Freedom Acres: Bye Bye Summer

I absolutely HATE and despise taking the boat out. We always run into the same dilemma every year. I want to keep it in and Peter wants to take it out because he believes that we won't use it. The way I look at it, just because we haven't been out on it since Labor Day doesn't mean that we won't in the near future. I mean, there is a possibility that we will have an opportunity, when all the planets align and someone doesn't have a game and it actually doesn't rain or snow to go out on it. But I can't argue that since we will be gone next weekend, that the likelihood that we will use it before the snow does fly isn't that great. Damn. In addition, the lake is very low and it was hard to get it off the lift.

Here Maddie and Peter wait as Charlie takes the cover off. I am struck by how it is an absolutely FABULOUS and gorgeous day, and there is no one around. It is as warm as a cool summer day and beyond beautiful.

But as you can see, there are no people in the chairs -- and the reason there are so many is because over the summer there was never a place to sit! Ahh, the end of summer. Sucks.

As I waited for them to uncover the boat and then subsequently get it off the lift and take it to the public dock so we could all board, I managed to catch a few sweet shots of this person tooling about in his woody. The rocks visible in the picture are normally underwater.

Everyone has put their stuff away for the winter, but there are still a handful of boats in the marina. We New Hampshireites really need to be optimists: We have to believe that summer will continue even when we know better. Otherwise we would start screaming and never stop.

Of course, there are days like today that stop you in your tracks because of their sheer beauty. The color! Not just the trees, but the color of the lake and the sky and the clouds. Magnificent. This is a final shot of the year leaving the cottage.

Charlie is "El Capitan," (according to him!) and it is now tradition that he takes the boat out. Maddie doesn't usually come along, but it was such a nice day she decided to bring her camera along and snap some pictures. No one is really sure why she is wearing a winter jacket; totally not necessary.

This cloud kept capturing my eye. I took dozens.

Then we started camera-offs!

Then the cloud transformed into this. Does anyone else see a playful white dog rearing up on his hind feet?

Here is an unintended (ahem, intended and obviously professional) technique I used in this self-portrait. Love how my earring and my face are like brush strokes. The photo was taken for the sole purpose of showing my enjoyment of being on the lake on a beautiful sunny day.

Here is Steven Tyler of Aerosmith's house. Not very attractive, but "back in the day," this was a seriously modern house. Today it just looks ugly (I think). But I don't think he uses it very often. This is the first time in years that he was spotted around town on many occasions, recovering from his fall off the stage.

We had to hang out in the harbor for quite some time waiting for other people to pull their boats out. It's on a first-come basis, and there were two other people ahead of us. I took shots to amuse myself.

I love the wooden boats, they are so spectacular looking. I tried to get a good shot of them with the bush in the background, but the woman in the back (if you look closely) kept staring at me. Hey, it's not against the law to take a picture of someone!