Category: Uncategorized
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Coyote or Coywolf?
There’s something stunning if slightly startling about spotting (or hearing the howl of) our ubiquitous Adirondack canid. Agile and attentive, swift and stealthy, this familiar predator is a familiar and important part of our ecosystem. And yet much mystery and misunderstanding collects around this handsome neighbor, not the least of which is disagreement over whether…
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Apple Season
It’s apple season in the Adirondacks, in my view, the quintessence of the North Country autumn harvest. Grab a crunchy treat and sink your teeth into its sweet-tart bliss. Aaahhh… Apple Concoctions An apple (or three) a day keeps the concocter away? Perhaps. Unless, of course, you enjoy experimenting with the nearly infinite concoctions born…
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Friend or Foe: Yellow Garden Spider
Meet our Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia). This morning this awesome arachnid greeted me from a flower bed planted with Shasta daisies, lupine, and irises. She’s dazzling and, I’ll admit it, a little daunting. Is she friend or foe? Yellow Garden Spider Although I’ve come across these visually impressive pest predators before I needed a…
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1882 Harper’s Weekly: Children’s Excursion to Lake Champlain
When I stumble upon artifacts specific to Rosslyn or Essex or Lake Champlain or the Adirondacks I’m usually unable to resist collecting and showcasing them for others to enjoy. Often I can explain precisely why the artifact is of interest, but other times I’m unable to explain clearly, succinctly the appeal. Today’s discovery is fated…
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Steamer Vermont Stereoview, circa 1870
In the thirteen years since arriving in Essex (or perhaps it’s only the twelve years since purchasing Rosslyn?) I’ve succumbed to a romantic-if-frivolous obsession with local and regional artifacts. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to document firsthand relics from Essex yesteryear or Lake Champlain yesteryear. Other times I’m afforded a mere glimpse. That cinematic snapshot above,…
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When Your B-Roll Becomes Your A-Roll
Lake Champlain sunrise. Still mostly dark. Then an explosion of fiery day over the silhouetted Green Mountains in Vermont, over the slightly refracting waters of the lake… It’s mornings like this when your B-roll becomes your A-roll! It’s mornings like this that I pinch myself. Gently. But enough to startle myself into reassessing my day’s…
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Beatrice’s Boathouse Portrait: Lake Champlain Mirror Morning
Many thanks to Beatrice Disogra for this beautiful boathouse portrait. It was one of those Lake Champlain mirror mornings… It was such a mesmerizing effect that I wandered around in the early light watching the morning unfold in duplicate. Here’s a snapshot that I posted on Sailing Errant. The length, breadth, and depth of the…
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Morning Meander
My best days at Rosslyn start with a mellow morning meander to the waterfront to watch the sun rise up out of the Green Mountains. Or to the vegetable gardens and orchard to pick fresh fruit while sipping my tea. Or around the property inspecting flower beds and deadheading peonies or whatever else has bloomed…
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How to Apply Tanglefoot to Trees
It’s Tanglefoot time again. Actually, we’re late — really late! — due to this rainy, soggy summer. But better late than never, especially since I’ve begun to spy the first tent caterpillars of the 2017 season. First a quick refresher. A little over a year ago I explained how to use Tanglefoot and I explained why…
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After the Rain
Just when a couple of dry, sunny days had begun to feel familiar, even normal, the rain returned. It came down in waves upon waves. Streams and rivers swelled, the driveway became two coursing torrents, and the vegetable garden turned to soupy mud. Spirits slipped. And then slid deeper. But… as cocktail hour yielded to…
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George D. Anson, Essex Merchant
Ever scouring the midden heaps—real and virtual—for Essex artifacts, I came across these curiosities. These ACME “picture cards” were offered as incentives to soap customers. Save ACME brand Marseilles White Spray Soap wrappers, mail them to Lautz Bros & Co. (located in Buffalo, New York), and receive these odd collectibles. Think of them as the colorful baubles…
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Moist May 2017
The Lake Champlain water level is ever-so-slowly dropping, but it’s premature to rule out the possibility of hitting (or even exceeding) flood stage. At present, there’s about a foot of clearance between the bottom of Rosslyn boathouse’s cantilevered deck and the glass-flat water surface. Windy, wavy days are another story altogether. [pullquote]With the first impossibly green asparagus…