Tag: Waterfront
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Before Undocking
Last day of summer. Yesterday. First day of autumn. Today. Liminal moments. Time to remove the boats and docks. But, just before, Susan snapped these potent images. Before undocking… Before undocking, putting summer 2023 behind us, there was calm. Placid waters. Almost mirror flat. And a sunrise as sensuous as it was poignant. Rosslyn’s waterfront.…
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Swamped Dinghy
Summer 2023 is perhaps perfectly symbolized with this swamped dinghy photo. Swampy dinghy. Our rowboat. Our beach. Our fallen leaves steeping into leaf tea… Rain, rain go awayCome again another day.Rain, rain go awayLittle Johnny wants to play. But the rain has obeyed, hasn’t come another day. It’s come darn near every day. And our…
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Dockside Monochrome
Mercurial, unsettled weather lately. Pendulum swings. Dark and light. Sunny and soggy. Unsettled hours and days. My moody meditation is inspired by this dockside monochrome. Snapped this photo after an unsuccessful first foray into waterskiing and freshwater surfing for the 2023 season. Too rough. Susan tried. A valiant effort. Abbreviated… Today’s words and thoughts are…
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Fowl Fertilizer
When it comes to organic lawncare for our holistic home, I’m enthusiastic about composted manure. From locally sourced cow manure and alpaca “beans” to not-so-locally sourced bat guano, we find that nature offers up some of the healthiest nutrients for cultivating gardens, orchards, lawns, etc. Hurrah for free, 100% organic fowl fertilizer! Waterfront Waterfowl The…
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Dock, Boat Lift & Friends, 2010
This morning my friend, Mark, sent me a photo snapped exactly thirteen years ago (where does the time go?!?!) after we launched the dock and boat lift for the start of the boating season. In addition to a timely hint that spring is starting to flirt with summer — a meta metronomic rhythm reminder, if…
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Rosslyn Dock House & Crystal Spring Farm
A couple of weeks ago I received an email from friend and Essex neighbor, Todd Goff with a download link to that spectacular photograph above portraying an early 1900s panorama of the Essex waterfront. Actually, the image above has been shrunk down from a 9″ wide original and web optimized to accelerate load time (and…
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Boathouse Repairs 1: Gangway Reboot
Just a quick update for you this evening highlighting Rosslyn’s boathouse gangway reboot. The good news, no, the *great* news, is that the boathouse gangway project is back on track — safe, sturdy, functionally and historically accurate — after the 2021 debacle. What a difference an experienced team makes! If you missed the 2021 false…
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Rosslyn Bathhouse
Meet the former Rosslyn bathhouse. No longer extant on our waterfront, this charming building still exists nearby, having migrated south decades ago (or so we understand.) As boating and swimming (aka bathing) season yield to fall foliage and Canada geese migration, it seems a suitable moment to revisit a post I shared on the Essex community…
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Undocking
Once upon a time undocking referred to a boat pulling away from a dock, a ship disembarking from a pier. At Rosslyn we also use the term to describe the annual autumn removal of docks (and boat lift) from Lake Champlain once the boats have been hauled and we begin to prepare for the North…
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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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Industrial Essex Waterfront
In Essex we live connected with our history. There are daily reminders — architectural, cultural, anecdotal, etc. — of the yesterdays that endure or linger on today. It’s not so much that time has stood still (although there are plenty who will suggest as much), but rather Essex allows a concurrence of times. Past and…
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Essex, NY’s Industrial Waterfront c. 1910
This morning I’d like to share a fresh (at least to me) look at Essex, New York’s industrial past. This vintage postcard titled, “A Lake View, Essex, N.Y.” (and allegedly published between 1907 and 1915 was recently available for auction on eBay. Sadly, I was overbid in the final seconds of the auction, but I’ll continue hunting…