I took a ride through the landscape of my childhood last weekend along the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. I grew up in this part of Dutchess County, N.Y., and while my family has since moved away, I still identify this landscape of high fields and lowland swamps as my place of origin. There are certain vistas, and sounds and smells of the seasons, that bring me straight back to my youth when I visit here, and I had that experience once again while riding bicycles with my family between Coleman Station and Amenia. There was no Rail Trail when I was growing up. The tracks had been torn up in the early 1970s and the commuter rail terminated farther down the valley in Dover. The old rail bed passes through wetlands and among farm fields that felt very familiar to me even though I had never been on this section of trail before. They smelled of spring the way I remember it from my youth — honeysuckle and warm grass and something of the dark swamp as well. I heard a wood thrush, and rival redwing blackbirds rasping their challenges amid the cattails. I let my eye travel along the folded hills of bank-run gravel that mark the edge of ancient glacial lakes.The level grade of the trail makes the miles pass quickly, but we were riding for pleasure only and set a leisurely pace. This allowed us to observe the leaves of native bloodroot amid the invasive vegetation at the side of the trail, and a breeding pair of geese in a sheltered pond. We saw thick forests of cedar growing in what had once been farm fields, and chipmunks darting through the undergrowth.One can now travel from the Wassaic train station to the center of Millerton along the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, or take another section in Columbia County from Boston Corner to Bash Bish Falls. For these communities the Rail Trail is now an exceptional recreational resource that has also stimulated the local economy: an exceptional example of the power of public/private partnership and the value of investing in open space that connects our communities in ways we all can experience and enjoy.I often wish that we in northwest Connecticut had such a regional rail trail running along the old Central New England line between Lakeville and Norfolk. The Norfolk Land Trust maintains a section of the route in its community but there is no connection at present to East Canaan. Fragmented by private ownership and the need for massive infrastructure investment, this is not something that could be accomplished easily or in short order, but then neither was the creation of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Tim Abbott is program director of Housatonic Valley Association’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint. His blog is at greensleeves.typepad.com.
Latest News
Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
Provided
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.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
