This is a most wonderful addition to the OurRumpus arsenal – the clan extends its appreciation to David and Anne and look forward to future tips and advice from our West Coast vinologists.

LC

“In the narrowest sense, Down East refers to the coast of the U.S. state of Maine from Penobscot Bay to the Canadian border.”

Thus does wikipedia define the term that is the title of this posting. Clan members not only visited the Upper Country (see The Shashoo) this summer but went Down East as well. Here the Quicks hosted the San Francisco Skinners (Tersh, Kathy, and Sophie) at Vinylhaven and have kindly shared some photos for the rumpus.

 

Kathy Goes A-Lobstering

Beach Picnic with Sophie, Kathy,
Richard and Jennie

Tertius with his
(look closely!) Catch

Richard with his Catch

 

Fast Forward to The Desert Southwest where Kate’s now a Junior(!) at St John’s:

Kate gracing her 150 yr old Adobe Digs at Santa Fe

Ready for the big screen? Where are the photos of your summer escapades? Send them in!
(chamberlain@ourrumpus.com)

LC

Jack Cromie has always wanted to build a wooden boat. This August, after completing a course in Classics (Greek) and before resuming his mechanical engineering courses, Jack grabbed his chance. He and his brother Bill discovered a two week, hands-on course in wooden boat building at the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville Michigan. This happens to be five miles down highway 134 from Hessel MI, the old summer stomping grounds of the Skinner/Adams tribe in the Les Cheneaux Islands. These protected waters on the north shore of Lake Huron are a perfect place for wooden boats – indeed, early in the 20th century, the very first mohogany-hulled Chris-Crafts were sold in Hessel at the Mertaugh Boat Works. So it is understandable why one of the premiere wooden boat building schools in the country would locate here. The stars seemed aligned for Jack to fulfill his boat building ambition. The goal? – to make a wooden canoe for the lakes of upstate New York.

Here are a few photos showing Jack and Bill at work, and the end result: The Shashoo – an elegant hand-crafted wooden canoe.

 

Cromie Boys at GLBBS 2009

Cedar strips used to fashion hull

Bulkhead compartment epoxied…

Japanese saw used to cut decking…

Hull gets sanded smooth…

Decking nears completion…

Bow Closeup before brass plating

She’s coaxed to water’s edge…

And Baptised

Test Pilot Bill

Then Jack…No leaks!

Professor Nichols with his Students

Off to New York with Shashoo

 

BTW, Lest you think the two weeks were all work, a couple of shots of the Cromies at play:

Jack prepares for Half Moon Bay

Malibu Bill…

Lookout O’Toole, kitesurfing is next for the Cromie boys!

What did you do this summer?

LC

Sarah Porter ends her year in South East Asia with a return through Greece and England. Here are some snapshots to complete our Keeping Up with Sarah Porter series.

Corfu – In Search of Steve McQueen

Athens -In Search of the Elgin Marbles

Wiltshire – In Search of Law Ancestry

Many thanks to Sarah for sharing her travels with the clan, and best wishes as she begins business school in the Big Apple this fall.

LC

Keeping up with Katherine Law (KUKL) Part I

As you may know, Katherine is studying Mandarin in China and is keeping family appraised of her doings. Here is what she writes:

“Hello, all is well here in China, I’m settling down to the life of a student in the dorms, with dictionaries, calligraphy books, internet connection, tea pots and water bottles, food, room, subway and Id cards. I am having a wonderful time and am making progress with my Chinese.

Anne Mao and Gu, Qun’s friends and Virginia Moore helped introduce me to China. Lunch and breakfast with Virginia from restaurants with wonderful river views: the barge traffic waiting to take advantage of the tide and then the river is full of barges with the ferry weaving in and out between. Huge cranes such as Virginia and Mark use working their way up river.

Anne and Gu took me to Pudong and we arrived just as a storm was threatening: skyscrapers against a matte gray sky, just glittering….hours in the shanghai art museum-just fabulous.

I have visited Tian’an men square, the Forbidden City with its outstanding palace museum, a taoist temple with priests chanting. Just wonderful and then walking the streets and seeing wonderful sights, people out dancing to music set up in a park, exercising, playing cards, making wonderful flowers and birds out of palm leaves, such as we know for Easter, rows of bicycles outside the subway station, such a good public transport system.”

