Art Imitating Life?

Life has its strange moments. Getting our cottage, to us, seems to be one of those particular moments in deed. My wife, my daughter and I had gone to cottage for a week near Baysville in Ontario, Canada. I became bored with the usual get up and do nothing for the day except swim, sun-bathe, read, blah, blah, blah. On an excursion to town I picked up a set of pastels and paper. Back at the cottage I drew pastel pictures of the surrounding area, including cottages. One cottage in particular rose out of the tip of a nearby island and its boat house thrust out from the shore into the bay. I finished the week more content having challenged myself to try a new medium and to just get down to doing some art work.

The one picture of the island cottage was the only one that I kept.
Lo and behold a number of years later I was doing an acrylic painting of the cottage and island that we had bought a number of years after our vacation at Baysville. It was a fall scene and only included the portion of the island containning the boathouse and cottage.

Only later did I look at the pastel painting hanging in the living room and note its similarity to the very cottage that we had in fact purchased.

I have yet to take a photo that would reflect more approximately the similarity I think exists between the pastel painting and the cottage on the island that finally became ours. Nevertheless this photo will have to do.
And, those who have been to the cottage and then see the pastel painting often do a double take and I have to tell the story all over again.