Author: Geo Davis
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Gangway Unicycling
More than a dozen years later it’s clear what an ill advised idea gangway unicycling was. Still is. Forever will be. But on July 11, 2010 we brought Susan’s unicycle down to the boathouse for some lakeside pedaling. I no longer recall exactly why, but it had something to do with the realization that And…
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from our home to yours. We wish you merrymaking, loving laughter, a banquet shared, an opportunity to cherish “old chestnuts”, and the desire to dream up plans for new adventures. This evening’s post is a kind of scrapbook collection of images from our Rosslyn Christmas gathering with family and friends collaged together with…
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Christmas Eve
This evening I would like to share a memory of our first Christmas Eve at Rosslyn in 2008. It was to be our first Christmas at Rosslyn. For weeks we had been racing the calendar, coaxing the team forward, cramming days into hours to ensure that construction would finally end and Rosslyn would at last…
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Icehouse Flashback
Now that Rosslyn’s icehouse rehabilitation has crossed the finish line it can be difficult to recognize how far it’s come. It’s time for a reality check. It’s time for an icehouse flashback to December 23, 2017. Exactly six years ago. Today’s photo essay is a somewhat arbitrary reminder since the icehouse fulfilled the same purpose…
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Champlain Cresting?
Will Lake Champlain set a Christmas high water record? We certainly hope not, but the current lake level is flirting with flood stage (prompting me to refresh the USGS data tracker obsessively.) I’ve spent about 30 hours willing the graph’s upward arc to bend, to level off, per chance to vein falling. At last the…
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Hibernal High
I almost preempted this evening’s post with an update on the rising, rising, rising lake levels. Given the alarming uptick — Lake Champlain has risen approximately 2’ in the last couple of days with waters currently approaching spring flood stage — our attention is focused on meteorological forecasts. But angsty fretting serves no one, so…
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Spirited Country Life
We make no attempt to conceal our spirited country life at Rosslyn. This exuberant existence — working, playing, rehabilitating, exercising, creating, gardening, and celebrating the abundance of Essex, Lake Champlain, and the Adirondack Coast — is a daily affirmation of life. Robust, often intentional, and sometimes serendipitous living. But what about the less vibrant, ghostlier…
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Passing Split Rock
“I’m just now passing Split Rock,” I tell Susan while sailing north toward home. Or when heading to Point Bay Marina for refueling after a wakesurf or waterski session in Whallons Bay. Or when skating south on the frozen lake… Our Rosslyn lifestyle has been informed by the moods, temperament, activities, topography, and breathtaking beauty…
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Framing an Icon
This afternoon I return to a recurring theme: framing (literal and figurative). Whether framing an icon like the quintessential Adirondack chair, local vintage artifacts, or Rosslyn’s buildings and grounds, composing a structural context, framework, or enclosure for supporting or enclosing intrigues me. I’m moved to contemplate the many ways framing structures, directs focus, and defines.…
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Kestrel at Rosslyn Boathouse
This evening I return to a nostalgic snapshot steeped in the sepia tones of yesteryear. An artifact from our Rosslyn collection, this old photo was featured on February 24, 2014 in the Essex Community blog by Katie Shepard. As often, the discourse generated by this visual time, capsule provided valuable insight to the Kestrel, a…
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Real Things
I’m up to my neck in deferred things and pressing things, and always the real thing gets shelved. — Ted Hughes (Source: The Atlantic) I’ll soon revise and publish a post observing, lamenting, and resolving to vanquish “the tyranny of stuff” once and for all. Or, at least for a while. The post, still in…
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Compost Bin v2.0
Probably about a decade and a half ago we repurposed a shipping crate (that happened to have been fabricated out of tropical hardwood) into a compost bin. We’ve used it for years, far surpassing the value I anticipated at the outset. When the top began to fail, it got pulled aside for eventual repair. Today’s…