April 24, 2013

Mountain retreat

Hanging out with friends

I spent last weekend with some women friends in an incredibly beautiful summer house lent to us by Makes Bread’s sister. It’s nice that people who have lovely vacation homes are often so generous about sharing them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a wonderful weekend in a house owned by someone I’ve never met.

The place had a great view of the lake, a working fireplace, some hiking trails right outside the door, and furniture that was way nicer than what’s in my living room. It was pretty clear to me that whoever owned the place did not have a pack of teenage boys. And yes, we ate well. From what I could figure, each woman had brought enough food to feed all of us, which meant that we had nine times the amount of food we could reasonably eat.

We were in the mountains, which meant there was still snow on the ground. I keep promising not to put more pictures of snow on my blog, but I couldn’t help snapping a picture of Makes Bread as she strode ahead of me on the dirt road, as we set off to find the trail and explore the woods.

She and Dancing Woman, somehow not yet tired of the snow, lay on the ground to make angels, but I refused, just on principle. I don’t make snow angels in April. Someone has to take a stand against the winter weather, or it will never go away.

The toughest part of going away for a weekend in April is that it’s too short. Without a holiday, we all had to come back on Sunday, back to work, back to our families, back to the stress and confusion and hectic busyness of everyday life. But still, thoughts of that relaxing time, those conversations by the fire, keep creeping into my week.

April walk in the mountains

6 comments:

Whoosh... said...

this sounds so lovely and relaxed! And is this a weaving loom on the picture?

jo(e) said...

Yep. It's a weaving loom. A friend brought it, and we all took turns weaving. I'll have a close-up photo of it in my next blog post, in fact.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Lovely lovely lovely, how fun! Wish I could have been there with yoU!

Morgan said...

Jo(e)
We are in the habit of inviting academics and writers to use what we refer to as our "shack in the woods". It really isn't a gorgeous thing as it lacks proper siding and has merely painted OSB cladding for the time-being, but it has a working fireplace, heat, running water, a queen bed in the living room, a loft that sleeps 2 or 3 on twin mattresses, and a double bed in the bedroom. Many of the best meals we've ever eaten have been made up there, and the 86 acres of mixed soft/hardwood forest + fauna on the very peaceful river make it a joyful retreat, If ever you feel like retreating to central Ontario, just drop me an email. We'd love to be on the list of people you've not met who have loaned a writing retreat to you and your friends. Have to figure out how to get you my email address without posting it here on the public comments board.

jo(e) said...

Aw, thanks for that generous offer. I just might take you up on that one of these days!

(I have an email address in the sidebar -- writingasjoe@gmail.com)

Anonymous said...

Such a beautiful place for a weekend retreat. Lovely.