Family cottage celebrates 100 years

Janet Susie Graheme Ormsby and her daughter Ottilie on the front steps of Puckwana cottage in 1924.

There was a historic and festive gathering at one of Nare's oldest cottages last Saturday.  Ned and Judy Martin plus all their offspring (four children and seven grandchildren) hosted a few dozen visitors from near (Nares) and far (Bayfield).  "We were very pleased to share our place with so many" Ned told me afterwards.

Ned and Judy offered tours of the historic main cottage, which was largely unchanged from a century ago.  Ned's brother Tom and daughter Oona led tours around the four acre island (which has a couple of sleeping cabins, a storage building and a workshop).  We walked to the north end where Susie Ormsby had initially erected a smaller cabin around 1911 (it no longer stands) before building Puckwana in 1923.  

The above text is by BNIA e-news editor, Art Kilgour and is an excerpt from his article for the members summer newsletter.  

The invitation graphic was made from a drawing Judy Martin made of the cottage when she and Ned spent their honeymoon there, 50 years ago.