“Borei Pri Ha’Adamah,” is a Jewish blessing recited before eating vegetables and other foods that grow from the ground.Natalia Zukerman
Participants in the educational fellowship program at Adamah define what being in Jewish community means to them.Natalia Zukerman
Hand-painted signs at Adamah Farm serve as blessings and reminders.Natalia Zukerman
A squash blossom in all its golden glory.Natalia Zukerman
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A cold mountain brook that enters one of the New York City reservoirs.
Patrick L. Sullivan
I remember as a callow youth of 12 being instructed by an impossibly ancient codger -- hell, he was probably 65 -- that a Leadwing Coachman wet fly, size 10-14, would produce on the Esopus when nothing else would. In the intervening half century I have put this proposition to the test and found it accurate.
What was different this year was the isos were flying around. Usually we see their casings on the rocks, but not the adult mayflies in the air.
Adult mayfly.Patrick L. Sullivan
The first night it was all browns in the 14-18 range. The second night it was all rainbows in the 10-14 range.
That was early in the trip. Three days in, things warmed up considerably, and without any mitigating rain.
So the range of options was limited, and the preferred time of day was just before dawn. Note I said “preferred.” The actual start time varied depending on how late my attorney, Thos., and I stayed up watching Fu Manchu movies.
I low-crawled up a mountain brook at dawn with a Tenkara rod and did okay with wild browns. On the scramble out I had a brief and alarming encounter with a descendant of the Hound of the Baskervilles, whose owner helpfully said “Don’t make any sudden moves.”
“Any chance of a leash here?” I said in what I hoped was a cheerful, non-threatening tone of voice.
So there’s that.
Gary Dodson alerted us that the Spot That Must Not Be Named was in play. This is a cold mountain brook that enters one of the New York City reservoirs and depending on how full the latter is, forms a channel of cold water that mixes in with the warmer reservoir water. If the timing is right, the angler can latch into some decent trout and whatever else has fins and an inquisitive nature.
So one morning, while the boys worked the big deep cold pool by the bridge, I made my way downstream, deploying the stream thermometer frequently to try and figure out the magic spot where trout would be comfortable enough to hang out and nosh.
I used a favorite tactic: a dry/dropper rig, with a Chubby Chernobyl as the top fly and de facto bobber, and a series of nymphs and wet flies on an 18-24 inch fluorocarbon tipper dropper, 4X or 5X, tied directly to the bend of the Chubby’s hook.
This worked immediately, with good browns in the 16-18 inch range hitting the nymphs and a Jerry Shillcock isonychia wet fly pattern.
Trout.Patrick L. Sullivan
In a nod to tradition, I used one of my late father’s Orvis Battenkill bamboo rods for the purpose. It is eight feet long in three sections and weighs about 100 pounds. At least that’s how it feels after using graphite rods.
On the last morning the cold to warm water ratio was getting less favorable at the Spot. It was now or never.
Thos. was chucking dries up the big pool.
I waved him down, rerigged him with the dry-dropper combo and gave highly technical instructions.
“Walk around the left of that clump of vegetation, slowly so you don’t make a huge wake, and when the waves die down heave this in there and let it sit, and count to 30. Then twitch it a bit.”
Lo and behold, it worked.
On the medical front, my new right hip didn’t give me any trouble. I didn’t push it either.
Members of BalletCollective.
Parker Whitehead-Bus
This summer’s residency will feature new works by choreographers Shane Urton and Noelle Kayser, alongside Schumacher, all of whom are creating pieces for BalletCollective’s fall season. Running from July 13 through Aug. 2, the residency will bring dancers, choreographers and composers to the village as they develop new works that will premiere later this fall at New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Joining the company in Millbrook will be dancers from New York City Ballet, including Davide Riccardo, Maya Milic, Simeon Neeld and Keenan Kiefer.
Parker Whitehead-Bus
The residency culminates with two public performances at Millbrook School on Aug. 1 and 2, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience works in progress before they premiere in New York.
“Millbrook continues as the spine of how we develop new work,” said Schumacher. “The community here has become an essential part of our creative process.”
Schumacher’s connection to the region extends beyond the company’s annual residency. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he organized “The Nutcracker at Wethersfield,” an ambitious outdoor production staged at the Wethersfield Estate in Amenia. The production became a symbol of artistic resilience during one of the performing arts’ most challenging periods and was later chronicled in the feature-length documentary “The Nutcracker at Wethersfield,” directed by acclaimed filmmaker Anne Sundberg.
As BalletCollective celebrates its 15th anniversary season, Millbrook remains at the heart of the company’s creative process. For three weeks each summer, the village becomes a creative laboratory where choreographers, dancers and composers experiment, collaborate and refine new work before sharing it with the community that has helped nurture the company for more than a decade.
Paul Ramunni playing polka music.
Madi Long
“There are about 500 accordions in this room,” museum founder Paul Ramunni said during a recent tour. “We have another 200 in the basement, so we’re cracking 700.”
But Ramunni insists the collection is not really about accordions.
“It’s the stories,” he said. “The instruments are just the carriers.”
For more than a decade, Ramunni and his wife, Marsha, have been collecting not only instruments but also the family histories attached to them. The result is what may be one of the most unusual museums in New England — a place where music, immigration, war and local history come together.
A Childhood Instrument Rediscovered
Ramunni’s own relationship with the accordion began on Long Island in the 1950s. His mother, who was of Italian ancestry, insisted he learn to play.
“I said, ‘Anything but that,’” he recalled. “The kids are going to make fun of me.”
He played for about three years before eventually putting the instrument away when he went to college.
More than four decades later, while spending time with Marsha in rural Vermont, something unexpected happened.
