This past weekend was a bit of surprise at our household.

Marnie was flying off to Doe Lake for Ontario Girl Guide meetings and I was going to be alone for the weekend. I had dropped her at the airport and didn’t expect to hear from her until Sunday night.
Instead, about an hour later, she called and wondered if I wanted to spend a weekend with her at the lake. The Bearskin aircraft had ingested several birds while landing at the airport here and was unable to fly on.
For the first time in almost a month, she had a weekend without any commitments.
Last Friday was another of our extended summer days and so we headed to the lake.
Rainy Lake and much of the district was in its full fall colours the previous weekend. Much of the shoreline was adorned with the most vibrant red and orange leaves.
I would hasten to suggest that I have never seen so many flaming red trees along the lake in all my life.
As nighttime draws earlier each weekend, we sat out and watched the stars burst out with light in the heavens, and a small fire crackled in the fireplace. Life could not be better.
That is the thing about September and early October days. There is the absence of bugs. The days are warm and even if the nights cool down, you still can sit out and enjoy the evening.
The leaves fall and the pine trees shed needles, leaving the forest floor with a café-au-lait brown carpet. There is that musty smell of drying leaves. Some late colourful mushrooms were poking through the leaves in the wetter regions of our island.
Boat traffic almost disappears from the lake and with most cottagers having already closed their places for the winter, hardly a light is seen across the horizon.
The stillness and quiet of the evening was not even interrupted by the loons who normally swim in the area and talk back and forth to each other. They, too, must be flocking up for their flight to warmer climates.
On Saturday, when we woke, the air was still, with not a whisper of wind. So we had decided we were going to fish in the morning for a final meal of fresh Rainy Lake fish.
We trolled looking for walleye and northern pike. The wind did come up, but the day stayed warm and we were rewarded with enough fish for a meal on Sunday night.
The fish were fat, putting on their winter weight for the five months of survival under the ice.
The whole weekend was that wonderful. We look to take in several more weekends on the lake, enjoying the fall, before we also will close the cottage for the winter ahead and pull out the boat.