Well, that made a change for a title, didn’t it!

It’s my retreat weekend and I have taken myself off for a few days at a friend’s cottage by the lake, complete with new magenta hair (thanks Joan)!

While Tai Chi Man goes to his own weekend conference location (pleasure not business) I am enjoying my own. We were up at 5am and while getting ready we heard this weird hooting sound. TC Man reckoned it was owls, so I stepped out on the back deck that leads out from the kitchen and in the dawn light, which was beautiful on its own, two owls swooped overhead and perched in the very tiptops of the trees at the bottom of the garden. Wow! That was an unexpected treat. Worth getting up early for, I’d say.

It took a couple of hours to get to the conference centre and drop husband off. I then returned to the nearest town for a pre-booked massage. Yikes!  It may have only been half an hour but it was a powerful one. I don’t think I’ve been massaged that deeply before – she did my neck, shoulders and back because that’s what I requested – I’ve had a lot of pain in that area for weeks now and it’s time to take time out for some self care. I’ll be booking some chiro when I get back.

Afterwards I headed out to find the cottage, forgetting to check the address or directions while I had wifi. Well,  I knew which road I had to drive down, I just didn’t know the number of the house, so at one point I turned around thinking I’d missed it. I turned around a couple more times after that, even calling TC Man and asking if he could look up the address. Thankfully he picked up the call and found it out for me and I realised that I hadn’t been going far enough down the lakeshore road. The deer in this story come in here – if I hadn’t been going back and forth trying to find the house, I’d have missed seeing the doe and her two fawns (who hadn’t yet learned road sense). Beautiful creatures (I will never understand people who can look at a deer and shoot it).

So finally I found the cottage and the door is covered in stinkbugs. They are outside, a few are inside, and after settling in I felt I should evict the indoor ones so I didn’t step on them or find them in my food. I think I got them all.

A short walk from the cottage is the beautiful lake, where I sat and mulled over some things that have been on my mind. While sitting there, three trains passed by on the opposite side – they were all really long – the first one I counted 70 cars before giving up. It reminded me that when we camped in this area years ago with the kids we would be woken up at night by train whistles.

I was startled by a creature appearing at my side. I hadn’t heard it approach so when it put its head near my right shoulder I jumped. It was a black labrador that was thankfully very friendly. I petted him and he sat by me for a while. After collecting some interesting rocks with sparkly bits in, I headed back to the cottage.

My crochet spot here is perfect: couch, lamp, crocheted granny square blanket (as soon as I saw that in the closet I pulled it out), table for my laptop with a socket not far away for charging. I have completed part five of the Peacock Tail Bag CAL (well, the front, anyway) and dashed outside to get a quick photo before I lost the light.

Now to get on with the back piece and then next week I can look forward to joining and finishing off the top of the bag.

I plan to have a very relaxing weekend and hope you get to do whatever gives you joy this weekend.