From Kyiv to Connecticut

Ira Buch in Gdansk, Poland, after the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022.
Provided
Ira Buch in Gdansk, Poland, after the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022.
January, 2022. My new year celebration in Ukraine was accompanied by cheerful optimism for the upcoming year. After being wrongly diagnosed with lupus, this time marked the end of 12 months of everlasting hospital visits, biopsies, and analysis. Looking ahead, I hoped to spend the coming year with my family and friends, as the need for my isolation had passed.
But then, on Feb. 24, 2022, the world turned upside down. With explosions outside my home in Kyiv, all I could wish for was the isolation and silent safety I once knew in those hospital rooms.
My family fled Kyiv to one of the small neighboring towns – Borodyanka. The town was surrounded by the occupiers the following day. We soon learned that the explosions signified safety: they meant that there was still a fight to be had.
Under the shells of Borodyanka, I continued working on my application to Ukraine Global Scholars (UGS), a program designed to help Ukrainian youth through their application process to top boarding schools and colleges in the U.S. Within a few days, the Russian military hit the only grocery store, power plants, and internet tower in the area. Running low on food and water, our only source of information became the radio, which translated stories of the terrors from the neighboring regions.
Two weeks later we were evacuated from the city. The neighboring family knew of the situations in the nearby towns, which were temporarily controlled by the Ukrainian army. With them, we placed white sheets on the car and drove through forests and a few villages to get to the Polish border. I submitted my UGS application in a big multi-family room of a refugee center in Warsaw, Poland.
My UGS acceptance notification was followed by a six-month application process to U.S. boarding schools.
On March 10, 2023, the results came out: acceptance from Hotchkiss. I was overwhelmed with joy. Neither my parents nor I had ever traveled abroad before the full-scale war broke out. Following my acceptance, my mom and I returned back home to Kyiv. With the visa application, preparations, and occasional explosions, the summer went by quickly.
The next thing I knew, I was on my way to the United States (my first time traveling alone). A bus, two trains, two flights, and one car drive later, I arrived in Lakeville. As I came to Hotchkiss for the fall semester, I was struck by the drastic differences in the educational system. Six chosen classes substituted eighteen fixed classes I took in Ukraine. The focus shifted from memorizing material to learning how to discuss, interpret, and analyze data. The analysis and interpretation of the readings and assignments became the priority. On the other hand, after-school activities became as important, if not more important, than academics. From community service to athletics and research projects, I was spinning in choices.
For the first two months, I struggled to adapt to the new expectations in and outside of the classroom. It was difficult to construct effective essays according to the new methods, and grasping math topics from a new perspective became a challenge. At my Ukrainian school, we covered parts of precalculus and calculus, never fully finishing either of them. At Hotchkiss, I was placed into a calculus class where the themes were based on concepts I had never fully studied. I struggled to keep up with my classmates, every one of whom seemed to have complete control over their activities and goals. At that time, I was lucky to have been met with support and feedback from my teachers, improving my understanding of the expectations and requirements. With their support, the B on my essay transformed into an A, and math concepts became easier to grasp. The confusion with the U.S. measurement system, however, persisted. I still interpret Fahrenheit and miles connotations based on the context.
During the winter break, I had an opportunity to travel to Germany with some of my classmates. The trip was one of the best experiences of the year: we practiced German, drove the U-Bahn, and visited Christmas markets, museums, and shows.
After the trip, I was able to go home and spend the New Year with my family. The trip back was accompanied by the Russian New Year’s Eve bombing and, as a result, a missed bus in Poland. One bus turned into three to get to Berlin’s airport. Back home, the snowy landscape was reminiscent of the Lakeville weather. The howl of the wind, however, was replaced by the howl of Russian shaheds, drones and missiles, explosions instead of the celebratory fireworks, and commemoration of those killed by the Russian invasion instead of the celebration of the past year.
February, 2024. Two years after the beginning of the full-scale war and ten years after the initial Russian invasion. With the enormous support of the school and the local community, Oleh, my friend from UGS, and a Hotchkiss classmate, and I launched a fundraising campaign and a photo exhibition at the school. The exhibition featured photos taken by my family and friends, as well as other families. Here, Oleh and I got an opportunity to share our stories. I was struck by the outpouring of support we received and the community’s awareness of the situation in my home country.
