The Perfect Place to Welcome Autumn

It’s starting to be fall, and there’s no better place to be right now than the Hudson Valley. I just got a call from a writer doing a piece about how hip it is up here, which reminded me of how much has changed since I first moved to the area more than thirty years ago.

A couple of years ago I wrote this little ode to my hometown, and I think this is a good time to share it. I’ve added a list of my favorite food places in this wonderful corner of the world.

Want to write me a letter? If you simply address it to Ruth, Spencertown, New York I’ll probably get it.

When I walk into the quaint little post office in our town the postmistress will hand it over saying, “This came for you.” Then Kate will rewrap the package I’m mailing (I never do it well enough to suit her) while filling me in on the latest news about the softball team.

That’s what I love about living here.

Some mornings I wake up, stare at the mist rising off the mountains and try to figure out how I wandered into this Jane Austen life. For a person raised in the studied anonymity of a Manhattan apartment building (my parents lived next door to the same couple for forty years without ever knowing their names), it is comforting to be part of a community where privacy is impossible. We even have what amounts to a local squire: the artist Ellsworth Kelly lived in our little hamlet for a large part of his life, and although he’s no longer with us, his husband continues to support every local cause. They built us a fire house, renovated Town Hall and maintain conservancy trails; at Christmas Jack even goes around town handing out Champagne. And yes, we all watch his comings and goings with the kind of avid curiosity so often found in Austen books – and so rarely in American cities. I know a lot about neighbors I have never met - and they know a lot about me.

A couple years ago I stupidly lit a fire without opening the vent in the fireplace. Five minutes later I was doing my best to evict the billows of smoke that filled the house when the Fire Chief showed up. “I know your husband is away…” said