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Gallery

Look around.

Every photo here was taken by us, across the seasons at Casolena. It's less a portfolio than a record of how the house feels, in different hours, different seasons. Click any photo to view it large. For the stories behind some of these photos, read our journal from the lake.

Aerial view of a lone kayak hanging over its own shadow on clear turquoise water — Yes, this is Lake Huron. Everyone asks

The low sun bursting through the great room prow windows over the leather sofa — In deep winter the sunset comes indoors. 15 minutes, then it's gone

The Milky Way over dark trees and the warmly glowing A-frame windows of the cottage at night — The Milky Way, from the lawn. No streetlights for miles

View from a bed in the Cielo loft across rattan chairs to the angled glass wall and lake — Waking in Cielo: the sky arrives before the coffee does

Snow-laden spruce trees seen through a bedroom window past linen pillows — You won't get up right away. Nobody does

Reading in bed in the Cielo loft, feet up, with the angled glass wall and the lake beyond — Cielo, mid-morning. The book is winning

Golden morning light filling the sunroom's wrap-around windows over two armchairs — The sunroom does this most mornings. We still stop and look

Two croissants, two mugs and a small potted plant on the table in hard morning light, the lake beyond — Somebody made the bakery run

Eggs frying on the induction cooktop with oils, spices and the frozen lake beyond the window — Breakfast happens when it happens. The lake waits

The great room seen from behind the leather sofa: fireplace, poufs and cathedral windows in winter light — From the couch, the whole house is one room and everyone's in it

Open great room with leather sofa, fireplace, dining area, kitchen and the loft bridge above — Everything opens into everything, so nobody gets left out

Looking up through the atrium past the fireplace to the loft bridge and pine ceilings — The loft looks over everything, so nobody's ever really apart

Sunlight pouring through the cathedral windows across the leather sofa and wood floors — You sit down for a minute and lose the hour. Everyone does

Two leather armchairs before the great room's towering prow windows in winter — Whatever the lake is doing, these two chairs face it

Two armchairs under the great room's cathedral windows with readers in them and snow on the shore outside — Two chairs, two books, one afternoon gone

Reader curled under a chunky gray knit blanket on the leather couch, prow windows over the frozen lake — The blanket Jenny knit finds everyone by the second evening

Reader's view of an open book held above the round table, coffee alongside and the snowy lake through the windows — Page forty arrives and the lake is still doing nothing

A guest with a mug in the leather armchair by the corner windows as the sun sets over the lake — The chair that gets claimed first

Two cups of tea and a stack of books on a table beside a tall window onto snowy trees — Two teas, a stack of books, one very patient afternoon

Two cups of tea and a white orchid on the window-side table with snowy trees outside — Somebody put the good cups out. No occasion needed

A bar table with stools and a kettle beside the two-story glass wall, guitar waiting, snowy trees outside — Morning tea at the window bar. The forest does the entertaining

Stone fireplace with a propane stove, floral art above, two armchairs and a guitar in bright daylight — A fire, two chairs and a guitar somebody will eventually pick up

White hydrangeas in a tall ceramic vase on a wooden ledge beside a gilt-framed painting — Something comes in from the garden most weeks

Chess set on a round wooden table in golden evening light, guitar and stone fireplace behind — The chessboard at golden hour. Phones stay wherever they fell

Kitchen island with pendant light looking down the timber-framed great room to the lake windows — The cook faces the room here, never the wall

Live-edge dining table set with white dishes and flowers, staircase and lake windows behind — The live-edge table, set for a dinner nobody rushes

Close-up of white plates, cutlery and a glass of wine on the live-edge table in winter light — White plates, winter light, no reservations required

A small seared appetizer on a white plate at the dining table, the lake windows soft behind — Somebody's been practicing

An open book and an espresso on the live-edge table with wildflowers in a vase and the guitar behind — The table where the morning tends to stall

Lakeside picnic table set with charcuterie, salad, bread and wine being poured — Lunch at the table Hoan built. The lake breeze does the rest

Delfina's king bed and window-wrapped sitting corner in soft spring light — Delfina keeps the lake at the foot of the bed

Delfina bedroom with soft pink bedding and wrap-around windows onto snowy cedars — Delfina wakes slowly. Windows on three sides, no reason to rush

Winter sun casting long window shadows across Delfina's bed and sitting corner — The kind of afternoon light that ends in a nap

Cielo loft with two wooden lounge chairs against the tall angled glass wall and lake view — Cielo's glass wall leans toward the lake. The room feels half outdoors

Cielo loft with bed, wooden chairs and sun streaming through the angled glass onto the floor — Snow doubles the light and the loft turns the color of morning

Reader in a woven chair by the loft's slanted glass wall with snowy trees outside — The serious reader's spot. Chapters actually get finished here

