long weekend at the cottage
Last Thursday was Canada Day, so we both took Friday off and took off on Wednesday after work to the cottage. We got back around 4pm today after spending over four hours in traffic - which damn near killed us because the air-conditioning in the van has been dead since last spring and we were BAKING inside! Seriously it must have been an easy 40 degrees inside the car! And to be sitting in traffic on a highway in the country - by the time we got home we were feeling ill and weak and even a bit dizzy from having sweated out all our salt. But, it was beautiful at the cottage:
Left: Our cottage on Snowshoe Island; Right: the back view of the cottage, and boathouse
The cottage/boathouse on Crown Island, the largest island on the lake.
It's very hard to get a good photo of the cottage (I say "cottage" because everyone else does, and because it's known as "cottage country", but really it's a very impressive five-bedroom house will all modern amenities except a phone line), because there's only so far you can step back before you fall off a cliff, and the trees have grown so you can't see the house well (but we get excellent views!).
Adam's parents own it - I'm very lucky to have such access to a cottage because the whole Muskoka area has become ludicrously expensive and only stupidly rich people can afford one these days. People who had one before it became too expensive can no longer afford the $55 thousand dollars annual property taxes. Not to mention the people who actually live up here. (This particular lake isn't as developed as the "big ones", making it much quieter and safer but also relatively cheaper.)
I like to think that Barney and Valency Snaith from The Blue Castle lived on an island like this. It was set in this part of Ontario (though I think more east, closer to Peterborough??). I took five books with me and finished three - I would have finished four but we watched State of Play last night and it kept my attention, for once! I did also get several mozzie bites though, and as I'm allergic to them I now have some impressive giant dark-red lumps that are so itchy they're burning. Calamine lotion only helps so much.
Anyway, here's the month of June in books:
June Books
Books Read in June: 12
Books Read by end of June: 71
Books Bought in June: 34 (are you seeing the same problem I'm seeing?!)
Most Enjoyed: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox; The Girl Who Played With Fire; The Tombs of Atuan
Least Enjoyed: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Read for 1930s Mini-Challenge: Double Indemnity; The House in Paris
Read for World Party Reading Challenge: The Darling (Liberia)
Read for Classics Book Club: um, didn't get around to reading The Human Factor this month, mostly because I knew I wouldn't make it to the meeting because we were going up north
Currently Reading: waaaaay too many books, as usual. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (for TBR challenge); Deeper by Megan Hart; Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch; Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia by Joe Sacco (non-fiction graphic novel - I've been reading it for a while, not because it's not good, but because it's not a good book for taking on the subway or to the cottage)
Need to Read in July: The Farthest Shore by Ursula K Le Guin (for Summer of Series - I'm behind!!); Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald (for Classic book club - unless I got the book wrong!); Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon (for Summer of Series); Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (for 1930s Mini-Challenge)
_______________________________________________________________
Cain, James M: Double Indemnity
Le Guin, Ursula K: A Wizard of Earthsea
Schindler, Nina: An Order of Amelie, Hold the Fries
Ryan, Carrie: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Cready, Gwyn: Flirting with Forever
O’Farrell, Maggie: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Boyne, John: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Larsson, Stieg: The Girl Who Played With Fire
Steig, William: Doctor de Soto
Le Guin, Ursula: The Tombs of Atuan
Banks, Russell: The Darling
Bowen, Elizabeth: The House in Paris
______________________________________________________________
What did you read in June? Anything blew you away? I have to recommend The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell.
Left: Our cottage on Snowshoe Island; Right: the back view of the cottage, and boathouse
The cottage/boathouse on Crown Island, the largest island on the lake.
It's very hard to get a good photo of the cottage (I say "cottage" because everyone else does, and because it's known as "cottage country", but really it's a very impressive five-bedroom house will all modern amenities except a phone line), because there's only so far you can step back before you fall off a cliff, and the trees have grown so you can't see the house well (but we get excellent views!).
Adam's parents own it - I'm very lucky to have such access to a cottage because the whole Muskoka area has become ludicrously expensive and only stupidly rich people can afford one these days. People who had one before it became too expensive can no longer afford the $55 thousand dollars annual property taxes. Not to mention the people who actually live up here. (This particular lake isn't as developed as the "big ones", making it much quieter and safer but also relatively cheaper.)
I like to think that Barney and Valency Snaith from The Blue Castle lived on an island like this. It was set in this part of Ontario (though I think more east, closer to Peterborough??). I took five books with me and finished three - I would have finished four but we watched State of Play last night and it kept my attention, for once! I did also get several mozzie bites though, and as I'm allergic to them I now have some impressive giant dark-red lumps that are so itchy they're burning. Calamine lotion only helps so much.
Anyway, here's the month of June in books:
June Books
Books Read in June: 12
Books Read by end of June: 71
Books Bought in June: 34 (are you seeing the same problem I'm seeing?!)
Most Enjoyed: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox; The Girl Who Played With Fire; The Tombs of Atuan
Least Enjoyed: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Read for 1930s Mini-Challenge: Double Indemnity; The House in Paris
Read for World Party Reading Challenge: The Darling (Liberia)
Read for Classics Book Club: um, didn't get around to reading The Human Factor this month, mostly because I knew I wouldn't make it to the meeting because we were going up north
Currently Reading: waaaaay too many books, as usual. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (for TBR challenge); Deeper by Megan Hart; Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch; Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia by Joe Sacco (non-fiction graphic novel - I've been reading it for a while, not because it's not good, but because it's not a good book for taking on the subway or to the cottage)
Need to Read in July: The Farthest Shore by Ursula K Le Guin (for Summer of Series - I'm behind!!); Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald (for Classic book club - unless I got the book wrong!); Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon (for Summer of Series); Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (for 1930s Mini-Challenge)
_______________________________________________________________
Cain, James M: Double Indemnity
Le Guin, Ursula K: A Wizard of Earthsea
Schindler, Nina: An Order of Amelie, Hold the Fries
Ryan, Carrie: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Cready, Gwyn: Flirting with Forever
O’Farrell, Maggie: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Boyne, John: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Larsson, Stieg: The Girl Who Played With Fire
Steig, William: Doctor de Soto
Le Guin, Ursula: The Tombs of Atuan
Banks, Russell: The Darling
Bowen, Elizabeth: The House in Paris
______________________________________________________________
What did you read in June? Anything blew you away? I have to recommend The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell.