Paradise Point

I mentioned a while back that I spent a weekend with some friends at one's cottage. The place is suitably called Paradise Point, as the cottage is built on a "point" of land jutting out into Sydenham lake. It doesn't matter where you are in the cottage, you can see the water from any window.





Plus, there was a swimming raft, kayaks and a jet ski! Plenty of things to keep us happy and entertained all weekend. We did arrive rather late Friday evening, so we were pretty mellow and just hung out eating tasty food and listening to music.

Saturday morning I went down to the dock to drink my coffee and admire my surroundings. There was definitely plenty to see (and photograph) around the place. I wish I had someplace like this to sit with my morning coffee everyday.

The day turned into one of those ideal not-too-hot days with enough cloud cover to keep you from crisping in the sun, but still hot enough to warrant swimming. We discovered during our swimming however that the fish in this lake are apparently very bold. They were nibbling at the people around the raft first, and then one particularly brazen fish decided he was going to try and eat the strings on my bikini top. Strings do not equal worms, little fish!





I was also thrilled to bits when a special visitor stopped over. The friend's mother had told us that a large snake had been coming around the front yard for a while, just sunning himself lazily. I of course wanted badly to see this snake. Turns out, I got even better, and was able to catch and hold it! It was a Black Rat Snake, very calm thing, had no real issues with me holding it. I'd never seen a snake like this in the wild before so it really made my weekend that I got to hold it.



Eventually the day started to wind down, people taking naps and spending some relaxed time off by themselves. Since I've never been one to nap, I took the opportunity to sit and read. I changed dresses and finally put all my things up in the Bunky (a cute little guest cabin where I got to sleep) and then settled on the front deck.

Meanwhile, the boys had acquired themselves some fireworks in the nearby small town and our friend Matty decided he was going to go Frankenstein on us and try to get more bang for his buck. Here he is taking the explosives apart, and then having way too much fun lighting them with his hand-made holder.




We got the pit ready just before sunset, and had ourselves a nice fire. Pity none of us thought to bring marshmallows! It was a perfect night for our few fireworks too, no wind at all.





All in all it was a good weekend. Friends, laughter, good food, good times. Something everybody could use a little more of any day of the week. Cheers!