OK SEPTEMBER, BRING IT ON!

We have been very blessed and fortunate to rent a beautiful little cottage each year, usually near the end of August. But it always sorta feels like the end of something, and not just summer, because September always feels like a new beginning. 

Cottage time forces me to slow down, to re-energize, to do nothing except relax, read, eat, swim and sleep. I'm winding down to this vague sense of an ending. 

My day would start with taking Lulu for a walk and then breakfast and coffee. My view was not my garden or out the front window, but this lake:

I have an hour or more if I like to just sit and watch the sun slowly climb in the sky, to listen to the loons and the lapping of the waves onto the shore. "Slow down Cyndi, slow down" they repetitively say to me. 

I get to spend time with my family and for those of you whose children have flown the coop, you know how precious that is. I was fortunate to have one night at the cottage just my daughter and I. 

We had a dinner on the dock, started watching Season 5 of Downton Abbey and ended the night with a Vim (a swim sans clothes). It was dark and very, VERY cold. We slipped into the water trying not to scream and looked up swimming into thousands upon thousands of stars over our heads. 

Games are always on the list at some point.

And naps are a must!

Swimming at least once a day is my only rule at the cottage. But it's usually something you have to work up to by first dangling your feet in the water before the big jump!

One more week and we are into September. My daughter Randi and her husband will both be starting work at a school I can literally see from my back yard. She has been away from home for 8 years, 3 of which have been overseas. It will be wonderful to have her nearby to come for dinner, or just hang out! My husband is out of work and in transition. We both need to adjust to whatever is next. New beginnings for us all. 

Bring it on September, bring it on.