Category: Uncategorized

  • Boat Lift Blues I

    There is a musty old adage among boaters: “A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money.” And time, I hasten to add. It’s not only boats. It’s everything that has to do with boats. Boat lifts, for example. “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing –…

  • Independence Day Parade

    [I started this post on the 4th of July, but uploading and captioning the photos delayed the post. Sorry!] There’s no finer time to live in a small town in America than on the 4th of July. Essex, New York offers the quintessential Independence Day parade experience, straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting! Although…

  • Mysterious Speckled Egg

    At first I thought it was a mushroom. So many have covered Rosslyn’s lawns in recent weeks. Small, delicate, off-white mushrooms that look as if they escaped from a fantasy story. Or droopy, brown capped mushrooms like you might’ve drawn as a child. And sometimes these round globe mushrooms emerge overnight. Some are small, lacrosse…

  • Lake Champlain is Rising, Rising, Rising

    I’ve been back in the Adirondacks for a week after a six week “walkabout” with my bride and beast (Griffin, a 5 year old Labrador Retriever). And today is the first day that it hasn’t rained since we our return. The sky is blue. The sun is warm. Robins are plucking worms from the soggy…

  • Dueling Banjos: An Adirondack Reflection

    Sometimes the universe rhymes. Have you ever noticed that? As if there’s a poetry underneath our everyday lives, and sometimes — when we’re lucky — the poetry floats up to the surface. “Dueling Banjos” à la Adirondacks This morning I was lucky. My thanks go out to friend and North Country enthusiast Steve Malone who…

  • Adirondack Autumn 2012: Part III

    Adirondack Autumn 2012: Part III

    Adirondack autumn is sliding stealthily into winter. I’d better accelerate my fall iPhonography retrospective so that I’m ready to chronicle Rosslyn’s soon-to-be-snowy winter. In order to fast track the process, I’ll [almost] skip the textual annotations that I included in Adirondack Autumn 2012: Part I and Adirondack Autumn 2012: Part II. The video slide show…

  • Thanksgiving Leftovers: Corn Cakes and Turkey Gravy

    Thanksgiving Leftovers: Corn Cakes and Turkey Gravy

    Corn cakes and turkey gravy? Let me explain… In my bride’s family birthdays are celebrated with endurance and fanfare. In fact,  my bride’s late father preferred to think of birthdays as commemorative seasons, not days at all. Celebrating for anything less than a week was simply barbaric in his estimation. So, over the last decade…

  • Photo of the Week: Hurricane Isaac

    Photo of the Week: Hurricane Isaac

    Wondering why Hurricane Isaac is the title for this entry and photo? Or better yet, what Hurricane Isaac and Instacanv.as have in common? I’ll explain (and encourage you to vote for this Photo of the Week) in just a moment. But first, let me tell the story behind the picture. The photo to the right was…

  • The Day the Gingko Leaves Fell

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8IkDKsmee8&w=600&rel=0] This morning I awoke to see the Gingko (Ginkgo biloba) shedding it’s fan-shaped leaves. First I noticed the golden carpet ringing the tree trunk, and then I headed out and stood underneath the boughs to hear the last tumbling gingko leaves. Gingko Leaves Retrospective Here’s what I wrote on November 3, 2010 on my…

  • Rosslyn Gardens: Mid-July Veggies

    Rosslyn Gardens: Mid-July Veggies

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mQqE7yNGkA&w=600&rel=0] After the rainiest spring/summer in years, the summer of 2012 appears to be one of the driest, and Rosslyn gardens have mostly profited. Time for an update on our mid-July veggies, plus an important question about squash blossoms at the end. Lake Champlain water levels are plummeting (waterfront/dock/boating update soon) and lawns are either…

  • Rosslyn Roundup, May 4

    It’s time for another Rosslyn Roundup to share everything Rosslyn-related that I didn’t get a chance to post over the last few weeks. Champlain Valleysprings are unpredictable and exciting, sometimes arriving early (this year) and other times hiding behind rain, rain, rain (last year). We’ve been celebrating our good fortune (quietly, with fingers crossed, while…

  • Orchard Rumination

    Lately I’ve been reflecting on all the trees I wish I’d planted in the fall of 2006 and the spring of 2007. We’ve been adding new trees for a year now — a half dozen or so each spring and fall — and yet I can’t help but imagine what might be today if I’d…