We have become obsessed with dates. Not meetings or birthdays but dates relating to the life cycle of the lake. I don't know why but it fascinates us. The ice went down on April 10th this year but what date did it melt last year? These are questions that we must have answered. The events in the life of a lake are many.
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Not another beautiful evening
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What date was it warm enough to swim for the first time? what date did it freeze? when did it last freeze without snow forming a skating rink a mile wide? When was the last swim of summer?
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| Our kitchen blackboard |
In our kitchen we noted down our first dip in the water last year (you are probably reading the note to order ant traps are you?) A ha another date - the arrival of the first ant.
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| Being all Canadian |
In short we have become lake bores but we don't care. We are too busy getting the cottage ready for the move up north which we enjoy every Spring. For me the lake is full of legends - stories of people walking on the newly-frozen water wearing large hooks on a length of rope around their necks (allegedly to get out if they fell through) Then there are the tales of when it froze without snow - a perfect mirror.
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| The view down the lake |
Spring has its own dates - a new flower seems to pop up every few days - snowdrops, daphne, trillium even orchids. So we've decided to buy a five-year diary and write all these dates down through the years. My husband's grandmother used to do the same and I think its a perfect way of looking back over the years and remembering our lives on the lake.
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| The first flower at the cottage - Daphne (that's its name. I'm not addressing someone called Daphne) |
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