miniature W orks

by anne

There’s something curiously magnetic about tiny things. Looking at an intricate dollhouse, we’re drawn into imagination. What it would be like to shrink,

Alice-in-Wonderland-style, and be transported to that wee world? How did the artist find the patience and craft it took to create such detail?

Lovers of fine tiny things will find bliss at Miniature Works in High Falls among the endless variety of tiny furnishings and household items crafted by Brigitte Nagle. Her jam is crafting artful items that look as though the fairies—or perhaps the Borrowers—have just stepped out for a moment and will be right back. And if there’s a miniature item or particular vignette you’d like to have, as a special keepsake or gift, she’ll build it to your specifications. “This place is so cool, and the artist is a dynamite human,” reads a five-star review on Google. “If you’re in High Falls, this place is a must-see.” loved the fine details: of architecture, of interior design, art, and history. I love miniatures. Those passions, combined, are at the core of Miniature Works.”

Her early dream of growing up to be a circus clown failed to come to fruition, but she found that teaching social studies—as well as being half the team responsible for the legendary Spy Social Eatery and Bar in High Falls—made for a satisfying life. But her love of making little things never faded, and in July of 2022, she opened her gallery and shop.

Nagle grew up mostly in Ulster County, but spent time in Astoria, Queens and Bakersfield, California, where her father worked rodeos as a bull rider. “I spent rodeo days playing make-believe under the grandstands, and I loved building shoebox troll houses at recess,” she says. “And I’ve always

Since then, her fellow fans of small perfections have been gathering round. “There have been a variety of curious shoppers since opening,” she says. “Some heard of me through word of mouth, and some stumbled across the shop by chance. I love finding out why and how they came to stop in! There have been other miniaturists and makers, model train collectors, writers, CEOs…all sorts of diverse people are drawn to these. There are also young people just attracted to all things small.” dollhouse furniture to furnish a dollhouse in multiple scales, classes, and the service that sparks the most joy—the making of a place, a moment, or event to salute someone’s life using photographs.”

Some have heard of her custom services and realize they can order a bespoke piece as a truly one-of-akind gift for that friend who has everything. “When I first opened the shop, I consciously set it up to have something for everyone,” she says. “We have a vintage collection, kits, handmade and manufactured

Nagle’s passion is creating works that tell a story as unique as the humans behind it. “I’ve always found that the deepest connections were made in my classroom through storytelling,” she writes on her website. “Sharing not only facts and dates, but the stories that provide depth. My favorite part

“I’ve always loved the fine details: of architecture, of interior design, art, and history. I love miniatures. Those passions, combined, are at the core of Miniature Works.”

–

was always learning which stories my students connected with and how different their interpretations were from mine—and that is what I seek to create in my miniatures: stories that I share, to which the viewer can attach their own personal connection.” scenes that elicit lots of questions: What were they reading? Why is the phone off the hook? Where were they going in such a rush?”

Inspiration comes from the world around her, from found objects, and sometimes straight from her imagination. “I often find myself looking at a discarded scrap of some sort and saying, ‘I can turn that into something!’” she says. “Often an experiment, or an inspired design, will end up becoming three or four pieces that undeniably form a recognizable room in a dwelling. And the history teacher in me comes out when I make a scene. I love

It’s a quirky business and a great fit for the quirky little town of High Falls, known to locals with tongue (partly) in cheek as the Center of the Universe. “This has been our community for the past 30 years as the Spy Social Eatery,” she says, “and our customers are now our friends. Because we are connected to the community, it only seemed right to stay in High Falls. When our current location became available, I drove by it every day and longingly peered into the window, imagining it as Miniature Works. It was meant to be.”

As a largely self-taught artist (“I’m a visual, detail-oriented person, and I learned through research, practice and then more practice,” she says), Nagle is very aware of the joy of making, and wants to spread the fun as widely as possible. Miniature Works hosts a variety of classes; in early 2023, you could sign up for an evening of learning how to make your own tiny paper flowers or craft miniature food items from polymer clay, working with clay, or building a diorama kit to tell an entire story.

