Rosslyn Redux

Tag: Bonfire

  • Homestead Haikus

    Homestead Haikus

    Homestead-grown Asparagus (Source: Geo Davis)
    Homestead-grown Asparagus (Source: Geo Davis)

    I often refer to Rosslyn as a homestead, but I’m aware that might mislead some of you. No livestock. That’s probably the biggest deviation from most self proclaimed homesteads. No chickens. No pigs, sheep, or goats. No milk cow. No 160 acre land grant (though we’ve slowly grown Rosslyn’s acreage to more than a third of that historic sum.)

    I’ve long longed for ducks. Hatchlings, then ducklings, then juvenile ducks, then mature plump ducks waddling around gobbling grubs and beetles and vegetable garden pests. Susan’s been a staunch bulwark against this homestead addition citing coyotes and hawks and an inadequately envisioned long term plan. Perhaps one day, some day. For now I celebrate wild ducks (“Common Goldeneye Ducks”) and safeguard the mallards (“Make Way for Ducklings” and “Mallard Jacuzzi”).

    But ducks or no ducks, our homestead is not about livestock. There’s abundant wildlife, and our vegetable gardens and orchard provide plenty to eat for our family and friends. Throw in farm shares with Full and By Farm, plenty of supplementary victuals from Hub on the Hill, and nourishing ourselves offers bountiful satisfaction.

    At Rosslyn, homesteading is less about producing everything that we eat and drink, and more about living as responsible stewards in a property presently and historically endowed with sufficient grounds and outbuildings for homesteading while honoring the homesteading tradition in as many ways as practical for us. I’ll revisit this idea soon, endeavoring to articulate more concisely our personal vision of Rosslyn as a homestead. For now I’ll shift to a few homestead haikus that might better — for their ample vantage despite minimalist format — illuminate what I’m trying to convey.

    Homestead Highlights 

    Bookended between
    asparagus and apples:
    skinny-dips, bonfires.

    Brookside Dissonance

    While ambling brookside,
    celestial cacophony, 
    a murder of crows.

    Apropos Tomatoes

    Green Zebras, Black Krims,
    early cherry tomatoes,…
    December daydreams.

    Now about those ducklings… I might bring up the idea again this spring. Wish me luck!

  • Champlaining

    Champlaining

    A mirror morning on Lake Champlain (Photo: Geo Davis)
    Champlaining on a mirror morning (Photo: Geo Davis)

    I like to joke around with our friends, Amy Guglielmo and Brian Giebel about “Champlaining” (aka “Lake Champlaining”) when we’re puttering about on our glorious front yard: Lake Champlain. A common refrain, “Stop Champlaining!” is actually a lighthearted reminder that even on the clunkiest of days, time spent plying (or playing i/on) the waters of America’s greatest lake is a revitalizing gift.

    Swimming. Sailing. Speedboating. Windsurfing. Wakesurfing. Waterskiing. Bonfiring… (And even when we’re fortunate enough to have a winter freeze so that we can skate and cross-country ski on the lake!) Champlaining is a term of lighthearted gratitude for the immense good fortune that so many of us enjoy in, on, and near the greatest of American lakes, Lake Champlain.

    Mucking through late midwinter strikes me as the optimal moment to share the distinct joy of champlaining with a quick photo essay.

    No better place to start than one of my personal favorites, sailing.

    Perhaps some scenic day-boating?

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CgPpo-UOsM5/

    Another personal favorite, wakesurfing (and acting like a landing condor!)

    End-of-day waterskiing, sailing, surfing offers a unique magic (but paying attention to boating regulations vis-à-vis sunset which I might have inadvertently let slip here…)

    Sundown Surf on Lake Champlain, August 10, 2022 (Photo: Susan Bacot-Davis)
    Champlaining with a Sundown Wakesurf, August 10, 2022 (Photo: Susan Bacot-Davis)

    Celebrating a peak-of-summer day with a sensational sundown surf… in one of world’s the most spectacular spots… This is Champlaining! (Source: Sundown Surf)

    Hammocking lakeside might very well be one of the best ways to wind down a week.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CjbaQb4Po9t/

    Followed with a beach bonfire. NOW we’re starting to explore the range of possibilities…

    Champlaining with a Lakeside Bonfire, September 27, 2014 (Photo: Geo Davis)
    Champlaining with a Lakeside Bonfire, September 27, 2014 (Photo: Geo Davis)

    To dilate your look into the joys of champlaining I suggest you check out the Instagram hashtag.

    Champlaining Haiku

    In-on Lake Champlain,
even the clunkiest of days,
revitalize bliss.
— Geo Davis

    Lake Champlain Official

    If my photo essay peppered with editorial asides isn’t exactly what you were hoping to find when the mysterious internauts delivered you here, then I’ll step aside and offer you a by-the-books springboard to more official data points (with a tiny tout for Champlain arts and culture.)

    Rosslyn is perched on the Adirondack Coast of the greatest of lakes, Lake Champlain.

