I decided to share my journal entry from the last night and the picture I put with it to acoompany this post, it describes the cottage in great detail and provides a personal back drop to the photos after the jump,
Hope you enjoy...
"We spent our vacation in a little one story home called Magnolia Cottage, it was filled with things that had stepped out of a pinterest board lol! There were all these personal touches that make renting a cottage so worth it. On the kitchen walls, old washboards, copper pots and other bits. I cooked huge breakfasts -after waking up on our own without interuption- on a iron skillet, which was a treat in itself (It reminded me of learning to cook with my mother, it felt like home). I could take a short walk out back for fresh herbs that grew on the property, including Cleary Sage that I picked, dried, and smudged our room with, the scent was intoxicating as it mixed with the age of the house. All the door knobs were glass and had key locks or hooks. The frames were massive and the exteriors were a shade of green that doesn't exist without age, porches on the front and rear of the house were home to Rilo in the evenings as she watched and "protected" us from deer and fawn that wandered by. The house was rich with the smell of old wood, and history. All the floors were oak, and creaked with most steps, the beds all covered in quilts that smelled of the cedar chests they'd been stored in.
There was a moment after dinner one night where we decided to go out back and as I was scrubbing the skillet out with salt and a rag, I looked up and saw Jeremy playing with Rilo, neither aware of me watching, and all I could hear was grass under their feet, the summer air as it blew through the giant magnolia tree, and the crickets. It was magic, my heart swelled up 3 times its normal size and I really didn't ever want to be anywhere else but there with Jeremy and Rilo. The land we were on had such a familiarity, the whole experience was somewhat like a dream/deja vu. All the days are mashed into one experience that I will always hold dear to my heart, so at ease and relaxed. I packed tons of things I didn't even need, We spent most days with salty skin and hair and the same light clothes we slept in the night the before, and not much else. Perhaps it was the memories of the summers I worked at camp, resurfacing or just being alone with the loves of my life, uninterrupted by daily stresses, who knows, who cares. But I will always cherish my time, keeping it fresh in my mind so that I can return whenever I close my eyes."
