Winter Cottage Pictures

Here are some pics from our second winter weekend at the cottage, 2010. This was a great weekend weather wise, and all other wise, with lots of food, good friends, and outdoor exercise cutting wood.

The ice make the lake look bigger than ever, white and wide, so beautiful as it reflects the winter sun.

Nothing beats a bonfire on a cool winter afternoon !

A couple going by on their four-wheeler, towing a trailer.

Here is a little video of a snowmobile on the lake!

More Cottage Pics

Continuing with my experiment with edited photography, using some special effects from a program that I found, here are a couple more cottage type pics. This first one means a lot to me, the swing that I hung for my two daughters. It's still there today, waiting for them to have little girls or boys to swing on it.....I still swing on it myself every year to make sure it is safe.

Ahh the memories that swing holds for me......

Here is another one, this is a tree that grows happily along our cottage shoreline, one that is a favorite of mine because I just like the shape.

Photo Editing

I have been playing with some of my cottage photo's lately....I guess because I am getting a little bit of cabin fever as this winter drags on as winters tend to do.....Anyway...I just did some editing to a photo I took during our winter weekend at the cottage and I kind of like how it turned out. So.....of course I want to post it here!

The increase in the "warmer" colors changed the feel of this pic quite a bit, what was a cold, albeit realistic view across the lake, becomes a little less forboding and for my money, a more eye-catching picture that highlights the beauty of the day, even if it wasn't really quite this nice.

Winter At The Cottage!

Hey! Welcome to the Cottage Chronicles photo blog, the sister site to The Cottage Chronicles Blog If you have been reading The Cottage Chronicles, you know we just returned from a winter weekend at the cottage. Had a great time, and took some pics too! So I thought in addition to the ones posted on The Cottage Chronicles, I should post some more here! So here goes:

Yes it was snowy...in fact a snow storm hit the day we got there.

The above two pics were taken in the little swamp behind the cottage, it's a home for rabbits, birds and the occasional skunk.....

We cut some wood, cleared out some of the extra lot and had a nice fire to burn up the excess brush!

Nothing like an outdoor fire on a cold day...and it was cold with temps in the 19 degree farenheit area....

I learned that if you get a hot enough fire going....you can burn snow!! Ha ha!!

We're home now, back to reality tomorrow.....I would love to be back there, at the cottage, cutting wood, breathing the cool country air, watching the clouds float across the frozen lake.

November At The Cottage

The leaves are pretty much all on the ground and things are taking on that "grey" cool look that says it is now the end of November at the cottage.....

Outdoor Photos

Here are some photos of my cottage lake, taken on my recent deer hunting vacation. It was three days of running the woods, chasing a whitetail deer, and ultimately coming home empty handed, but happy. The weather cooperated wonderfully, with mild days and cool nights, pleasant breezes instead of wind, and lots of sunshine.

These are pictures of the cove where I landed the boat, no roads to this place other than a four wheeler trail, but it isn't used much by hunters, just "yahoos" on 4-wheelers going too fast to see any wildlife. Case in point, a tent bag full of beer cans, left on the trail, along with a broken lawn chair, and numerous other pieces of garbage. If you can carry it in full, why can't you carry it out empty? To be clear, I am not blaming the off-roaders for this, I have no idea who did this, could have been fishermen or someone else, but it is disgraceful. It shows the complete lack of regard that people have for the outdoors they claim to love.

Sorry for that digression, but it just pisses me off.....I believe this country is being ruined by "recreational 4-wheelers" in ways far exceeding anything before them. Trails cut through deep woods, muddy ruts, water diverted, streams torn up, mud holes created and a lot of beer cans left for someone else to pick up.

But, with the popularity of ATV's today, politicians are loathe to do anything about it. I believe that 4 wheelers have a place, as do snowmobiles and the like, it's just the distructive nature of them that leaves me feeling lousy.  It's not just the ATV's either, and I am not pointing my finger just at them. I am pointing my finger at anyone who goes into the woods and leaves their garbage behind. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior, and what gets me is, people know that, because no one ever admits to something as heinous as leaving an empty case of beer cans on the side of the river, or a broken plastic lawn chair. Until the ATV trail opened this particular part of the woods up to more people, there wasn't much garbage to be seen. Now it is starting to look like a dump site.