    A freshwater lake located between New York State on the west, Vermont on the east, and Canada’s Quebec province on the north, Lake Champlain is approximately 120 miles (193 km) long, 12 miles (19 km) wide, and 400 feet (122 m) at its deepest trench. The sixth-largest lake in the United States by volume, Lake Champlain contains 71 islands. (Source: LCLT.org) Source waters include the Boquet, Ausable, and Saranac rivers in New York and the Richelieu, Missisquoi, and Lamoille rivers in Vermont. Contrary to a common misperception, the lake flows northward into the Richelieu River (and eventually into the St. Lawrence River.)

    Inspiring artists, musicians, and vacationers for centuries, Lake Champlain is a creative and cultural epicenter for the Northeast. To get in the mood, how about a singalong of Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble’s “On Lake Champlain”? (Check out the lyrics and audio recording.)

    Named for the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, who was the first European to map the region in 1609, the waterway quickly became an important transportation and trade artery. The Battle of Valcour (October 11, 1776) during the American Revolutionary War and the Battle of Plattsburgh (September 6-11, 1814) during the War of 1812 wove the majestic lake into early American history. Today, Lake Champlain is a popular destination for vacationing, swimming, boating, fishing, and camping. (Source: Lake Champlain)

    Enough with official. Back to anecdotal, whimsical, and romantic! I’ll wrap up with a couple of delightful vintage Lake Champlain postcards. Enjoy.

    Yachting on Lake Champlain (Source: Vintage Postcard)
    Yachting on Lake Champlain (Source: Vintage Postcard)

    Sunset on Lake Champlain (Source: Vintage Postcard)
    Sunset on Lake Champlain (Source: Vintage Postcard)

  • Daybreak

    Daybreak

    Daybreak Haiku: Lake Champlain sunrise through wavy-glass parlor window (Source: Geo Davis)
    Daybreak: Lake Champlain sunrise through “wavy glass” in late August, summertime slipping through the hourglass. (Source: Geo Davis)

    Since my earliest Rosslyn intrigue, wondering if the house and property might one day become a home for us, daybreak was my fixation. Perhaps it was just my lifelong affinity for early morning. As an early riser dawn has long been my favorite time of time, a world of possibility… Perhaps it was just curiosity what Rosslyn would feel like, look like, wandering room-to-room early in the morning. Although the front hallway was still in decidedly unfinished condition when we first visited, I imagined the walls painted a pale yellow, transporting the sunrise inside, warming the house with the brightening day.

    Daybreak Discernment

    This summer has been marked with singularly spectacular sunrises (and sunsets), and I’ve written much and often about these liminal states. This morning, however, catching sight of daybreak through wavy glass in the front parlor, I was struck concurrently with two thoughts.

    The wave-rippled surface of Lake Champlain was refracting dawn’s beacon, distorting the beam of fiery orange sunlight into a row of burning “puddles” that wavy glass in the parlor windows was further altering into a dancing mirage. Searing reality transformed into a optical illusion. I was reminded that Rosslyn has often altered my way of seeing and experiencing.

    These summer days are filtering faster and faster from anticipation to happening to memories. Just as the fleeting illusion of fiery puddles or bonfires or — pushing possibility to it’s breaking point — fiery cairns guided my eye to the rising sun, wobbling up out of Vermont’s Green Mountains like some hallucination, almost as quickly mellowing to a buttery yellow before vanishing altogether in the cloud bank above, just as quickly this summer is reaching its conclusion.

    And these bittersweet realizations, as if coupling and procreating, gave birth to a daybreak haiku.

    Daybreak Haiku

    Daybreak inside out,
    sunrise sublime, august hours
    tick-tock-ing away.
    — @rosslynredux

    A window view early on a Sunday morning. A blazing daybreak. Wavy lake and wavy glass. Near, familiar silhouettes framing a veritable mirage. Dawn within. Dawn without.

  • September Poems

    September Poems

    Boathouse Bonfire, September 27, 2014 (Source: Geo Davis)
    Boathouse Bonfire, September 27, 2014 (Source: Geo Davis)

    If September poems sound overly sentimental to you or if you’re inclined to a grittier observance of the almost-upon-us Autumn Equinox, I’ve got you covered. Soon. Stay tuned.

    But if you’re comfortable lingering briefly — and these poems are, if nothing else, brief — in the seasonality and liminality of the present moment, then I’d like to offer you a few September poems. After all, sometimes the singing underneath doesn’t translate to images or longform exposition. So I’ve bundled a tidy bundle of verse celebrating my one of my four favorite seasons.

    Susan in Carriage Barn, September 12, 2006 (Source: Geo Davis)
    Susan in Carriage Barn, September 12, 2006 (Source: Geo Davis)

    Haiku September Poems

    Short and sweet, sometimes bittersweet, is the name of the game when trying to put your finger on something as poignant and humbling as the shift from summer to autumn (with the omnipresent reminder that autumn too will soon yield, and winter will shroud the colors and flavors and aromas away beneath a snowy blanket). But that can be an elusive errand.

    There’s something ineffable about Septembering, but anyone who’s dwelled a spell in the North Country is familiar with this shift. (Source: Seasonality: Septembering)

    Haiku’s economy offers a bold if foolhardy effort, so let’s start there.

