Tag: Rosslyn boathouse
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Creative Collisions & Happy Accidents
A few days ago I came across a provocative Facebook post that artist Nick Bantock had shared on December 30, 2022. The date’s not particularly notable, but the author is. Familiarity with Bantock’s work adds context and texture to the explanation about his creative process, specifically how he moves from found ephemera to finished artwork.…
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A Barnophile of Bygone Barns
Yesterday I meditated a minute on bygone barns. Ancient farm buildings. Tempered by time, tempted by gravity, and sowbacked beneath the burdens of generations, these rugged utility structures retain (and sometimes gain) a minimalist elegance long after design and construction and use fade into history. My meditation was meandering and inconclusive. In part this was…
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Boathouse Repairs 4: Redecking Complete
More good news on Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway repair project: redecking is complete. The necessary mechanical adjustments were made, sleeper joists were properly flashed, decking was consistently spaced, the correct number of posts were installed in a structurally sound manner, and the redecking was actually completed. Eureka! It’s a pleasure and a privilege to celebrate yet…
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Sherwood Inn’s Boathouse Billboard
Does anybody recollect seeing the Sherwood Inn‘s boathouse billboard as photographed above. It’s well before my time, but probably not too long before my earliest Essex memories in the 1970s. I recently reached out to our friend Cheri Phillips to find it what she might know about the photograph above. She generously gifted me the…
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Boathouse Repairs 3: Fabricating Post Wraps
It’s time for a progress report on Rosslyn’s boathouse post fabrication. Peter Vaiciulis and Sia Supi Havosi have been beavering away lakeside as autumn blurs into winter. Unfortunately, their decking progress has been stalled because the moisture content of the lumber is still too high. In contrast to the previous contractor whose work required extensive…
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Icehouse Rehab 4.5: Foundation Collaboration
Last Friday I gushed that it’d been a monumental week. No hyperbole. Tackling (and completing) Rosslyn’s icehouse foundation was an epic accomplishment, a concrete collaboration conjoining two separate teams to rescue the foundering concrete project. And while Friday’s post was brief, timely-but-abbreviated recognition for the indefatigable individuals who pulled off this remarkable feat, today I’ll…
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Boathouse Repairs 2: Boathouse Gangway Posts & Pier Cladding
Photo essay showcasing progress on Rosslyn’s boathouse repairs made Peter Vaiciulis and Sia Supi Havosi last week.
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Boathouse Illustration Revisited
Back on March 28, 2022 I shared a whimsical boathouse illustration including some of my creation process. At the time I conceived of the exercise as a way to exercise my rudimentary watercolor abilities while enticing the universe to hasten the spring-to-summer transition. Verdict is out on whether or not my efforts wooed the universe.…
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Keuhlen Family at the Sherwood Inn, August 1951
One of the great joys in owning Rosslyn these last 15 years (hard to believe it’s been a decade and a half since we purchased our Essex home from Elizabeth and George McNulty!) has been discovering the memorabilia of those who’ve come before us. So many Rosslyn memories, stories, and artifacts. Today I’d like to introduce…
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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…
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Hazy Days Haiku
I’d planned on getting the drone up in the air for some aerial photography of the waterfront and deck areas (where we’re planning some maintenance projects). As luck would have it the morning was misty. No, more like pea soup. So I waited. And waited. It burned off a little, but finally I realized it…
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Ric Feeney’s Watercolor Painting of Rosslyn Boathouse
Watercolor artist Ric Feeney shared this beautiful painting on Facebook recently, and of course it caught my eye as it featured Rosslyn’s whimsical boathouse/dock house. Feeney captioned the post: “Finished this 17 x 26 watercolor of early spring with the Champlain Ferry approaching the Essex dock.” There’s something almost cinematographic about the Essex-Charlotte ferry approaching…