One of the wonderful things about my summer at home in Texas has been weekends at our lake house in Austin. We have spent almost every weekend here, but I hadn’t been able to extend my stays into the week. Until now. Sunday I took my daughter to camp and then came back to the lake house. The timing couldn’t be better. Mark is on his way to Paris for the week, and, more importantly, my kitchen in Houston is being dismantled as I type. New counters and backsplash are on their way! I am thrilled, and also thrilled to be missing a few days of the mess, noise, and disruption. Instead, I am luxuriating in solitude, quiet, and the Olympics. I am also throwing in some cleaning and some cooking, just to keep myself grounded. And because I like to eat. Oh yeah. There might also be cocktails.
BEFORE: it wasn’t full, but it was wet.
NOW: Parched.
Our house used to be on Lake Travis, a limestone- bottomed lake with lovely clear water. We are on a cove, which allowed us a quiet and safe place to swim off of the main body of water, and also protected our dock from the pounding wake created by passing boats. It was a good thing, before the drought drained the lake of water, that is. Now, not so good. Our cove is empty , and our dock is perched precariously on the rocks, safely out of reach of any water at all. Our jet skis have not left our garage this summer. Our floats have remained flat and limp. So sad.
Lucky for us, there are things we love about our weekend house other than the lake that used to be here. When we searched for a lake house, we wanted one that was kind of remote, and not surrounded by manicured yards and mansions. We wanted to feel like we were “away from it all” when we got here, rather than simply being in another neighborhood. And that’s what we got with our place, which is 15 minutes down a curvy country road from the nearest grocery store or gas station. Some of the houses near us look more like meth labs than mansions (but I don’t think they are meth labs), and ours is one of the few yards that actually requires mowing. It’s so out-of-the-way that delivery trucks regularly get lost trying to find us. There is no sound of distant traffic, something that is hard to escape in Houston. We love being here, even when it’s dry.
Isn’t this an amazing cactus? I love the heart shape.
Surely everyone would agree that Texas has the best shape of any state. Right?
I just gave all these flowers a big hair cut, and now they are full of blooms again. LOVE Indigo Spires!
We have great rocks.
Yep, we love it here, with or without water. But with is definitely better.
Our lake house has lost its lake, but it still has our heart.
Mais Oui Paris 
Hey, now that the lake is empty, can you see if you can find Molly’s keys? 🙂
Sure! Where did she drop them?
off the dock. actually, just kidding. just reminds me of things I dropped off Dad’s boat when I was 12 and how I always wondered if I could later find them when the lake went down.
Kate, we have a collection of sunglasses that appeared when the lake went down!