Home away from home...

For those of you who may not know, my parents are caretakers at a Christian retreat property. They live in this cozy little house:

The property has several other cottages and houses on it in which guests can stay. The Maple Cottage is currently our 'home away from home':

As you can see it is tucked into the hillside beneath a gorgeous, tall tree. You can't tell from this photo, but there is a lovely fire crackling away in the woodstove. It's surrounded by flower beds overflowing with hyacinth and tulips.
The front of the cottage is a wonderful wall of windows. These windows are a source of frustrations to a goodly number of birds. Most mornings we wake to a steady thumping sound as birds attempt to fly through the windows into the house. I would like to say that the birds in BC are smart enough to give up after the first try, but this is unfortunately not the case. Yesterday I watched a single bird attempt several times, each time flying into the window, falling to the deck, hopping back up onto the deck railing and flying back into the window. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The weather hasn't been the greatest... mostly cool and wet but that hasn't stopped us from being constantly in awe at the beauty of this place.

And there's something to be said for being tucked inside around a crackling fire enjoying good conversation and company.