New Year's on the Point

Every New Year's, we have a standing invitation to enjoy the evening at Dave's uncle's house. And while it's a lovely way to ring in the new year, after all the hustle and the bustle of Christmas, we usually prefer to spend it alone at home. This year, I told Dave to stay at the cottage, and I would join him in the afternoon.

The cottage is on Long Point, a sandy strip of land that juts into Lake Erie. The majority of it is a wildlife preserve that's mostly innacessable, but a small portion has been set aside for cottages and a camp ground.

It's about an hour and a half from our house, and it's a lovely drive, that gets prettier with every kilometre.

When I got into Port Rowan, the last little town before the Point, it was cold - a good chunk of Long Point Bay was frozen over, but the open water was fairly placid.

 My favourite part of the drive is the Causeway, a long thin strip of road that's the only way in or out of the Point. It's surrounded on either side by thick marshlands. It's a great place for bird-watching. One year, I sat outside for an hour watching flock after flock of Tundra Swans migrating south.

Dave said they had a lane closed down when he came through - they were building safe turtle crossing tunnels under the road to help the turtle populations. So cool!

At the end of the Causeway, you come upon Lake Erie - and unlike the bay, it was anything but calm

It's hard to tell - but those waves were several feet high. Lake Erie is a very mercurial lake - it's shallow so it can seem so safe and inviting. But those winds whip up fast, and when they do, the lake turns treacherous

 It seems so desolate, but beautiful in this picture. But if I'd turned the camera a few degrees to the left, you'd see all the houses that line the beach.

It was too cold to say out there for long, even with my warm woolies on. So back in the car I went and headed to the cottage a few streets over.

Dave had the fire going nice and strong, and the cottage was cozy. I'd brought steak and lobster tails with me to cook for us, but Dave had his heart set on Chinese.

I left the lobster and steak for him to cook later... he'd already gone through all the food I'd cooked up and frozen for him.

After dinner, we settled in for a long battle

Surprisingly, I won.....

And then a toast at midnight to welcome the new year! And not a stitch knit... but I'm not complaining.

When I got home the next day, I got in lots of knitting time in, while I made up for deserting a certain someone...