Blissful Saturday at the cabin

I spent a few tranquil hours at the cabin today.To some, driving 200km to get out of town for a day sounds a bit like hard work, and Robert said it's like driving from Oxford to Scotland and back, but that's what life is like in Canada. Pretty wide open spaces, mountain passes to negotiate and the ocean to drive past means it will take a few kms to get out of town.Besides, I wanted to check on the cabin, and this time of year is the loveliest time to go there.Here is the lake at the cabin. It's actually just a pond that has illusions of grandeur, but someone named it The Lake, over 20yrs ago, before it became ours, and the name, for the sake of history, has stuck. It's full and lush this time of year. Too cold to swim now, but hopefully it will freeze solid for a bit of skating this winter.Inside the cabin felt very cold, and certainly much colder than the outside, so I opened the windows and doors and built a cheery fire and the cabin warmed up in no time. Best thing we ever did was replace the smokey old stove with this terrifically efficient new one.Then, I went to have a walk around on the paths. (Cougars and bears be damned :) ) But I did feel much easier walking here when I had dogs.This is the best time of year for wild mushrooms. (Except spring morels) Do you know your edible mushrooms from your poisonous ones? I only know about a dozen trusted types. These I'm not sure of so they stay right where they are.These are delicious and are coming home with me. My grandfather always cut the mushroom to leave the bottom piece int he ground. He believed the root system, the mycelium, needed to stay so more mushrooms would grow back. Grandmother would say that's nonsense and yank the whole mushroom out of the ground, break off half the stem and toss that back to the earth.The moss is so lush right now. I couldn't help gathering a little to take back to the city.I walked down to the river which flows thru the property. It's beautifully clear and fresh, but not a lot of water. In the spring it's thick with spawning fish.Best thing about today was I left the fog of Vancouver behind and spent the day in the warm sunshine. That's worth the trip any day.