If you've ever spent any time at Irving Farm in Millerton, chances are you've seen Jenny Hansell camped out there. As the executive director of the North East Community Center, she is always working on projects such as the farmer's market, annual Spring for Sound Festival or community-minded programs that help youth and senior citizens. A photographer, she takes advantage of the beauty surrounding her Sharon home as she hikes the area, sometimes with her dog or daughters, and always with a camera. I moved to Sharon with my husband, Fred Baumgarten, in January 1998 after a life in cities: Detroit, New Haven and Brooklyn. Our daughters, born in 1999 and 2002, are local girls, born in Sharon Hospital. We lived in a big stone house on West Cornwall Road, at Miles Wildlife Sanctuary and I was telecommuting (back in the days of the dial-up modem) to my job at Sesame Street Online. Living at Miles was a beautiful way to be introduced to the rural life. There’s a pretty hike around the pond that was great when our children were little because a 45-minute hike felt like a real adventure. You can stop and watch the beavers slap the water with their tails, hear owls and coyotes and we even saw a bear on the lawn once. A few years later we bought a house in Sharon. I started Sharon CT Daily Photo, inspired by a growing city daily photo movement that began in Paris. I made it a point to travel on every road in the town in every season and I posted daily photographs for about five years. Now that I have my first-ever dog, a sweet little rescue named Hazel Grace, we walk the green, or up Low Road to see the cows (of which Hazel Grace is afraid). Since I work in Millerton, we’ll be spending time on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail as soon as the ice melts. My favorite longer hikes are Lion’s Head in Salisbury and Bash Bish Falls in Copake. Both are kid-friendly but when you get to the top it feels like a real accomplishment and like you’ve gotten somewhere very far away from where you started.
I have my own chickens so I don’t go out to breakfast much, but if I do, Irving Farm’s Evil Moo wrap is my favorite. I recently had the bright idea to request it with bacon, so now it’s the perfect food: eggs, goat cheese, hot sauce and bacon in a wrap. I should probably set up a second office in Irving as there’s always someone I need or want to talk to there, whether it’s someone from The Music Cellar or The Moviehouse. I love both the changing street life of Millerton — the new shops and shopkeepers always coming along — and the old standbys who've anchored the town for decades. I’ve bought hundreds of books and birthday presents at Oblong, seen hundreds of movies at The Moviehouse and I always stop and inhale when I walk by Kamilla’s Floral Boutique. She’s going to teach me to turn my pretty eggs into a flower arrangement for spring — maybe I’ll post a picture on Sharon CT Daily Photo.
