A tree grows, but another old building starts to fall...

                                         2002:

2006:

                                             2009:

                                          2010

                                        
                                         Today, Jan 10 2011:

Roof Gone. Lethal combo of Heavy Snow and Demolition by Neglect?

Here is another Before photo I took in October 2009, taken from the front on Columbia Street.  This is on the 400 block, just a couple doors down from the Cannonball Factory.

...and one more from 2007:

And here it is today:

They're Heeeeeere

Watch And Clock Repair Shop, Warren Street: Ebay ALERT

There's a very nice little lot of Hudson ephemera on ebay right now, which includes a couple of rare interior photographs of a watch and clock repair shop at 331 Warren Street.

 I'm not anticipating putting in any high bids myself-- but I would very much like to see these photos make their way back to Hudson, as they're a great little piece of our history.  (It's likely the watchmaker enthusiasts will be just as interested as any Hudsonia collector, So- I'm putting it out there.)

Take a look at the auction HERE.  It ends tonight at around 8 o'clock eastern time, and already has two interested bidders.

Remembering Joan

Over twenty years ago I tore this centerfold out of a 1989 GAMES Magazine.

I was so struck by its charm and genius ---I knew I would enjoy looking at it for years to come.   I suppose it was one of Joan Steiner's first published dioramas, long before her Look-Alike books started being published in the late nineties. 

Here's another one from 1992:

I initially met Joan in 1996, through a mutual friend who said we had similar artistic sensibilities (I used to make diorama-ish art too).  Then I moved to Hudson where  I'd run into her often, including at the Watnot Shop, where we both loved to treasure  hunt regularly.  

At some point we learned we both loved Scrabble, and got into playing long, drawn-out intense games, every Monday evening,  year-round.  Joan taught me how to keep a balanced rack and--- never open up a triple, unless you're putting down a bingo.  

I probably won't be able to attend Joan's Memorial Service today (3 pm, Dutch Reformed Church, Rt 9H, Claverack), so I am remembering her today by wearing a necklace made of trinkets I got at her studio Sale a couple weeks ago.  (It has served as a Good Luck charm throughout the current local Scrabble tournament).

Rest in Peace, Joan.

"Suitcase" I found at Joan's studio sale.

Fosters

Last night while riding my bike around I noticed that the old Fosters Refrigeration Plant on North 2nd Street is being demolished.

Good riddance; the place was a cavernous, dangerous junk heap.  Not to mention toxic.      

(mysterious dumpster sludge)

It also had a kooky ghost story associated with it.

Click Here to see photos I took inside Fosters in 2006 and 2007.

Hudson Beach Combing Part 2: PIGS

Yesterday at sunset I went to one of my beach combing spots along the river, only to find a freshly dumped load of garbage (it hadn't been there 24 hours before).

Plastic kitty litter pans, brooms, shovels, crutches, fast food wrappers, and three bulging bags of household garbage, garbage, garbage.  

By the end of today the tide will have come and gone a few times, taking the crutches and plastic away for boaters to stumble upon.  Birds and animals will have torn open the bags and strewn the stuff around.   In the coming weeks and months wind and water will spread it out some more and it'll all be nicely dispersed.   Maybe someday a soggy piece of junk mail bearing the culprit's name will float to the shore and land on my foot.

Hudson Beach Combing Part 1, Glass

      

Just as I was about to compile my own local beach glass guide, the New York Post Parade Magazine published A Shore Thing yesterday, a little Sunday piece about "sea glass" collectors.  It calls us "secretive, greedy, even starry-eyed" (yeah, I guess), and runs down a list of glass color hierarchy in the sea glass collectors world.  For the most part, the article works as a guide for river glass collectors as well:

            "Green and Brown are common"  it says.
                             
I couldn't agree more and have to stop bringing them home, unless they are particularly smooth and well-shaped.


                 "Blues are harder to find, but not impossible".

Here in Hudson, blues are indeed rare  (those boaters are drinking beer, not Perrier---)  and it is the lime greens that are rarest, and a personal favorite.

 This is where the river experience differs from seashore.
 Parade names red glass "ultra-scarce"; the "holy grail" of beach glass collectors.

But I can usually find 1-2 a day on the Hudson shores.

Probably because red ones are made of tail lights and boats are in a more confined area here. (?)  For all I know these channel markers have glass lights on them too, that occasionally bust and wash ashore.

In any case, while reds are rare, at least they will scream out to you.

Today I ventured into new territory, and my haul included an unprecedented 

five reds and four blues

Without salt water and high seas, glass shards around here don't get very smooth, so I doubt I will ever face much competition in the local beach glass-hunting scene.

I love the color combo-ing though.

This very dense opaque red one is my newest favorite, 

and feels like it's been knocking around for quite some time.