Cottage Life

Feeling grand?

Yes, it happened. Suddenly there’s a new baby in the family. There’s a new granny too, and it’s not my mother. I won’t ask, how could this happen? We all know how it happened. What preoccupies this granny is what happens next, especially at the cottage.

Long-time readers may recall my previous rambles about our nearly 90-year-old off-grid cottage on an island in Georgian Bay, Ont. We have solar power and propane, kerosene lamps, and open stud walls. Across from the big stone fireplace, faded pencil scratches stretch up two of the pine studs. They record the heights of the kids and grandkids of the previous owners, who were here in the ’40s and ’50s. We started measuring our own girls when they came along in 1988 and 1990, and now there’s another generation to add.

I confess that I’m a bit rattled by this change of affairs, the first order of which was to choose a

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