ooohhhh I'm missing Muskoka, and the sun coming through the leaves & pine needles, dancing on the ground, and the quiet.  Looking at the sparkling water, dipping in my toes.

I love hanging laundry.  For me, it is methodical, simple, ancient and comforting.  I can spend 10 minutes with the birds and the quiet, and have a perfect excuse to be alone outside.  And another perfect excuse to go back out again.

thanks for sharing, Lb -  I hope to find an afternoon to come hang out with you again.  

I love Muskoka, too.  I agree about hanging laudry as well.

Ironing out the wrinkles of life, eh?

Smiles at Arminius - its easier than erasing the wrinkles on the face.

Birthstone, the invitation is always open.

LB

I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God.

     Alan Hovhaness

my brother had a chance to be at the cottage for the weekend, and he said it was absolutely perfect!  I had a very nice weekend too, but try as I might, my city backyard doesn't look like Muskoka.   My sweetheart suggested a very very high cantilevered deck so I could see the lake, but the building department won't go for it.  :)

Interesting how the jobs that were considered 'drudgery' are now a respite from drudgery.

You are a very eloquent writer, LBmuskoka.

Your words allow me to experience the things you are describing.

I am a nature-lover too, and therefore can relate.  It is a gorgeous morning here where I live. While it is still cool, I will follow your advice and do some Nature Cleansing - which means work in flowerbeds while listening to feathered friends.  There is something very therapeutic about pulling weeds.

Really like the e.e.cummings poem.

My favourite nature poem is "The Windhover" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Ahhhh....the joy of being fully present in the present moment.  Nice bit of sharing LB.  I wish you many such moments.

Hi LB:

The wrinkles on the face are just laugh lines. One gets them when one lives well and loves and laughs a lot.

LB, as happens so often - your beautiful, poignant gift of written word fills me … the words flowing on the page, the imagery, the depth. The power of those carefully crafted words take me there -- and I was right there with you, immersed in nature, soaking it in (mind you, my iron was still tucked far away in a cupboard   ).

Thank you.

 Thanks Musky!

Thank you LBmuskoka ........ that sure blesses my heart today....

I really need it today too............

Hugs

Rita

That's beautiful LB - your whole post.

I wear mostly permanent press so I only iron now and 'Zen'.

Seriously, it's a wonderful post.

Beautifully written, LB - this is going in my favourites.

(If I happen to chance upon Margaret Atwood in my Canada travels - I'll mention she has a worthy apprentice in you.) 

Thank you for highlighting that there is much to value in Wondercafe.

 More prosaic but the affirmative and I am sorry that there is not a lot of time in the day to iron.  There is nothing to beat the smell of line dried linen fresly ironed and nothing that can better fill a room with a sense of inspiration. 

My Grandmother told me that my Grandfather ( WW1 airforce vet) used to get into bed and when the linen had just been changed and was still crisp and smelling of the green outdoors would sigh heavily and say, " and what have I done to deserve this?"

Ack, get away y're all making me blush.  Margaret Atwood, indeed!

Jlin, I know what your grandfather meant, there is nothing like line dried sheets to give a good night's rest.  No flimsy paper of man made scent has ever come close.

And sadly, Birthstone, Muskoka can't be so easily captured either. 

It was the most perfect weekend I remember in my 50 years; three days great weather but more than that the forest was literally teeming with birds, butterflies, bees - even the hummingbird moth, an exotic little creature that looks like the product of the coupling between a bumble bee and a hummingbird.  Trees in full leaf, flowers blooming; it was high summer in the month of May.

It was better than any drug man could make and cost nothing but the time to sit back and drink it in.

Speaking of free medicine, Arminius, I have learned that to erase the wrinkles in my face I must smile and laugh.  Its cheaper, and painless, than a face lift....

So, thank you Southpaw for the pun, and thank you all, for my morning face lift.

LB - I feel 40 years younger

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

     George Gershwin, Summertime
 

and you top it off with a Gershwin bit...  go ahead and blush Lb, you are making our days with your lyrical words. 

I know those days, when a quiet day is not quiet - every scramble of a chipmunk, or hum of a hummingbird or soft rattle of the poplar leaves reminds you that you are just one small piece of a big world.  Maybe that is what matters in Muskoka (and other rural places) - something that can't be bottled as you say, or even preserved well.  It preserves itself but if we plant a monstrous cottage in the midst, with excavators and manufactured stone, fake wood decking and the plastic knicknacks of Walmart - we lose the sense that we are small and the woods are wildly big. 

....I can smell warm, clean clothes and sweet wild blossoms.  I can hear the warblers and phoebes.....

Simply wonderful.

But it hasn't induced me to get my newly-acquired iron out and actually tackle the pile of wrinkled summer clothing that's waiting.  I need a laundry crisis for that.

So, if you all agree, let's pronounce LB the WonderCafé Poet Laureate.

Hi LB,

I love the metaphor. I'd like to discuss republishing this as a guest column in The Muskokan newspaper. If you're interested, contact me via email at editorial (at) muskokan (dot) com.

Thanks.

Even Margaret Atwood had to start somewhere.  

Oh my!

But I feel I have failed in my literary prowess as I was not able to seduce Nijnafaery into the Cult of the Iron!

LB

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.

     Jules Renard

OH LB!!! get published!! I'd love to sit at the cottage and see your name in the paper, reading that wonderful post, and then moving on to the classified section to pick out my very own neck-o'- the-woods.

BTW - I think that's my favourite paper :)  way better than Mississauga's.  I mean, it has pics of raccoons and waterskiing on a regular basis, what could be better?

A fond welcome to Muskokaneditor!!

Perhaps that's because Ninj and I know that, in the entire history of civilization, there hasn't been one woman who was heard to lament on her death-bed, "I wish I'd done more ironing".

Stick to writing LB, you're no miracle worker!  

Hi LB:

Your neck of the woods has spawned some superb writers. I am a great fan of Wayland Drew, who was an English teacher at Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary.  He wrote DRAGONSLAYER and the two part "Erthring Cycle," THE MEMOIRS OF ALCHERINGIA and THE GAIAN EXPENDIENT. Well worth reading!

Actually, "Erthring Cycle" is supposed to be a trilogy, but I haven't read the third one yet.

lol