A perfect day at the cottage can be hard to describe. Words and pictures often come up short compared with to the actual experience of spending time with family and friends. However, a young filmmaker has managed to bottle the magical feeling of a perfect summer day in a short video entitled “Goodbye Summer.”
The video is a moving montage of a single day spent on the beautiful Canal Lake in Kirkfield, Ontario. It begins with a 6:00 a.m. trek to the lake, where a haunting mist hangs over the water, and moves through a packed day of boating, fishing, relaxing, and spending time with family.
It can take a lifetime to learn to see and appreciate life’s meaningful moments, which is why it’s surprising that the video’s creator is just 17. Natasha Uhrig of Pickering, Ontario, originally created the video for CTV’s Canada in a Day competition, but upon viewing, she found it wasn’t just about the Canadian experience—it was also a representation of the unique experience of spending summer at the cottage.
“Being at the cottage has a heartwarming feeling in itself—being with friends and family, sharing laughs, making memories,” Uhrig says. Asked to describe her favourite cottage moments, Uhrig described this scene: “Those Saturdays at noon, sitting down by the water on a hot summer’s day while watching the sun hit the small waves on the lake, and the odd fish jump[ing] up out of the water to swallow a water bug, with the birds flying over trees in the distance…and I capture it all on my camera.”
Uhrig says she’s always working on film projects (right now she’s editing clips from a recent trip to Boston), and while she’s still in her senior year of high school, she’s already planning a future in filmmaking. She currently posts her short films and clips to her YouTube Channel.
So if you want to feed your cottage addiction, just hit “play” on the video above. But we have to warn you, you may find yourself overcome by the urge to head out to the lake.
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