Tag: Doug Decker
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Squirrel Sentry
Beware what you plant by your front door lest it attract hungry birds, deer, or a squirrel sentry! It’s too early still for flowering annuals to preside over the stone steps leading up to Rosslyn’s front door. Daytimes are warm, mostly, but nightimes are still getting cold. Soon, once the risk of frost retreats inland,…
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Christmas Eve
This evening I would like to share a memory of our first Christmas Eve at Rosslyn in 2008. It was to be our first Christmas at Rosslyn. For weeks we had been racing the calendar, coaxing the team forward, cramming days into hours to ensure that construction would finally end and Rosslyn would at last…
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Stone Wall Retrospective
Fifteen years ago, on November 5, 2008 we were many months deep into building/rebuilding the stone walls around Rosslyn’s deck. The original estimate had morphed from weeks to months. As I recall, five weeks had stretched into five months by this stage. I’ll dig into my notes to verify, but for the sake of this…
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Dock, Boat Lift & Friends, 2010
This morning my friend, Mark, sent me a photo snapped exactly thirteen years ago (where does the time go?!?!) after we launched the dock and boat lift for the start of the boating season. In addition to a timely hint that spring is starting to flirt with summer — a meta metronomic rhythm reminder, if…
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Upcycled Christmas Gifts
What wintery wonders shall I share with you today? How about a celebration (and showcase) of upcycled Christmas gifts dreamed into existence by three allstar members of our icehouse rehab team? Pam, Hroth, and Tony stopped Susan and me in our just-barely-post-winter-solstice tracks with an early Christmas gift (or three) that exemplify the apex of…
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2007 Thanksgiving Remembered
Nine years ago I sat in Rosslyn’s front parlor on Thanksgiving morning and started drafting a blog post. I’m sitting in the front parlor (aka the “green room”), drinking coffee, scratching Griffin behind the ears, and allowing my mind drift to back to that first Thanksgiving we celebrated at Rosslyn. It was actually one day…
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Stone Splash Blocks
As always besotted by artifacts (especially those directly related to Rosslyn) and irresistibly drawn to crowdsourcing as a way to answer questions that my own research leaves wanting, today’s post represents an exciting moment celebrating the convergence of the two. On June 28, 2013 I published “Stone Gutters?” showcasing a pair of mysterious artifacts unearthed while rehabilitating Rosslyn’s carriage barn.…
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Garapa Decking 2008-2009
I left you wondering, patiently waiting for a couple of weeks after the “Deck Rebuild” update. I promised a post specifically focusing on the garapa decking, but days turned into weeks, and no garapa gallery. Sorry. Rest assured it was an act of omission, my friends, not an act of commission. (Maybe “fall” earned its…
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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…
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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…
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Venison Green Chile Stew
He that strikes the venison first shall be the lord o’ the feast. ~ Shakespeare, King Lear I admitted to the butcher at the Village Meat Market in Willsboro the other day that I could easily give up beef for game. I enjoy meat of all sorts, but my pallet is especially charmed by seasonal…
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Carriage Barn Renovation: Stone Gutters?
A pair of exciting — and slightly mysterious — artifacts have been disinterred from Rosslyn’s carriage barn today. Just when the re-flooded basement (second time in two weeks) starts to discourage me, I am reminded of Rosslyn’s benevolence. Just when Rosslyn’s flooded basement (second time in two weeks) starts to discourage me, I am reminded…