Last night, I heard my owl for the first time this season. I’m not sure if it’s a girl or a boy, or even if it’s the same owl from year to year, but its “woot-too-woot,” usually around four in the morning, is my literal calling card for the start of the soon-to-come summer. The […]
Cottage Status Report 20250608 Read More »
It’s almost time to say goodbye to the drowned annuals that desperately tried to recover from the early summer monsoons and failed miserably (it had nothing to do with the fact the pots had no holes in the bottom and their pretend custodian had better things to do, like hold down a lounge chair), and
Cottage Status Report 20241020 Read More »
I know you’ve been anxiously awaiting an update on the health of my cottage appliances (probably as anxiously as you’ve been anticipating a sequel to Beetlejuice, which may be arriving at a screen near you soon). The good news is the zombie dishwasher remains mostly undead, as long as I whisper encouraging dish-cleaning words and
Cottage Status Report 20240929 Read More »
I am pleased to announce that the Broken Appliance of the Month award goes to the dishwasher. Even though we’re not quite through July, I’m pretty confident nothing else will swoop in to claim the title. (I’m looking at you, stove replaced last October to salvage Thanksgiving dinner). The cottage dishwasher has lost its mind
Cottage Status Report 20240729 Read More »
As I have mentioned, I have experienced an unexpected reversal in my aversion to crossword puzzles. This is partially because they have evolved considerably from their previous incarnation, which was rife with clues involving Chinese currency and Biblical references. It’s true that Adam, Eve, and their progeny still show up with some regularity, but there’s
We have water! It was a simple thing, really. Turns out it wasn’t the controller for the pump, it was the pump. A new pump was purchased. It didn’t even cost more than $1,000! And, they’ve made great strides in pump technology over the past 20 years: instead of three wires it has only two,
Cottage Status Report 20240601 Read More »
The dock spider was waiting when we pulled up in the tin boat to wake the cottage from its winter slumber. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. One of the dock spiders was waiting. The rest of the extended family was probably still asleep. Australian mutants not-withstanding, dock spiders reset anyone’s notion of what “big
Cottage Status Report 20240427 Read More »
Dennis was born in a barn, or if maybe not exactly in a barn, born barn-adjacent on someone’s horse farm. But if he had put his elbows on the Sunday dinner table and his mother had said “were you born in a barn?” he would have said yes actually, I was born in a barn.
There are typically two times of the year when things break: the beginning of cottage season and the end of cottage season. Neither of these times is more preferable to the other. When we arrive in the spring, it’s pretty much a given that some things that were perfectly fine at close-up have decided not
Cottage Status Report 20231001 Read More »
One of the highlights of island life is occasionally getting off the island. Although I do like my slice of forest and shoreline, it’s nice to experience some form of civilization. A mainland trek always involves several errands: visit the transfer station, fill up a water-dispenser bottle at the community centre tap, return returnable bottles
Cottage Status Report 20230910 Read More »
