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snow long, winter. koyapigaktoruk! spring
We’re all familiar with the urban legend that Eskimos have dozens of names for snow; Webster’s Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary alone lists 32. After that blizzard at the end of February, it’s safe to assume...
View ArticleBest Local Burger
Wherever you live, try to source pastured beef from a local farm. There are numerous environmental and health-related reasons to do so, but let’s focus on flavor. Grass-fed or grass-finished humanely...
View ArticleIt’s Never Too Late: End of Summer Color in the Garden
This fall, after a twenty-six year hiatus, I will return to school to begin work toward my M.Div. degree. One could say I’m a late bloomer – a label I gladly embrace, knowing that there’s beauty in...
View Articleon our way to fall
It is late August as I write this and the leaves on top of Mt. Beacon are turning red around the edges. This is what happens when you have weeks with no rain and the thermometer dips below 60 degrees....
View ArticleStork in the Road
The big box bookstore near us was going out of business. We had a brand new bookshelf in the nursery, waiting to be filled with books. Books to be read under the covers with a flashlight, books to be...
View ArticleIn the Gloaming
I am so grateful for the gloaming – defined as twilight, that glow of the day just after the sun has set and magic colors endure briefly as the night descends upon the land. I love the concept of the...
View ArticleUnder the Radar
The inspiration to become a weatherman came to Alex Marra in a flash…literally. “I was 6 or 7 years old,” he tells us at the end of an unseasonably warm late November day on the shores of Beacon’s Long...
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A Currant Affair
Entrance to Tousey Winery Tasting Room photo by Jen Kiaba Tousey Winery, in Germantown, began in 2006 with a dream. Founder and beekeeper Ray Tousey longed to make his own cassis, a liqueur that has a...
View ArticleBaby We Were Born This Way
Lacking any real need to be delivered from the weather elements, for this year’s “Cabin Fever” issue I find myself contemplating other aspects of this time of year that traditionally chill me to the...
View ArticleLong Days, Short Years
I have two new role models for fatherhood. One of them is the celebrated astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Dr. Tyson is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural...
View ArticleClimate Change Communication: The Role of the Messenger
Since 1970, the average annual temperature in New York has risen 2.4°F. This rise in temperature represents only a fraction of the warming we could see over the next 60 years under climate change...
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Gardening Happenings Calendar
Garden Volunteer Opportunities F.W. Vanderbilt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, NY 12538 Ongoing throughout summer: The not-for-profit Frederick W. Vanderbilt Garden Association needs volunteers to...
View ArticleFairs & Festivals
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival 1601 Rte. 9D, Garrison, NY 10524 Through September 2: In it’s 26th year, the critically-acclaimed Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is dedicated to producing the...
View ArticleLong Days, Short Years
The boy and I were having problems. Problems involving storytime. Storytime is serious business around the Cronin household. Has been since I was Cooper’s age. My mother still tells the story about the...
View ArticleFrightful Fun Calendar of Halloween Events
Frankenstein’s Fortress 86 Creamery Rd., Stanfordville, NY Weekends in October, Fri. & Sat., 6:30-9:30 p.m.; Sun., 6:30-8:30 p.m.: Haunted theme park under the artistic direction of Wing’s Castle...
View ArticleConsidering Gratitude
Well it’s that time of year again for us at Hudson Valley Mercantile. It’s time to take a few moments out of our hectic lives to pause and reflect on all the things for which we are thankful. This...
View ArticleThe Ghost of Christmas Past
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ghost of Christmas past. As strictly a literary device Charles Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Past from his classic A Christmas Carol offers a fantastic...
View ArticleBronck House Celebrates 350
What makes a house venerable? Its condition, historic or architectural importance, or just survival? Each is significant provided of course that they are the attributes of a house that has also...
View ArticleThe Bronck Family: The First Generations
There is an incessant stream of cars on their way across the Willis Avenue Bridge. The giant forest trees, the beavers and even the humble marsh hay all are gone, as are his house and barns. The fields...
View Article10th Annual National Donate Life Month
April. Images of Spring, daffodils blooming, the sense of renewal. It is also National Donate Life Month. Established in 2003, this designated month commemorates those who have received or continue to...
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