October 12 to 20 - Saugerties, New York
After leaving Medina, New York I headed to Saugerties, New York to see my birth family. For those of you who may not know, I’m adopted and my birth family located me in my mid 20’s. It’s been a gift to have them in my life.
My birth mother Susan, and her husband Peter, live on Cantine’s Island, a cohousing development. To quote right from their website.
We are an established community whose members foster deep neighborly ties by sharing meals, play and the work of maintaining and bettering our community.
Old-fashioned community values come in a new form at Cantine’s Island Cohousing, where members live cooperatively and people of all ages interact naturally in this family-friendly neighborhood.
It’s always a pleasure to visit my family in Saugerties, share meals with the community and run into all their lovely neighbors. The Cantine’s Island community reminds me a lot of my childhood visits to North Carolina on my grandparents farm, same feel in a way. However, the homes are closer together and the amenities of a small town nearby are also very nice. Every time I visit I think of how great it would be to live here. Really wish I had taken a wide shot of the community as it’s quite lovely.
My visit included meals with the neighbors and Susan’s great cooking of course. A trip into Saugerties for lunch. Light yard work (There’s drawback to all those pretty leaves.). A trip to Kingston to visit Susan’s art studio to take photos of her art and have a lovely lunch. A walk to the dam on Esopus Creek. A walk to the Saugerties Lighthouse (Posted earlier). A side trip to NYC with my sister Maya (Next blog post.). And of course, lot’s of great family time, which I’m immensely grateful for.
Some 30 years ago my birth mother Susan found me. Since then we have built lasting and loving ties together.
Susan’s husband, Peter, in his spot.
Back porch on a rainy day in Autumn. Just beautiful.
Monarch in the garden. Last of summer hanging on.
A neighbor playing bagpipes in the morning for a celebration. Susan and Peter live on Cantine’s Island in a co-housing development. Scenes like this seem to abound.
Susan’s art studio in Kingston, New York. Large loft studios in an old factory.
View down below from the studio.
Susan’s artwork. I’ve selected this one in thinking about the forest fires in California. Heartbreaking right now.
My favorite piece!
Susan’s newly completed work. Just love this one too!
Waterfall by the Esopus Creek dam which is part of the Saugerties Reservoir. It’s straight down from Cantine’s Island.
The dam is below Bridge Street.
And it’s lovely. I’ve been to Saugerties a few times and this is the first time I’ve taken the hike to the dam from the Cantine’s Island property. It was a tad difficult, but worth the walk.
Love the rock formations here, slate I think. Susan is interested in textures and since I was walking with her, I found myself thinking about textures as well.
More rock formations.
End of the season prep for plants.
I’m going to guess this is poison ivy. It’s lovely in the Fall, but not so fun for everyone. Doesn’t bother me thank goodness!
Some sort of shelf lichen/bracket fungus. I’m always attracted to its many forms.
Little mushrooms. Almost missed them and Susan pointed them out.
Lovely Fall colors at Esopus Creek. I really should have explored more during this stay.
Susan resting after our hike. So nice this swing is right near the trail!
Turkeys! I’ve seen turkey’s five or six times on my trip and each time I miss getting a photos of them. These were wandering around Cantine’s Island. Not a great photo, but had to include. I’m not so good at getting unexpected shots.
Peter: among other things, he is a Vietnam Vet, and RN nurse and member of VVAW. Peter shared some of his collection of articles from his activist activities. He has a fascinating history. Good man with a heart of gold.
Sky sharing some grandpa time.
Family photo: me, Peter, Maya, Sky and Susan.
Whoops, while leaving to Porter Corner’s we had a little mistake. The key’s got locked in Maya’s car and AAA saved the day! Off to my sister’s in Porter Corner’s. Bonus, the neighbor standing there had just been to the farmers market and shared a fantastic squash galette recipe we made later at my sisters.
After leaving Porter Corner’s (Maya’s and Joe’s), I stopped by Kingston to say goodbye to Susan before I headed to Shenandoah National Park. I’m including this photo a little out of the time sequence to share what the outside of the art studio looks like. Pretty cool place. Loved Kingston too. Just wish Kingston had a camera shop!