Cottaging

Experiencing Canada's wilderness is beautiful year round. Exhibit A:

frozen pond alongside Georgian Bay

Toronto style cottaging is quite different to the UK. ahem. In the UK, I had only heard of one friend with a holiday dwelling (a cottage, a chalet, a beach house, a cabin, a lodge, etc), and it had been in their family for generations - read uber rich. In Toronto, though people with cottages are wealthy, cottage lifestyle doesn't necessarily have the grand feeling of a summer house in Scotland. With the exception of many Muskoka area 'cottages'.

The sunsets and the stars, the trees and the water, it's all quite beautiful.

view from the back deck

shoveling required so tires don't spin in driveway

walking down to the shore

partly frozen body of water

starting to feel the -20 celcius

Ice fishing over a frozen inlet

But it is certainly beautiful and a lot of fun to be able to get out of the city, gaze at the stars, walk along the coast, get in a canoe, and be transported to a time before the internet. I had never been to cottage country in the winter and it certainly is a different experience. The wind on the sea was ferocious, and night campfires don't last as long when your toes are frozen. I missed the quincy building experience (small packed snow huts that you dig out and sleep in) this time around but once may have been enough for me on that front.  I did get to see ice fishing, walk on ice ponds and witness the varied ice sheets forming on the lake, some pics of that below (all these ice formations are within 1km). So in all, an excellent cottage experience as always.

my footprints along ice 

winter's lilypads?

the dog likes her chances

big sheets creak as the clouds roll in