As time marched on, Lakeville slowly transitioned into the spring season. Since coming to Hotchkiss, spring has become my favorite part of the year. The classrooms and hallways are no longer stressful, but familiar. I started feeling at home on campus and during class discussions and assignments.
In the blink of an eye, Lakeville’s transition between winter and spring was complete with flowers, sun rays on the windows, and a pleasant rise in temperature. A two-year whirlwind culminates with peace.
Ira Buch is a junior at The Hotchkiss School. She will be returning to Ukraine this summer before coming back to Hotchkiss for senior year.
Join The Lakeville Journal for a community celebration, featuring local nonprofits and businesses, festive family fun, great food, and engaging activities.
What to Expect:
See you at the Lakeville Journal Street Fair!
If you have any questions, please email streetfair@lakevillejournal.com
Cobbler n’ Cream
5 to 7 p.m.
Freund’s Farm Market & Bakery | 324 Norfolk Rd.
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Cocktail Party
5 to 7 p.m.
Douglas Library | 108 Main St.
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Boot Drive
8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
North Canaan Fire Co. | 4 E. Main St.
3rd Annual Fly-In
8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Triumph Airfield | 547 W. Main St.
Canaan Railroad Station Museum
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
New England Accordion Connection
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
Canaan Carnival
3 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Berkshire Resilience Brass Band
5 to 8 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
Barbecued Chicken Dinner
5 to 7 p.m.
St. Martin of Tours | 4 Main St.
Canaan Fireman’s parade
6 p.m.
Rosa setigera is a native climbing rose whose simple flowers allow bees to easily collect pollen.
After moving to West Cornwall in 2012, we were given a thoughtful housewarming gift: the 1997 edition of “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs.” We were told the encyclopedic volume was the definitive gardener’s reference guide — a fact I already knew, having purchased one several months earlier at the recommendation of a gardener I admire.
At the time, we were in the thick of winter invasive removal, and I enjoyed reading and dreaming about the trees and shrubs I could plant to fill in the bare spots where the bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose and other invasive plants had been.Years later, I purchased the 2011 edition, updated and inclusive of plants for warm climates.
On the cover of the new edition, a quote from Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post boasts, “Michael Dirr is the oracle of ornamental horticulture. I trust his judgements implicitly.”I heartily disagree with Mr. Higgins:I blame this book — and my poor use of it — for some of my worst tree and shrub choices.
I realize some readers might find this declaration inflammatory. The book still occupies a place of high regard among experienced and novice gardeners alike, so please allow me to explain.
In addition to giving the reader his opinion on the aesthetic worthiness of the woody plants included in the book, Mr. Dirr makes good on the book’s title with a review of each species’ hardiness. What makes a tree hardy?It thrives in its intended site, resisting disease with leaves and bark not readily eaten by insects and other critters.
Non-native plants make up the majority of the recommended hardy plants in the book.And here is why:Native trees and shrubs are, by evolution’s design, food source and host to our native fauna — critters large and small. There is no substitute equal to the fauna’s co-evolved flora.A native caterpillar cannot eat a kousa dogwood leaf, as it has not evolved to digest it.Non-native plants seemingly have the advantage if the lens we look through values pristine, uneaten leaves.
In the days when there were sufficient thriving ecosystems to maintain local habitats, a non-native specimen tree here and there was just fine.But where we live in Northwest Connecticut, our woods, meadows, marshes and other natural areas have, for a couple of decades, been severely compromised by invasives that have almost entirely removed the food sources for native insects. It is up to us — now — to plant native plants to save the food chain.Without insects, not only will native animals die, but human food sources will also be at risk.
The security of our food pipeline seems a worthy exchange for some caterpillar-eaten leaves — and to be clear, we’re not talking about non-native infestations such as spongy moth, but rather native caterpillars, which are the singular food source for nesting birds.
My issue is that, in being a trusted source for plant selection, Dirr’s book should give equal — if not prioritized — space to information on ecological impact.For example, it would be good to know when selecting a tree, that a native oak provides food and other ecosystem services to more than 400 native animal species, while a native tulip poplar supports fewer than 30 — though that includes the Eastern tiger swallowtail. Including information on the birds and insects attracted to a given plant would enable reader to weigh these factors in choosing what to grow.But this information is not mentioned at all.
Dirr makes no mention of the role some of these plants have played in the degradation of our natural areas — an omission that is highly relevant, as many of the plants featured in his book are, in fact, invasive culprits. Plants like barberry, porcelain berry and tree of heaven are showcased for consideration alongside native plants without recognition of the devastating infestations they can manifest. Tree of Heaven is now responsible for hosting the spotted lanternfly, which is devastating crops.