Years of thriving in not one but two very people-oriented fields, restaurants and education, have polished Nagle’s hostessing and entertaining skills, and whether you’re signing up for a class, thinking about a custom project, or just stopping in to marvel at her teeny tiny world, you’ll find a warm welcome. “My goal is, of course, to build this not-so-common business that supports itself,” she says.

“Perhaps even more so, my goal is to restart or unleash the creative in everyone. We all have it; it just might be deep within. We could all use help to bring it to the forefront, maybe in a new, uncharted genre.”

Store:

in praise of pollinators Our Farms

by anne pyburn craig

Seventeen years ago, beekeepers began noticing something extremely alarming: colony collapse disorder, in which entire hives of adult honeybees would simply… disappear. The situation led many to a new awareness of the fact that our very survival depends on insects. In 2008, about 60 percent of honeybee colonies were collapsing. The situation has improved, but not because a simple solution has been found; one study looked at 61 possible stressors and found that no single one could be blamed. Pesticides, pathogens, habitat loss, and climate change all play a role. Another complicating factor is the narrow genetic base of North American honeybees, a non-native species first imported from Europe in the 1600s. Thankfully, the honeybee situation has leveled off a bit as beekeepers and researchers work to find solutions, but colony collapse continues to be a problem, worse in some years than others. And the honeybees ar- en’t even the whole story—not even close. Pollination, the thing they do for us that’s even more important than the sticky golden sweetness they produce, is a group effort: beetles, flies, ants, moths, butterflies, bumblebees, solitary bees, and wasps all do their part, too. Over 200,000 species are involved in pollinating, almost all of them insects. And aside from the genetics issue, the problems listed above impact every one of them.

From a farmer’s point of view, pollinators are crucial allies. Making them feel at home is a big part of raising any flowering plant, a category that includes the vast majority of vegetables and all fruits. In springtime, a healthy farm is alive with buzzing wings and crawling things—and farmers walk a fine line, making things as hospitable as possible while not sacrificing entire crops to their appetites. Elizabeth Ryan , owner of several Hudson Valley farms including Stone Ridge Orchard and Breezy Hill Orchard in Staatsburg, says it all works together. “I grow a lot of pollen crops that require bee pollination,” she says. “And one of the things that you honor deeply if you’re studying fruit production is understanding the entire ecosystem, the wide and narrow of it. If you’re a fruit grower, you’re thinking about this all the time. Bees have to have a friendly environment, so we’re very pro-pollinator. And we’re not merely concerned with pollinators, either. It’s the entire ecosystem that you have to uphold, support, honor, and elevate: the birds and the bees, the spiders and the mycorrhizae.” reasons. And in general, the Northeast houses some of the most forward-looking and proactive sustainable growers in the country.”

As a pomologist with a graduate degree from Cornell and a lifelong grower, Ryan knows exactly what she’s talking about. “When I began farming in the Hudson Valley 42 years ago, I swore off herbicides, period; we went cold turkey,” she says. “Using herbicide is a pretty standard practice in conventional farming, and I don’t want to sound like I’m criticizing anyone—all growers have to make very complicated decisions for very complicated

That’s certainly true here in the Hudson Valley, where our farms range from legacy to newborn operations and carry a lot of the weight of an extremely large and hungry population just a few miles to the south. A New York State apple crop relies on the services of around 30,000 honeybee colonies to produce its deliciousness. When colony collapse first emerged as a problem, beehives, beekeeping classes, and new concern for the welfare of the pollinators flowered here.

“Here in the Hudson Valley, partnering with Cornell, we’re on the cutting edge of techniques like biocontrol,” says Ryan, “which involves tactics like supporting and enhancing the habitat for the beneficial insects. We’ve done releases of beneficial insects such as ladybugs and lacewings, which consume the insects that are more problematic. We look for the ways in which natural systems have evolved and adapted for success, and strive to support that.” those orchards every day, and no matter what their production practices, there’s a finely tuned awareness of the bees.”

