Picnic Table - Pileated Woodpecker

For almost the last century, some city people have had a desire to spend time in nature and thus has developed the phenomenon known as the summer cottage. These people would pack up their families and household belongings and head in the direction of the wilderness. There they would put up with all sorts of inconveniences from mosquitos to outside plumbing in order to have the feeling of the fresh out-of-doors - clean air, clean water and the sound of a bird. These cottages were and still are usually located on lakes so that there could be summer fun in and on the water.

My family was in this category of people who started going up north to a rented cottage in the late 1930's. Most of my important childhood memories date from these wonderful times spent "up at the cottage". Cottage country tends to be a hive of activity in summertime but is almost totally neglected in the wintertime. As I grew older, however, and had a family of my own, we would come up at regular intervals in other seasons. In the wintertime, we would cross-country ski and sometimes clear off a patch on the ice for skating.

This painting shows the picnic table and a wooden chair my father built - almost hidden reminders of the lively, sunny days of summer. The pileated woodpeckers are having a picnic of their own as they excavated the wood of an old elm tree.