Overnight No. 43
Overnight No. 43

Millbrook, New York & Kent, Connecticut
September 19–20, 2026

The Moon Garden Weekend

Telescopes in a glacial bowl garden, a wildly walkable Connecticut town, and a picnic made for moonlight

Celebrate International Observe the Moon Day in just the right place to observe it: inside the gardens of Innisfree, after dark

Check into The Firefly Inn, stashed away in one of Connecticut's most secretly fantastic small towns

Embark on a bit of a Main Street mission to make sure you're moon-ready (read on)

As always, your stay, meal and local experience are arranged for you in a tap.

Get the full story for the weekend.

Background image: Jeremy Bishop · Crescent Moon through clouds, Unsplash License.

Where you're going: from one of the New Englandiest towns in Connecticut, across state lines to a secret-feeling garden dropped into a New York forest.

Why here?

This is a two-part little essay, stick with us. The first half is about a garden and the second is about the moon, and it’s going to come together this weekend. So first:

Innisfree is a garden in the same way that Paris is a city. Naming the category doesn’t really help you picture the place, and it tells you zero of the good stuff.

First of all, it’s nearly 200 acres; essentially a quarter-of-Central-Park-sized expanse of trees, flowers, pathways and out-jutting outcroppings that ring Tyrell Lake near Millbrook, New York. And when we say garden, we don’t mean fussily coiffed hedges.

The grounds here seem less manicured than organically sprung up somehow. Almost half of the flora are wildflowers, and native trees and meadows are the centerpiece features. So although everything has been designed, the architecture of it all makes sure that it’s honest-to-goodness nature — vs. neat little flowerbeds — that you find yourself strolling through here.

It was designed by the landscape artist Lester Collins and built iteratively over the last 60 years. His collaborators were the land’s first owners, Walter Beck, a gardener, and Marion Beck, an artist, and this place is just about the perfect fusing of making art and growing things.

Jump to what's included
A historical view of Innisfree Garden photographed in October 1997.
Sepia portrait of W. B. Yeats wearing glasses and a bow tie, his face turned slightly to the left.
Sepia portrait of W. B. Yeats wearing glasses and a bow tie, his face turned slightly to the left.

W. B. Yeats, photographed by George Charles Beresford in 1911.

Innisfree grows inside a hollow of earth, glaciered out thousands of years ago, that geologists call a glacial bowl. And there is a bowl feeling here. The rim gives things a traceable border, and makes it seem like you’ve just dropped in, from some normal-blah world, into this much more mystic one. It’s all organized around something Innisfree calls cup gardens, a series of outdoor ‘rooms’ that carry their own design personality.

There’s the thoughtful entry sequence, with a road in that’s a garden in itself; and the views from Heather Hill; and the just-so sculpted Terraces; and the wilder treesiness of Pine Island.

And there’s the Overlook, a big part of where we’re headed this weekend. Because this Saturday is International Observe the Moon Night — proclaimed by no less than NASA — and there’s no better place to observe a holiday about observing the moon than Innisfree.

A historical autumn view of Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, New York.

It’s incredibly dark to begin with. There is an entire web page, which we do not fully understand, dedicated to celestial viewing from the garden. Best of all, just before sunset on Saturday, the Overlook will host science writer Corey Powell for a kick-off lunar discussion involving the origins of the moon; and following that, guests can roam off into the gardens to find volunteers from the Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association stationed nearby with telescopes.

We love it.

You should bring a picnic, which we’re going to help with, and a red-light flashlight to help preserve your night vision. We do have to warn you that this entire event is cloud-contingent. If things get too overcast, organizers say it won’t go on, but we always think this is part of the fun with something like this. Very reasonably, you may not agree.

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,” says W. B. Yeats in the poem the garden was named after. “There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow.”

The moon is the perfect addition to here. It’s an extra bit of curated wilderness, and it fits right in.

So come and see it on a night when NASA has basically ordered us to. From the beautiful depths of a glacial bowl.

This weekend in Kent and Innisfree, discover:

The stay.

The Firefly Inn

The Firefly Inn may be the platonic ideal of New England inn names.

And this place backs up the whole thing aesthetically too, with its prim-but-not-too austere suites, its white clapboard frame with twin, welcoming lanterns, and close-shorn lawn, and spare, no-effort elegance every which way.  It's just good all the way around.

