Sparrow Lake

Lydia and I spent four days up at G.'s family cottage. It was awesome. We got there on Sunday afternoon (it was almost noon by the time we finally left London, after picking up last-minute things at the drug store, etc.). G. decided to take the long, scenic way, which was much nicer than the relentless traffic on the 401. So the girls (Lydia and G's daughter Grace) settled in in the back seat, with snacks, drinks, books, colouring, stuffed toys, little plastic toys and G.'s laptop to watch a movie on. Still, by the end of the trip, both of them were restless and ready to get out of the car. G.'s mom was there (she lives at the cottage from late spring to fall), so I was a bit apprehensive. She greeted me coolly (G. told me earlier that she does not approve of him seeing anyone yet, the divorce not being final). I gave her one of my cards (a cute little summery card with flip-flops on it), thanking her for inviting us up, and a nice set with Lavender shower gel and body lotion, so that helped thaw her a bit. She is a dear lady, actually, 83 yrs old, tiny, energetic and very sharp. She reads the news and books and keeps up on world events and goes out for lunch with her friends. By the end of the four days, she warmed up to me and we hugged when I left... The cottage is on the Deep Bay of Sparrow Lake. I've never been to the Muskoka region before this, so I really, really enjoyed all the sights (the scenery, the lake, the trees, the beautiful layered rocks) and sounds (first time I heard a loon call in person, I only seen/heard them before on tv). During the day, we spend a LOT of time in the water (G. built a huge waterslide on a raft for the kids to jump and slide into the water). Lydia was very cautious at first, but on the second day, she was jumping off the raft like a pro and even tried the slide!!!! Heck, it was scary for me, and she just decided she's gonna do it and she did. She was sooo cute and sooo proud that she did it. Both girls got a nice tan, despite all my efforts to slop sunscreen on them. The second night, G. and I were sitting on the dock, listening to the water gently lapping, the birds, nature... and then, the skies were getting darker and darker, the wind stronger and stronger, and all of a sudden, there was forked lightning tearing through the gray sky, and we experienced a Muskoka storm. It was gorgeous, and it came upon us so quickly that by the time we felt the rain is picking up and ran for the cottage, within seconds, the clouds exploded and we got soaked and fell into the cottage, giggling like two naughty kids. The next morning, it was all done - the lake was crystal clear and so calm, the sky was blue and the sun came up with the promise of a perfect day. We took the girls to the Muskoka Wildlife sanctuary, a place where injured wild animals, or those who can not be released into the wild live. We were introduced to an opossum named Indiana, a lady in the states found a few baby possums and thought they would make great pets. But she didn't feed them the right foods (fed them with canned cat food), and some of them died, and Indiana was sent to the reserve, where they discovered she has some bone damage because of the poor diet. Indiana was sooo cute, ugly, but cute, hanging on to the girl's ranger shirt with all four paws and tail. We saw two wolverines (one rescued from a petting zoo, another found as an abandoned baby and raised by humans), a black bear, a cougar, a lynx, a bobcat, three wolves, a moose (did you know that a moose can run faster than a horse and can swim and dive down up to 6 meters under water?????) three bald eagles (all with sad tales of injured or amputated wing, blind eye, injured foot, so clearly they would not be able to survive in the wild). The beavers didn't come out, even though we spent a great deal of time peering down into the area where their dam was blocking up a pretty little stream. The girls enjoyed learning about all the animals and of course had to pick up two plush animals, Grace chose a lynx and Lydia "adopted" a wolf. In the evenings, we went on a Gator ride (a small all-terrain vehicle), all through the woods, looking for pretty rocks and plants, armed with bugspray and flyzappers. I'm obsessed with ferns. I think I have to say that fern is my favourite plant. I collected about five different kinds of fern leaves and pressed them into my book, and I'm sure there were more, but the deerflies were upon us and we had to go. I found rocks layered in black and white, or pink with sparkly quartz, sharp-edged newly blasted ones and round ones that have been tumbled by ice glaciers some long long time ago. We had a bonfire one night, with smores and G. playing his guitar. Then, after watching a movie with the girls and tucking them into bed, we would go and sit out on the dock, talking and taking in the amazing starry sky. When I first went out in the darkness and looked up, it took my breath away... you don't realize in the city how the lights affect your ability to see them, but there, there was hardly any interference and you could clearly see the Dippers, Orion's belt, Mars, and the last night I was there, we were lucky enough to see some shooting stars! G. and I were great together, so calm and quiet and peaceful, and he was very attentive and romantic. All in all, I wished we could have stayed longer, and obviously, Lydia did too, because she threw a huge tantrum before we left... So G. and Grace ended up escorting us out of the cottage area and coming into Orillia with their car and having lunch with us before we said our final goodbyes.