Wabi-sabi winter
As of February 12 2012, we have sold this property
wabi-sabi summer
view from side portch
16 foot tall tree of knowledge bas relief on side portch
view from great room
Amherst Island is about the size of Manhattan and there are more deer on the island than people. Even though it is so close to Kingston, like many other people my wife and I didn't even know it existed until we had a chance occasion to visit. Like many others who came to love and live on Amherst Island my wife and I first came there because of Peter and Eleanor Trueman who had retired from the itinerant journalist’s life to their dream home on the south shore. When we delivered a bookcase they had bought from our tea room and antique store in Yarker, they described their beautiful island while we waited for the next hourly ferry. Some months later we saw the snowy owls they told us about. We came back again and again to see the incredible shoreline and waterfowl that fill it three seasons of the year. We bought our Island home near the Truemans on spectacular Amherst Bay 20 years ago and the island and its people have filled our hearts continually every day.
Wabi/Sabi.
We sometimes call our house Wabi/Sabi. Wabi is the Japanese expression for rustic beauty. Sabi is the sensibility a person must have to appreciate it. One does not exist without the other and that is the spirit with which we created our sprawling barn board clad saltbox house out of the little square shell with the cardboard walls and 30 amp electrical panel. We would be the second occupant after George Willard who came back to his Island home after World War I where he would live a hermit's existence surviving from the land and making spending money from the wild cranberry bog down the road.
We would put in the porches, the art studio and great room and a huge bedroom window from which we could see the spectacular sunrises and sunsets and the transversing phases of the moon on the water in front of Nut Island. We would watch countless rafts of ducks, the migrating and nesting geese, the flocks of swans, the osprey, the golden and bald eagles, and our own resident snowy owl in the field next door. Nature is the boundless resource treasured by everyone on the island, and it is famous for its many raptors that spend the winter there because there is so little snow cover year after year. In 20 years, I have had to have the driveway plowed only three times. The rest of the time my little push scoop has been all that I needed to clear the occasional drift. It is the house I built with my own hands where I have written 3 novels, 2 plays, 2 movies, a book of poetry, a new theory of self esteem and most of my new book on evolution. I can attest that Wabi/Sabi is most conducive to creative work.You can see a sample of my work at
www.johnkuti.weebly.com
The shore in front of our house is a mix of small metamorphic stones left behind by a glacier 10,000 years ago and polished gray 250 million-year-old limestone pebbles. Ten feet from shore the bay becomes flat limestone perfect for swimming that slowly deepens so that one is only waist deep 30 yards from shore. There are a few dozen big stones called Travelers left near the shore by the last glacier making the most beautiful Zen water garden you can imagine. The shallow Bay water is warm by the end of June. The first frost is usually late October because of the warm water in the bay.
A few hundred yards to the east of our house is the balm of Gilead, a huge cottonwood tree that was there when John Cabot came to Canada. Another hundred yards and there is an excellent public boat launch and a little parking area with the sand beach. Two miles drive to the West is the Back Beach looking out at Prince Edward County, a public sand beach that is invariably empty all summer long. At the east end of the island is the owl woods that is world-famous for its variety of nesting owls. A little further is the huge tract of land at the east end of the island owned by the Kingston field naturalist as a refuge for wildlife.
Wabi/Sabi.
We sometimes call our house Wabi/Sabi. Wabi is the Japanese expression for rustic beauty. Sabi is the sensibility a person must have to appreciate it. One does not exist without the other and that is the spirit with which we created our sprawling barn board clad saltbox house out of the little square shell with the cardboard walls and 30 amp electrical panel. We would be the second occupant after George Willard who came back to his Island home after World War I where he would live a hermit's existence surviving from the land and making spending money from the wild cranberry bog down the road.
We would put in the porches, the art studio and great room and a huge bedroom window from which we could see the spectacular sunrises and sunsets and the transversing phases of the moon on the water in front of Nut Island. We would watch countless rafts of ducks, the migrating and nesting geese, the flocks of swans, the osprey, the golden and bald eagles, and our own resident snowy owl in the field next door. Nature is the boundless resource treasured by everyone on the island, and it is famous for its many raptors that spend the winter there because there is so little snow cover year after year. In 20 years, I have had to have the driveway plowed only three times. The rest of the time my little push scoop has been all that I needed to clear the occasional drift. It is the house I built with my own hands where I have written 3 novels, 2 plays, 2 movies, a book of poetry, a new theory of self esteem and most of my new book on evolution. I can attest that Wabi/Sabi is most conducive to creative work.You can see a sample of my work at
www.johnkuti.weebly.com
The shore in front of our house is a mix of small metamorphic stones left behind by a glacier 10,000 years ago and polished gray 250 million-year-old limestone pebbles. Ten feet from shore the bay becomes flat limestone perfect for swimming that slowly deepens so that one is only waist deep 30 yards from shore. There are a few dozen big stones called Travelers left near the shore by the last glacier making the most beautiful Zen water garden you can imagine. The shallow Bay water is warm by the end of June. The first frost is usually late October because of the warm water in the bay.
A few hundred yards to the east of our house is the balm of Gilead, a huge cottonwood tree that was there when John Cabot came to Canada. Another hundred yards and there is an excellent public boat launch and a little parking area with the sand beach. Two miles drive to the West is the Back Beach looking out at Prince Edward County, a public sand beach that is invariably empty all summer long. At the east end of the island is the owl woods that is world-famous for its variety of nesting owls. A little further is the huge tract of land at the east end of the island owned by the Kingston field naturalist as a refuge for wildlife.