Fruit farmers depend on a narrow window of time during which their trees are blossoming, usually in late April or early May. “We only need five percent of the orchard’s blossoms to be pollinated to get a good crop,” says Ryan, “but without that…It’s become pretty much universal practice: Nobody sprays their orchard while the bees are flying. Growers in general are very thoughtful folks; we’re in

Ryan says beekeeping culture used to be even more robust in the region. “We had immigrant beekeepers from Poland and Ukraine and Italy, doing things old school, honoring the bees. I can remember when there were 10 beekeepers on my road alone. Honey was a cottage industry. A lot of those beekeepers have passed, and they haven’t been fully replaced by new ones.” Today, large-scale growing operations often contract with beekeepers to bring in hives at pollination time.

Ryan herself used to keep hives at Breezy Hill, 50 of them at one point. She stopped about 30 years ago and realized it hardly mattered at her scale. “You’d still walk into the orchard and hear the wonderful buzz, see bumblebees and wasps at work. It’s a magical feeling, pollination time—a fertile and sacred time.”

Come on July 22nd for a Pollinator Masquerade Ball in the Orchard.

The magic keeps happening. Studies from both Cornell and Hawthorne Valley have identified Ryan’s orchards as containing the highest and most diverse native pollinator populations in the region, counting 38 different species in all. “When we stopped beekeeping and using commercial bees, we knew we had to pay a lot more attention to native pollinators.”

To learn more about supporting native pollinators—besides the basic lore of increasing your yard’s overall biodiversity and decreasing its toxicity—visit Xerxes. org, online home of the Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Local beekeeping expertise can be found at the Ulster County Beekeepers Association (ulsterbees.org.) and on the Pol- linator Support page in the Gardening section at the website of the Cornell Cooperative Extension (https://ulster.cce. cornell.edu/gardening/pollinator-support). Getting to know these tiny neighbors is bound to enhance your joy in the music of their buzz—and inspire the gratitude they’re due with every bite of locally grown deliciousness.

Come celebrate pollinators on July 22nd for Stone Ridge Orchard and Circle Creative Collective’s POLLINATOR MASQUERADE BALL .

Come dance under the stars dressed as birds, flowers, bees, butterflies, and nature spirits of all kinds. Either wear your own masks, crowns, and costumes created at home, join us at one of Circle’s mask making workshops, or come to Circle’s Handmade Costume Market to find costumes made by local artists using upcycled and honorably harvested materials.

Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider Farm Bar. Cider Tastings! Wood-Fired Pizza. Check our site for fun upcoming events!

3012 Route 213, Stone Ridge 845-687-2587 instagram: @StoneRidgeOrchard stoneridgeorchard.com

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net when you present this card

On your entire purchase when you present this card w: hgom.net w: hgom.net

10% Savings

Proudly features:

10% Savings

10% Savings

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net w: hgom.net w: hgom.net

• Local Produce, Meat & Cheese

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net

• Local Breads & Sweets

On your entire purchase when you present this card

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net

On your entire purchase

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net when you present this card

On your entire purchase when you present this card p: 845 586.4177 w: hgom.net p: 845 586.4177 w: hgom.net

• International Foods p: 845 586.4177 w: hgom.net

• Kitchen • Home • Gift Items

Compliments of:

Compliments of:

• Open 7 Days! • Family-Run • Locally Focused • Kind Service

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net

784 main street . margaretville em: homegoods@catskill.net p: 845 586.4177 w: hgom.net p: 845 586.4177 w: hgom.net p: 845 586.4177 w: hgom.net

Gardening

Spring Garden Tips

by anne pyburn craig

The earlier you can get started on your outdoor space in spring, the earlier you’ll get it shipshape and lovely and ready for plantings and pleasures.

Here are things you’ll want to do in your yard and garden now, before things really start to spring up and bloom.

Now’s the time to walk every bit of your outdoor space and survey everything in detail.

Take An Inventory

Walk every bit of your outdoor space with a notepad and/or your phone, and survey everything in detail. Are your raised beds in need of a board? Does the path need a fresh layer of gravel? Are there woody plants in need of pruning, or drainage issues that need to be addressed? These are things that are easier to spot before the foliage fills in.