Here are some of the photos that Katherine has sent:

 

Dongyue temple, Beijing. The Dongyue temple is a Taoist temple and these are priests heading to the altar to chant and play musical instruments, oblivious of the few tourists sightseeing in their temple. The altar is laden with platters of fresh fruit. Several flags flutter displaying the traditional yin-yang symbol. In the courtyard of the temple are numerous rooms, each one representing a Department.

Here is the Department which controls the demons that roam around and makes them behave. One of my friends in Malaysia goes around the world giving Qigong breathing workshops for cancer patients. Qigong breathing has a connection with Daoism.

Me on the Bund, Shanghai. This is a wonderful restaurant right on the Bund with terrace seating and surround views of SOME of the skyscrapers in Pudong. The sun is so bright, so one needs to think of bright, bright light hitting the steel frames of these structures. To see what one is taking one has to take cover with an umbrella or big hat, otherwise it is click and shoot. Just imagine Pudong this way: right before a storm gleaming silver structures against a matte gray sky. Absolutely striking. Entrepreneurs are trying to work with some of the old buildings and rehabilitate them.

Weapon, Xia dynasty, 1800 +/- BC, Shanghai Art Museum. This is my first-ever viewing of a Xia object. How exciting. It is inlaid with turquoise. The exhibits are arranged by material, so jade, calligraphy, painting, coins, bronzes, porcelain, seals, etc. And within each exhibit one travels through the dynasties viewing just that art form. This time table format of exhibiting is fascinating. One does not have to love what is under one’s eyes as if this is what there is and it is Chinese and so just love it. One has a wealth of objects from each dynasty and one can wait until the jewel appears and then say “Ah, this is the one I love!”

 

We look forward to further postings from Katherine. She has had difficulty posting to her Ling in China site and for now we will carry her postings…

Kudos from the Chamber to Clan Members Bill Skinner and Katherine Law.

Bill Skinner’s D.C. lawfirm Covington & Burling recently received their second award for excellence from London based Chambers & Partners for being the leading pro-policyholder law firm in the U.S. What is Chambers? Here’s a synopsis:

Since 1990, Chambers has published the world’s leading guides to the legal profession and has built a reputation for in-depth, objective research.

We have a team of 100 highly qualified full-time researchers who conduct thousands of interviews with lawyers and their clients worldwide. Working with our editors, they identify and rank the world’s best lawyers (i.e. those which perform best according to the criteria most valued by clients – such as technical expertise, business acumen, prompt delivery, value for money).

On the basis of this research, we hold award ceremonies to honour outstanding practitioners around the world.

Mind you, this award giving outfit Chambers is not connected to the famous Chambers Clan, but it does seem appropriate somehow that they recognize the talent of Chambers’ progeny. Here’s what they had to say about Covington & Burling and Bill Skinner:

This top-notch insurance practice has seen much success in recent times, both in terms of its caseload and overall development. What was once perceived as an East Coast-centric firm has now bolstered its presence on the West Coast through its acquisition of ex-Heller Ehrman attorneys David Goodwin and Lawrence Hobel in San Francisco, which has prompted interviewees to identify it as the “top policyholder insurance practice in the country…

… In addition to achieving victory on behalf of Merck in a London arbitration involving coverage for Vioxx-related claims, it successfully represented Foster Wheeler in an appeal before the New Court of Appeals. Washington, DC-based William Skinner played a leading role on both matters. Clients identify him as “one of the best insurance coverage litigators around,” and praise his meticulous approach and practical advocacy”….

…These lawyers are part of a team of more than 100 attorneys, lauded by sources as the “gold standard” for policyholder work.”. . .

…Clients consistently highlight Covington & Burling as their number-one choice, while peers, without fail, single it out as their most formidable competitor. “You get nervous when you are up against them because they are so good,” one rival revealed.

Such accolades come as no surprise to those that know Bill. Congratulations are indeed in order!

Blogging by clansmen it seems is not limited to OurRumpus. We take pleasure in announcing another Clan Blogger, Katherine Law, who has opened her new site “Ling in China“. Katherine is undertaking an intensive course in Chinese this summer and plans to blog about it from Beijing:

” I thought it might be fun for me to blog and it would really force me to take notes and put in words some of what I observe in China. “

We will look forward to following Katherine’s blog as she travels and studies. The tree isn’t far from the fallen apple…? Not an old Chinese proverb, but still apropos given the series of KUSP posts (KUSP I, KUSP II, and KUSP III) that our readers will recall. Triple Blogging Happiness Katherine!

LC