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Photo by Olivia Valentine
MILLERTON — Holiday cheer was in abundance in Millerton at the annual Festival of Lights this past weekend, a celebration of the spirit of the season, which appropriately began following a brief but seasonal snowfall.
Starting with the lighting of the holiday tree, and featuring an array of festively decorated vehicles, onlookers enjoyed a brightly illuminated steady procession of participants from various regional fire departments, local businesses and houses of worship.
Holiday tunes filled the air as the parade moved down Main Street. Fire trucks from Kent, Connecticut, Pine Plains, Milan, North East and more led the way and lit up the night. Spectators from near and far lined up on both sides of the street. They waved enthusiastically at the procession, sang along with the music and snapped photos on their cell phones to capture the merriment. Small bags of candy were tossed to the crowd from participatory vehicles from Watson Livery Services and the Faith Baptist Church, amongst others.
The Festival of Lights, however, is only one component of the holiday weekend kickoff in town. While it may be the main event, through the efforts of the Millerton Business Alliance, an array of activities was laid out over the weekend. On Friday, Nov. 29, the fun included a free screening of “Prancer” at The Moviehouse, followed by hot chocolate and snacks at Veterans Park courtesy of NBT Bank. Additionally, there was cookie decorating at the North East Community Center, free hayrides, and a performance by the Salisbury Brass Band.
The Salisbury Brass Band warmed up a chilly audience with some holiday favorites on Friday, Nov. 29.Photo by Krista A. Briggs
Saturday at the NorthEast-Millerton Library featured a book giveaway and crafts at their annual “Thankful for Reading” event, marking the transition from Thanksgiving to the December holidays. Other weekend events included the Woodworking Expo at the Irondale Schoolhouse, samplings of seasonal treats at certain locales, and holiday sales from participating proprietors.
Mother and daughter Liz and Nika Dellureficio enjoy some festive tunes.Photo by Krista A. Briggs
Echoing a sentiment felt by many that day, “Now it really feels like the holidays,” said Liz Dellureficio of Ancramdale, who was enjoying the brass band performance with her daughter Nika. Salisbury Brass Band provided the music, offering performances of traditional seasonal fare such as “Silent Night” and “O, Come All Ye Faithful.” Bandleader Perry Gardner, subbing for usual band director, Brian Viets, was quick to praise the talented musicians in his corps, adding that the band is always on the lookout for additional musicianship to swell their ranks. “Recruitment is an issue,” Gardner explained, saying the Salisbury Brass Band welcomes all interested parties, not just at the holidays, but year-round.
While the band played on, others, such as the Tong and Christiansen families, took a break from the music to opt for a ten-minute hayride around town, braving the day’s chilly temperatures while being greeted by friendly onlookers around the neighborhood. As the concert and various activities took place, shopkeepers could be seen about town stringing up colored lights, hanging garland, wreaths, and decorations.
For warmth and sustenance, NBT Bank provided free cocoa and cookies in the afternoon. Kevin Cantele and Jamie Long of NBT noted a downturn in attendance this year from last year’s event as well as the absence of the ice-carving exhibition, but explained business had been particularly brisk when theater-goers exited The Moviehouse in the early afternoon. “The kids get to watch a movie, and when it’s over, they come over here for hot chocolate and snacks,” Cantele said.
The Millerton holiday tree stands tall. Photo by Olivia Valentine
As darkness set in, snow began to fall, making the start of the season postcard-perfect. While the snowfall eased shortly thereafter, attendees at the Festival of Lights couldn’t have asked for the stage to be set any better than it was on that chilly evening in Millerton.
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John Coston
Finally rain. For weeks, the only place there had been moisture was in the marsh and even there, areas that usually catch my boots in the mud were dry. I could not see the footprints of the bear (or is it deer?) that have been digging up and eating the underground skunk cabbage flowers. Not that I could do anything to stop it. A layer of snow that actually sticks around for a while seems like wishful thinking these days.
Masses of skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, appeared one spring, like magic, after we hired a team to remove the barberry from about an acre of the marsh adjacent to the driveway. Of course, it had been there all along, waiting patiently underground or hiding in the barberry’s thorny shrub-cages, but we had not seen it. That was about eight years ago; after the barberry’s removal there have been successive infestations of invasives but also, as with the skunk cabbage, some welcome new sightings of native plants.
I wrote in this column last year about Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum, and the success in using the weed torch on a large patch of it in the marsh. It remained largely free of this annual invasive grass this year but we switched to hand weeding the area as, given the dry weather, we could not use the torch even in the marsh. Over the course of three weeks, we pulled out what amounted to 6 trash bins stuffed solid with the hairlike strands. As many of them have seedheads we will burn them once the ban is lifted. I should have paid attention to the stiltgrass infestation earlier in the season but walking near Route 7 is not the most peaceful thing to do so I tend to avoid it.
Twice a year I make my way into the marsh as far as I can go until halted by barberry and multiflora rose to hold at bay another grass, this one a giant compared to stiltgrass. Phragmites australis is a tall reed with a pouf of a seed head that is abundant in moist and wet areas everywhere in the US. It is so aggressive in wetlands that it quickly becomes a monoculture- a sea of swaying beige. It not only crowds out other plants but changes the pH of the surrounding soil and water so nothing native can grow in it. It is a real habitat killer. Drive on route 41 toward Sharon from Hotchkiss school and you will see a large field of phragmites on the left-hand side of the road. Once identified you cannot unsee how it has hijacked our landscape.
