silver birches

Last week, I drove 8 hours north and landed at this place, just south of Kirkland Lake. It's good that I landed there, because I was scheduled to speak there for a week, and if I hadn't arrived, well, there would have been a whole false advertising scandal, not to mention my own church wondering where I had disappeared to for a week, if I wasn't where I said was going to be.

But I was.

And I really enjoyed it, by the way. Thanks for asking.

I stayed in this cottage.

Which had ceiling fans. I found out that was a luxury, and I was supremely grateful for that luxury on the super-hot nights.

This little piece of heaven ALSO had heaters. I was supremely grateful for THAT luxury on the night that I woke up to put socks on my chilly toes. (Spike couldn't come, so my feet were on their own.)

There was your standard cottage clock which always displayed a different time, although I never saw it move. And the time was never even close to accurate. Because when you're at a cottage, who cares what time it is anyway?

The services happened in this building, on the left. It was air-conditioned when needed, and windows were opened when the AC wasn't needed.

Most excellent music came from this guy (2nd one down) and his band, which included his very funny wife, and their son who pulled his soother out long enough to holler "hey" at me from time to time.

Wait, I lost track of that sentence.

The soother-sucking son was not part of the band. Sorry for the confusion.


I just now noticed that he (the guy who led the worship - come on, stay with the tour!) loves Narnia, and I am wondering WHY that did not come up in a week of conversations, since I too am a lover of all things Narnia.


Evening speaker was this guy (at the top). He had a phenomenally embarrassing story that involved being a new pastor, as well as a new husband, and accidentally wandering into the wrong space in the middle of the night. You should ask him about that. 

To be honest, I spent most of the time eating, speaking and preparing to speak some more. That's why there aren't more outside pictures.

On the second-last day, I headed outside to go for a walk. But as I was heading up the road, I was invited up into the tower on the left of this picture by the cool kids at the camp. They hollered down an invitation, and then laughed themselves silly at my use of the word "holler". Apparently northerners don't say "holler". But they let me hang out with them anyway. And since I was never one of the cool kids way-back-when, it was an easy decision to forego the walk and climb up to what was obviously the place to be.

Most important lesson learned during this very enjoyable week:

Humidity-resistant hairspray ....

... does not live up to its claims.

Hey Silver Birches! You are an awesomely joyful group of people. I LOVED hearing your stories.

Thanks for letting this city girl from the south be a part of your week!