Westchester is one of those places where there is a New Years celebration to fit any mood. To prove the point, during the course of the day and evening I decided to keep a photo journal of sorts of my New Year’s Eve. I pulled my favorites for posting. For those who prefer a more contemplative mood, there was plenty to do and see in lower Westchester. You could walk the trails, take a drive, wonder around the towns and villages. For those who prefer to party – downtown White Plains had its annual ball drop and New Year’s party. My personal preference leans towards the more quite and reflective celebration. But that didn’t stop me from attending the annual ball drop and fire works in downtown White Plains. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t catch the fireworks – let’s just say my camera picked the wrong time to need a change of batteries. Too bad too, because the show lit up the sky to the point where it was almost like daylight for a moment. Hopefully, you will find a picture to suit your mood….
Autumn in lower Westchester NY is a very colorful event.
There is something about the color of the leaves and how it lights up the sky that I find very compelling. Forget leaf peeping in Vermont – our season peaks later, but the foliage is just as amazing. At this time of year, people flock to parks in Westchester NY for the foliage and crisp weather.
This week had been particularly stressful – so Friday afternoon I escaped to the Rockefeller Preserve in Sleepy Hollow to regenerate. Among the many things to do in Westchester, this is among my favorite places to decompress and get back in touch with what it is all about. Although the leaves were more than half gone, the color of the sky and the sunlight caused the remaining leaves light up the sky with a full fall fire. Jade and Tundra – my faithful Huskies accompanied me and enjoyed the blustery cold air. We also ran into a friend from my brokerage – Monique another avid walker, arrived just as I was leaving.
Here are a couple of the photos I snapped along the way. As a nature Preserve, you get to see the beauty of nature’s wild side.
Happy Halloween to all! I went to the Halloween Blaze at Van Cortlant Manor in order to deliver to everyone some prime photos from one of the areas primary hot spots for Halloween.. The Halloween “Blaze” celebration is nothing short of amazing with 4000 pumpkins lit up on the 18th Century colonial estate. They make them into dinosaurs, they have black cats, and rats carved into pumpkins, ornate patterns as well as a spaceship, a pirates ship and so much more too numerous to even begin. The tour takes a little over an hour and is worth the trip up from lower Westchester to Croton-on-Hudson…Unfortunately, I’m still playing with the pics. I admit – a professional photographer I am not. I made a mistake with my settings and it was literally too dark to fix!
So, as a poor substitute – I found this video of Bobby Picket singing the “Monster Mash” on YouTube. I’ve heard it every Halloween since I was a child, but I didn’t know the artist behind the voice. His immitation of Boris Karloff made him and the song “The Monster Mash” famous. The song was composed in 1962 and was a major hit. It went through several incarnations – taking off in Britain in the 1970s.
Manor Park, in Larchmont is a gem for those who enjoy water views and a nice walk. Unlike the Rockefeller Preserve, where wildlife rules, Manor Park is has manicured paths and wonderful plantings. The imppecibly maintained masonry walls that separate the Park from the Long Island Sound, along with the stone benches built right into them flow almost seamlessly with the natural rock that has been smoothed by the flow of water.
The park was established in the 1870s. The Larchmont Manor Park Society was established in 1892 to maintain and preserve the park and is active to this day. Indeed, the society recently was responsible for a $1 million capital improvement program. The park initially included 6 acres and has expanded to 13 which includes Manor Beach. The park remains privately owned by the local residents but is generously open to the public year round from dawn to dusk. You can job, walk, stroll sit and enjoy the sights, read a book and walk your dog. Dogs must be leashed and cleaned up after.
I spent part of an afternoon in the park just recently. Jade and I walked the length of the park. As usual, Jade was an attractant to kids, adults and dogs alike. She met several new canine friends and enjoyed watching the boats and the waves. She is unaccostomed to waves and was quite surprsied that the water was salty. I had a fresh drink awaiting her – so no dogs were harmed or allowed to go thirsty during the course of our photo shoot and walk.
Over the past few months I’ve been observing a strange sight: fiberglass roosters nesting all over Scarsdale Village. “Rooster Row” as it is called is a fundraising event for the benefit of the Scarsdale Historical Society. It recalls a similar fund raising event in Larchmont involving ducks in 2006. Although the roosters were supposed to be auctioned off earlier in the year…many of the roosters still remain. I don’t know exactly what happened at the auction, but I’m pleased to still see the some of the roosters out and about. They certainly are a colorful addition to Scarsdale Village. They also serve to showcase local talent and promote local business – all of which is a good thing during these challenging economic times. I took these photos a few months ago but got caught up with other things. So I’m posting them now – better late than never.
Coffee Labs of Tarrytown NY - A place to enjoy a great cup of coffee – with your best canine friend!
I confess that I have a coffee habit. It’s easy to point fingers at my 1/4 Spanish/Cuban heritage – but let’s face it – I’m addicted. This is particularly true of really fine coffee. And Coffee Labs offers some of the best blends there are. Once you’ve tried it, there really is no going back.