The local ATV club wants to build a bridge across the river. Why they need that I don't know, with the miles and miles of trails they already have, but that is the nature of the things.....anyway....that is my rant tonight. Isn't this a pretty spot?

Why would anyone want to build a bridge over something as beautiful as the above picture? Why...... ? and don't say "to get to the other side".....I won't laugh......

This is my favorite picture from the last few days, to me it is so invocative of the still wilderness lakeshore around my cottage lake.

Salmon Fishing

Here is my Dad, doing what he loves to do best, fish....this was taken several, probably 20 years ago, he is fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon at one of our favorite places on earth. I don't know if he caught one that day or not, but I'm sure we had a good day nonetheless.

Summer Time Fun !!

Summer time and the living is easy, especially when you are a teenage girl with friends at the cottage, about to go tubing! These are the reasons that make having a cottage worthwhile, to see smiles like this!

Still smiling, even if the boat driver is a little old and crazy!!

Old Barn Picture

Here is a picture of the old barn that belonged to the farm where our cottage is now. The old pasture was subdivided and sold as cottage lots. The barn stood empty for some 30 years before it was finally torn down and leveled. I miss it, as it held a fascination with the old history of the place, a place that means so much to me. I still have memories of looking in the windows of the place as kid, marvelling at the old farm implements and tools hanging on the walls.

Old Fishing Camp Picture

Here is an old photo from the 1930's of a fishing camp, the fishermen and the "sports" who came and paid to go trout fishing in the Spring as soon as the ice was out.

You can see more of these pictures Here

The 2009 Cottage Woodpile

Ahhh..the satisfaction that comes from having a pretty good sized pile of firewood at the cottage. Covered over to keep the worst of the snow and rain off, but open enough to let the drying air blow through......perfect......

Cottage Lake Pictures

Ahh.....yes....cottage lakes....so wonderful to look at, swim in and boat on......I love our cottage lake. It's also kind of fun playing with the photo editor feature on this computer.....this is a lovely little island at the head of our cottage lake, about 45 minutes away from our camp by boat....our boat....not the fastest on the lake, but you do get to take lots of pictures!

This is another view of the lakeshore with some color enhancement for fun.....

Perfect Campsite Picture

I like to call this the perfect campsite set up, a van to sleep in for one couple, a truck mounted tent for another couple, a screen tent for the flies, a sun canopy for shade, and a big ole tarp in case it rains.....

Perfect......

Loons Going Crazy

I posted this video last year on my cottage blog. These loons went absolutely 'loony' one afternoon at the cottage, putting on quite a show for us. In fact, I've never seen anything quite like it before, and I have seen some loons in my day.....I think it may have to do with the young ones learning to fly, but I'm not sure. It might just be that they had an audience and decided to do some showing off!

A Skunk At The Cottage

As I wrote about in this blog's sister blog, we had a Skunk At The Cottage  I posted this picture there, but figured it should go here as well. I'm sorry it isn't a very good picture, but when your hands are shaking a bit, and it's dark, and I wasn't too close.....

http://www.thecottagechronicles.com/

Another Full Moon Picture

In my last post, I had a couple of pictures of the almost 2009 fall Harvest Moon, that will happen or has happened, depending on when you read this, on October 4th 2009. I caught some pictures of it on October 2nd, as it came up over our cottage lake. This is another one, taken from a slightly different vantage point.

The Full Moon October 2009 At The Cottage

Gotta love the full moon at the cottage!

Doug In His Boat

After spending sometime standing on my boat, my best buddy Doug decided to go out and buy his own boat so he could get on the lake rather than just stand on the bottom of my boat. He got a beauty! He actually let me go in his boat with him, I wanted to pull it up on the lawn, turn it over and stand on it......

Doug On a Boat

My best buddy Doug on my boat......

I think he is looking at the cottage roof, I probably was trying to convince him to climb up on it and replace some missing shingles or something....if it comes to anything up high or on a ladder....I send Doug, bless his heart, unlike me, he isn't afraid of heights.

http://www.thecottagechronicles.com/

My Cottage Lake

I love to look at my cottage lake....I could look at it for the rest of my life and never get tired of the view....

http://www.thecottagechronicles.com/

It's always changing, but always beautiful!