Editor’s Page

A Summer State of Mind

I didn’t grow up cottaging or packing up the car and heading to the country. Our house — a white stucco bungalow in Brights Grove, Ont. — overlooked Lake Huron; the beach was an extension of our front yard. Days were spent swimming, catching minnows and making castles from the clay along the grassy banks. Evenings were for eating countless cobs of buttered corn on the front porch while admiring movie-perfect sunsets. Trust me, I knew from an early age just how lucky I was.

Once, when family friends came to visit, their three kids, who were about my age, insisted on calling our home a cottage. They all lived on a working farm, so naturally, our lakefront house defied their definitions of “home.” I remember correcting them more than once that weekend — “It’s not a cottage! It’s our house!” — and feeling both confused and protective, though I wasn’t sure why.

Even now, I sometimes wonder: What counts as a cottage? A few of you have recently written in to say you don’t believe a dwelling with square footage in the thousands should make the cut. Others think the decorating should be colourful and flea-market focused, and not too polished or “perfect.” That there’s a debate at all goes to show how much a summer retreat, and the memories we make in it, means to us, whether it’s a repeat rental by the ocean or a country house that’s been passed down through generations.

Call it what you like — cottage or cabin, second home or vacation property — but it seems to me that the label matters less than the feeling of kicking off your shoes, taking a deep breath and tapping into your most blissed-out self. Of being surrounded by the smells of cookouts and the sounds of loved ones’ laughter. Those touchstones are the common denominators — I bet we can all agree on that.

As for me, I’d give anything to be splashing around in Lake Huron again, especially once the shimmering latesummer heat hits Toronto. Lake water runs in my blood. Maybe my childhood home was a cottage all along.

BETH HITCHCOCK, Editor-in-Chief

LET’S CONNECT

@beth_hitchcock @HitchWrites Like H&H on Facebook facebook.com/ houseandhomemagazine

Boathouses are hallmarks of Ontario cottage country. I love the weather vane and red accents on this one (page 74)