New York's Secret Garden - Otsego and Schoharie County

I spent every summer as a kid at a sweet little cabin my parents had built on farmland outside of Cherry Valley. My kids spent their summers there, too. I wish it was still ours, but at least it's still there. When I need to whisk my mind to a favorite place, that's where I go.

It's been a long love affair with that area for me. I was back today and when I first caught sight of a rolling vista of farmland, I got teary. I do that.

I pulled myself together and headed into Cooperstown. It's the prettiest little lakeside town I know. It's got it all; pristine waterfront, Victorian and Colonial architecture, a bit of life thanks to the baseball fans. Oh, that Otsego Lake. Thanks to the wealthy family with the foresight to buy up one shore and keep it from turning into a collection of camps. Generations have enjoyed it because of them.

Then I went to Cherry Valley. Part of my heart is always there.  It's an adorable little village that sometimes almost wakes from its slumber, then dozes off again. It appears to be dozing right now. But the townsfolk got together and restored the Lithia Spring in the middle of town about ten years ago. It looks wonderful.

I stopped at the great old market that doesn't appear to have changed in the past forty years. The old fellow behind the counter snorted when I asked him what was new in town. "Nothing," he scoffed. But when I left I found he was wrong. There's a new art gallery in Mr. Lafler's old plumbing business building. Someone else has started a lovely business up the hill; a lilac farm.

Cherry Valley and Otsego County aren't undemanding sweethearts; it takes sturdier folk than I to hang in there when the long winter roars in. It's snow country.

But there's nowhere sweeter in the spring, I'm thinking.