Life on the outside…

I can’t believe we’ve been living here for 6 years and this is the first night I’ve sat outside on the deck.

It helps that we have a nice front deck now and patio furniture 🙂

I brought out my laptop to catch up on some work and reading. Jeff even found a couple citronella candles we had squirreled away to keep the mosquitos at bay. Although they are swarming me, no bites so far!!

It’s just after 9pm. The sun has long set and the night is closing in. I can hear a dog whining and barking on the other side of the lake. I heard it all day too. They must be visiting a cottage because we don’t usually hear dogs barking so much.

I hear a car driving on the gravel on the far side of the lake, southbound. I can hear the stones crunching under the tires. I just heard them honk and they quickly stopped at one of the cottages.

There is a quiet boat still out on the lake. I can hear it’s motor. A few minutes ago the party boat went by one more time and I heard the waves from its wake splash on the shore. There are a few party boats that live on this lake in the summer. They are those pontoon boats with the canopy and benches that just go back and forth all day.

Now there are a few cars on the highway. After dark there are very few cars that travel on our highway and it is mostly quiet.

I hear the night time singing of what? Not crickets – no too quiet. Like spring peepers, but the summer variety.

I can hear a campfire crackling on the shore across the lake and kids and parents talking and laughing.

I wish we felt more connection to this lake. Maybe it is because we are up high, maybe it is because there is a road between us and the shore, maybe it is because we rarely jump in it. I’m really tempted to hire a clearing crew to cut every tree down in front of us so we see more lake. The leaves close in during the summer and block out a lot of our view, but also give us privacy from the lake traffic.

Oh and there is a mallard quacking! They quack all night. Don’t know why. Here’s hoping the loons speak up soon. They have to be my favourite night time noise of all.

I think I want to sleep out here.