Thanks to my gardener’s help cutting down barberry, multiflora rose and honeysuckle in the marsh last winter, this year my access was greatly improved to a stand of phragmites-about a third of an acre of it. With each visit I cut down as much of it as I could to eliminate the possibility for it to grow a seed head. Though loathe to use an herbicide, last year I experimented on a small area, dabbing the cut ends with a wetlands ‘safe’ herbicide. (No herbicide is really safe for the environment but often the chemicals that are added to the herbicide to help it penetrate the leaves are especially damaging.) That application seemed to work so I may repeat it next year on another area.
With all invasives, getting rid of them when you see a first few pop up will pay off. That is what is happening on Cream Hill Road in Cornwall where a small stand of phragmites was recently cut under the water line, a natural technique that attempts to ‘drown’ the plant. The next step will be to cover with a black tarp any remaining phragmites that come back from this first effort. According to Heidi Cunnick, who chairs the Cornwall Conservation Commission, their new policy prioritizes the invasive plants for removal so that small infestations can be eliminated early. Cunnick reminds me that there is a biological control for phragmites that remains under review by a US government department but the future possibility of such an eradication method is not stopping activities to reduce populations- now - in Cornwall.
Another example of successful eradication comes from the Twin Lakes area; a couple who moved to a property that came with a quarter-acre of phragmites colonizing in and around their pond. They valiantly did the work themselves as they could not find anyone who would do it for them. A cut and tarp method was used here for the on-land plants; the ones underwater were cut a foot below the water surface over several years. While most is gone, the battle continues with stragglers; these are tackled with aquatic use herbicide using a dabber on the cut end of a stem or sprayed on a glove that is rubbed over the green stem.
It is hard to stay positive; the work can be hard and tiresome. And it is always a gamble that the area you are working on will grow in with native plants rather than with more invasives. Sometimes you clear a patch of barberry and it gets filled with stiltgrass; you try again. Sometimes you get a patch of goldenrod- nice to have but you don’t want it crowding out the other native plants. And sometimes you get a big reward- the discovery of natives so new to you that you can’t identify them without an app on your phone. In the marsh, where I worked as the weather turned cooler, I noticed quite a few new grasses popping out of the damp soil, especially where the weed torch had been used the prior year. So far, I have identified: Carex albursina, White bear sedge; Carex pedunculata, Longstalk sedge; Carex obnupta, Slough sedge; Carex pennsyvanica, Pennsylvania sedge; Carex frankii, Frank’s sedge; Carex blanda, Eastern woodland sedge; Carex eburnean, Bristleleaf sedge; Danthonia spicata, Poverty oatgrass; Deschampsia cespitosa, Tufted hairgrass; Glyceria striata, Fowl mannagrass and Leersia virginica, Whitegrass. The deer have already helped themselves to a few of these but I am hopeful to see most of them again.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
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'Cornwall reads Cornwall' returns
Dec 04, 2024
Natalia Zukerman
Bob Meyers, President and Publisher of the Cornwall Chronicle, kicked off the 5th annual Cornwall Reads Cornwall event at the UCC in Cornwall on Nov. 30 with a warm welcome and a gentle reminder to silence cell phones. Over the next hour, the audience was transported back in time as local writers, editors, luminaries, and students brought the Chronicle’s archives to life.
“This reading has become an annual event,” said Meyers, “as well as a welcome distraction from Thanksgiving leftovers.” He then noted that the event “was the original brainchild of Roxana Robinson.” Meyers added, “She also arranged to have this take place on the day of her birth,” at which point the audience wished the celebrated local author a happy birthday.
Before inviting Robinson to be the first reader, Meyers spoke a bit about the Chronicle’s history. The Cornwall Chronicle is a monthly, nonpartisan, nonprofit newspaper run by volunteers and funded entirely by reader donations. Founded in 1991 by Tom and Margaret Bevans, it was born out of Tom’s frustration with Cornwall’s lack of local press coverage. A graphic artist and former design head at Simon & Schuster, Tom shaped the paper’s timeless format and mission: fostering community understanding and civic engagement.
Over the years, leadership transitioned to Spencer and Bobby Klaw, retired editors from major publications, and later to an editorial board supported by a network of volunteer writers and artists. For 22 years, the Chronicle has been published without missing an issue, drawing contributions from both seasoned journalists and local voices like farmers and social workers. Delivered free to Cornwall residents and out-of-town subscribers, the ad-free paper relies solely on donations.
Robinson read the first piece, an article about snow plowing from December 1994. She was followed by Emmy Award-winning journalist and Cornwall resident Richard Schlesinger, who read a piece about grandmothers from a June 1992 edition. Robinson held the mic for local activist Nita Colgate as she read from a July 1998 issue of the Chronicle. Other readers included Gillian Blake, senior vice president, publisher, and editor-in-chief at Crown, a division of Penguin Random House.
Local students Willow Berry and Willa Lesch took turns reading a piece together, and recent Vassar graduate Gloria Trevor read a piece about snakes. Martin Chalk, board member of the Cornwall Conservation Trust and long-time Cornwall resident, read from a June 2017 edition of the Chronicle. Author Leigh Newman read a recent piece from August 2024, and CEO and founder of Five Acre Farms, Daniel Horan, read a piece from April 2024.
With each reading, the room was filled with the spirit of shared history, as tales of local lore, humor, and heartache unfolded. The event was a reminder of a simpler time and a celebration of Cornwall’s enduring love for its stories and the people who tell them.
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