While I was on Long Island Thursday for a friend’s wake, I took a ride a bit farther out on the island to Sag Harbor, where John Steinbeck owned a house from 1955 until his death in 1968.

Steinbeck split his final 13 years living in New York City and living in the Sag Harbor cottage, which overlooks a cove in the Long Island Sound.

Dom Flemons, who has had a good bit of acclaim over the past five years for his role in the roots band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, is playing in Chatham Saturday.

Hiking up to the Stissing Mountain firetower in Pine Plains is an adventure that can be completed in full in about two hours.

My brother and I recently took the hike for a brief getaway and found the hike...

Tom Casey, a friend and former colleague, and a well-respected former Register-Star reporter, died early Friday morning in a car accident in Lee, Massachusetts.

Each year I try to challenge myself to an immersive Hudson River adventure. Last year I spent five days paddling from Troy to Manhattan, circling Manhattan on the sixth day and paddling north to Westchester County on day seven.

This year my trip was much more abbreviated, spending one very full day kayaking from Tivoli to Denning’s Point in Beacon—an expedition of more than forty miles.

Louise Bliss, head of the Hudson River Historic Boat Restoration and Sailing Society, has in recent years focused her energy on a wooden sloop sailboat, in need of much nurturing before it will be put back on its native Hudson River waters. The Eleanor is on the national and state historic registries. Bliss spent countless hours on the motorless boat, once owned by her father, voyaging many times all the way to New York Harbor. The following is a transcription of our talk Friday at the Hudson waterfront.

A team of local volunteers will start training Saturday to assess how successful aquatic species are in finding their way into the many culverts that drain water into the Roeliff Jansen Kill. The following is the full release outlining the project.

Whether you’ve had to pile in the car and head to Hudson or take a ride to Red Hook for a dinner out, Germantown has conspicuously been lacking its own communal restaurant for too long. On June 20, that is set to change with the grand opening of Gaskins, an eatery that will serve up moderately priced comfort food featuring local ingredients.

The owners, Nick and Sarah Gaskins, are thrilled to open a gathering place for the community where locals and weekenders can dine together and, as they will be residing above the restaurant, they point out that they’re here for the long haul. I got a chance to ask them a few questions about Gaskins. Here’s what they had to say

Voters will decide Thursday from Noon to 9 p.m. whether to approve the capital project at Germantown Central School. The proposed improvements to the school will be split into two separate propositions. In March, the proposed $11,382,056 project was voted down by a margin of 33 votes (345-312).

When I ran into Nancy Guski at a town of Red Hook meeting last month, she recognized me and called me by name. It had been at least fifteen years since I'd last seen my first-grade teacher. After catching up and telling her about the project I've got going, she kindly agreed to give an interview. The following is a transcription of the interview, which took place Sunday at her home in Red Hook.