A Field of My Own, A Memoir of Place

Author Cynthia McVay, in conversation with Sophie Glovier, Chief of Strategy and Program at The Watershed Institute.

A lifelong creative and environmentalist, McVay chronicles her intimate, two-decade relationship with a flagging orchard in the Hudson Valley. As a single working mother, she was looking for a weekend escape from New York City, a piece of green, a place to call her own. One blustery winter day, she falls in love with a meadow and her life is forever altered.
 

She renovates the modest cottage, builds a pondish-pool, creates pollinating, native gardens from orphans and strays, learns to forage and runs the tractor. A decade in, as architect and general contractor, she moves an enormous 180-year-old hand-hewn Amish barn to the property to make her sustainable home. Snarky contractors, a tippling partner, puzzling neighbors, concerning caretakers, black rat snakes and coyote chases are minor setbacks; each day brings joy and serenity. This engaging memoir of place is generous and honest, packed with useful know-how and humor.

Cynthia McVay grew up in the woods outside Princeton. She was a strategy and management consultant for two decades and served as Latin American Program Officer for the World Wildlife Fund and Director of Innovation for the Peace Corps. Cynthia's latest book, Under the Crucian Sun: A Memoir of Place, is set on the island of St. Croix and offers a personal portrayal of a coy, complex and layered island, where she restores a wreck of a home with iconic stone walls and midcentury lines.

Meet the author and get your signed copy of the book at the Watershed Center.