Long Post-Vacation Post

I’m writing this from my cabin. I’m going to post it when I return to civilization and internet access. From where I’m sitting at the table in the “great room,” I can see the whitish-gray water of the lake through the spring green foliage. On a sunny day, I love how the lake sparkles through the trees. Today, it’s overcast and raining and I’m taking advantage of the weather to work on my thesis and catch up on my blog.

First things first: Congratulations to Kimm & Tomm who actually, really, legally got married on Friday. It was a quintessential small town wedding. Of the 14-member wedding party (bride and groom included), over half of us went to high school together. The best man (and one of the guests) I went to school with from preschool. Even a member of the wait staff at the reception was in grade school with me. It was also a quintessential Cobourg wedding with pictures at the waterfront, on the boardwalk and in the sand. Kimmy looked great and my hair rocked until it all fell out:

(I’ll post more and better pictures whenever Kimm get them to me.) It was a long day, though, and I think I’ll have to take a break from weddings for a while. As I write this Kimm & Tomm are somewhere off in the Mediterranean, but I have to say, I don’t envy them much because I’m at my cabin.

We drove up Saturday morning after the wedding. It was an overcast, rainy day but the rain let up enough in the afternoon to go for a very fast swim. More specifically, a jump in the lake followed by a sprint indoors to stand in front of the woodstove. I like the cold water only when it’s warmer than the air. In those cases you get used to the water, and getting out is the hard part. But when the water is colder than the air, and the air is cold, it’s hard to get out.

Sunday was another rainy day. It was passed reading and playing card games. I ruined my pretty wedding manicure in a impromptu Racing Demons tournament. Racing Demons is like competitive Solitaire. It’s one of a suite of Demon games that are the staples of cabin life: Racing, Sleeping, and Fishing Demons. It cleared up in the afternoon and I ended up going for a paddle with my Uncle in my father’s 35 year-old pink fiberglass canoe (in his defense, it used to be red). We were on a hunt for our bridge. A chunk of the bridge floated away in the thaw this year and getting to the island by canoe is quaint but not practical for the entire summer.



We paddled to the end of our arm of the lake and back, scanning the shoreline for the missing span of our bridge. We found the bridge, but not at all where we thought it would be. Luckily, it’s in a place where it’s not likely to be claimed by someone else on the lake. That happened one year, part of our boat dock floated away and my cousin found it later that summer anchored on someone else’s waterfront and she stole it back. Next time more people are here, they’ll haul the bridge back to its rightful place.

Yesterday was nice and sunny (also ridiculously buggy) and we went to a nearby, fairly new, provincial park, the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve, which is on a huge plot of land that touches at least 4 lakes and was donated to the province by some rich German guy. They have a network of trails that go around the lakes, and to lookouts, and around an old resort. The woods were impassable, however, due to blackfly season, so we stayed on the roads and walked to a few of the lakes and looked at the old buildings. I saw about a dozen toad metamorphs which I felt safe (based on my teachings from Cricket) in declaring an emergence.


(I swear there's a toadlet in that picture).

I haven’t been swimming since that first time. Swimming from the bridge is a hassle at the moment because you have to canoe to the part of the bridge with the ladder. I don’t want to swim from land because every time I walk in the shallows I get fed on by leeches. The boat dock doesn’t have its ladder in yet, but I think I’ll reattach it and swim from there. It’s supposed to feel like 28oC on Thursday. Good swimming weather.

Wednesday

Went into town today. I can’t remember the last time I was in Huntsville; a long, long time ago if my unfamiliarity with it is any indication. The black flies have given way to hordes of mosquitoes. I read a lot today, this environment is just so conducive to reading. Since my trip began I’ve read:

The Touchstone by Edith Wharton
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay.

The Wharton I read because I love her and must read every word she’s written before I die. The Hosseini was recommended to me, and given the lasting impression his first book left with me, it seemed like a good choice. It was sad, but managed to have a hopeful ending. It was not as sad as Kite Runner; I didn’t feel nearly as desolate reading this. The last book was recommended to me by a Cobourg bookseller when she didn’t have the book I really wanted in stock. It won the Giller Prize and I have to say it was beautiful. It really made me want to move to Yellowknife and go on an ill-fated canoe trip through a barren wilderness. Okay, maybe not the ill-fated part, but I totally want to do the barren landscape bit.

Thursday

It doesn’t feel like 28, but tomorrow is supposed to feel like 36. I get this from The Moose, broadcasting from Bracebridge but calling itself the voice of Muskoka. It’s slightly easier to tolerate than The Dock, which I had to turn off after only a few songs (and, which I initially thought was called “The Duck” which I thought was just a vastly stupid name for a radio station). The Moose is interesting in that it gives the forecast no less than 5 times an hour. It must be aware that weather is the only reason most cottagers tune in.

It is so going to rain. The sky is dark, the wind is chilly, and it smells like rain. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a really good thunderstorm. I haven’t heard a good storm since last June in Caroline.

…Later

It’s raining! This is the only place where I truly love the rain. The roof of the cabin is so thin (and practically not insulated) that you can hear that patter of every drop. You can hear the rain increase and decrease in intensity. We have the doors and windows open and the cabin is full of that great spring forest scent. I know I sound like a fabric softener commercial. But it’s such a great smell. If I didn’t have to write a G.D. thesis, I’d take my book out onto the porch and read there. No thunder yet, though.

Friday

Today is the nicest day we’ve had since we got here, and it happens to be our last. The rain has stopped (for now) and it’s sunny/cloudy and humid. I went for a swim in the bay. I sat on the dock for awhile first, the bugs weren’t too bad, although I noticed horseflies for the first time today. The water was cold, but I think warmer than last Saturday.

I had this weird, sad dream last night. I was escaping from somewhere with Bret from Flight of the Conchords. We were literally running from The Law and we broke into an empty house at one point, and while we were there, a woman came home and heard us in there. She thought we were her ne’er-do-well husband and she started yelling about how horrible he was and how he ruined her life. We left by the back door and I was so upset about having witnessed such misery.