photography

All in a day

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Monday was a blur. The weather was perfect, monarch butterflies were swarming the island and we had a work party of window warriors and more arrive with a journalist documenting Seguin as unique home.

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They traveled by boat and dinghy with windows, lumber and lots of camera gear. Amazingly, only our feet got wet.

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They installed two complete windows in the foyer; finished, caulked and painted a window in the museum; blasted and pointed brick mortar; stowed benches; installed window grates; packed up the store and museum; and greased the tram’s cable.

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While at the same time, butterflies swarmed and a Coopers hawk and several sharp shinned hawks circled the island.

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Why be a lighthouse caretaker?

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I had an epiphany while mowing for several hours yesterday. I ran into the typical problems: mower hard to start until I got the nack; wheel fell off and I had to hunt the fresh mown grass for it; and the shooter kept falling off.

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The morning was glorious and we had lovely visitors, they arrived and left early because the weather was predicted to change.

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And it did. The wind picked up while I finished the lawn and I had my aha moment. My hair was whipping in my eyes and mouth, the fog horn was blowing and the flag was flying straight off the pole.

I love offshore lighthouse caretaking for the extremes of weather I get to experience. Strong wind and gales, pea soup fog, crashing waves, rainbows and amazing sky. I explained this to Tim in the afternoon and then, as if to prove my point, a front blew by last night.

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Here’s the real time Radar imagery.

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Make that 51 shades of gray

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I spoke too soon. Yesterday was forecast to be partly sunny. If that means fog so thick you can’t see 100 yards, then it was. We were surprised by a knock at the door in the dark and fog by a trio of young men who sailed here from Portland. I expect we’ll hear more from them this morning.

We had a few other visitors during the day.

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A photographer, Friend of Seguin, came out to photo-document the buildings. Capt. Ethan also brought a young family from our neck of the woods, Lake Champlain. They own a CSA, Blue Heron Farm, on Grand Isle, VT and were here for an end of season vacation with their adorable daughters. Their CSA includes yarn!!!

I have yet to identify a family of small hawks who call the island home. I can’t find the Peterson bird book that used to be here, so I am using my Audobon app which is even better.

Today is glorious. Sunny and warmer. I’m not even wearing any wool. Very optimistic.

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I may even need my sunglasses with their homemade croakies.

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Fifty shades of grey

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20121004-190933.jpgI mean fog. We had another perfect day of lighthouse weather. Rain and fog. The fog horn blew all day but it’s much quieter than I remember. The windows are closed but I think it’s more than that.

I could tell the fog would settle last night. There was a feeling in the air. More damp and still. The scenery came in and out of focus all day as the fog lifted and fell. We could often hear a boat engine without being able to spot any boat. The birds frolicked all day.

Wool socks kept me happy on the trails. They were saturated but my feet were warm. I donned full foulies for a trip to the cove and was quite content- rain and all.

We cleared some sumac and I made a Hawaiian pizza and apple pie. Another amazing day.

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Taking stock

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We’ve had a couple of days to settle in and meander about the island. It stirs so many memories. We learned so much our first summer as caretakers and got to share it with friends and family and those memories abound: Kristi’s lighthouse door, sanded, steel woolen, painted and painted; Andre working the rider mower ( which is presently disassembled in the whistle house) and his panoramic photo with labels; the Mount brothers’ glass block window in the lighthouse; our first Aldo Leopold bench. Now we rip and saw, carefully, but without hesitation.

The trails are in great shape and the keeper’s quarters are homier than they have ever been. We even have the resident, annual, abandoned, juvenile seagull.

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I’ve knit a pair of socks each time I have been here and this trip will produce a new pair. In the meantime, I am wearing the old ones.

Back to island life

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We left home at 0800, passed a stray cow on the road at 8:15 ( the farmer didn’t seem to mind), boarded a ferry, drove through mist, fog, heavy rain and light rain. The leaves in northern VT were beautiful.

We got close to the final boat ride and it was raining steadily (but the wind wasn’t too bad). I have to admit I thought the Holiday Inn in Bath looked pretty attractive at that point, but figured it’s always a minor hassle moving to the island, it would probably be more pleasant in nice weather but a little rain wasn’t really a problem. Besides, Capt. Ethan assured us it would be sunny on the island and he was right. So we donned our foulies, put our stuff in garbage bags and Away we went.

And he was right. I even saw a rainbow wannabe. It was more like a prism on the horizon because it was truncated by the low cloud ceiling.

By 5 pm, we were ashore and our food was in the refrigerator. So we had plenty of time to admire all the work which has been done since our last visit and to settle in to island life again.

We’re settled in and the wind picked up and blew all night from the Sou’west. Perfect lighthouse weather!

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And on the sixth day

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I have been relieved of cabin building duties and returned to the loom. I left Tim on the roof, the shiny metal roof, which lies on top of ceiling boards, strapping and felt paper.

I am the cutter extraordinaire (except I hate the circular saw, which has too much kick back for Ii’l ole me) so I don’t cut strapping or the metal roof. Mostly I am ballast at the bottom of tall, unstable ladders because I don’t climb on roofs either. Good help is hard to find.

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So six days and 500+ weaver’s knots later, I am weaving again. I’m not sure if tying onto the old was a big time saver because I had a lot of repairs to do before all went smoothly.

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They say you can tell how a weaving project is going by looking at the back of the loom where all the repairs are obvious. Here are mine.

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The weaver’s knot came in handy on the roof. I used it as a sheet bend to tie two ropes together, which held the ladder on the roof. Life imitates weaving.

Getting ready to tie one on

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Tie one onto my loom that is! I have been so busy. My floor loom is languishing and has been sitting there with my last project still threaded so I can use the same stripe pattern for a new batch of towels.

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Last week we were blessed with perfect weather and went sailing for 5 days on Lake Champlain. It began warm, got very windy, rained a little and cooled off. I swam 2 or 3 days off the boat (our hot water shower is not) and love fresh water.

We spent two nights at Valcour Island and explored the trails, lighthouse and other ruins. I thought I was tracking bear scat but now think it may have been coyote. In the late 1800’s, there were camps, the lighthouse and a scandalous, free love commune on Valcour. During the Revolutionary War the island was the stage for the first naval battle in the United States, when Benedict Arnold was an underfunded hero.

No approach shots because it was so windy but here’s a typical rock island with evergreens.

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The lighthouse had its light removed in the 1930’s and was replaced by a steel tower as happened in several lighthouses along the lake. Happily now, the steel tower is an osprey nest and the light is back where it belongs.

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The wind was behind us when we headed north and then spun around and followed us home, which made for a very pleasant sail.

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Roofing 101

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I’ve been hijacked from my knitting, quilting and weaving. Tim got a big boost on the cabin last weekend when Andre and Doug visited and helped figure out and lay the roof.

Then they left and he was stuck with me to finish up. I’m not much help since I don’t enjoy teetering off the tops of ladders or hanging from the rooftop.

Yesterday we were racing the weather. Sparks were flying.

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Thunderstorms moved in and I didn’t think it was such a good idea to be on a hill, the highest point on our property, standing on an aluminum ladder while holding onto a tin roof. So I quit.

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I have to admit, it was very cozy standing in the cabin, dry, while the storm moved through.

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Today we finished up one side of the roof (check out Tim’s blog for photos) and I finally had a chance to play with fiber.

I finished a wedding quilt,

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built a copper loom and had a chance to try tablet weaving. I borrowed the idea for the loom from another weaver.

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Tablet or card weaving is so simple but can produce wonderful results I even had an aha moment.

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