well lookie here...

I just noticed that Google has (finally!) updated their satellite imagery.   (Took them almost 4 years.  Did they read my blog post a couple months back when I bitched about this? ;)  Judging from my screen shot of the waterfront above, it appears the new imagery of Hudson was taken during Artswalk weekend;  I seem to remember the etsy tent that was pitched just south of the bathroom building.
Looks like a pretty happening waterfront!

stalking the landscape with google earth

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Truck House

440 Warren Street,
erected in 1889.

the house on first street

I liked that funky little house on First Street.

I used to walk by it a lot and wonder if someone would 

come along and rescue it

before it completely deteriorated.

Watched this valance of poison ivy that had grown inside the kitchen window 

and even ventured inside once years ago before it was boarded up---

there were purple and pink walls

and a faux tile shower held together with...masking tape!...

Anyway. The house was demolished last week---

but is immortalized in this beautiful moon-over-hudson painting by Edward Avedesian, 

which hangs in the church at Carrie's house

 (Edward lived a half block away--

most likely had a perfect view of the

 house from his upstairs window.)

bird's eye geek note

I've been doing a lot of cycling this summer, and one of my rituals after I get home from a ride is to map out my route  (different each day) with online software that will tell me how far I went, what altitudes I reached, even how many calories I burned.   Using google and its satellite imagery has a been a great tool in deciding where to venture next, but when I started to learn how to read weather maps recently, I made an interesting (to me, anyway) discovery.
Google hasn't updated their satellite images in our area in like- three years!  What up?

Check out upper Fairview Avenue, as it currently shows on Google:

Wasteland.

Now look at the exact same area on Weather dot com:

Complete with all the new bigbox crap.

Here's the Columbia Land Conservancy Area on Rod and Gun Road, as it appears today, with the pavilion and silo:

But if you were on your way up that road, and navigating with Google images - you'd think you were going to drive by a working farm on private property!

That farm hasn't been there for years.

I have yet to figure out how often the Weatherdotcom website updates their basic landscape satellite photos, which serve as an underlay for their weather info.  I'm guessing the websites probably have to pay a fee to the satellite companies to use their images, and then subscribe according to their need.

In any case, the current image for Union and First Streets shows an empty lot (now under development), and the trees on Union Street haven't been cut down yet.  So we can deduce the images are updated at least every few months.

 I'll be watching this area hoping to figure out the update schedule, unless someone can enlighten me...

Musicians in Hudson, 1935

Sickles Entertainers, Hudson, NY August 1935
(taken at the Firemen's Home)

(A high resolution version of the whole photo can be found here.)

Ice House bike-hike

I rode my bike up to the historic Scott ice house ruin this morning, an idyllic little spot on the river about ten miles north of Hudson, in the town of Stuyvesant.

More specifically, Newton Hook, right off Route 9J.

 (Please forgive the lame photos; can you even see the ice house in this next photo? It's right there, square tower in the center.)

 Turns out there's an ongoing controversy about this area,

 on Ferry Road, which involves the railroad crossing, historic properties, eminent domain, DOT, protected wetlands, etc, etc.   (For the moment it seems "lack of funding" has spared beautiful Ferry Road, but who knows---  if the economy turns around it could be threatened again.)

I've always used the (hard-to-find) unmarked wooded trail off Ferry Road to get to the ice house (look for the cut log  along the right side of the road); today I realized there is also "Ice House Road" (duh) just to the north, which isn't as adventurous, but has much less poison ivy.

(can you see the ice house in this pic? It's there!)

 Both trails are kind of magical,  but the southern one is longer and winding and wooded and hilly, and follows the river's edge right before you get to the ice house ---- then the ice house takes you by surprise when you sort of stumble on it suddenly, and it towers over you.

Unfortunately, they put black chain-link fencing in all the window openings,

 which diminishes the appeal of the ruin pretty significantly, but

the patch of land on the north side of the building is kept mowed and there are two picnic tables right near the river's edge, so it's an ideal spot for a quiet lunch

(bring a plastic tablecloth; the tables don't get enough sun and are rotting).   It's also very likely you'll have the whole place to yourself, I don't think it gets a lot of visitors.


Here's a google earth shot of Nutten Hooke---the ruin is in the woods at the left.  Plenty of parking at the end of Ferry Road, where you can also launch a kayak or just take in the wide, wonderful Hudson River views.

Falk Ties from the Falk Building

According to word-on-the-street,

this past 4th of July weekend marked the sale of the Falk building at 543 Warren.

and the end of the "Fresh Farmer" business, which was housed in the building for as long as anyone can remember.

The Fresh Farmer was a unique hybrid of convenience store, junk shop, and farm stand. A one-stop shop for lottery tickets, cigarettes, tomatoes and bananas,  antique Christmas ornaments, trucker hats & fanny packs, obsolete electronics (laser disc player, anyone?), old magazines, faded Michael Jackson memorabilia, brick-a-brack, 7 gazillion Ty Beanie Babies, and battery-operated coughing ashtrays.

Not much for me--- but a few years back, I did buy a boxful of wonderful old silk neckties, ascots, and bow ties here,        

many bearing beautiful old labels.

              " W.C Falk     Hudson, N.Y."

These ties had been stashed in the basement of the building for what must have been nearly a hundred years.  The box also had many random silk scraps, and ties that had been chopped off with scissors, leading me to believe they might have been also manufacturing the ties here at one time.

When I went into the shop the other day, another boxful of ties had emerged from the basement --this one full of cotton summer ties, stiff antique collars, and linen bow tie-like contraptions I had never seen before.  

                                               Some appeared to be unsold store stock
                                                
 while others were bundled in old twine, as if they were just tie parts, not ever finished being assembled.  

As a lover of textiles, a vintage clothing dealer, and Hudson memorabilia collector, I have to say this tie stash has been one of my favorite finds in my many years of treasure hunting.