Tag: Boathouse
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Boathouse Restructuring
Today we turn the calendar back 16 years to Rosslyn’s boathouse restructuring. Some eighteen months or so into our rehabilitation project we had already sailed past our most generous timeline for completion. And the end was far from near. In fact, the finish line continued to retreat the more we advanced upon it. And, as…
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Mute Muse: Swan Song
Two years ago today the mute swan returned to Rosslyn’s reopened “duck pond” and — for an all too brief interlude — we celebrated. Many of us indulged a moment of optimism that the solitary bird, ill equipped for our harsh winter conditions, might manage to make it to spring. Let’s rewind just a little…
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Lakeside Staircase: Recon
After several years of delays — from false start to postponement to more false starts — Glen and Tony have resuscitated Rosslyn’s lakeside staircase repairs. Today I’ll catch you up on their preliminary “deep dive” (don’t worry, I’m speaking figuratively since Lake Champlain water temperatures are presently inhospitable at best.) We started out by assessing…
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Pickets & Kindling
While Glen has been enjoying some much deserved R&R, Tony has been finalizing preparations for the privacy enclosure behind the carriage barn. Woodworking, especially repurposing rough or recycled material into finish grade lumber, has proven to be a well matched and rewarding undertaking for Tony over the last year and a half. Again and again…
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Long Life
When I was a boy my father used to remind me, “Everything has a life.” People, yes. Dogs and cats, yes. But also sneakers and bicycles. If you take care of your sneakers and bicycles (and everything else) as well as you take care of people and pets, they will live longer. This reminder, usually…
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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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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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Evening Emanation
This evening emanation greeted me while inspecting progress of the driveway improvements being undertaken by Bob and Phil, or *endeavoring* to inspect their work in the darkness that descends earlier and earlier and earlier this time of year. A glowing beacon. A bucolic barnscape. An icehouse lighthouse… After a year and a half of creative…
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Sunup Sunday
Up early for a soggy gray morning, rambunctious not-quite-winter wind thrashing and whorling, raindrops on and off, on and off,… Not quite the sunup Sunday I’d conjured in my technicolor imagination! It was the sort of unsettled environment that makes the prospect of returning to bed more inviting than, say, making breakfast for Carley. But…
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Mary Wade Rock Art
Mary Wade’s Essex renderings are legendary. Her rock painting of Rosslyn’s boathouse depicts Rosslyn’s boathouse as viewed from the Essex-Charlotte ferry dock, an enterprise originally owned by her grandfather, if memory serves. This gift from Mary immediately became a favorite in our collection of her Rosslyn inspired creations. This certainly isn’t my first Mary Wade…
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Brutalist Boathouse
This past summer, our friend, Teel, visited us at Rosslyn. Her energy and unique perspective made for plenty of indelible memories, but she recently added another visual chapter to her Rosslyn legacy. For Susan’s birthday, she painted and gifted her this potent painting, a brutalist boathouse rendering as captivating as its subject. Originating in (and…
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Boathouse Gangway Redux
What a difference a year makes! Actually, Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway redux spans a 2-year timeline, but as a sort of Pollyanna prayer, let’s celebrate the progress since one year ago. The following excerpt and photograph appeared in my blog post one year ago today. Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway reboot… is back on track — safe, sturdy,…