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In 1979, interior decorator Bunny Williams and her husband, antiques dealer John Rosselli, had a fateful meeting with a poorly cared for — in Williams’s words, “unspoiled” — 18th-century white clapboard home.
“I am not sure if I believe in destiny, but I do know that after years of looking for a house, my palms began to perspire when I turned onto a tree-lined driveway in a small New England village,” Williams wrote in her 2005 book, “An Affair with a House.” The Federal manor high on a hill, along with several later additions that included a converted carriage shed and an 1840-built barn, were constructed on what had been the homestead property of Falls Village’s Brewster family, descendants of Mayflower passenger William Brewster, an English Separatist and Protestant leader in Plymouth Colony.
Williams has written extensively about the renovation of the Falls Village home where she and Rosselli still reside, but in a new book published Tuesday, March 5, from Rizzoli, Williams takes readers to the great, green outdoors. “Life in the Garden,” featuring principal photography by Annie Schlechter and additional photography by James Gillispie, combines matte and glossy paper, color and black and white imagery, as well as essays, seasonal maintenance steps and plant guides to chaperone readers through spring, summer, fall and winter on the Falls Village land. It’s an intimate tour of the gardening efforts that dwell beyond the white border fence on Point of Rocks Road.
“Life in the Garden,” however, is a slightly deceptive misnomer, for there is not one but many unique gardens to discover on Williams’s property, each with their own character.
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For the lovers of planting composition as a form of botanical embroidery, outside of the conservatory is the parterre garden, a formal garden that takes its name from the French for “on the ground.” This style came into English fashion in the 17th century after Claude Mollet, “premier jardinier” for the kings, first introduced the design for French royal gardens at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Fontainebleau. In Williams’s parterre, a pergola covered by the growth of a vigorous William Baffin climbing rose that produces deep strawberry pink semi-double cluster blooms overlooks a rippling sea of blush and berry petals belonging to tall, late-blooming tulips framed in neat patterned squares of boxwood hedges.
Offering appeal for the more rustic and adventurous, hidden beyond the trees is a secret garden found by following a dirt path trail where woodland peonies and Japanese wood poppies will lead you to a cast iron bench overlooking a small pond graced by the extending white flowering branches of dogwood trees.
There are many more spots to discover, each a little world of its own, whether it’s the clucks emanating from the lively chicken coup, the twisting branches of the apple trees, the columns of arborvitae, the Guy Wolff handcrafted clay pottery or the greenhouse where Williams inhales “the delicious scents of jasmine and citrus.”
For the book, Williams and Rizzoli publisher Charles Miers have thrown out strict organization — Claude Mollet be damned — in favor of surprising juxtapositions that place candid family portraits next to quiet snapshots of life on the New England land: a lone limestone chicken sculpture blanketed in snow; a table springing to life with floral arrangements set for guests; a congregation of old watering cans. Per Williams, this anti-organization of photos is for readers to get lost in as they discover contemplation, inspiration and a new visual experience each time the book is opened with fresh eyes.
Whether Bunny Williams’s many Falls Village gardens are set in stone or will continue to evolve, destined to be updated in a future volume, is not for us to know. But if there’s any hint, Williams has included a quote from the late Gertrude Jekyll, the famed British horticulturist and garden designer closely tied to the Arts and Crafts decorative movement of the late 19th century. Perhaps best known for her designs for Munstead Wood, a Grade 1 house in Surrey, Jekyll, an author herself and Country Life columnist, wrote: “In garden arrangement, as in all other kinds of decorative work, one has not only to acquire a knowledge of what to do but also to gain some wisdom in perceiving what it is well to let alone.”
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Jennifer Almquist
On Saturday, March 9, the people of Norfolk, Connecticut, enjoyed a dance performance by northern Connecticut-based Garet&Co, in Battell Chapel, titled INTERIOR, consisting of four pieces: “Forgive Her, Hera,” “Something We Share,” “bodieshatewomen,” and “I kinda wish the apocalypse would just happen already.”
At the sold-out show in the round, the dancers, whose strength, grace and athleticism filled the hall with startling passion, wove their movements within the intimate space to the rhythms of contemporary music. Wierdsma choreographed each piece and curated the music. The track she created for “Something We Share” eerily contained vintage soundtracks from life guidance recordings for the perfect woman of the ‘50s. The effect, with three dancers in satin slips posing before imaginary mirrors, was feminist in its message and left the viewer full of vicarious angst.
Following their performance, Wierdsma and her dancers sat on the dance floor and answered many questions from audience members, regarding subjects such as how long they have been dancing. The six young women have each been dancing for more than 18 years, a lifetime of sweat and discipline, perfecting their craft.