Sometimes I go to Coffee Labs in the morning with Jade – my mellow Siberian Husky. For those of you who have read the antics of my two White Siberian Huskies, you know that I hav two females named Jade and Tundra. Tundra is my wild child and Jade is as relaxed and mellow as Tundra is exuberant. So Jade gets to accompany me to the coffee shop where I get a great cup of coffee, pull up a table and get to work researching the market and catching up with correspondence. It’s my way of getting out of the office and enjoy a change of pace – while still being able to get work done. There are quite a few regular morning patrons at Coffee Labs. Many sit just like me – working away at their laptops sharing the bandwidth. Julie Annello is one a customer who I took note of because she didn’t have a laptop. Instead, she had her sketch book. For several days Julie tried to get a nice sketch of Jade, but somehow – it never quite happened…until last Wednesday… It really captures the quiet calm of Jade and her retiring, gentle personality. Julie gave me her sketch which I scanned into my computer and here it is….direct from Coffee Labs…Jade in repose while her “Mom” is working on market stats.
Going into NYC for July 4th is great – but it can be a hassle. Fact is you don’t need to go to Manhattan to see terrific displays. Here is a short list of lower Westchester events and fireworks displays. This will help get you started….
You can start celebrating as early as tonight:
Events for Wednesday July 1, 2009
Playland’s Weekly Fireworks Display:
Starts at 9:15. Offered by the Westchester County Parks Dept. Admission for parking is $4.00
Location & Info:
Playland Park
Playland Parkway
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 813-7010
White Plains Fireworks Display:
An evening out at the White Plains High School. Includes fun for all With inflatable rides and food along with a children’s stage. Free to the public. 6-10 PM. (Rain date July 2)
It was a great day in the Hudson Valley – after all the rain we’ve had recently, it was wonderful to be outside on a warm and SUNNY day. White Plains has always been know for its shopping and more recently fine dining. High-end housing in high rise luxury buildings is also something that White Plains is famous for. But it has lagged behind in the arts. Yes, we have our own theater, the Westchester Philharmonic under the baton of Itzhak Perlman calls White Plains its “home.” But only now is White Plains getting itself on the map – so to speak – as go-to place for the arts. But on this weekend the artisans were out in force. Downtown White Plains was certainly the go-to place for the arts this weekend.
The White Plains Outdoor Arts Festival was an amazing venue for a beautiful late spring day. Any excuse to get outside was fine by me! But this was really worth an afternoon for anyone interested in amazing diversity of artisan work displayed. Truth be told I was only able to spend about an hour because Sunday is a work day for me, but I could easily have spent two to three hours had time permitted. Here are a few of the highlights:
I was really struck by a couple of booths:
The first was A J Nostalgia…by Jeff and Jill Hand, with their 3-D nostalgic lithographs a bygone era. The emphasis was New York, but there were lithographs from Boston and other parts of the country as well. I bought my father a lithograph of the Yankees for father’s day while I was there. I saw Brooklyn, Queens, Coney Island, Long beach among others. Amazing detail and very colorful. There was no email address – only a phone number which I hesitate to put on-line. The photos I got were terrible….
Then there was Robert Rodriguez Jr. with his photographs on canvas. Mostly of the Hudson Valley, these photographs portray the lush color and beauty of our region with vivid rich tones. They reminded me of the fact that New York is not all glass and steel and also of why I’m glad to be able to say “I’m from New York.” This was not one of my better pictures – so for more information here is the link to Mr. Rodriguez’s web site.
OK, I confess! I am a sucker for fall foliage and fall weather. This year has been a banner year for leaf peepers. Everywhere I go, I feel as if I am in the midst of a blazing fire show. In my previous post on the Rockefeller Preserve I displayed some photos from mid-October. These pictures from the Tarrytown lakes were taken later in the season – the first week of November. But what a display! The colors had deepened the yellows are morphing into a deeper more opaque gold and the reds are getting richer in color by the day. It really looks like Westchester County is on fire – a cool fire, because there is that wonderful fall snap in the air.
The Tarrytown Lakes provide a wonderful easy-going walking experience. Perfect for either biking or strolling or serious walking. The trail is about 1 mile long and the main portion is linear. Perfect for a nice two mile walk on a fall day. Dogs must be leashed and you must pick up after them.
OK, I am digressing to my former life. I was a biology major in college and for many years pursued a career as a research scientist. I still teach at the undergraduate level as an adjunct professor. One of my favorite labs teaches students why leaves change color in the fall. When student’s crush green leaves into a solvent – and separate the pigments using a process called “paper chromatography” the different colored pigments separate out from the green chlorophyll – showing the wide array of color pigments that leaves possess. The pigments are there (carotenoids and anthrocyanins) even when the leaf is green, but you can’t see them because the amount of green chlorophyll simply overwhelms them.
As summer turns to fall, the days grow shorter and the chlorophyll starts to break down. This allows the other pigments in all their splendor to be revealed. Some years, the “show” is more vivid. Read the rest of this entry »
Happy New Year Everyone…
