(Dear English readers, please scroll down for English translation)
Cottage的中文翻译可能是’茅舍’吧。它是间建在郊外，通常是近水或靠山的小屋。当然有些有钱人爱把它建得又大又夸张。有些地方政府会制止这种设计，因为认为会破坏当地清静葱绿的环境和人民优静的生活。
Ed的朋友的父母在几十年前以低价买了湖边的这块地。这么多年来，放了许多心血建这精致的小屋，装饰它，买游艇等。现在，两老在此退休。成年了的孩子们和孙子们周末爱来休息，接触大自然。还好在这里没太多太夸耀的cottage, 环境还很清静。
Ed的朋友乘两老到外地旅游时，请了我们来玩。我去了一趟cottage总算了解到为什么叫优闲。我们看看书报，坐在湖边发呆，坐游艇逛逛，钓鱼游泳，走走小树林。晚上天气好时，就在屋外起火团围坐聊天。可惜，我去时天气不好。我们一起看翻版Sicko也不错。
真的很优闲，很舒服。
这就是小小精致的‘茅舍’。
This is the cottage.
Cottage旁，也有一个boathouse。
有两层，下层放游艇，上层有几张床，沙发给小孩或客人用。
楼上的阳台向湖，风景很美。
There is a boathouse built near the cottage.
Two stories – ground floor for storing the boat,
the upper story has a few bunk beds and
simple furnitures for guests or children.
The balcony upstairs has beautiful lake view.
我坐在湖边发呆。
Siting there, I was thinking nothing.
Julian钓鱼很棒 ！
Julian is very good at fishing !
我们坐游艇出去逛啦！
We were out in the boat !
Generally speaking, cottage is a small house in a country, usually built near the water or mountains. Of course, there are super rich people like to build exaggeratingly large cottage. Good local council usually rejects such proposal of design, to avoid disturbing the natural environment and local people’s simple lives.
Anyway, Ed’s friend’s parents bought this piece of lakeside land with very low price over 30 or 40 years ago. They have put lots of effort building and maintaining this little comfortable cottage. The parents now are retired here. Their children and grandchildren love coming over the weekends to spend some times with them, as well as the nature. Thankfully, there aren’t too many ‘showing off’ huge cottages here, the environment is still intact.
Ed’s friends invited us over for a weekend while the parents were away. Spending a weekend here, I finally understand what is cottage life. Surrounding by the nature, we were extremely relaxed. We read, we sat by the lakeside, we went into the boat ventured out to the lake, we went for a walk in the nearby small forest, the little kid like fishing and swimming. If the weather was clear, we could have set up a fire outdoor and chit chatting around it. Unfortunately, it was not the case, we ended up watching pirated copy of Sicko. It was pretty good too.
It was a very relaxing weekend away.
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