3 season front porch
from the waterside deck
winter view from bedroom
zen garden dawn
our snowy
fields east of our little acre
77 swans a-swimming
house and Hudson
the view from the bed, I thought about mortality like a cat considers a sunset.
winter sunrise
summer skies
mist on Nut Island
Island People
Island people are invariably interesting, perhaps because it takes a slightly romantic adventurous spirit to choose island life. Amherst Island also has a number of families whose ancestors go back to the 1850s when they were brought as laborers from Ireland to work the land. The island has its own historians who are glad to share island history. There is a monthly newsletter in which Zander Dunn, the minister of the beautiful stone Presbyterian Church has interviewed many of the old island residents who describe what it was like living through the best and worst times of the 20th century. You can get a map that describes the origin of every old house on the island. You can go to the local museum that was created by the Amherst Island Men’s Society and see the pictures and artifacts of past times.
Old island families and new ones mix with great warmth and shared concern for the island heritage and lifestyle. You can end up doing dishes at community events or minding the men's society pushcart at the summer market with teachers, sheep farmers, physicists, movie producers, gardening experts, retired TV anchors, classical musicians, excellent artists or a retired vice president of the CBC.
You can take summer art courses or see the art exhibitions at The Lodge, where you might stay with the many famous classical artists that come in the summer to The Waterside Concerts.
You can volunteer at CHAI, http://www.cjai.ca/ Amherst Island radio station where you can hear the news and interviews from around the island. You can write for the Amherst Island Beacon, the monthly newsletter that is so fascinating that there are regular readers all over the world. You can visit the Amherst Island web site and see the richness of the culture, the land and the character of the people. www.amherstisland.on.ca/
You can join the Amherst Island Men's Society, or the Women's Institute where community concerns are expressed and defended vigorously. People care for their neighbors and do something about it, whether it is picking up prescriptions from a pharmacy or raising money for someone who has had a fire.
You can visit the best little two room school, where almost every graduate ends up going to college or university. The consideration and respect island residents offer each other is mirrored in their children, who know how to work hard and have fun at the same time.
I have often described Amherst Island as a place where the community spirit is like it was in rural communities in the 1950s where I remember growing up.
Island people are invariably interesting, perhaps because it takes a slightly romantic adventurous spirit to choose island life. Amherst Island also has a number of families whose ancestors go back to the 1850s when they were brought as laborers from Ireland to work the land. The island has its own historians who are glad to share island history. There is a monthly newsletter in which Zander Dunn, the minister of the beautiful stone Presbyterian Church has interviewed many of the old island residents who describe what it was like living through the best and worst times of the 20th century. You can get a map that describes the origin of every old house on the island. You can go to the local museum that was created by the Amherst Island Men’s Society and see the pictures and artifacts of past times.
Old island families and new ones mix with great warmth and shared concern for the island heritage and lifestyle. You can end up doing dishes at community events or minding the men's society pushcart at the summer market with teachers, sheep farmers, physicists, movie producers, gardening experts, retired TV anchors, classical musicians, excellent artists or a retired vice president of the CBC.
You can take summer art courses or see the art exhibitions at The Lodge, where you might stay with the many famous classical artists that come in the summer to The Waterside Concerts.
You can volunteer at CHAI, http://www.cjai.ca/ Amherst Island radio station where you can hear the news and interviews from around the island. You can write for the Amherst Island Beacon, the monthly newsletter that is so fascinating that there are regular readers all over the world. You can visit the Amherst Island web site and see the richness of the culture, the land and the character of the people. www.amherstisland.on.ca/
You can join the Amherst Island Men's Society, or the Women's Institute where community concerns are expressed and defended vigorously. People care for their neighbors and do something about it, whether it is picking up prescriptions from a pharmacy or raising money for someone who has had a fire.
You can visit the best little two room school, where almost every graduate ends up going to college or university. The consideration and respect island residents offer each other is mirrored in their children, who know how to work hard and have fun at the same time.
I have often described Amherst Island as a place where the community spirit is like it was in rural communities in the 1950s where I remember growing up.
just another sunrise
summer storm
summer Zen water garden
autumn light
sunset
about January
visiting sail
Why We Are Selling Paradise
Amherst Island's wonderful artist Shirley Miller said it best. It's hard to have a foot in two different boats. We have had a store called the Rogue’s Hollow Gallery in the beautiful village of Newburgh where we sell used books and our own arts and crafts. This year we could not resist buying a spectacular little home perched against the Napanee river two minutes from the store. In its own way, it is just a spectacular as the natural surroundings of our home on Amherst Bay. Keeping three properties is just too difficult and expensive. We are doers not sitters, and so we were shocked to realize that we would prefer keeping the store to turning our Island home into a cottage. Sometimes too much is too much, and that is why we decided to list our home for sale.
Amherst Island's wonderful artist Shirley Miller said it best. It's hard to have a foot in two different boats. We have had a store called the Rogue’s Hollow Gallery in the beautiful village of Newburgh where we sell used books and our own arts and crafts. This year we could not resist buying a spectacular little home perched against the Napanee river two minutes from the store. In its own way, it is just a spectacular as the natural surroundings of our home on Amherst Bay. Keeping three properties is just too difficult and expensive. We are doers not sitters, and so we were shocked to realize that we would prefer keeping the store to turning our Island home into a cottage. Sometimes too much is too much, and that is why we decided to list our home for sale.
our new house on the water
To contact us please call 613-378-6236