Website: garetwierdsma.com
INTERVIEW:
Jennifer Almquist: What first inspired you to become a dancer?
Garet Wierdsma: I was put into dance when I was 2 years old, in a baby ballet class. My mom was a dancer, my aunt was a dancer. I had the option of choosing between many sports, yet I gravitated to dance because it was quieter. I was very quiet as a child. Dancing gave me a place where I could just be and express myself quietly.
I wasn’t aggressive when I was a kid, but I have become more competitive as I’ve gotten older. I was also lucky enough to have cousins around my age that also danced. Whenever we got together, we made up shows and forced our families to sit and watch us. Those shows were fun, and creating our own thing, then presenting it, planted the seed that made me want to continue and be a choreographer when I got older.
JA: Was there a teacher who inspired you?
GW: I had teachers that I loved. Being a dancer can be difficult. I remember that when I was 7, I was disappointed by not being asked to be in a certain group. When I was 11, in response to losing a part I felt I deserved, I went on a journey to prove them wrong. I switched to a different studio and really connected with my new teacher. I owe a lot of my passion for dance to her. She recognized my quiet personality, my determination. She recognized that I wanted to be as good as I possibly could, even if I wasn’t loud about it.
Her name was Brenda Barna of The Dancing Slipper in Southwick, Massachusetts. Her passion for dance and her passion for movement resonated with me and lit a fire for what I was doing. It wasn’t all about the tricks or skills. She was a person that loved to move and loves music.
JA: Did she help you develop your body physically in a healthy way, build your muscle, your ability to handle what dancers must endure?
GW: So much goes into that training. For me to get to the level I achieved I had to train at that studio as well as at my high school and a ballet school elsewhere. I was also doing intensives all summer long and master classes any weekend that I could. Plus, I was training myself at home by clearing out our living room.
We didn’t have a living room for probably seven years because it was my dance studio. With dance you are also training your brain. You must sit and think about things or discuss things. As a teacher now, I stop class and try to help my students understand the concept, which takes a lot longer. It’s a huge time commitment. It means you must be taking even more time to be able to build up the strength to do it.
JA: Physical strength is essential. How do you sustain that?
GW: Dance is very physical. I think it’s just about that base training, like making sure that you have all the training to back up what you’re doing. I personally don’t take class as much as I used to. I’m not in class every day, but because I was in class every day for six hours a day for more than over 10 years, I have the foundation now to be like, ‘OK, I remember those muscles and I can do it.’
JA: Does that help you know how much you can ask of your dancers?
GW: Exactly! It is important because your dancers look to you for that — how do you know your own body, too. Dancers are really in tune with knowing their limitations or where they can push.
Garet WierdsmaJennifer Almquist
JA: Tell us about creating your dance company, Garet&Co. Are social media, the use of AI [artificial intelligence], and photography or film tools for your business now?
GW: I started my company based on a film. During the downtime of COVID I realized I really love choreography. I’m grateful they had a lot of choreographic opportunities at NYU. I was supposed to create a solo for a show at school, then suddenly we’re all shut down. I decided to make it a film instead and had a fun experience doing that. I submitted the film to a festival; it was accepted.
When I graduated from NYU in 2021, I had been teaching whenever I was back home. I grabbed three of the students I had taught at one of my workshops during the winter — ‘Hey, do you want to make a dance film with me in my backyard?’ We made the film, which I submitted to a few festivals, where we won a couple of awards. Then I accompanied my film to live dance festivals with the intention of saying, ‘Here’s my film but I want to make it a live piece.’ That is how the company started. At festivals I kept being asked what company I was with, and I answered Garet Wierdsma. I finally said that is our name: Garet&Co.
JA: How do you find your original dancers?
GW: I found my dancers a couple of different ways. I asked some of my students to join me. Then the stars lined up when a colleague took a gap year while I wanted to do festivals. She was the first adult professional that joined my company. I put notices for dancers on Facebook and Instagram — ‘Hey I’m looking for dancers. Email me your dance reel and your resume.’ I got some great dancers from that, two of whom are performing in this show tonight. Garet&Co is in our third season, and I held my first audition this year.
JA: What is next for Garet&Co?
GW: We will be continuing to share the joy and catharsis of contemporary dance through offering lots of classes and performances throughout the Northeast this spring and summer, culminating with our Season Four audition in August.
Our upcoming events:
March 24: “Something We Share” at Spark Theatre Festival in New York City
April 7: Garet&Co Contemporary Community Workshop
April 11: Garet&Co Open Company Classes (classes open to all)
April 28: “bodieshatewomen” at Central Connecticut State University
May 4: “bodieshatewomen” at Artistic Dance Festival in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Read the full interview on www.lakevillejournal.com
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Judith O’Hara Balfe
On meeting Kevin McEneaney, one is almost immediately aware of three things; he’s reserved, he’s highly intelligent and he has a good sense of humor.
