The Rowley Winery
In the 1850s, the Rowley family established a winery on the bluff above a bridge and trail that is named in their honor on the south side of our village, Hastings-on-Hudson. Their product, made from the sugar-laden Isabella grape, was glowingly described in an 1869 newspaper article:
“Pure wine, such as the Rowley Brothers make, never did its drinkers any harm; it is only the adulterated stuff that passes for wine that injures one.”
Eventually the winery failed. (The alcoholic in me wants to ask: Was this because it never did its drinkers any "harm"?) Houses with stunning views of the Hudson River were built on the Rowley family's thirty-three acres. Today, wild summer grapes grow on the sides of the Rowley Bridge Trail. In late summer, they cling to trees and bushes, forming a verdant canopy. Spirally tendrils shoot from the stems, grabbing whatever is near, but sometimes they dangle in space.
I looked at these grapes one day while sitting on top of a boulder nicknamed "Forbes' Folly" and saw connections, tendrils, spirals, specters, and voids.