Tag: Essex-Charlotte ferry
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Ready or Not
At the outset we bought Rosslyn envisioning a 1-4 year timeline. Resuscitate the house and outbuildings while rebooting our lives, and then move on. Ready or not, on we’d go. Tidy. Viable. Or so we thought. But our timeline stretched and our ambitions mushroomed. We became romantically involved and our perspective shifted, fish-eyed, and grew…
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Homeness: Sea Urchin Test
Good afternoon. And fair warning: if you’re the linear, A-to-Z, plot-perfect type, then today’s post should be skipped. Rest assured there are more “homeness” posts in store to explore notions of home, tidier essays and poems crafted with an identifiable trajectory rather than patchwork posts like today’s scrapbook-y mashup. If you’re curious and comfortable with…
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Ferry Rhythm
Since our earliest interest in Rosslyn — back in 2005-2006 when we were falling in love with this property but still unable to fathom how we might transform our pipe dream into reality — the ferry rhythm appealed to me. The ferry’s visual and audible “metronome” braided a subtle but hypnotic soundtrack into our visits.…
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Sunrise Today (Minus Ten Years)
What a difference one decade makes! This photo of sunrise over Lake Champlain at 5:55 AM on February 24, 2014 captures a typical midwinter perspective from Rosslyn once upon a time. Snow. Ice. I think the last time that the broad lake froze was 2019. And at this advanced date, it looks increasingly unlikely that…
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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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Horse Ferry
I’ve just returned to Essex via ferry from Charlotte, Vermont. This waterway commute is an integral component of our life in Essex, New York. 30 minutes from ferry dock to ferry dock. Sometimes a little less. Sometimes a little more. No longer a sail ferry or horse ferry, but in some ways virtually unchanged across…
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Gate & Aerial Atelier
Some days rays illuminate unfamiliar nooks and crannies rendering them familiar. Other days weather wobbles transform the familiar into the unfamiliar. When on both sorts of days we yield, make ourselves receptive, exchange judgment for wonder, then an aerial atelier opens up to us inviting us to experiment and play and create. Aerial Atelier Surly…
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Artifacts & Ephemera: Regattas & Ferries
At a time when we’re inundated 24×7 with digital marketing and messaging, it’s fun to flip the calendar back 60+ years to some equivalent pre-digital promotions for regattas at the Sherwood Inn and Lake Champlain ferries (including the Essex-Charlotte ferry.) Today’s post highlights a few quotidian artifacts that offer a bridge into an earlier time.…
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Frosty Ferrying into Rosslyn
Heck of a homecoming my frosty ferry ride into Essex two weeks ago on January 25. Damp-cold. Socked in. Snowing. I was dropping in for team time, scope shuffle, timeline tuneup, perspective pivot, and a revitalizing dose of laughter with friends. Team Time As I’ve often touted, teamwork is the first, second, and third priority…
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Where in the World is Rosslyn?
Where in the world is Rosslyn? If you’re not too terribly averse to a verse, here’s an introduction writ small (wrapped up in a tidy micropoem.) Up in the Adirondacks at the foot of the foothills, where Champlain’s sweet waters refresh, render respite, and sooth worldweary souls, a sanctuary sings welcoming melodies. (Source: Where’s Rosslyn?)…
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Champy Spotted at Essex Ferry Dock (circa 1980?)
Champy spotted at Essex ferry dock?!?! Once upon a time… I’m gambling that it was around 1980 for no reliable reasons except the look and condition of the Old Dock Restaurant, the presence of ice shanties on a throughly frozen lake with no ferry canal, and the incredibly well executed snow/ice sculpture just north of…
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Sherwood Inn Waterfront
This morning I revisit a familiar and particularly popular perspective of Rosslyn’s lakefront or, to be more historically accurate, the Sherwood Inn waterfront in the early/mid 20th century. Taken together this pair of vintage postcards forms a veritable diptych of the Sherwood Inn (aka Rosslyn) lakefront, “dock house” (aka boathouse), and a veritable flotilla of classic…