Waves upon the sand...

***warning, this is a very sentimental post - Penelope, I blame you for this one...***

Every year for as long as I can possibly remember, the first two weeks of August meant the same thing. It meant my mom going out and buying tons and TONS of food (back when Knob Hill Farms was actually Knob Hill, there would be KH boxes packed with food in the kitchen and by the front door for an entire week leading up to this great adventure,) packing the car, truck, trailor or whatever we had at the time to the absolute limit and setting off on the approximately 2 hour drive to "the" cottage.

Now, it's not really our cottage, in that we don't own it, but for the first two weeks of August every year, cottage number 16 at Geneva Park on the Rama road has been our home. It's not a palace by any means, and trust me, if you don't like spiders, this is definitely not the place for you. Oh ya, and if having hot, running water in the same place as where you sleep is a necessity, than this really isn't your ideal oasis, but for me it's a quiet refuge. A place where the sunset is always spectacular and life just has a much slower pace. I grew up in this place and it holds many, many memories for my entire family. Some more painful than others, but I cherish them all.

Cottage 16 is actually one of the prime cottages - it's prime real estate in the cottage rental world! Not only do we have the most amazing view of the lake from our screened in front deck, but also have the kids Shire right across the road which is quite handy now that Alex is actually old enough to play in AND as if that weren't great enough, we have two communal washrooms that are within a 20 second jog of our front door! Did I forget to mention that part - ya, no bathrooms in the cottages either. The interior of the cottage has been the same for as long as I can remember.

The curtains on both the windows and covering the doorways to the bedrooms (yup, we are an open door kind of family when we're up there) have been the same for more than 20 years now but if we have our way, they will NOT be changed until the moths have eaten every last shred of them. You see, as with every other piece of furniture and every last mug in that place everything has a story. The curtains and "doors" were made by the woman who used to be in the cottage beside us - long time cottagers themselves, until she passed away about 10 years ago and we've never been able to look at them without thinking fondly of her.

The mugs which are stained and really quite ugly are all there because of swimming contests that were won on various years by the families who have mainly shared the cottage over the years. Although none of us are at the cottage at the same time, we all share the same love and kindred affection for the place, always leaving behind new little additions. Sometimes we'll leave some new puzzles and games or books. Some years we've bought new dishes or other kitchen gadgets. Trust me, you have to have rose coloured glasses on the first time that you go, but there is a magic about Geneva Park that once you've experienced it, you just have to keep going back.

One of my most favourite memories of the cottage now was one evening in 2002 - right before my wedding. I walked with my mom out to Fallen Rock - an area of the park that has the most amazing views of the sunset and has surprisingly alot of fallen rock slabs going straight into the water. We were sitting watching the sun slowly set out over the water in silence and I turned to look at her and noticed that she had tears running down her face. I held her hand quietly knowing that when she was ready she would tell me what was wrong. She wiped her tears away and then very quietly said how much sitting there with me reminded her of sitting with her Dad at their own cottage when she was a little girl. She said the two of them would sit on the dock together and not say a word to one another but would simply sit in silence and let the warm glow of the sun envelope them in one last warm hug before saying goodnight to the world for another day. My mom and I didn't always see eye to eye on a lot of stuff but one thing we did really well was be together in silence. Now, when I sit at Fallen Rock with my husband (and one day with bum bum once I trust that he won't leap of the ledge of rock into the water below) I feel her there with me and I remember that day and how nice it was to just be there, watching the sun go down and feeling her love without her saying a word.

I miss her a lot, but I know she's with me...