It is also entirely walkable to Kent (well it's in Kent, right on Main Street), and it's a great base for roaming.

Your Saturday-night stay at The Firefly Inn is included. Just roll in.

The day.

Main Street, Kent

Lots of good things about Kent. It's one of a cluster of supremely appealing villages in Connecticut's Litchfield County. It's right on the Appalachian Trail (which we never think of as going through this part of the country, for some reason) and there's definitely a sort of mountain town feel here; even the lowish hills -- which are beautiful -- don't quite qualify.

The Overnightist readers know that a traipsable Main Street gets us every time, and Kent gets us good.

We’re going to send you on an errand (pre-arranged and paid for) to help get you set for moon night.

The find.

Two open books stacked together, their cream-colored pages fanning upward against a gray background.

House of Books

How you feel about a bookstore is based on who knows what.

If you were to tell us about one we've never been to, and describe it to a tee, and fill in every possible detail --  it has a huge selection, the owner is delightful, the prices are reasonable -- we still wouldn't have a sense of how it grades on our number one (completely absurd) priority for bookstores. That it feels good.

That its floors creak, and there's a good, less-popular shelf that you hunker in front of and read until your knees go numb, and staff writes excellent little recommendation notes, and there's zero pretense. And if they have a little stationery section, and some pens? Good.

House of Books has such (such) good feel and we love it here.

We’re including a $25 gift card to get something good.

The food.

A close-up of several cheeses with red grapes and crackers on a wooden board.

109 Cheese Market

We're going to outfit you for a picnic at Innisfree.

Kent's 109 Cheese Market has a knockout counter of artisan cheeses and charcuterie on Kent’s Main Street. A great sandwich menu too: Gruyère and prosciutto on a buttered baguette, or smoked turkey with fig jam and D’Affinois.

There are prepared salads, too, and chocolate-chip cookies from The Cakebox in Ridgefield. All good things for taking with you to the moon.

You’ll have a gift card for assembling essential picnic provisions from 109 Cheese Market. Pick them up and take them with you to Innisfree.

The tucked away.

Worn paintbrushes fill clear glass jars, with a softly blurred background.

Eric Sloane Museum

Eric Sloane, the celebrated landscape artist and author, painted enormous New England skies, and he also wrote wonderfully illustrated books about weather.

His studio has been re-created inside the Eric Sloane Museum in  Kent: a paint-encased easel, rows of jars and brushes, and original paintings in the adjoining gallery.

There’s an extensive collection of early American hand tools here, too, which Sloane arranged and labeled himself.

The evening mood.

The Moon’s pale surface against a dark night sky.

International Observe the Moon Night at Innisfree

Innisfree’s evening begins at 6 p.m. on Saturday, with time for a picnic on the overlook before science writer Corey S. Powell gives a talk around 6:45. He’ll explore how the Moon formed (we’re interested) and its relationship with Earth.

After the talk, volunteers from the Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association will have telescopes set up around the garden. They’ll help visitors get a closer look at lunar craters and mountains, point out other objects in the night sky, and answer questions. There’s time to move between the telescopes and enjoy the garden after dark before it closes at 9:30 p.m.

The evening is weather-dependent; if clouds make viewing impossible, the event may be cancelled. Fingers crossed.

Your Innisfree admission covers the evening talk and telescope viewing.

Let us arrange it for you in a tap.

This Overnight includes:

  • One Saturday night at The Firefly Inn, September 19–20. One room for one or two travelers; two rooms for three or four.

  • International Observe the Moon Night admission at Innisfree.

  • A $25 gift card at Kent’s House of Books.

  • Picnic provisions from 109 Cheese Market: $30 credit for one, $60 for two, $90 for three or $120 for four travelers.

And a couple of other secret things…

So how does this work?
No payment is needed just yet. Send us your request, and we’ll make sure the weekend is ready on our end. Then we’ll email you a secure payment link. Once you’re booked, we’ll send the key details: check-in, addresses, timing and reservation notes.

For now, just let us know you’d like us to get going.

This Overnight is independently curated. The hotels, restaurants, and experiences in this piece are not affiliated or partnered with us unless specifically stated, and we select and package all our weekend components editorially. Inclusion in this story is not a promotion or paid advertisement.