BIG BIG DEAL

I have been holding off this HUGE news. I am not sure why. But it is BIG!

Tim and I have bought my Mom's home in Bala from the family estate!!!!! It is where we will live when we move back to Canada.

My Mom spent her 97 years in Bala Muskoka. Her grandfather bought many acres, sight unseen. He got off the train, riding from Winnipeg to Hamilton in 1904 in deep snow of winter, snowshoed in to look at the property, snow-covered. He built 2 family cottages, for each of his sons, and many smaller cottages were built as the family grew. I grew up summers with my cousins at our beach.

The property has morphed in to many new places, but my Mother owned two cottages on the other side of the road, on Long Lake not Lake Muskoka. One was built by her father for her in 1956. But it burned to the ground in 2001. So when it was re-built, it was fully winterized, and at age 85 my Mother moved full-time to Muskoka. (Most move south when they get to that age - not my mother!)
She loved living full time in Bala. She got to know "locals" for the first time. Cottagers and locals do not often mix. She was a local after 85 years! She loved her new friends. It did complicate things for us children. We went for the weekend, rather than dropping in for a meal, as when she lived in Niagara Falls previously.

The last few years were tough for her, and tough for us. But it was where she wanted to be.
She passed last October, and Tim and I  have been lucky enough to buy her "Southwinds" from the family estate.
As much as I am thrilled to have a place to call home, and what a home, I know that we can continue family traditions started with Mom in the last few years. I hope it will remain the hub of our family.

Tim and I head back to Ontario this summer. July 28 or so, and will be at "Southwinds", for my Mother's celebration of Life August 5th, then we take possession August 7th. We will stay on, Tim for 10 days or so, me for a few more weeks.
I can't wait to see my kids, to see my sisters, my bother, my family, and my friends. And it is all overlaid with the joy of known that my future home is "Southwinds" in Bala.
I am one lucky girl!
I don't have many photos of Bala on my computer but here are a few. I might send some of Tim's. He has more.