If I Had A Million Dollars....

I'd be rich!  At least according toThe Barenaked Ladies.  And the cottage and farmhouse would both be  finished the way I see them in my dreams.  But alas, we are not millionaires, so my dreams have not come true just yet.

 One of our favorite past times is dreaming of all the things we are going to do to the farmhouse to finally finish the place.   One of my concerns way back when we purchased the farmhouse was that the cottage would become the neglected child...an afterthought.  I feared it would crumble into disrepair and always come in second place when it came to putting money towards repairs or improvements.  Given that we are not millionaires... we have had to make choices.

I have had to really try to get the cottage a little respect.  Last year it got a few long overdue upgrades.  This year the job is almost finished.  Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty that could/should be done, but we are on a positive trend here!  The farmhouse had to take a backseat last year to the cottage, "Take that farmhouse!".

I love the cottage!  This week I have been cleaning out at least 25 years of crap and I keep finding more and more memories and find myself falling in love with the cottage all over again.  For such a small place with relatively sparse storage space, we sure did ferret away a lot of crap over the years!  This was the year for me to do the big clean out!  Throw away memories with reckless abandon!  Clean slate!  Get rid of the clutter!  Well, kinda...let's not go crazy here, I'm not quite ready to get rid of that orange, yellow and black sunset hooked rug yet and the baseball hat collection is still intact...except for the ones that disintegrated!

The cottage 2009....where my children learned to love this place.

The cottage 2013...with her new foundation, siding and new decks, she might just live for another generation to fall in love with this place!

While I was cleaning and throwing things away I came across something that has been hanging in the cottage for many years.  It goes mostly unnoticed.  I stopped my cleaning and read this ode to the shore.  When I received this work I thought it was nice but it did not mean the same thing to me then that it does now.  I can really relate to it now.  She capture this place perfectly!  I thought I'd share it here and maybe you can appreciate it too. 

Down Home

What is my Maritime home besides family and friends?

It's the sea, sand and smell of the salt air on the Northumberland Strait.

It's the quiet stillness before a summer storm or the sound of flags flapping in the wind.

It's a sea breeze whistling through the spruce boughs or driving down a road overgrown with alders.

It's seeing fields of clover, boarded by goldenrods, 

with a sprinkling of Queen Ann's Lace, Fireweed and Blue Flags.

It's a cloud of dragonflies in late August and multi sea birds

 gathering in flocks to feast as the flies pass by on their one day

 exodus each summer.

It's cranes standing on stilt like legs, waiting patiently at low ebb,

In the shallow pools for fish and small crustaceans.

It's crabs, clams, razor fish, starfish, quahogs and mussels

 and of course lobster too.

It's deep purple jelly fish with threads of silk like stingers

swimming gently with the tide.

A snorkel and a mask, exploring a sea world,

finding bubbles of silver that look like a mermaids broken necklace.

Above in the deep blue it's white clouds splattered

with different character forms.

It's the cottage, the shore in summer,

the drive out the Tyndal Woods Road

with memories of childhood days around each bend.

The robins looking for that last worm for their young

before a spectacular sunset turns day into night.

PEACE,TRANQUILITY, HOME, land of my roots.

Sharon Ann Hire-White

Yup, she captured many of the things we love about this place and none of them cost a million dollars, so what am I worried about anyway?  Especially on a day like this......

Our first walk on the sandbars....priceless!