“I woke up with the urge to play the accordion again,” he said.
Soon after, he found a collector who was preparing to send several accordions to a Holocaust museum. The instruments had reportedly come from Dachau, a WWII concentration camp, where the victims were forced to give them up or perform for the guards.
The story stunned him.
“You mean to tell me every one of these accordions has a back story?” he remembered asking.
From that moment, Ramunni began seeking out instruments to collect and asking their owners about the back stories.
Paul and Marsha Ramunni have turned a collection of accordions — and the memories attached to them — into one of the Northwest Corner’s most unusual attractions.Madi Long
More Than A Collection
One of the first stories involved an elderly woman in Torrington whose late husband’s accordion sat unplayed for years.
When Ramunni picked up the instrument and began playing it, the woman broke down in tears.
“That was my husband’s voice,” she told him, referring to the sound of her late husband’s favorite instrument.
The couple had fled Europe during WWII with little more than a suitcase and the accordion.
“It was the family album,” Ramunni said.
Many of the instruments tell stories of immigration and war.
One accordion currently in Ramunni’s museum belonged to a World War II veteran who operated a landing craft during the Normandy invasion and often played it for his fellow marines.
The museum displays a photograph the veteran took of the soldiers aboard the vessel before they landed on the beach. Family members said many of the young men pictured never returned home.
More recently, a Ukrainian immigrant donated an accordion after losing family members during the current war with Russia.
“He said, ‘I can’t play it anymore,’” Ramunni recalled, noting that it had too many memories that he wanted to forget.
A Labor Of Love
The museum’s location is closely tied to Ramunni’s own history. In the early 1980s, he and a business partner purchased the North Canaan railroad station, where he operated a CPA firm.
He sold the building after a 2001 fire devastated the station. Two decades later, when space became available in the restored building, he returned to house the collection that had outgrown his North Canaan home. Since opening the museum in 2021, he said, it has welcomed more than 9,000 visitors.
Visitors come from throughout New England and beyond, many bringing their own stories along with old accordions. Some arrive hoping to repair an instrument.
The museum functions as more than just an exhibition space; Ramunni repairs accordions. The couple also buys and sells instruments. They host events, tours for school groups, senior centers, day-care programs and historical societies.
Sometimes they take the collection on the road.
“Everything fits in a Subaru,” Marsha said.
She sees the museum as both an educational resource and a community gathering place.
“We’re trying to make an impact here on the town and the area,” she said. “Bringing people in, educating them, giving them a place to learn about history.”
The collection continues to grow through donations.
On a recent afternoon, Salisbury resident Gary Peterson arrived carrying an accordion that had belonged to his grandmother, a Swedish immigrant who played polka music. Now retired and downsizing, Peterson said his family wanted to find someone who could appreciate the instrument rather than simply discard it.
Looking around at the hundreds of accordions on display, Peterson said he was struck by the variety and craftsmanship of the collection. “There are so many different types of accordions,” he said. “It’s awesome.”
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Joey Duncan decorates his bicycle at the Irondale Schoolhouse on Saturday, July 11, in anticipation of wowing visitors and spectators as part of the kickoff parade for Millerton’s nine-day 175th anniversary celebration.
Photo by Nathan Miller
The Saturday’s main event was the parade, which rolled down Main Street around 4 p.m., marking the official start of the nine-day celebration. About 200 people gathered along Main Street’s sidewalks and beneath the shade trees in Veterans Park to watch.
More than two dozen craft vendors set up shop in Eddie Collins Memorial Park on Saturday, selling a myriad of handmade goods ranging from decorative to practical including pottery, jewelry and soaps.
Also taking up residence in the park was a community flea market. Millerton and North East community members peddled gently used items at the park, and two residents in the village signed up to have yard sales put on a map of the town for interested shoppers to go visit.
The day included a dedication ceremony at the Town of North East’s Highway Garage, where town officials dedicated the building to the late Bob Stevens. Stevens served as the town’s Highway Superintendent for more than 20 years at the time of his death in March.
Millerton resident Tim Watson was sitting in his wheelchair underneath the shade at Veterans Park around 2:45 p.m., waiting for the parade to start. He said the week-long celebration coming to fruition and the crowd downtown that came out to celebrate demonstrated a strong sense of community.
“This is a perfect example of community support,” Watson said.
Photo by Nathan Miller
Community youngsters ride their bikes in the Saturday afternoon parade that kicked off the event.
Children enjoy a spin in a carnival ride at the 2025 Fire Department Carnival in Millbrook.
Photo By Charlie Greenberg
The proceeds from the carnival go to the firehouse. The money helps fund the day-to-day operations, maintains equipment, and provides training.
“Every person who attends the carnival is helping to support our volunteers,” said Millbrook Fire Department Captain and President Kelly Tomasulo.
The event will be located at 3323 Franklin Avenue from 6:00 p.m. to midnight each day. There will also be new food, including gluten-free options, and wine added to the bar booth.
“The continued generosity of our community is what makes it possible for the Millbrook Fire Department to provide the high level of emergency service our residents and neighboring communities have come to rely on,” Tomasulo said.
Past Chief Chris Hawks is the parade marshall this year, joined by the fire station dog, Tyson. Millbrook Mayor Peter Doro will also be walking in the parade with his three children.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our community together as a family, and I’m looking forward to sharing that experience with them while honoring the dedicated volunteers who do so much for Millbrook,” Doro said.
The Millbrook Fire Department answers around 1,000 emergency calls each year.
“They serve our community every day with professionalism, courage, and dedication,” Doro said.
Chris Klingner, left, and Dawn Klingner of the Amenia Rescue Squad serve fried dough at the Fire Department Carnival.Photo by Leila Hawken
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