Similarly Euonymous alatus (winged euonymous) and Actinidia arguta (hardy kiwi) — two highly invasive plants touted in the book — have been banned or are close to being banned for sale from nurseries in the state of Massachusetts. To his credit, Dirr does point out the invasive nature of Ligustrum sinense (Chinese privet), calling it “a terrible and devastating escapee that terrorizes floodplains, fencerows and even open fields, reducing native vegetation to rubble.” Yet Japanese honeysuckle gets an understated warning, with Dirr describing this massively invasive shrub as “bullying their way into understory and open areas.”
The latest edition of Dirr’s book devotes seven pages of copy and photos to various Berberis species, about which Dirr waxes poetic. He notes the addition of “30 new cultivars” in the latest revision and complains that “this species is under assault for its aggressive invasive nature.” He refers to Berberis thunbergii — Japanese barberry, the most invasive of them all — as “the species of major importance in garden commerce.” This plant has already been outlawed for sale in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hamphsire and Maine.A few weeks ago, a bill was passed in Connecticut recognizing the harm of a broad group of invasive plants. Under this new legislation, barberry will be phased out from sale or transport by October 2028.
In understating the invasive nature of many non-natives and de-prioritizing the importance of native species, Dirr’s widely used reference may be partly responsible for many a devastated woodland, forest, meadow and marsh in New England — if not across the U.S.Certainly, the evolution of species, and scientific knowledge about the environment, is changing faster than new editions of books can be printed. I can only hope that if a new edition of Mr. Dirr’s reference book is in the works that it will account for this criteria we now know to be vital in plant selection.
Which brings me back to that quote on the cover from The Washington Post and the larger issue it suggests:Should “ornamental horticulture” get a pass when it comes to ecological survival?I think we can agree — it should not.The consequences are simply too destructive.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
Foxtrot Farm & Flowers’ historic barn space during UAW’s 2024 exhibition entitled “Unruly Edges.”
Art lovers, mark your calendars. The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) returns July 17 to 21, with an exciting lineup of exhibitions and events celebrating the cultural vibrancy of the region. Spanning eight counties and over 130 venues, UAW invites residents and visitors alike to explore the Hudson Valley’s thriving creative communities.
Here’s a preview of four must-see exhibitions in the area:
1. Wassaic Project (37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic)
“So It Goes” is a powerful group exhibition curated by Eve Biddle, Bowie Zunino, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Will Hutnick. The title, drawn from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” signals a reckoning with how we process the horrors of the world. Through play, reflection, and immersive scale, 43 artists respond with urgency and imagination. Installations can be seen throughout the town of Wassaic at Maxon Mills, Gridley Chapel, and Luther Barn, each space transformed by this deeply thoughtful show.
2. Foxtrot Farm & Flowers (6862 Route 82, Stanfordville)
“Queer Bestiary,” a group show curated by Charlotte Woolf, is inspired by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian’s book “Forest Euphoria.” The exhibition investigates queer ecology and human relationship to land through the work of 10 artists using painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography. The exhibit is accompanied by a variety of interactive experiences including tattoo pop-ups, karaoke, book readings, and pick-your-own flowers.
3. ChaShaMa North/ChaNorth (2600 Route 199, Pine Plains)
ChaShaMa North (ChaNorth) will have open studios all weekend and has partnered with Paradice Palase, a platform for emerging artists, to mount a site-specific sculpture exhibition featuring 20 artists entitled “Alone, You Are Heard.” On Saturday evening, July 19, stop by for Weird Music Night for an audio-visual synthesis of experimental music, performance art, and unexpected happenings. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience an eclectic lineup of acts that redefine the boundaries of performance.
4. Millbrook Arts Project(3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook)
The Millbrook Arts Project is hosting a curated exhibit entitled “Generated Utility” at the newly renovated gallery at the village library. The exhibit will feature the work of artists Natalie Beall and Kathy Greenwood. Additionally, visitors will have access to 12 open artists studios across town. The weekend culminates in a free outdoor concert on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at the Millbrook Bandshell. Enjoy the Indie-Folk sounds of Strawberry Runners and She Keeps Bees.
For more information and a complete list of participating artists and locations, visit: upstateartweekend.org