    •:•

    Dusky zinnias,
    harvest-ready to welcome
    arriving houseguests.
    — Geo Davis

    •:•

    Bountiful beans,
    red-podded asparagus,
    climbing the teepee.
    — Geo Davis

    •:•

    Seasonal surreal:
    autumnal art, alchemy,
    tart transformation.
    — Geo Davis

    September Sunset, September 6, 2015 (Source: Geo Davis)
    Sunset, September 6, 2015 (Source: Geo Davis)

    Longer September Poem

    I’m struck by the concurrently lavish spoils and humbling caution of September. In so many respects the bounty of an entire summer’s worth of gardening and orcharding comes due in September. Sure, we’ve been enjoying the gardens since May, but the this month full of contrasts is without doubt the most abundant harvest. And yet, even as we indulge to excess, the crisp nights and the sunlight’s increasingly anemic illumination remind us to prepare for winter.

    When Septembering
    honor abundance
    as autumn will soon
    yield to the drum roll
    of hale and hoarfrost,
    bitter wind, and snow.
    — Geo Davis

    This might be the first verse to a longer look at the point-counterpoint of this intoxicating yet sobering marvel of a month. It might also have reached its end. A little hibernation should help decide.

    Cider Pressing, September 6, 2015 (Source: Geo Davis)
    Cider Pressing, September 6, 2015 (Source: Geo Davis)

    Sing-song Along

    I’ve made no secret of the fact that this 2022 summer and autumn have been pivotal for Susan and for me. We’re surfing some seismic transformations in our lives, finally confronting inevitabilities and incongruities that have been evolving for a long time, and fortifying one another for significant choices and changes ahead. In all probability the liminal space we’re navigating underlies the vibrance and drama I’m noticing in everyday events. But I’m unable to disregard the rhymes, rituals, harmonies, and auspicious signs (cairns, buoys, vade mecums,…) as I immerse myself in the texture and artifacts of a decade and a half with Rosslyn, as Susan and I revise and remap and re-plot our next chapters.

    So many friends and acquaintances have contributed to this new adventure we’re embarking on, often without even realizing it or intending to effect our trajectory. Influences have an uncanny habit of popping up at just the right time! And so I close this post with an invitation to you. We welcome you to join and participate in our quest. As fellow sojourners we’ll better bridge the valleys and better celebrate the lofty summits ahead. Grateful to be traveling together!

  • “On Lake Champlain” Singalong

    “On Lake Champlain” Singalong

    Victor's “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)
    Victor’s “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    With Christmas leftovers diminishing, Christmas tree needles succumbing to gravity, and Christmas carols beginning to sound slightly cloying, it’s starting to feel a lot like… time for a transition. Sure, New Year’s Eve will briefly wrap us in Guy Lombardo’s “Auld Lang Syne” and Bing Crosby’s “Let’s Start the New Year Right”, but then what? How about an “On Lake Champlain” singalong? It’s only two verses, and I’m able to offer some constructive coaching since my previous post.

    Let’s rewind back to my discovery of this early 20th century song.

    Care to join me for a singalong? Today I’d like to share with you the sheet music cover image for the song, “On Lake Champlain” by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble.

    […]

    So for now I’ll pause this post in the hope that the vintage color lithograph for Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble’s sheet music will miraculously move us closer to an audible version of “On Lake Champlain”. If fortune smiles upon us, I’ll update this post. (Source: “On Lake Champlain” Song by Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    I have some good news for you. Today I’m ready to pass along the original sheet music, several early recordings (pops, scratches, and all), and a stripped down midi recording if you’d like to rig up your own karaoke.

    Columbia Record's “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)
    Columbia Record’s “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    Sterling Trio & Mills Brothers

    Without further ado, I invite you to hear the song as it was originally recorded. Enjoy.

    If you experiment with pitch and tempo, you might modernize this ditty by a few decades, possibly rendering it a little catchier in the process.

    In addition to the Columbia Record version above here are links to the Victor recording (Sterling Trio), the Decca recording (Mills Brothers), and the Silvertone recording (Vocal Trio; Orchestra Accompaniment).

    Silvertone's “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)
    Silvertone’s “On Lake Champlain” by Sterling Trio (Alfred Bryan and Albert Gumble)

    MIDI Sans Vocals

    The time distorted sound of an old 78 speed LP is evocative and slightly romantic, but what if you’re ready for a “On Lake Champlain” singalong? More good news! You can download Geoff Grainger‘s midi recording of “On Lake Champlain” (part of his online repository and resource called Ditty Box Enterprise) for hours of fireside enjoyment. Of course, you might need to play around with the raw file to make replay convenient. I just slurped it into Garage Band and then output it as an MP3. Good luck.

    “On Lake Champlain” Sheet Music

    Now if you’re feeling ready to invite the neighbors over and spark off the bonfire, I encourage you to first download the sheet music from Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library so that everyone can join in the revelry. After all what fun is an “On Lake Champlain” singalong if you’re solo-ing through two verses while everyone else roasts marshmallows?

    And, once you’re good and comfortable with your new-old song, how about recording it and sending it my way?! Thanks in advance.