Tidy Up

Clear unwanted leaves, dead vegetation and brush. If you’ve let the leaves lie on your garden over the winter to protect the soil, now’s the time to gently rake the larger ones aside. Once the soil is dry, you can till the more decomposed bits into the top layer of soil. Don’t disturb the soil until it’s dry, though— the bugs and mycorrhizal fungi are busy doing important work down there.

Execute Projects

Move forward on any project plans—like deck-building, painting, walkway installation, or fencing—that might disrupt your vegetation if done after things sprout and bloom. This way, not only will plants be undamaged, the greens and florals will mature up around your new additions for a wonderfully integrated look.

Plan Your Garden

If you’re new to this, or to your particular property, you can lean heavily on the folks at the local garden centers and nurseries for tips and suggestions—you can bring in a photo of a spot and get an expert’s opinion on what would thrive there. You can even go farther and pay an expert to come take a look and make a plan with you.

Get Your Tools In Order

Pruners, loppers, and shears should be all be sharp, for both safety and efficiency. Make sure any wooden handles aren’t sprouting splinters. Treat yourself to a new pair of gloves, a big hat, and a pad to sit or kneel on.

DON’T OVERCOMMIT

Jokes about excess tomatoes and zucchini aside, all of those plants will need TLC through the season. Native plants and hardscapes can lighten the overall workload. Just don’t make the mistake of putting in such a big garden or so many temperamental ornamentals that you’re signing up for a season of endless toil or frustrating failure.

Lean heavily on the folks at local garden centers and nurseries for tips and suggestions.

Start Seedlings

Start seedlings in containers that can be moved outdoors once the weather breaks. Try recycling materials you already have at home. Some delicious greens—broccoli, parsley, onions, leeks, arugula—can be planted in early March. In midMarch, as soon as the soil is dry enough to work, you can start peas.

Swap Plants

If there are plants that are getting out of hand, check local social media for plant swaps. You can dig up some of yours, and go see what’s available. Plant swaps are great for fresh ideas. Look out for Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Plant Swap and Sale.

Plan A Relax Spot

Make yourself a comfy hangout spot or two. Outdoor furniture, pretty ceramic or stone, a firepit and/or a gazing ball, some solar lights for nighttime, and a good wind chime will make for blissful relaxation. Lattice-work or ornamental grasses can be used to add privacy.

Buying plants and seedlings is like adopting pets. This is a living creature, and you want to be sure that it’s been treated right, because those formative weeks before you meet will impact the happy, healthy relationship you plan to build.

Your best ally: a truly great nursery. Where to find that? Augustine Nursery, in Kingston.

could offer healthier, cheaper plants by growing their own. They started a nursery so that they could take charge of their offerings from Day One, and branched out into serving commercial customers.

Back in the 70s, Ron and Michael Augustine discovered that they shared a knack for landscapes. Even with just a used Dodge Dart and a few push mowers at their disposal, their customers loved the results. As the business grew, they saw that they

It worked out well. In 1987, the family invested in six acres bordered by Van Kleeck Avenue and Route 9W; in the 1990s, they planted their first acre of trees, once again wanting to stock the very best. The trees thrived in the fertile soil of the Esopus Creek delta, and soon there were 10 acres, then 30; today, there are some 20,000 trees growing happily in a 60-acre “tree paradise.”

The trees and shrubs weren’t the only thing growing beautifully. Michael married kindred spirit Penny, who manages the nursery these days; their son, Michael, brought his college and grad school education back home and joined the business as a landscape designer in 2008.

The root of the business—offering fine quality at affordable prices—has remained healthy and strong, well-watered and fertilized by intelligent hard work and love. The offerings that have branched out from the sturdy trunk are often the first and only choice for in-the-know contractors, landscapers, and homeowners. Whether you want an expert to look at your space, listen to your dreams, and make them a reality, or you just need a few seedlings or the perfect slab of bluestone, Augustine Nursery has your ground covered.

