Tag: Summer
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When Your B-Roll Becomes Your A-Roll
Lake Champlain sunrise. Still mostly dark. Then an explosion of fiery day over the silhouetted Green Mountains in Vermont, over the slightly refracting waters of the lake… It’s mornings like this when your B-roll becomes your A-roll! It’s mornings like this that I pinch myself. Gently. But enough to startle myself into reassessing my day’s…
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Steamboat Landing at Westport, NY circa 1907
Perhaps some of my North Country readers recognize this sylvan scene along the Adirondack shore of Lake Champlain? It is the site of present day Westport Marina in Westport, NY. Seen here in an earlier incarnation as a steamboat landing circa 1907, there are several notable differences with more contemporary photographs of this same waterfront. Most…
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Holistic Orcharding: How to Apply Tanglefoot to Trees
It’s Tanglefoot time again. Actually, we’re late — really late! — due to this rainy, soggy summer. But better late than never, especially since I’ve begun to spy the first tent caterpillars of the 2017 season. First a quick refresher. A little over a year ago I explained how to use Tanglefoot and I explained why…
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How to Apply Tanglefoot to Trees
It’s Tanglefoot time again. Actually, we’re late — really late! — due to this rainy, soggy summer. But better late than never, especially since I’ve begun to spy the first tent caterpillars of the 2017 season. First a quick refresher. A little over a year ago I explained how to use Tanglefoot and I explained why…
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Friend or Foe: Colorado Potato Beetle
This morning I spied a Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) or three in the vegetable garden. Here’s a fuzzy snapshot of one Colorado Potato Beetle contentedly munching away on young eggplant leaves. Do you see the yellow striped beetle? It’s approximately center frame. Here’s a closeup of another Colorado Potato Beetle once I flicked him/her…
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Rosslyn Boathouse, circa 1907
It’s time travel Tuesday! Gazing through the time-hazed patina of this vintage postcard I’m unable to resist the seductive pull of bygone days. Whoosh! I tumble backward through a sepia wormhole, settling into the first decade of the 20th century. It’s 1907 according to the postal stamp on the rear of this postcard. Eleven decades ago a…
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How to Use Tanglefoot (And Why Fruit Trees Need It)
It’s time for a follow-up to my Organic Orcharding post, specifically a detailed look at how to use Tanglefoot for non-toxic pest control in a holistic fruit tree orchard. For readers wondering about zone compatibility and looking for a regional reference to help you evaluate the relevance of this post to your individual growing conditions,…
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Radishes and Radish Greens
On this technicolor Tuesday I present to you one of our flashiest May garden treats, French Breakfast Radishes. Field and forrest foraged veggies — like stinging nettles, wild ramps, and fiddleheads — are nature’s charitable reminder that winter has once again yielded to spring. Then our vegetable gardens begin to awaken with asparagus and spinach that spoil…
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Beavers & Boathouses
We noticed yesterday that a beaver (or beavers?) have selected a pair of trees on our neighbor’s waterfront to sharpen their teeth. One is a large cottonwood with a pair of fallen locusts hung up on it. The beaver (Castor canadensis) has already gotten a pretty good start, and the tree is laaarge and disconcertingly…
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Why Are My Cucumbers Orange?
Why are my cucumbers orange? They’re turning yellow-orange, to be precise… This summer we have enjoyed more productive cucumber plants than ever before, but recently the enormous fruit are discoloring from green to yellow to orange before we can eat them. Here’s the reason why. Cucumbers turn orange when they grow excessively ripe before harvesting,…
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Essex Regatta 1950s?
Essex Regatta 1950s? (Source: Christine Herrmann) It’s always a treat to discover Rosslyn artifacts. Can you just barely spy our boathouse beyond the moored boats? This intriguing photograph was received from part-time Essex neighbor, Christine Herrmann. This generous Sandy Beach friend has allowed us to traverse her Lake Champlain waterfront with our tractor to rebuild…
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Hammock Days of Indian Summer
A warm thank you to friend, photographer, and some time Essex neighbor Eve Ticknor for giving me these evocative images of Rosslyn’s boathouse. You will see in my photographs, ways to see water, not just to look at it. Honing your observation skills will open your eyes to other worlds. ~ Eve Ticknor (Aquavisions) Indeed.…