From our first fanciful forays — pipe dreaming and what-iffing — Rosslyn represented for Susan and for me an opportunity to play more. Or so we imagined back in 2005 and 2006 as we slowly talked each other into a monumental life change. Although fantasy and reality haven’t overlapped exactly the way we conceived, most of the time we do manage to play daily.
Welcome to my second Bloganuary post. If you missed yesterday‘s update, here’s the backstory.
[I’ve accepted yesterday’s] invitation to join the Bloganuary challenge. Daily prompts conjoining, possibly rhyming the thematic current of multiple bloggers around the globe.
(Source: New Year Challenges)
Too many yesterdays? Perhaps. I’ve had that growing suspicion myself lately! Let’s get on with it. Here’s the prompt.
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
Let’s dive right in with an excerpt from those early days when making Rosslyn our home was still an idea just beginning to germinate.
We could waterski and windsurf for half the year instead of just two or three months, starting in May with drysuits and finishing in the end of October. We could sail the Hobie Cat more instead of letting it collect spider webs on the Rock Harbor beach… I could grow a vegetable garden, an herb garden, an orchard… We could buy season passes to Whiteface and downhill ski several days a week. We could cross-country ski and snowshoe and bike and rollerblade and kayak and canoe and hike, and maybe I would start rock climbing again…
(Source: Almost Logical)
Susan and my enthusiasm for daily play fueled our dream to purchase Rosslyn and move full time to Essex almost two decades ago. It’s remained a priority for us ever since. Sometimes work and busyness get in the way, but we try to remind ourselves (and each other) to take a break, to play daily.
As so much of our Rosslyn lifestyle revolves around seasonality, a season-to-season glimpse offers the best insight into what says “playtime“ to us.
Winter Play
This time of year weather conditions are a defining factor. When winter brings plenty of snow our daily play includes cross-country skiing, telemark skiing, downhill skiing, and snowshoeing. When we’re slim on snow but temperatures stay below freezing we love to go skating.
Another especially enjoyable form of winter play for us is documenting wildlife thriving in Rosslyn’s 30-40 acre wildlife sanctuary. Our rewilding efforts (overseen by wildlife steward, John Davis) are especially apparent in winter wildlife photography.
Spring Play
Fast forward about three months, and we will be enjoying early spring. Although Adirondack spring is sometimes pejoratively referred to as “mud season“, I personally love the liminality. The season offers some truly unique opportunities for daily play.
Meandering our nature trails to observe snow and yielding to the warming. Library Brook thaws and swells. Bud’s burst into blooms, dramatically revitalizing shrubs and trees. Browns begin to green. Peepers and croakers sing. Grouse drum. Turkeys court. Baby mammals appear… So much magic!
And spring is perfect for writing poetry that explores the poetics of place (especially haiku and other micropoems), creating artwork (doodling, drawing, watercolor painting, and I’m just starting to experiment with encaustic!), and harvesting asparagus.
Summer Play
And then comes summer! There simply aren’t sufficient waking hours for all the daily play that’s possible at Rosslyn in the summertime.
A couple of favorites include bicycling (even unicycling?!) and “Champlaining”.
“Champlaining” (aka “Lake Champlaining”) [is] when we’re puttering about on our glorious front yard: Lake Champlain. A common refrain, “Stop Champlaining!” is actually a lighthearted reminder that even on the clunkiest of days, time spent plying (or playing i/on) the waters of America’s greatest lake is a revitalizing gift.
(Source: Champlaining)
For Susan and for me favorites include swimming, boating (sailing, windsurfing, powerboating), watersports (especially waterskiing and wakesurfing), and bonfiring. We also enjoy lawn games (bocce, croquet, volleyball, and slack line) with family and friends.
Though it might sound like I’m confusing work and pleasure, one of my favorite ways to play daily during the summer are organic gardening, holistic orcharding. Such wondrous, beautiful, and delicious playtime cultivating vegetables, fruit, and flowers affords me.
Autumn Play
Following spring and summer gardening and orcharding, autumn offers a bountiful harvest. Feasting with family and friends while dining and dancing outdoors, savoring the crisp coming of cooler weather and fall foliage. And autumn is the most perfect your for hiking our local Champlain Area Trails and climbing higher Adirondack High Peaks.
I’ve inadvertently overlooked an especially enjoyable way to heighten the pleasure of daily play all year round: canid companions. Virtually any form of play is better when it includes dogs!
Play Every Day
Now that I’ve concluded this post more and more “playtime” ideas keep coming to mind. Certainly one of Rosslyn’s gifts to us has been an endless array of daily play invitations just waiting to be accepted.
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