Bow of an orange kayak and a paddle on still open water under a big spring sky — On calm mornings the kayak hangs above its own shadow

Teal Adirondack chairs and side table on gravel at the water's edge under a jet-trail sky — Front-row seats where the lawn meets the lake. Bring the second coffee

Pink and blue sunset over the flat limestone shelf and cobbles of the shoreline, the lake perfectly still — The lake goes flat and the sky does the rest

Blue-gray cottage with tall sunroom glazing behind a rock garden full of daffodils — May belongs to the daffodils. We planted every one

Pink Asiatic lilies blooming against the cottage's blue siding and white deck rail — The garden saves its loudest color for August

Two white-tailed deer grazing side by side under a cedar at the edge of the lawn — The neighbors drop by most mornings. They never stay for coffee

Two armchairs in the sunroom facing the sun setting over the lake through wrap-around windows — Two chairs face west. The programming changes nightly

Stone fire pit burning at dusk ringed by Adirondack chairs, tall spruces and a sunset sky — Dusk at the fire pit, where the day's stories get told

Two teal Adirondack chairs on the shore under a peach and blue sunset sky — Every evening ends like this, with or without an audience

The tall flowerpot rock formation on Flowerpot Island beside clear turquoise Georgian Bay water — Flowerpot Island. The boat ride alone would fill the morning

White limestone cliffs and clear turquoise water at Indian Head Cove in summer — Indian Head Cove. The water really is this color

Crystal-clear shallows over white stone at the beach of Indian Head Cove — Cold enough to make you yelp, clear enough to go back in

A flat limestone slab lying in clear turquoise shallows at Little Cove with a forested headland beyond — Little Cove, where the water stops looking real

Clear turquoise shallows over white cobbles at Halfway Log Dump with two gulls standing on a dark rock — Halfway Log Dump: the Grotto's scenery, a fraction of the crowd

Wooden boardwalk leading through dunes onto the sand flats of Singing Sands at sunset — Singing Sands at sunset. Wade out fifty steps, still only waist deep

Boats moored around Little Tub Harbour in Tobermory village on a clear summer day — Little Tub Harbour: boats, fish and chips, one very good sweet shop

The white Big Tub Lighthouse above the rocky shore under a summer sky of cumulus clouds — Big Tub Lighthouse in its summer clothes

Tour boats under snow with icicles at their bows in frozen Little Tub Harbour — The tour boats sleep through the freeze; the peninsula goes quiet

Big Tub Lighthouse framed by snowy cedars with fresh footprints leading to the door — Big Tub Lighthouse in January, and nobody else on the path

The Grotto sea cave under snow with its turquoise pool showing through the ice — In winter there's no reservation, no line and often nobody else

Frozen bubbles suspended in clear lake ice over deep green water at the shoreline — The lake freezes with its breath still in it

The cottage and its tall sunroom glazing surrounded by deep snow and snow-laden evergreens — Lake-effect snow doesn't do half measures. Neither does the fireplace

A lantern-style lamp post wearing a thick cap of fresh snow among snow-laden cedars under blue sky — Overnight, everything gets a hat

Snowy winter boots lined up on the mat inside the entry, the great room beyond the doorway — The house rule that enforces itself

Four small snowmen standing in a row in deep snow beside a packed trail and snow-laden spruces — Four of them, built in an afternoon. Nobody asked why

A fire burning between two logs in deep snow with a blue Adirondack chair and spruces behind — Winter does not close the fire pit. It improves it

Fire pit and Adirondack chairs buried in deep snow with snow-covered spruces behind — The fire pit waits out the snow

Four traditional wooden snowshoes standing upright in a snowbank at golden hour — Snowshoes parked; the fireplace takes the evening shift

Two Adirondack chairs on the snow-covered shoreline facing the frozen lake under a dramatic sky — The chairs stay all winter. They know the lake comes back

Aerial view at dusk of the warmly glowing cottage in deep snow beside the icy lake — January from above: one warm light for miles

A decorated Christmas tree beside the great room's cathedral windows with morning sun across the wood floor — December mornings, with the tree up and the lake still there

Stone fireplace hung with garland, a lit Christmas tree beside it and a guitar against the wall — The fireplace gets a garland. The guitar stays where it is

A tall lit Christmas tree glowing against the great room's darkening windows at dusk — At dusk the tree takes over from the windows

Croissants, a latte and a berry parfait on a round wooden table with a lit Christmas tree soft behind — Breakfast in December takes its time

Reader's view over an open book and stockinged feet on the leather couch, two lit Christmas trees beyond — Feet up, book open, nowhere at all to be

The A-frame lit from within on a dark winter night with a decorated spruce glowing beside it — One warm house at the edge of a very dark shoreline

See it in person

No lens does the windows justice.

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