Curling rocks vs. winter bocce balls

Canadians love curling. Did you know the first curling club outside Scotland opened in Montreal in 1807? I learned this from Bob Sexton’s article on the subject in the Winter issue of Cottage Life. I already knew that cottagers love curling, which he and photographer Gary Davidson made clear in their feature about the passionate curlers of Dickie Lake.

I did not know that Canadians also play a winter version of bocce at the cottage. At least, one Canadian does: Jennifer Wiber, who sent us this photo.

“We enjoyed the article on curling, as well as the one on making curling stones,” she wrote in her e-mail to Cottage Life. “We’re developing a lazy person’s version of the sport—winter bocce. We had a lovely sunny day at the cottage—the ice was firm and relatively smooth—and we were contemplating creating a curling rink. Making the stones seemed like too much work, plus it required some advance planning. We realized we could do something similar with our bocce set.  It definitely has potential, but we’ve still got some kinks to work out, and hope to get back to it this coming winter…”

Ha! Great idea. Does anyone else have winter cottage games to share? Tell me about them. I’ll post your stories and photos here.