Category: Uncategorized
-
Lake Champlain Boathouse Blues
Welcome to spring in the Champlain Valley. And to Rosslyn’s annual spring drama: the Lake Champlain boathouse blues! Over the last month lake water level has been rising, rising, rising. And rising some more. In fact, it’s even risen since I started drafting this post. (Current level a little further down.) Boathouse Blues Begin Until recently…
-
February Swim in Lake Champlain
February swim, anyone? In Lake Champlain?!?! [pullquote]Griffin “polar bear plunges” in 35° Lake Champlain… mid-winter swimming bliss![/pullquote] Griffin, our now almost nine year old Labrador Retriever, was thrilled with to chase some throw-toys in the chilly lake today despite the fact that it’s February 19 and the water temperature is exactly three days above freezing… 35° of…
-
Bald Eagle Surveying Lake Champlain
While returning to Essex from Elizabethtown this afternoon I spied this handsome bald eagle perched 20 to 30 feet above Whallons Bay. He was surveying the glass-flat, frigid (37° isn’t quite freezing, but it’s not far off) waters of Lake Champlain, head pivoting jerkily. Although he never took flight, never plunged down to grab a lake trout…
-
Autumn Aura on the Adirondack Coast
An autumn aura is descending upon the Adirondack Coast. Autumn colors, autumn lighting, autumn sounds (think southward-flying Canada Geese), autumn textures (think crisp leaves eddying and frosted grass underfoot), autumn smells, and autumn flavors… Thanks, Doug, for snapping that photo above. And for swapping out summer’s lime green sweet potato vines with golden (poetic license?) corn…
-
Waterfront Winterization
There comes a time each autumn when summer has faded and winter is whispering over the waves. Or when work, travel, something eclipses the languid stretch of fall boating and watersports. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later, and as inevitable and bittersweet as fall foliage, waterfront winterization is an annual ritual that braces us practically and emotionally for the North Country’s…
-
Radishes and Radish Greens
On this technicolor Tuesday I present to you one of our flashiest May garden treats, French Breakfast Radishes. Field and forrest foraged veggies — like stinging nettles, wild ramps, and fiddleheads — are nature’s charitable reminder that winter has once again yielded to spring. Then our vegetable gardens begin to awaken with asparagus and spinach that spoil…
-
Beavers & Boathouses
We noticed yesterday that a beaver (or beavers?) have selected a pair of trees on our neighbor’s waterfront to sharpen their teeth. One is a large cottonwood with a pair of fallen locusts hung up on it. The beaver (Castor canadensis) has already gotten a pretty good start, and the tree is laaarge and disconcertingly…
-
Essex Regatta 1950s?
Essex Regatta 1950s? (Source: Christine Herrmann) It’s always a treat to discover Rosslyn artifacts. Can you just barely spy our boathouse beyond the moored boats? This intriguing photograph was received from part-time Essex neighbor, Christine Herrmann. This generous Sandy Beach friend has allowed us to traverse her Lake Champlain waterfront with our tractor to rebuild…
-
Eve Ticknor’s Meditative Mirages
Every once in a while I get lucky. A dramatic sunrise falling on mist. Gluten free, dairy free chocolate desert on a restaurant menu. A quick smile or pleasantries from a stranger. A dogeared but otherwise forgotten poem resurfacing, reconnecting, re-enchanting after many years… Many of Eve Ticknor’s (aquavisions.me) watery photographs — especially when hinting…
-
Buried Peony Crowns
Catherine Seidenberg, an exciting new addition to “Team Rosslyn” this spring, has been tackling all sorts of vegetable and flower garden projects. Most exciting? I’m learning lots from her! Her most recent caveat was that I’ve been using too much manure around our peonies. She warned that burying the peony crowns will hinder them from…
-
Frozen Lake Photos of Essex
I spied Bill Amadon,(billamadon.com) an Essex artist and good friend, walking around on the frozen lake in front of our boathouse a few days ago. The lighting and distance made identification a little dodgy but the dog was hint #1 and a conversation with Bill the day prior (at the Essex Post Office where so…
-
De-Icing the Duck Pond
Let me start by saying that we don’t have a duck pond. We have a lake. Lake Champlain. And although it pains me slightly to say it, we also don’t have any ducks. Not personally, at least. Lake Champlain, on the other hand, has plenty of ducks. And when the lake freezes and the ducks…