So, welcome to the lake

So what about this Lake Cottage? You see a photo at the top of this blog. It is a quiet, healing place for Mike and holds many family memories from the past 15 or so years.

Some of you have visited us here. Some have spent a night or two. For overnight guests, two words: Salsa Eggs.

One of the many things that Mike does at the lake: he takes over all the cooking AND the clean up of said cooking. Really. And for breakfast, he makes his signature dish and serves it to whoever is sitting at the dining room table. He fires up all four burners and cooks bacon, scrambled eggs, and French toast. He serves each plate with some cut up fresh fruit (right now, it’s strawberries) arranged carefully and then, the piece de resistance, a dollop of hot salsa on the eggs.

He sets the table and pours fresh orange juice for everybody and voila! The plates appear, brief thanks to the Creator and a blessing on the cook, and then we dive in.

When something becomes routine and expected, it can lose its specialness. I have been rediscovering and savoring Salsa Eggs in recent weeks.

We also have a long closed front porch that faces the lake. It’s perfect for the occasional reprieve on a hot day as it is painted all white. We have 5 or 6 white rocking chairs and from time to time, they have all been occupied with friends, sipping on ice tea and watching the sun go down. One day, a friend who was spending some quiet time here, described it as ‘the front porch at the Cracker Barrel in heaven.” I hope he’s right. Every time I rock out there, that image comes to mind.

Inside, as all guest know, we have The Couch. It is a longer-than-usual couch..my 6’3” son can stretch out..it has removable cushions (3 back, 3 seat), it is striped white, blue and green AND has narcotic effects on anyone who lies down on it. As it IS the lake, it’s not uncommon for a guest to just plop down and put his feet up.

We wish now we had committed to photographing everyone who has fallen asleep on this couch because ANYONE who stretches out, no matter what time of day, no matter how already rested he might be, no matter who else is in the room or what kind of noise is in the room…..will be asleep within minutes and it will be a deep, wonderful sleep that lasts for 15, 30, 45, even 60 minutes.

I myself have napped there and one time, I tried to evaluate how the couch sucks you in. You lie there, usually on your back, and within a minute, you feel the weight of your shoulders sinking into the coach. Then the weight of knees, hips, feet, all sink sink sink and then float. You are cushioned and cuddled and you drift off.

So the other day, the hub was stretching out on the couch with the green throw and I was curling up in the blue leather easy chair with the blue throw, when he signaled that he was in need of some cuddling. I joined him and with his arm around my shoulder, my arm around his waist, head snuggled under his chin, our knees zig zagging and our toes touching, we melded into a single lump of person, drifting off to sleep. We kept both throws and cuddled for at least 45 minutes, a warm cocoon on the couch.

I have never felt so peaceful, so secure, so happy all at the same time. I told him I think that when it’s all said and done, THIS may be my best memory of the lake. (I still don’t care for hot salsa.)