Rosslyn Redux

Tag: William Daniel Ross

  • Lake Champlain Water Level Falling Below Flood Stage?

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    Geo Davis
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    It’s the annual song and dance. Spring arrives (on the calendar, at least.) Snow melts. Ice melts. Rain falls. Lake Champlain water levels rise. And rise. And rise. Sometimes (though hopefully not this year) Lake Champlain water levels reach flood stage… According to the U.S. Geological Survey Lake Champlain’s “flood stage” is 100′ above sea…

  • House of Dreams

    House of Dreams

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    Geo Davis
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    Hat top to Keri Smith, one of my favorite doodlers (I’m talking about the short-short list!) for sharing this Eureka moment quotation on her blog. In honor of Gaston Bachelard, I’d like to subtly bastardize the sentiment: I should say: Rosslyn shelters day-dreaming, Rosslyn protects the dreamers, and Rosslyn allows us to dream in peace.…

  • Common Goldeneye Ducks

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    Geo Davis
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    I recently met Lake Placid based photographer John DiGiacomo at the Essex derry dock where he was photographing Common Goldeneye ducks and other waterfowl. The Essex-Charlotte ferry channel has become a popular destination for birders ever since Lake Champlain froze over last month. Ferry captains have been meticulously nibbling back the ice to maintain a navigable passage “canal” between…

  • Decrypting Bird Tracks in Snow

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    Geo Davis
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    I don’t recall whether or not I was fascinated with animal and bird tracks in snow as a child, but I suspect I was. I am now… (Fox Tracks, Foxtrot & X-Country Skiing) It wasn’t until my nephews (now teenagers but still “pocket sized” then) began asking me to identify bird tracks in snow, four…

  • Midwinter Gator Service

    Midwinter Gator Service

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    Geo Davis
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    I mentioned the other day that frosty, persistent midwinter is the perfect time to get Rosslyn’s lawn and field equipment serviced so that it’s ready for prime time once the snow retreats and the dandelions bloom. A few days before the tractor was picked up, the folks at Mountain View Equipment (formerly Giroux Brothers) retrieved the…

  • Slow Cooked Chicken

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    Geo Davis

    Sorry the slide show is so fuzzy. And that this post is flickering to life almost a pair of weeks after the last tender morsel of slow cooked chicken went tobogganing down my gullet. As for the fuzzy photos, I’m not quite sure what happened. They looked crisp before I turned them into a slide…

  • If You Lose Your Purpose, It’s Like You’re Broken

    If You Lose Your Purpose, It’s Like You’re Broken

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    Geo Davis
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    Everything has a purpose, even machines… They do what they are meant to do… Maybe that’s why a broken machine always makes me so sad, they can’t do what they are meant to do… Maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose… it’s like you’re broken. ~ Brian Selznick (spoken by Hugo Cabret…

  • Kestrel Sighting

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    Geo Davis
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    Katie Shepard posted this vintage photograph of the steam yacht Kestrel on the Essex blog recently to see if anyone could identify the vessel, the boathouse, the men on the pier, the approximate year, etc. Greater Adirondack Ghost and Tour Company: Wow, what a great photo. That’s the steam yacht Kestrel, owned by Samuel Keyser.…

  • La Vie en Rose

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    Geo Davis
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    Je vois la vie en rose I see life through rose-colored glasses — Édith Piaf Édith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose” – usually translated as “Life Through Rose-Colored Glasses” – inevitably, joyfully came to mind when this sexy photograph was shared with me on Facebook by an Essex friend and neighbor, Janice Koenig. It turns out…

  • Venison Green Chile Stew

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    Geo Davis
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    He that strikes the venison first shall be the lord o’ the feast. ~ Shakespeare, King Lear I admitted to the butcher at the Village Meat Market in Willsboro the other day that I could easily give up beef for game. I enjoy meat of all sorts, but my pallet is especially charmed by seasonal…

  • Essex-Charlotte Canal

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    Geo Davis
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    The Essex-Charlotte Canal offers a chilly commute, but it sure beats 3-4 lanes of traffic jammed, coffee guzzling, angry drivers on a thruway… It’s not every winter that we get to enjoy the ferry commute between Essex, New York and Charlotte, Vermont (remember when the Champlain Bridge was closed for demolition/replacement?), but the “landlocked” winters…

  • Fox Tracks, Foxtrot & X-Country Skiing

    Fox Tracks, Foxtrot & X-Country Skiing

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    Geo Davis

    An inch or two of fresh powder and bluebird skies above lured me away from my desk on Monday for a mid-morning x-country ski outing with my lab. Hooky! Crisp but otherwise perfect conditions were the enticement; fresh fox tracks (I think) were the unanticipated reward. Griffin, my water and snow loving labrador retriever was…