The Cousines' Cottage Weekend 2005
One of my main motivations for heading back to Canada two weeks ago was to attend the first official "Cousines' Cottage Weekend" [yes, spelt with an 'e' -- don't ask!].
Back in the 50s, in search of a peaceful getaway, my mom's family bought a piece of land on a small island in the Kawarthas and built a cottage. Since then, several generations have enjoyed spending lazy summer days up at the cottage. This year, for the first time ever "the cousins" decided to head up for a weekend sans adultes.
In the planning for many months, the cousins gathered from around the world ... Vancouver, California, Japan, Ottawa, and of course, Brazil [can you tell that we all come from the same gene pool?]. Busy lives and scheduling challenges meant that not all the cousins were able to join in, but with nine people up, we still managed to be a lively bunch!
One of the legacies of the cottage is that our family has kept a logbook which records each and every visit to the island no matter how long or short. The log is close to fifty years old and every time we visit the cottage we are compelled go over old entries looking for tidbits of information that we may have missed in previous perusals. When did so-and-so's girlfriend-now-wife first come to the cottage? How old was this cousin when she first came up? How old was I when I first managed to waterski? So-and-so went to how many parties? The list goes on! We also enjoy the logbook due to the unique passive voice in which it is written. We did not go swimming. Rather, swimming was enjoyed by all. The weather was not absolutely perfect. Rather, perfect weather was enjoyed by all! Of course, now we joking attempt to write our entire entries in the passive voice. As you can imagine, and see by the photos below, good times were had by all!
Pretending (?) to be zombies [Courtesy of Allison, the weekend documenteuse, and A. Barb, transportation duty]
Al, Me, and Heather [I think that my neck looks funny 'cause I'm the one taking the picture!]
Early Morning Mist [Courtesy of Heather]
Reflections [Also courtesy of Heather]
Hey Cousines! Thanks for a great weekend. Although it might not be an annual event, hopefully it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime! See you all soon. Hugs!
posted by Karen @ 11:27 p.m.
6 Comments:
What an amazing place! Loving the log book idea!
Nice weekend summary! Incidentally, I asked my dad about the 'parties' that were attended by some and apparently they were all over the lake, not just on the island! My dad met some fellow partygoers (read: men) at the reunion they had last month. How come I never went to any parties on the lake as a teenager??
Heather
I love it-- especially the pictures. Reminds me so much of our family cabin in northern Wisconsin that I just visited a couple weeks ago! There's something so peaceful about lakes and trees.
Thanks for sharing, looks quite relaxing and enjoyable.
Nice post, Zoe. I look forward to it happening again sometime in the future. And as for Saboteur, it does get the thumb's up, and we didn't give Mark THAT hard of a time, did we?
Nancy
Well, I think he was just giving us a hard time about giving him a hard time! In the end, Saboteur was enjoyed by all.
Post a Comment
<< Home