Cottage memories
It’s the cottage that keeps on growing
IT WAS THE LITTLE cottage that grew, and keeps growing.
My husband and I purchased our cottage on Maple Lake, north of Minden, in 1985 — a one-room cabin with bunk beds, compact kitchen and outhouse. Situated on a well-treed lot with a sandy beach, facing the rolling Haliburton Highlands and spectacular sunsets, it was paradise (especially compared to camping).
Needing more space after our sons’ births, the DIY renovations began – first, a screened-in porch (a.k.a the Treehouse Café), an extra bedroom, and then a major addition, including indoor plumbing. It was a labour of love that brought together anyone who would work for beers, burgers and swims.
Fast forward to 2003, when we raised >>
>> the cottage (an engineering feat!) and added a concrete foundation and basement — even more rooms to be completed by us and likely future generations. My husband is handy but thorough (translation: slow). Amazingly, every unexpected setback was overcome … eventually.
In August 2006, a tornado carved a path of destruction across the region, downing mighty trees and ravaging property. It was a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like storm in which flowers and hammocks remained intact. Fellow cottagers rallied to clean up; Mother Nature regenerated with the same tenacity.
Our watercraft collection has evolved from a canoe to a small aluminum boat and then a speedboat.
An entire wall is dedicated to framed collages of visitors over the years (family, friends and even uninvited wildlife), capturing celebrations and such rites of passage as the kids learning to water ski until they could cut through the wake with a glistening spray. Sometimes we simply sat by the shore, content to watch ducks, loons or clouds drift by.
While campfires blazed and marshmallows burned, we invented scary stories, a few sentences at a time, person to person. On long weekends, competing fireworks erupted across the black sky.
The wood stove took the chill out of the air on rainy days. Young and old gathered around the pine table and played cards or board games that rarely surfaced in city life. Others read in a quiet corner or wrote in the cottage diary that spans decades.
Each season — not only the popular summer — has its tapestry of special moments.
We’ve toiled and played hard; as the cottage has grown, so have the diverse memories and also the sense of continuity.
Nothing rivals that guaranteed view of the lake and treeline, silhouetted against the sky from dawn to dusk. Space. Serenity.
Lauren Bauman has lived in Kitchener for 26 years.