The seven-acre nursery can supply your every landscaping need. There’s a wide selection: hundreds of varieties of broadleaf evergreens, deciduous shrubs and trees, evergreen shrubs and trees, perennials, and vines, to name just some of the plant family thriving here. There are all kinds of bulk landscaping materials: mulch and topsoil, pea gravel, river rock and Item 4. There’s a stone yard where you can find fine natural bluestone, stone for steps, wall stone…pretty much a stone for any purpose under the sun. It’s all about helping you craft an outdoorscape that puts joy in your heart and works beautifully as a living space. Out front, say the Augustines, “We create a stunning first impression.” Out back, “we create beautiful and functional living spaces. From trees and shrubs, annuals and perennials to walkways, lighting and more, we customize each design to the needs of you and your family as well as to the characteristics of your land.” Think about what bugs you about your yard. Is it noisy or lacking in privacy? Do you want a sturdy play zone for the kids or a superbly chill hangout spot? level some might call obsessive. But if you’re not obsessive, you simply can’t grow better trees.”

Whether you want an expert to look at your space, listen to your dreams, and make them a reality, or you just need a few seedlings or the perfect slab of bluestone, Augustine Nursery has your ground covered.

From consultation through design and installation, you’ll be working with people who have the know-how and experience to take you from vague idea to glorious execution while respecting your budget. They’ll also help you solve erosion and wildlife issues.

It’s all true to the vision of two kids from Kingston, and the goal has never changed: to provide you with the finest possible trees, “grander in stature, truer in form and confirmation, and stronger in constitution than our competitors,” as the Augustines pledge on their website. To get there, the Augustines do it right: young saplings have plenty of room to spread out, get just the right amount of organic fertilizer, and are weeded and watered “at a

As the ancient Greek proverb says, a society becomes great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. But there’s another level of greatness in play when we care for our trees like the kinfolk they are. Augustine Nursery is the place where you’ll find that knowledge being lived every day—and you’ll see the results of those righteous roots in the trees and shrubs you adopt and take home as part of the family.

Nothing gets one’s tidying energy up-’n-going like the feeling of company coming. Even if the expected visitor is someone near and dear, we tend to at least straighten the couch and bus up the coffee-table debris. Guests from the wider world can inspire those of us who lead laid-back lives to become human tsunamis. Whether you’re aiming to put your best domestic foot forward for a dinner party, a meeting, a real-estate showing, or just the refreshed feeling of having things straight and pretty for a bit, HERE ARE TIPS company’s coming!

FOR A SWIFT, SIMPLE PROCESS.

Quick Clean Tips

Open Up

Open as many windows and doors as you can before you start to clean, so you’re filling the place with fresh outdoor air.

Declutter

Have a container (baskets are great) handy in each room where you can put the stuff that lives in that room but needs to be out of the way, to be stowed easily in a closet if you wish. When you take things back out, you can weed out any stuff that’s pointless and end up with less clutter.

Top Down

Clean from the top down. Save the floor for last. Do one task at a time, throughout the house: dusting, wiping, vacuuming, and mopping everywhere that it’s needed—it’s way more efficient and less frustrating.

Dusting Tricks

For cobwebs or grunge you can’t reach, a dampened high-nap paint roller is handy. An old sock on your hand (also dampened) is a great way to clean slatted blinds; just grasp each piece and slide it through your hand to get both sides at once. The sock trick is also great for moldings and other surfaces where a duster might miss spots. Slip an old pillowcase over ceiling fan blades and use it to wipe them without taking a dust shower.

PRE-SPRITZ

In the kitchen and bathroom, spritz icky spots on washable surfaces with your cleaning solution and then go do something else or take five. The crud comes right off when you come back.

For real-estate showings, you’re presenting a template where someone else will be trying to imagine their own style.

stage it just right

Getting your house set for real-estate showings is a bit different. Instead of showcasing your personal style, you’re presenting a template where someone else will be trying to imagine theirs.

YOUR REALTOR MAY HAVE SUGGESTIONS TO ADD TO THESE:

Minimize Belongings

You’re going to be moving anyway, yes? Everything you can eliminate now is one less thing you’ll be carrying then. Store away everything you can possibly live without but don’t want to part with permanently.

Make Repairs

Consider making minor repairs and finishing any small projects that are half-done.

Fresh Paint

Go with an eggshell or off-white rather than flat white, and invest in a decent paint that will give good coverage.

