Life in the Hudson Valley and Catskills then and now.
Winter is coming fast, and it’s time to abandon the garden for a warm fire and a pile of cozy mysteries. I’d feel that way even if the deer had not broken in and eaten everything this year. I tell myself they were just saving me on cutting back the plants for winter. So in […]
Beverley Nichols: A Dark and Stormy Garden Writer
There is no-one hipper than Johnny Depp. Unless it is Johnny Depp just having sold his yacht to J.K. Rowling for 22 million pounds. No, that is not a typo, although it is by all accounts small potatoes in the oligarch’s world of super-yachts. Rowling, too, has moved on, and the Arriva has arrived at
Hudson Valley Hipster Watch #4: Death on the… er… Rondout Creek?
Of the three iconic literary monsters of the nineteenth century, two of them were created by women writers. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is so well known that she is often (rightly) credited with being the mother of science fiction. Jane Webb’s The Mummy is treated more as a curiosity; indeed she is better known as a
I admit I had my snark cannon loaded for camelid when I first got wind of the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival. (So to speak. Barns smell like barns regardless of whether they are inhabited by horses, cows, goats, or alpacas.) But then I gave ear to the insidious little voice in the back of
Hudson Valley Hipster Watch #3: Admit it. You Want to Pat a Llama Too.
Remember summer camp? Remember reveille at 6:30? Remember the swim instructor who wouldn’t let you go to lunch until you jumped into the icy water over your head? Remember arts and crafts and the various mysteries of beads, lariats, and decoupage? Remember the communal toilets and showers? Most of all, remember those tents set up
Hudson Valley Hipster Watch #2: Glamping — So Old It’s New
Yeah, really. That’s what it says. Destination Hamburgers of the Hudson Valley. Because who among us doesn’t crave peanut butter on their pork belly burger?r The fictional town of Morgansburg, where The Brooklyn North Murder is set, is on the other side of the Hudson from where I live in Woodstock, but neither shore has
Hudson Valley Hipster Watch: Destination Hamburgers of the Hudson Valley
Please come over to Shepherd.com to find five traditional mysteries, old and new, that inspired The Brooklyn North Murder. And while you’re there, you can preorder a copy of the first Watson & Doyle full-length adventure (hint, hint).
Come Find Five Books that Inspired Watson & Doyle
Elizabeth von Arnim was not a garden writer, but she was a writer whose garden made her famous — as well as being the source of her name. She is now most famous for her novel The Enchanted April, which was made into a 1991 movie featuring Joan Plowright, Polly Walker, Miranda Richardson, and Josie
This has been a fantastic year for peonies — a flower as fantastic as the stories of its origin. The flower is named for Paeon, the physician to the gods in Greek mythology, who angered his teacher Asclepius when he used an extract from the root of the peony to cure Pluto. When a jealous
Peonies: A Fantastic Year for a Fantastic Flower
This is the first year that every single Cypripedium in our garden has bloomed — and sequentially, no less, so we’ve had lady’s slippers all May. No, these were not in our garden, but well worth the mile-long hike in 94 degree heat up the trail across the road from our house. First identified in
What’s in a Name? Lady’s Slippers at Byrdcliffe