McEneaney is the wit and wisdom behind The Millbrook Independent, a blog that evolved from the print version of that publication. It's a wealth of information about music venues in this part of Dutchess County interspersed with poetry, art reviews, articles on holidays and other items, and a smattering of science.
Having acquired degrees from the University of Dayton in Ohio in 1970, Middlebury College in Vermont in 1975, and a master’s in philosophy from Columbia University in New York City in 1977, McEneaney was an adjunct college instructor from 1989 until he stopped teaching to write a book in 2009. He taught freshman composition, Introduction to Literature and Russian literature — he and his wife, Veronica, had adopted three children from Russia — at several schools including Marist College, University of Hartford, Quinnipiac University, and SUNY Purchase in White Plains.
Born in Hicksville, New York, McEneaney lived in Ohio, Vermont and Manhattan before finding his way to Dutchess County.
He's been a literary consultant and writer for Encyclopedia Americana; the executive director of the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan; the owner of a successful bookstore on West 55th Street, just off Fifth Avenue. Facsimile Bookshop specialized in Irish literature and history, as well as music recording, carrying books and recordings imported from Ireland and England. When the landlord wouldn’t renew his lease he tried another location, then, in 1987, decided to close.
The next year, his wife got a job in Danbury, and the family left the Upper West Side for Union Vale. They rented a small cottage at the Marion Epley Estate on Route 9, recommended by his friend, novelist Thomas Gallagher.
McEneaney began his career at The Millbrook Independent as a truck driver, delivering newspapers, in 2011, just two years after the paper was first established. (The town's local paper, The Millbrook Round Table, had folded in 200.)
“2011 was the year after my critical book on Tom Wolfe was published, and I had just completed my book on novelist Russell Banks and was beginning my book on Hunter S. Thompson,” he said.
McEneaney is the author of three books: “Hunter S. Thompson: Fear, Loathing, and the Birth of Gonzo”; “Russell Banks: In Search of Freedom”; and “Tom Wolfe’s America: Heroes, Pranksters, and Fools.” He is also a poet and has published two collections: “The Enclosed Garden” and “Longing.” Both were published in French and Japanese as well as English. Unsurprisingly, he also answers to Poet Laureate of Smithfield. His poetry is often found in The Millbrook Independent.
“I was interested in The Millbrook Independent because it was the only venue in the area that offered arts critique as well as local news.”
McEneaney began writing for the Independent when the former owner, Stephen Kaye, asked McEneaney to cover a musical event at Bard College one evening in his stead, in September 2012. He has been writing for the paper ever since.
When circulation for the paper dwindled, Kaye went online; that led to even fewer print sales, and it seemed to be judicious to go completely digital; that happened in 2018.
When Kaye retired, McEneaney took on the blog.
“The new online format, which is the one in existence now, began in spring of 2020,” said McEneaney. “Stephen Kaye had financed the online site and then gave it to me, so I was then sole publisher and editor,” said McEneaney. It remains free.
This is technically McEneaney’s “retirement job” — he’s 76 — but one that he loves and intends to keep on doing for as long as he can. He attends an event and writes it up almost immediately, sometimes posting articles at 1 or 2 a.m. It costs little to keep the blog running, he said, though he dislikes night driving. He can do it all from home, with no inconvenience to his wife or his cat, and he has no editors to answer to.
People love his articles because they contain bits of history, and usually a touch of humor, tongue-in-cheek or otherwise. His recent article in honor of Valentine’s Day started with Claudius II, touched on the beheading of Valentine the physician and Roman Catholic priest who later became St. Valentine, and also mentioned Hamlet, the Duke of Orleans, and finally Catherine Howard, who is responsible for the hearts-and-flowers Valentine’s Day cards we still see today.
“Over the past 20 years, there has been much growth in the arts and there are many more concerts and art exhibitions throughout the county,” said McEneaney. “Dutchess County now has three thriving bookstores. Mid-Hudson Arts now plays a vital role in the county. WMHT radio from Kingston was not available when I first moved to Union Vale.”
McEneaney writes two or three articles a week usually, maybe 100 per year, but there is not a set schedule. He has other writers who submit works from time to time — such as Jim Flaherty, Tim McGonigle and Bill Schlesinger — on topics including science, social topics, literature and the arts.
McEneaney admits that what he does is a labor of love. Interviewing people such as local artist Susan Hennelly or reviewing writer Neil Gaiman; reviewing performances and then talking about them; and writing and discussing the many concerts he attends: It’s all good, said McEneaney, and he isn’t about to give it up.
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