking up one spot on our dock. You can see Bob's flag and flag pole by the dock and the ladder coming down from the dock when we can climb down for a little swim or to catch crayfish. The huge rock out front of the cottage is a pretty amazing feature too.  There are enough levels and layers that it is easy to climb down to the water and when you reach the water you realize there are more layers hidden under the surface just right for wading.

 

You can see the shore line behind the dock wrap over to a rock wall that is part of the reason our dock is in such a nice calm tiny little harbour.  You can see sensational views of the lake from the top of that rocky out cropping.

 

This is the point of our trip to the lake when I have a sense of coming home. 

 

Poplar Bay Camp Shore

 

 
 

 

This is taken right beside our mainland dock. The owners of the campground maintain a boat launch right there, a dock for people arriving by boat at the campground and a little beach area for the campers. There is a small red building with running water which is the filet house.

 

Reflections

The water plants grow under the water in the cooler days of early summer and then as summer months pass by, they send out tall stocks with a few flowers.

The reflections of the leaves in the still water are beautiful.

Shore to Shore

Our daughters were already staying at the cottage when we came out this week so we called for a ride over to the island once we arrived. We unloaded our things by our dock and waited.

 

 

 

Thanks for getting us Emily!

Ducklings by the Dock

We drove the boat up to our mainland dock and these little guys were napping with their mom. Mom flapped up and into the water but the babies looked up questioningly even though this big boat pulled up within a couple feet of them. Mom gave a little quack. Still nothing but then she got out of the water again a bit in the distance and the little family stood up and waddled over to the next dock..  Five little ducklings all in a row...

The Pontoon Boat

It is summer at the cottage once again. We got here late this year because  warm weather was really slow arriving and there was a late thaw in our lake country.

Also adding to our slow start was all the concerns we had with our boat last year. Bob ordered parts to do the necessary repairs and we waited a long time for everything to arrive.

The second day we went out to work on the boat I sat in the parking lot near our dock with Bob working on the engine. We still hadn't been over to the island this year. We were approached by the guy that owns the campground where we rent our mainland dock space. He told us he heard we were interested in getting a pontoon boat and might need a bigger dock space. We wanted a pontoon boat but we were imagining it in the distant future.  

Trying to power wash it clean.

The camp ground owner told us he had an older boat for sale that he bought from someone who needed to give up their trailer space last year. He offered us a good deal on boat, trailer and motor and would arrange for us to switch to one of those rare bigger dock spots.

We took a look.. and it was not in bad shape really. It has a lot of mildew and the carpet has several major tears but it works fine!

SOLD!

We now have our very own pontoon boat and a new rental dock that we will need to fix. A pontoon will handle rough water better than our smaller boat and it will be easier to haul larger material and more people. As one friend commented we didn’t purchase a party boat -- we got a barge!

 

 

 

 

Tucking in the Boat

When we go home we tuck our boat in. The cover is really essential because the last theing you want to see is water in the bottom of the boat and swamping the engine.

Shadows and the Boat

Shades of Blue and Tiny Ripples

Haze on the Shore

A Line of Haze by the Shore

Alicia captured these lovely images on an early Fall day, just as dusk was approaching and the temperature started to fall. She was standing on our island dock looking toward the mainland.

Cool Shades Bob!

Bob jumped into the boat so hard that his sunglasses bounced right off his head and into the reeds where we dock our boat. We drove out to our island and Bob changed into a bathing suit and wading gear. We went back to our dock and I sat on the shore with the camera and Bob went "fishing" for his sunglasses. It took a while with him wading and feeling around, encounters with blood sucking leaches and a fair bit of frustration but eventually he found them suspended above the bottom caught in some reeds. I got a picture of the triumphant Bob with his big catch of the day.

The Flag

We now have a flag pole.

A pole was kicking around the cottage from before we owned the place and we decided it was time to get rid of it. We hauled it down to the dock and seeing it there Bob realized it would fit nicely into one of the support poles of our dock. Next thing I knew Bob was telling me to look out front and see what was different.

Yup, a big flag pole and a flag too.

sweet summer

The joys of toddler sized life jackets and wild roses in little baby hands.

The grandkids were at the lake recently.
What a joy to see all the surprises and the treasures of the island through their eyes.

The Lost Chair

We arrived at our island dock to find a chair sitting there. It is an an Adirondack chair or Muskoka Chair depending on your point of view.

We were a little worried at first.. was someone on the island? Was the cottage still secure? We wondered if the chair was left behind by someone who had been fishing off of our dock recently. Perhaps the chair has been floating around the lake for a while and someone fished it out and threw it on the dock to keep it out of the way of unsuspecting boaters.

I left it right where we found it on the dock this week. Perhaps it's owner will come back and claim it. However, just in case it isn't gone by next week, we will take out a sander, and some stain and I plan to be ready to make this old lost chair one of our own.

We will probably never know the whole story behind this beat up old chair, but maybe we will provide it with a future.