"The Diving Float on Shingle Cove - Lake Sebago, Maine" (12"X16", Oil on Canvas, $450)
I've only painted one picture of the beautiful vacation spot that I've gone to every year for the last nine years, Shingle Cove on Lake Sebago in Maine. I find it to be Heaven on Earth. Tina and I go for a week each summer, but not last year, because of renovations to the cabins. There are only four cabins and the cove is secluded and very small. It's surrounded by tall pines and has a small sandy beach. The cove has a sandy bottom, too - not the slimy mud you might expect. You have to know the owners to get a week's rental, so there's never a crush of people there, along with the fact that the cove and the pine woods behind it clear out to the access road are private property.
We rent a car for the week, load up all our stuff and drive up to Maine. We unload the car and head out to the supermarket a few miles away, to buy all the food and wine that we'll need for the full week. Then we take it to the cabin, unload it and settle in for the long relaxing week to come. No going out to the Rockport Shoe outlet, or the lame restaurants, or anything else that would spoil the perfect experience of being at the lake for a week. We swim and snorkel in the cove, use our float mattresses, barbecue on the big stone BBQ pit or make delicious meals in the kitchen. Every breakfast is a big one, every lunch is a light one, and every dinner is a great one. From noon on, the wine lamp is lit and the big hammock that we bring and hang right outside our usual cabin, number three, is swaying beneath the pines and inviting us to read or nap in its wide expanse. The sun is usually shining, and even if it's not, the rain is relaxing, brief, and sometimes quite wild and exciting for a spell. After which, everything is fresher and cleaner than before and the smell of the rain in the trees is intoxicating.
Every evening at about 4:30 it's time for cheese and crackers, grapes, and wine. Very civilized as the setting sun makes the lake absolutely sparkle and the shadows get long. Sitting in the big rocking chairs on the screened-in side porch while looking at the diamond-covered lake as we take a sip of wine and a bite of Asiago cheese-and-crackers is one of the finest experiences that we could ever hope to share. You can't believe the relaxation I feel from just thinking about it and writing it down. If you can't understand, then I don't know what to say. I can only hope that you too find your Heaven on Earth some day.
I almost fell off my chair when I read your description of Shingle Cove and saw your painting. I "grew-up" summers there for nearly 20 years as a child and my family stayed in cabin #3. My grandparents and later aunt and uncle occupied cabin #4. And yes it is heaven on earth! The small island just outside of Shingle Cove is called Ship Wreck Island. Both my grandmothers and great aunts ashes were spread there. I know Sebago like the back of my hand - I had no idea someone felt the same way about Shingle Cove as I do (and my family!)
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you! I'm looking at the painting you commented on right now - I have it hanging in my kitchen. Tina and I will be going up there this year to take a look at and stay in one of the newly rebuilt cabins. They're made of stone now and are apparently a little bigger. I might do some artwork of the new cabin situation, so that people can see. I hope you got a kick out of the watercolors that I've done, also!
ReplyDeleteMy family vacationed at the cabins for years. we haven't been there for a long time but the painting looks just llike I remember the cove being. Your description of a summer day there is so perfect. I will add that on raining days, I would set up a card table in the screened-in porch of Camp #3 and do a jigsaw puzzle. It was great looking out at the cove and the water splashing around. Miss it so much. Are the cabins still being rented out? we stopped going when kids got older and we all got dogs.
ReplyDeleteI started going there when I was 7 years old in 1955 and we went every summer after that until my parents bought land on Thomas Pond and moved there from Brooklyn, NY. Heaven on earth is the only description for the cove. We started in cabin #1 and then got the tan cabin #4 with the large porch. Unfortunately I still live in Brooklyn. I visited the new cabins with my Mom and my brother last year... what a beautiful and restful spot. There is nothing like it in the whole world.
ReplyDeleteEdward R - is that you on 10/10/12? If so, this is Sue L. and we just had your Mom over to the Thompson Lake house at Thanskgiving!
ReplyDeleteMichael - how do you like the new cabins? I have not rented there yet but I am on the rental list that Katy manages for the new cottages.