Tag: Library Brook
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Mustelid Musing
Willing unfamiliars into focus so that we may photograph Ermine, Marten, and Weasel…
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Eclipse & Balloon
From historic solar eclipse to a hot air balloon appearing to land in Rosslyn’s back meadow, never a dull moment!
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Coyote Pup
On May 7, 2022 at 11:43 AM friend and wildlife steward John Davis made this video of a coyote pup playing in a brush pile in Rosslyn’s wildlife sanctuary. One of several he witnessed denning near Library Brook, I resisted the temptation to post this at the time in order to protect the location of…
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Library Brook Bobcat
Let’s turn back the clock exactly 2 years to February 16, 2022. Why? To honor this beautiful cat! Let’s call her/him the Library Brook Bobcat since that’s where these remarkable photographs were taken. As I mentioned when I shared these images on Instagram two years ago, the originals were a little dark, so I zoomed…
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Griffin & Gator
Thirteen years ago, on November 14, 2010, I snapped a few blurry Blackberry photographs (remember those?) of Susan and our Labrador retriever, Griffin. The snapshots were taken beyond the barns, looking west over the meadows we were recovering after decades forgotten, feral, and overgrown. Griffin thoroughly enjoyed jumping into the small bed for a cruise…
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Vernal Equinox: Barred Owl Sighting
Welcome to spring! It’s currently 43° at Rosslyn, on target to hit 46° shortly. Sun is out. Snow is melting. Bulbs are bursting. So many remarkable signs and suggestions that the vernal equinox may indeed have marked the transition from winter to spring (daffodils and daylilies perking up, an auspicious sunset cloud formation, a handsome…
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Beyond Brook Bushwhack
A chilly afternoon warmed with laughter while bushwhacking on snowshoes, today Susan, Denise and John Davis, and I ventured into Rosslyn’s westernmost woods to trailblaze a new loop through a maturing pine forest located between Library Brook, the Essex Firehouse, and Essex Farm. Long anticipated, this remote route will extend and diversify our existing trail…
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Cross-Country Skiing
What is the cross-country skiing equivalent of schussing down a powdery piste? If it exists — some etymologically Nordic, onomatopoeicly swooshy reference for scissoring smoothly across a snowy meadow or through a snowy forrest — I could sneak it into today’s outing. But I’d be waxing poetic. Projecting fantasy onto a considerably stickier cross-country skiing…
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Ruffed Grouse
The male ruffed grouse in the photo above was documented on a Rosslyn wildlife camera about a year ago. Fancy fowl! And the two images below were recorded a few weeks ago. Rosslyn’s backlands are fortunately flush with ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), a welcome reminder that wildlife gravitates — as if by some primal sense…
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Thanksgiving Thanks
Hope you were able to celebrate and take time for gratitude yesterday. And today. As with most holidays, I find myself thinking that we should dedicate longer than a day to giving thanks. Maybe a week? Even that seems too brief a time to honor everyone (wild neighbors included) who adds value and happiness, health…
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Autumn Landscape Poetry
TGIF… time to put another log on the fire, pour yourself something refreshing, and unwind for a moment together. Busy-ness and a continuous cascade of commitments can gradually hypnotize us during the weekly hurly-burly, so let’s take a few minutes to exhale and redirect our attention at this dramatic time of year. Transformation all around…
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John Deere Gator: Three Generations
With 70+acres to maintain at Rosslyn, ADK Oasis “Highlawn”, and ADK Oasis “Lakeside”, the John Deere Gator is an omnipresent and much depended upon utility vehicle for us. Whether hauling compost or pulling the wood splitter or chipper; moving fire pits or transporting waterskis, windsurfers, paddle boards, wetsuits and life jackets back-and-forth, to-and-from the boathouse;…