Excursions

Community

Upstairs at Olana: Frederic Church Slept Here

During the period (c. 1869) that the great Hudson River School painter Frederic Church was dreaming up his home Olana with the architect Calvert Vaux, Victorian-era domestic architecture was going through it's most flamboyant and fantastical stage.  Though Church was too artistic and cosmopolitan to follow the lead

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Community

Bohemian Rhapsody: At Home with Edna St. Vincent Millay

In her day, the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was a rock star (although, of course, she predeceased rock-'n'-roll.)  Rich, famous and influential, she lived for 25 years in grand, back-to-the-land, high-bohemian style with her husband at Steepletop, their estate in Austerlitz, NY, where she died

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Community

Spring for Art: 50 More Reasons to Visit Millerton

In the past two years, RI has given you a baker's dozen of good reasons to visit Millerton, NY: 1.Harney Tea Bar After shopping for tea in the tasting room, you can have a civilized lunch at the adjacent tea bar. 2.HunterBee Jonathan Bee and Kent

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Community

A General Store at A Crossroads in Warren, CT

"Doesn't every small country town deserve to have a general store?" says Maureen Jones, who is hosting an open house this weekend at the Warren General Store, which she and her husband, Clifford, opened two months ago. Jones credits her landlord, the legendary retailer Joe Cicio

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Community

New Year, New You...(And Some Sweetheart Deals)

Kathryn Matthews is a lifestyles writer based in New York City and Red Hook, Dutchess County.  She frequently writes about travel, health, food and leisure for the New York Times, Town & Country and O Magazine. On New Year’s Eve, you swore that THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT.  You’

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Community

The Salisbury Ski Jumps - Our Winter Olympics

For 84 years, the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) has promised Olympic level competition at the Annual U.S. Eastern Ski Jumping Championships, and the SWSA is good to its word. Last year, we got to see Pete Frenette compete on historic Satré Hill. This year, he's not

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Community

Excursions: Historic Fashion, The Inside Story

The inventor of the loincloth may have been the first homo sapien to get TMI.  Undergarments have been shaping the truth ever since. Bodies never change, but since fashion silhouettes do with great frequency, it falls to underwear to make things right—to cinch the bits that bulge and puff

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Community

Laps of Luxury: Where To Swim During the Winter

For some reason, most of the pools in our region seem to be locally-guarded secrets—but no more. You can buy day passes at all of them, and, except for the pool at the preppy Hotchkiss School, you gain access to other fitness equipment like treadmills and weight machines.  All

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Community

"Along Route 7" with Photographer Stephen Donaldson

"I love Route 7," says photographer Stephen Donaldson. "It's not only the history of our region, it's the history of our country. It's the road the defines western New England."  Stretching from  Norwalk, CT, on the Long Island Sound to

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Community

Excursions: Holiday Fetes and Strolls

Holiday spirit is highly infectious—no way you'll catch it at home, watching t.v., and all it takes is one trip to any mall to guarantee immunity well past New Year's Eve.  Our small town holiday festivals, on the other hand, are veritable petri dishes

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Community

Road Trip: Sinterklaas is Comin' to Town

A fairy tale: A town was going through a time of trial, as towns often do when they grow.  Newcomers were impacting the outcomes of elections, and some even took exception to the quasi-religious celebrations that took place seasonally in their children's new schools.  For their part, the

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Community

Christmas Arrives Early at the Berkshire Museum

The 106-year-old Berkshire Museum not only preserves paintings, photographs, antiquities, and other artifacts that depict our region's natural and cultural history; it also safeguards the spirit of traditional New England Christmas. The 25th annual Festival of Trees (through January 3) is an antidote to shopping mall ennui and

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