Recreational Habitats: Nova Scotia Summers
Written By: Isabelle Foss
This is our sixteenth summer in the delightfully small Nova Scotia. Every year, we retreat to our cottage to spend time with family and friends from all over the world. This year is a little different of course. Boat rides are now reduced to just the seven of us, tennis matches to family doubles and cycling trips are a little lonelier down the trail that wraps around the South Shore. Fresh fruit and vegetables from the markets are still available though, to create delicious meals and blueberry pies.
Tennis is taken seriously in our family. Visiting friends will always end up having a lesson or playing a match or two. Foss Men's Doubles is an annual round robin, where each son takes a turn being Dad's partner to see if he can win. A winner is declared after all three matches by whoever has won the most sets.
Every evening after dinner, everyone collects in the living room to play games that range from competitive matches of Articulate with every family member involved from the youngest to the eldest, to backgammon, which suits the more sedate player. On a rainy or foggy day, you can relax in this room in front of the fire. Big comfortable couches squish numerous people into them, a puzzle table in the corner frustrates many a person and the extensive bookshelves occupy a lot of people’s time.
The all-time best feature of the room is the elongated chair that everyone fights to sit in first. You sink into it as your legs stretch out for a good long read.
Race Week happens every year except this one! It's the largest keel-boat regatta in North America with people coming from all over the world to sail over the four days. A live band plays each night at the yacht club, where everyone gathers to party. And lots of sailors have sore-heads in the morning. I have memories of trying to sneak into the yacht club at night because the drinking age in NS is 19, we tried to hop the fence but security caught some of us. It's also the one time the po-po come into town to check people are drinking in the street. We also take our motorboat out in the day to go watch the races up close.
Our hermitage in Nova Scotia is not on the scale of Saint Petersburg’s museum. However, it does house, for us, some of the most beautiful pieces of art from Australian aboriginal paintings to sketches of Cornwall to locally crafted pottery.
Ultimately, the real gem of this sanctuary is the view. We sit on a hill that overlooks the sea and back harbour; on the weekend we watch all the boats out on a sail. And spend the evenings watching the sunsets to the west.
For more images of our Canadian get away, see below:
Editors Note
Right: Isabelle and Me pictured in Nova Scotia.
Below: Me in Nova Scotia, taken by Isabelle.
Isabelle Foss came into my life the winter of my Sophomore year at NYU. I had just returned from studying abroad in Paris and was matched to room with this english rose. Our serendipitous friendship is one that I cannot imagine being without, as she was a critical part of my college experience. One summer, I was invited to stay a while at her house in Nova Scotia. We played tennis, kayaked, ate a decadent amount of desserts, and danced together at the Race Week parties. It was truly one of the best summers of my life. Isabelle’s mom has also given me incredible insight into making a beautiful, well functioning home!
