Though summer is progressing, we can look forward to another several weeks of warm weather and all the activities that go with it. If you are like me, these activities include being outside as much as possible and enjoying what nature has to offer.If you recall several columns back, I wrote about bird songs and how the woods and meadows come alive with the sounds of birds identifying and defending territory in which to raise their young. That was only weeks ago, back in mid-May when our migratory songbirds returned from their wintering grounds to their nurseries. Our forests are now completing their important role of providing the habitat necessary for migratory birds to replenish their populations with a new generation of their species. If you head into the woods these days, the sounds are much different, much quieter. The veeries are still singing, as is the occasional wood thrush. Red-eyed vireos are still adamantly announcing their presence and the phoebes, many now raising their second set of young, are still singing outside our windows. Yet many birds have already finished their breeding cycle and are getting ready to make the journey home. This is especially true of the birds that arrived here the earliest in spring. It takes most songbirds about 60 days to produce and fledge their young and prepare for migration. Once the young are out of the nest and on their own, there is no reason to stick around.You will notice that I allude to the fact that these birds are just visitors here. Indeed, they are only in our region for about three months. They then return to the tropics for the remaining nine. Of course there is significant time out of those nine months spent migrating the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles between breeding and wintering grounds. I will write more about the phenomenon of migration in future columns.I was prompted to write about this subject in this week’s column not only because our woods are noticeably quieter, but because I have had the opportunity to work with a young conservationist from Belize over the past eight weeks. He has been working with our bird banding, bird monitoring and education staff to gain experience and information that he will take back to Belize. He will put that knowledge to use in his work to conserve and monitor bird populations on more than 200,000 acres of habitat managed by the Belize Audubon Society. This sharing of information, challenges and cultures is essential to furthering the protection of habitats at both ends of the migratory route (and throughout the Atlantic flyway) to assure that the birds that we enjoy every summer return every spring. We wish him luck as he heads home to help protect the birds that will be arriving home shortly thereafter! Scott Heth is the director of Audubon Sharon and can be reached at sheth@audubon.org, (subject line: Nature Notes).
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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