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The Cottage: Chapter 3
The View; Improvements and Adventures in Cottage Repair
By Richard E. Burney
The view from the cottage.
TOhe View
eastern shore adjacent to this house, is a brown and white, gingerbread boathouse, whose appearance never changed from year to year. Like a shiny pearl, it reflected the sunlight early in the morning while our cottage was still in shadows. In the mornings, the water on the bay could be calm and smooth as glass or shrouded in a delicate layer of fog that the sun as it rose would burn off. Later, after mid-day, when the wind comes up, the surface of the water ripples and sparkles in the afternoon sunlight. Observing the wind patterns on the water as they shifted from day to day in a cyclic, repeating pattern, I tried to correlate what I saw in the shifting wind direction with what I was learning in science class about circulation patterns of the winds in high- and low-pressure zones as they crossed the continent: as a high pressure zone moved in, the wind was cool and brisk, coming from the northwest; as the zone moved eastward, the winds shifted to the west and southwest, followed by rain. Then the cycle repeated.
In the afternoons, sitting on the porch with my feet propped up on the railing after a day of adventure, with a flyswatter in hand, I never tired of the mesmerizing view
ne thing my grandfather got right was placing the cottage where it commanded a magnificent view. Whether standing on the porch and looking out
toward the water or sitting in an ancient wicker rocking chair with your feet propped against the railing, the view across the water, framed by cedar and fir trees on both sides, is magical. In the foreground is the rock-strewn slope on which wildflowers bloom and the call of the pileated woodpecker can be heard. In the middle dis- tance is the dock (no longer with a boathouse at the end). To its left are the rocks and bulrushes that extend to tiny Holsinger’s Island. In the distance, on the other side the bay (which as far as I know has never had a name), is Connor’s Point, the narrow spit of mainland that extends into Muskellunge Bay, which is in the far distance. Conor’s points across the water toward Little LaSalle Island. Hidden from view by fir trees at the tip of the point is a large, white two-story mansion with tall columns on its front porch. I never saw it as a child. The trees around it have since been cleared so that it is plainly visible. On the
18 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN SPRING 2022