Guest Room

If you have an extra room that you haven’t been using, clear it and replace clutter with a simple arrangement that suggests a use—a desk and chair, an extra bed.

binne W ater ice co . Meet The Owners

by anne pyburn craig

Water is life. Can’t argue with that. And between the 1830s and the advent of mechanical refrigeration, frozen water was life’s preservation—the only way of keeping food fresh. Over that century, residents of a growing New York City area relied largely on the watery Hudson Valley for their ice.

These days, the Hudson Valley pretty much relies on Binnewater Ice Co., founded in 1910 in Rosendale as Binnewater Lakes Ice Company by two guys with four ice wagons. In 1925, they bought the third and fifth of the Binnewater Lakes in 1925. They sold those lakes in 1929 to the Williams family, operators of what was once an iconic hotel, while retaining ice-harvesting rights.

Binnewater Ice Co. was founded in 1910 in Rosendale as Binnewater Lakes Ice Company by two guys with four ice wagons.

Harvesting and processing ice was a formative Hudson Valley industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries, revolutionizing the practices of farmers and fishermen alike now that food could be shipped to the city and beyond. In the 1880s, a workforce of 20,000 in various companies handled ice in 135 storehouses along the Hudson between Albany and Poughkeepsie. Ice harvesting was rough work; people ran the risk of falling in or getting squashed by hundred-pound ice blocks. It was also one of the only jobs that hired women, people of color, and less-favored immigrants; you could earn a dollar a day, and a lot of families survived the winter by ice harvesting.

By 1930, the bulk of the industry had melted, so to speak; companies that couldn’t diversify their services just…dried up. Ice houses fell to ruin. The Binnewater folks, seeing the writing on the wall, had taken to manufacturing ice in a Kingston plant, since local markets for ice were still strong.

With the industry tightening and the Great Depression ongoing, things got a little crazy and some rivals got downright inconsiderate. Binnewater’s plant burned in a suspicious fire in 1938; about a year later, two bombs were found. One exploded hard enough to “rock the city” but did “no great damage,” according to the newspaper headline at the time.

Fittingly, the Binnewater folks stayed cool and carried on, helping Rondout Valley farmers get their fresh produce to market. When the company went up for sale in the 1970s, it was purchased by corn farmers Gordon and Robert Davenport. Business—selling to retail stores and restaurants—was strong, especially as bagged ice cubes were now sold at many stores.

The Davenports formed an alliance with A.T. Reynolds & Sons, an ice company from Kiamesha Lake that had developed a better way to bag cubes, and joined them in distributing Leisure Time bottled water in the 1980s. But when Reynolds & Sons was bought out by Canadian companies, Binnewater decided to go its own way, developing their own Binnewater brand sourced from protected natural springs. Today’s Binnewater is a busy place. “We serve nine counties, which is a lot of miles and a lot of trucks,” says Marshall Gogg. “It gets crazy busy, especially in summer. And we try to cover all aspects of what you can do with our product.”

That they do. Besides providing ice, bottled water, and dispensers to offices, restaurants, retailers, and festivities of all sorts, Binnewater offers a coffee and tea service, de-icing products, and snowmaking. They’ve been hired to make snow for local movie productions, notably The Road to Wellville and Family Man, as well as for advertising, skiing and snowboarding ramps, and the occasional homeowner who just wants that White Christmas vibe.

Harvesting and processing ice was a formative Hudson Valley industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

- Marshall Gogg, Binnewater Ice Co.

And water is still, and always, life. Sometimes the need is very immediate indeed, and when the power goes out, some things really must stay cold.

“We do a lot of standby emergencies,” says Gogg. “If a medical facility has an emergency, we’re the ones they call.”

If you’re in need of water (more than a few neighborhoods in this area have sulfur-flavored water, which won’t hurt you but smells and tastes strong) or ice for a party, why not go straight to the source? Binnewater can onboard you for regular delivery in a heartbeat.

You’ll be dealing with happy people. “We’ve got an absolutely great crew of guys and gals,” says Gogg. “Even when it gets tough, we show up the next day with smiles on our faces.” b inne W ater i ce c o .

25 S Pine Street, Kingston 845-331-0237 binnewater.com