Welcome, Winter

Snow has finally started to accumulate around the house, and undulating ribbons of ice are forming atop the various small bays around the lake. For now, the main body of the lake continues to resist dropping temperatures and frozen precipitation, its current still marching on. Having wavered now for several weeks, it seems that the environment around us has plunged into Winter at last.

It's at these times that I sometimes like to think of the season we've just left behind, as a kind of farewell. This picture was taken during a warm and languid Fall evening several weeks ago. Welcome, Winter.

The Forge House, Old Forge, New York

Camp Penwood in Winter

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Photo Credit: Mark Burstein
As soon as the cold hits the Adirondacks, the sunny days on the lake are gone. It becomes a different world, quiet and cold, remote, solitary. The summer days, like this one, are energetic and warm, full of possibility. The world outside is inviting and sometimes it seems dreamlike. The winter season has such moments, too, but fewer of them. The quality of air and light is different once the snow comes. This is a perfect view on a perfect day in the Adirondacks.

Snow Transforms the Landscape

With winter upon us, I have been thinking of how dramatically the landscape changes in the Adirondacks at each season. This little boathouse, at Twin Coves, looks and feels like a different place in the winter than in the summer. You can see it out the windows from one of our guest rooms and I always snap a few photos of it when I have the chance. Standing in the same spot, taking the photo, it even feels as if I am in a different place - the silence surrounds and penetrates the forest when it snows. The boats and fishermen are gone. The waves no longer lap up against the shore and the breakwater. The beach is frozen, mute. This boathouse is in a small bay called Pine Bay and is eerily quiet when the snow comes. Isn't it grand?

The Thanksgiving Table, Adirondack Style

We had always wanted to have Thanksgiving in the Adirondacks. Now that we have a year-round home, we celebrated the first Penwood Thanksgiving at this table. The table is by Stickley, as are the chairs. The chairs are Harvey Ellis by Stickley, each with inlay in the back of the chair. The snow was beginning to build up outside and the fire was burning inside. The table was set for the culinary show. We love round dining tables like this one because nobody is at the head - and it promotes great conversations.

The Snow Returns to Old Forge

Old Forge is in a state of crisis. The snow has returned! Having spent only the warm and beautiful months at Penwood growing up, I did not understand the degree to which having an Adirondack home is - a battle. A battle with nature, with time. This photograph is of the lean-to and fireplace at the shore of Fourth Lake. As a child, I camped out here from time to time. It was frightening and exhilarating - unprotected from the elements, anything might happen. The roof of the lean-to had been replaced with an ugly metal roof at some point along the way. Last year, we had cedar shingles installed again. Though we don't use the lean-to very often, I love to look at it and stop by to visit: it's our sentinel - watching over Penwood, gazing out at the lake, waiting for us to return.

In honor of Daylight Savings Time in the U.S.

While I am personally partial to Autumn, many Adirondackers believe that Winter is the most beautiful time of year. It is a time of crystalline light and endless silences, when the land is cast in white. Sometimes, it seems that the Adirondacks are at their most forbidding in Winter, but they are also at their simplest. It is then that the dizzying species of flora and fauna lay dormant, and the land is reduced to ice, snow and wood. The sun, low in the sky, is so enfeebled that one can almost gaze at it in a manner that would be unthinkable in Summer. By January, the lakes freeze to a depth of two feet and thus become terra firma, to such a point that locals are known even to drive cars on them (not that I would ever dare). I do go out on the lake with my snowshoes and enjoy walking out to its center, where I am surrounded by nothing but the purest white.

Penwood Main Lodge in Winter

When it snows in Old Forge, it snows! Here is a view of the main lodge at Penwood in the middle of Winter 2005. The house is covered in snow and the woods are eerily quiet. There is a lone snowmobile in the distance, barely audible. The house is about 100 years old and has its own personality, its own stubborn soul. You can't recreate such character, at any price. It's a member of the family.

Twin Coves Boathouse, Fourth Lake

Twin Coves is just across Pine Bay from Penwood. This charming little boathouse is the same as it was when the Adirondack Boys were babies. It has witnessed everything that has entered Pine Bay and has not changed a bit across the decades. In all this time, I have never seen a boat enter or leave the boathouse, but I love to look at it from the shore and to photograph it as the seasons change. Red and brown are true Adirondack colors and I hope it never changes.

The Ice Recedes

Each year, the ice in Fourth Lake begins to recede and the lake comes to life. Here, the ice begins its annual retreat in April 2006, in Pine Bay, Fourth Lake. Not long after, my mother begins to put her feet into the lake and is swimming before anyone else in the Park.