cottage country

I'm up in Muskoka ("once discovered, never forgotten"), surrounded by 30,000 lakes. It's true people have cottages here, but they are cottages the way huge chalets in Tahoe are called "cabins." Sweet houses in the country.

Cranberry fields too. This one is on Iroquois land. Did you know cranberries grow on vines? The bogs are flooded at harvest time, right around (Canadian) Thanksgiving. Apparently it's quite a sight.

Flowers are plentiful. 

And the freight train goes by now and then. 

But tonight, there was only one place to be and that was watching the last concert ever of the Tragically Hip. Despite his sparkly pants and passion for politics, Gord Downie has brain cancer and decided to head out on one last tour. CBC broadcast and streamed it around the world, commercial free. It seemed as if all of Canada was watching, singing along, and by the end, sobbing.

"Ahead By A Century"

First thing we'd climb a tree and maybe then we'd talk
Or sit silently and listen to our thoughts
With illusions of someday casting a golden light
No dress rehearsal, this is our life

And that's where the hornet stung me
And I had a feverish dream
With revenge and doubt
Tonight we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century

Stare in the morning shroud and then the day began
I tilted your cloud, you tilted my hand
Rain falls in real time and rain fell through the night
No dress rehearsal, this is our life

But that's when the hornet stung me
And I had a serious dream
With revenge and doubt
Tonight we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century (this is our life)