Tag: Winter
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Spring Grilling
An informal ode to the grill’s seasonal migration from carriage barn hibernation to deck celebration. Let’s eat!
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Ice Flow
Lake Champlain ice flows are legendary. But 2023-4 did not deliver the shore-to-shore ice that during our early Rosslyn winters and springs were as predictable as months of snow. And, in many respects, that’s a relief given the currently heightened water level which has been hovering around 98.5’ above NGVD 1929 for about a week.…
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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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Cross-Country Ski Tracks
Sunday snow arriving, or so we are told. Possibly 10-12” of March powder. Or mashed potatoes. Or something in between. If meteorologists are correct, we’ll be creating fresh cross-country ski tracks in the days ahead. Did you know that cross-country ski trails/tracks are known as “loipes”? The photo above — moody afternoon light, thin cover…
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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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Oh, Possum, Opossum
One year ago an opossum sighting, an opossum photo, and an opossum poem. A familiar chain reaction fueling a familiar runaway post. The photo never made it into the post, and the poem — albeit a preliminary push, unready for prime-time — was buried in a morass of words more focused on Carley, our Labrador…
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Placid Lake Day
Ah, moments like this. A placid lake day inspiring a seasonality sing song. Lake Champlain’s surface silky smooth, disrupted only by the wakes of paddling Canada Geese. Temperatures warm enough to tempt daydreams of spring despite dipping temps (and possibility of precipitation) next week. Bluebird dome above — with just the faintest whisper of cloud…
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Whiteout, Wife Out
Preparing to share the backstory of Susan’s commitment to our wild, winged friends (and he taste for adventure…)
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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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TMB March 8, 2007
Flashback seventeen years to the first winter of discouraging setbacks as we tried desperately to advance our dream of revitalizing this old house into our new home.
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Boathouse Restructuring
Today we turn the calendar back 16 years to Rosslyn’s boathouse restructuring. Some eighteen months or so into our rehabilitation project we had already sailed past our most generous timeline for completion. And the end was far from near. In fact, the finish line continued to retreat the more we advanced upon it. And, as…
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Mute Muse: Swan Song
Two years ago today the mute swan returned to Rosslyn’s reopened “duck pond” and — for an all too brief interlude — we celebrated. Many of us indulged a moment of optimism that the solitary bird, ill equipped for our harsh winter conditions, might manage to make it to spring. Let’s rewind just a little…