Tag: Seasonality
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Spring Snow Today (and 10 Years Ago)
Spring has sprung. So say the celestial bodies. So says the calendar. So say the daffodils and the Canada Geese. But winter-into-spring is a mercurial transition, and spring snow today reminds us that winter has not yet fully retired. Nor can we assume that this almost Easter dump is a total fluke. This view from…
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Spring Equinox
Are you prepared for the start of spring? I hope so because, ready or not, here she comes! At 11:06 PM this evening, to be precise, winter will end and springtime will begin as we celebrate the 2024 spring equinox. I find that spring’s arrival rarely follows a predictable schedule. Each year unique. And, in…
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Sugaring Season
I’m remembering the year my brother and gathered sap and boiled it down over an open fire to maple syrup more than a decade ago. Hour after hour, day after day, emptying buckets, hauling buckets, stoking the fire pit with logs to keep the syrup boiling, but not boiling over. Though more than once we…
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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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Midwinter Champlaining
As I see it, we’re about 2/3 of the way through winter with one month to go until we round the corner into springtime. Despite the fact that today didn’t exactly offer perfect conditions to launch the dory for a frosty February row, I do have a bit of good news. Atypically high water levels…
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Play Daily
From our first fanciful forays — pipe dreaming and what-iffing — Rosslyn represented for Susan and for me an opportunity to play more. Or so we imagined back in 2005 and 2006 as we slowly talked each other into a monumental life change. Although fantasy and reality haven’t overlapped exactly the way we conceived, most…
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Old Year’s Day
Did you know that another name for New Year’s Eve Day is Old Year’s Day? Not used widely, in my experience, but logical. Retrospective. Emphasis on the year expiring rather than the year arriving. Despite a personal proclivity for forward-looking and possibility, a year-end review offers merits too. This day’s, this year’s minutes are too…
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Hibernal High
I almost preempted this evening’s post with an update on the rising, rising, rising lake levels. Given the alarming uptick — Lake Champlain has risen approximately 2’ in the last couple of days with waters currently approaching spring flood stage — our attention is focused on meteorological forecasts. But angsty fretting serves no one, so…
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Christmas Countdown
If the 12 days of Christmas refer to the interval between Christmas and Epiphany, then the same duration beforehand — the 12 days *prior* to Christmas, — are the Christmas countdown. And they’ve now begun… We’re already several days into this beautiful tree from Karen and Jim Thew, owners of the Spruce Mill Brook Christmas…
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Holiday Homecoming
What a wellspring of euphoria this evening! We returned to Rosslyn after briefly sojourning in Santa Fe, returned to a delicate frosting of snow underfoot, early dwindling natural light, holiday lights glowing in windows, 28° outside, toasty inside, the promise of savory stew and spicy cider wafting like a whimsical Christmas carol,… Rosslyn welcomed us…
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Amish Adieu
I mentioned on Friday that our Amish gardeners have wrapped up for the season after six months of caretaking Rosslyn’s gardens, orchards, and grounds. Their cheerful demeanor and their diligent care will be missed, so I bid them a grateful Amish adieu until next spring. To our Amish friends with whom we would struggle to…
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Ready for Radish Time?
Spring-into-summer is a celebratory parade of gastronomic gateways. Nettles, ramps, fiddleheads, asparagus, rhubarb,… So many seasonal ingredients and tastes. And now it’s radish time! These early French Breakfast Radishes are almost impossibly delicious. Crisp and spicy. Uniquely refreshing. The French Breakfast Radish (Raphanus sativus) is [an] early summer classic — and perennial staple of Rosslyn’s…