The Last Lily....

....of Summer

Yesterday we were sure autumn was here; today we are not so sure. The morning started out like yesterday - dull, no spectacular sunrise, just clouds threatening rain...which did come this time, but then by afternoon and evening it was hot and humid all over again and now whilst I write, thunder is rolling and the lightning is flashing! Best to get this blip posted before the power goes out!

It was not a dock-lounging, canoeing or swimming kind of day..My sister and I spent a good part of the morning just puttering around outside with our cameras..her SLR and my little pocket Canon and iPhone, looking for fun things to shoot..we were quite obsessed with a crayfish under the water surrounded by clam shells in a patch of lily pads right next to the shore...You can imagine how my photos turned out..a crayfish under rippling water with an iPhone? NOT. But it was fun..and right there in those lily pads was this poor little bedraggled water lily looking quite beaten up, some of its petals drooping, one with a big chunk bitten out of it.  In my canoe jaunts around the bay I had not been able to find a single water lily still in bloom and here was one - as sad as it looked, it was lovely to see - the last one standing - or floating.. the last lily of the summer. So, perhaps Autumn is here after all? 

My brother came over from his cottage this afternoon and stayed for dinner..He has another guest coming tomorrow, so we may not get to spend much time with him this trip. My sister and I still have a whole week ahead of us before we head back home where the usual chores and responsibilities await us. We will be back in September, of course, but these are really the last days of what we consider summer..It is a much different experience being here in the fall.... cool days and cold nights, misty mornings, autumn colours, the fire crackling, quilts, and sweaters...It is a wonderful ,peaceful, quiet time as many cottages have been closed up for the season already;  the rest usually do so on Thanksgiving weekend in October. And then? Another cottage year gone by - and ever so quickly!