hudson valley towns

it's in the 60s and it looks like the springy temperatures are here to stay.  yay!! here are a few moments from my weekend...

i roamed the streets of kingston while hhh perused the local record shop.

we had lunch at duo bistro, which was totally delicious.  

we also went up to hudson where i wandered some more while hhh looked for more records. (there's a theme here.) 

i went to rural residence, which stocks gorgeous textiles and a nice collection of candles (above), as well as talbott & arding, a new cheese and provisions shop. there were some really tasty things there.

looking forward to a lot more day trips upstate this spring!  

poughkeepsie farm project & vassar ecological preserve

it's the weekend! i'm back in the city, and hhh is selling records at the bk flea today. i have to do some work first, but then i'm planning to meet up with him (and to get some tasty snacks at smorgasborg). i think it'll be a good weekend.

last weekend was pretty good too. we did some exploring and one of the places we checked out was just down the street from our campus apartment. vassar has a farm and ecological preserve! as you can see from the exclamation mark, i'm very excited about this. there are several trails on varying terrains, community plots with all kinds of vegetables and flowers, and a farm staffed by the the poughkeepsie farm project. the place was pretty deserted last sunday, but it made for some nice wandering around. 

vassar also conducts scientific research on the farm and preserve. we came across the collins field station about halfway through our loop, and it looks like that is where the field research activities are based. hhh thought it was someone's house. 

in total, it's 527 acres of earthy goodness. 

we started at the farm, and came back to it at the end. some of the sections were divided into smaller plots (for individuals to farm?). there was also a meditation garden (though locked), and a larger plot currently offering csa members raspberries via the honor system. we were tempted. 

these are the buildings back at the entrance. looks like the office of the poughkeepsie farm project.

what are your plans this weekend? 

a cabin in the woods

this is my new house!

just kidding. this is the model home at hudson woods, a new architect-designed development west of the hudson river and about three hours north of new york city. the architect is drew lang, and he gave us a tour last weekend. the place is gorgeous.

the details are incredible and the add-ons are the stuff of dreams, as if the house itself isn't enough. fruit tree grove, anyone? pool? or a 2-bed/2-bath guesthouse? i'd definitely go for the greenhouse and vegetable garden.

anyway, here are the photos! peruse them while i go convince hhh that we need one of these.

the winding road to kerhonkson. it took longer than we thought it would...but it was scenic!

the functional and lovely entryway. 

a view from the living room out towards the pool. the furniture is all from small makers, a lot of them local. 

the kitchen is compact but has everything you need, plus a tiled backsplash from heath ceramics. you get a choice of color. 

i would almost be willing to live outside nyc if i got to live here. 

the master bath.

view from the master bedroom.

the master bedroom. 

the downstairs den, which gets plenty of light from big picture windows that look out onto the trees. the door back there leads to the laundry room. 

another view of the den. this door leads to a spacious storage area.

the laundry room.

the second bedroom. 

the second bath. 

the third bedroom, with build-in wood shelving and heavy felt grey curtains as closet doors. 

another glimpse of the third bedroom.

a view out one of the windows on the lower level. 

across from the main house, there is a garage/studio space. 

the deck, which wraps around the first (upper) level of the cabin. 

the pool. i could really get used to this.

the view of the house as you drive up towards it. no windows on this side. good for privacy? 

the driveway. i was so sad to leave. 

summertime in the hudson valley

this summer has been full of trips to the hudson valley for me. after a year in china, it's hard to believe that i'm back in new york for good, so i haven't had the urge to stray too far. plus now that we're going to be in poughkeepsie part of the week, it's basically my new (second) neighborhood. it's been great exploring more of new york state. 

as a last hurrah before the semester starts, hhh and i rented a place in copake with some friends. the town is teeny tiny - the town center consists of a diner and the front porch market. there's not much else! but it's equidistant between hudson and great barrington, ma, so there's plenty to do. the copake hillsdale farmers market is nearby for some great local produce, flowers, eggs, and meats. the house was this incredibly picturesque and very rustic lodge (too rustic! i killed about 15 spiders while we were there). 

i lounged by the pool, read books, watched numerous episodes of a really bad (but very engrossing) canadian sci-fi show, took long walks with willa, and ate really good home-cooked meals by my friend sarah, aka our resident chef. (she even made hand-cut pasta!) 

the more ambitious among us played tennis and biked on the harlem rail trail, but i was happy to just squeeze in a leisurely stroll up to bash bish falls. (well, we did have to walk all the way to massachusetts.) on the way there, we walked past the historic site of copake iron works, which is housed in this adorable white cabin. 

there were a lot of people at the falls, but it was still pretty glorious. nature! 

we made it to great barrington mid-week, and had some reeallly delicious breakfast sandwiches at rubi's as well as a cinnamon donut muffin and some coffee cake. rubi's is actually right behind rubiners, a cheese place with a nice selection of cheeses from all over.

i'm looking forward to spending more time out of the city. but i'm going on four days now here in the poughkeepsie apartment, and find myself missing nyc. good thing i'm going home tomorrow! 

sprout creek farm

last week, we moved some furniture up to the campus apartment. on the way out of town, we stopped at sprout creek farm. apparently, hhh drives past it all the time and has seen its cheeses in brooklyn markets, but we've never actually visited. 

there is a main complex that houses the market as well as a cow barn, it seems, and a couple other barns. 

sprout creek farm is a working farm and educational center. prior to this, the only farm i'd visited in the hudson valley was stone barns, which is probably way too fancy an establishment to call a farm anyhow. also, i think it's in westchester county, which maybe isn't technically in the hudson valley? anyway. on our visit, there was a group of campers looking like they were learning useful lessons about the earth. there were also other people on tractors, tending to cows, doing generally farmer-eque things. 

i just noticed that those benches are made out of pallets. 

apparently you can stay at a cottage they have on the grounds! they will pair it with meals as well, and if you have kids they can go to camp. i was trying to figure out if they have adult farm classes, but it didn't look like it. (too bad. learning to farm sounds like an excellent way to procrastinate on my dissertation.) 

the porch in front of the market, where i waited with willa while hhh bought some cheese.

the craft barn and a silo.

these goats were awesome! they just kept staring at us as we approached. it sort of looked like they were about to put on some kind of performance. or maybe they expected us to? 

it was a nice little detour on the way back to brooklyn. you should stop by if you have a chance!