Rebecca Ffrench At The Library This Saturday

Don't forget that WCA member Rebecca Ffrench will be doing a demo, tasting and book signing at the library this Saturday. See you all there!

THE ULTIMATE BLENDER 

COOKBOOK

Demo, Tasting and Signing

Saturday, May 2 at 1 PM

At the Phoenicia Library

48 Main Street, Phoenicia, NY

with

Rebecca Miller Ffrench

That trusty blender on your counter is good for so much more than just smoothies. Did you know that you can whip up better-for-you pancakes and gluten-free cookies, quickly chop a salad or slaw, make your own nut butters and milks, and even cut down on your meat intake with easy burgers made from vegetables and fish?

Rebecca Miller Ffrench is here to show you that blending not only saves you time and effort in the kitchen, but it is also an incredible way to pack more nutrition into every meal, with black beans in brownies (no one will be able to taste it!), pasta sauce loaded with roasted vegetables, and creamy, velvety soups that are fiber rich and dairy free.

With sales of high-performance blenders up more than 50 percent in the past year alone, it is time to harness all that blending power and put it to work for you and your family. Save money, eat healthier, and get dinner on the table in a jiffy with The Ultimate Blender Cookbook.

A Three Leafed Lesson

As spring gears up it is important to remember to watch for poison ivy in and around our houses. Our poet laureate, Boreegared (aka Mike O'Neil) wrote this lovely poem to remind us to beware of the three leafed danger.


The Three Leaf Lesson

A lesson for you, tenderfoot,
As spring sends out its green-ed root,
And ivy creeps both high and fine,
It looks so lovely on its vine.

Look well upon its figuration,
For three leaves earns it condemnation,
Touch it not or you will scratch,
And pustules, bumps, and hivies hatch.

The medicos will sell you potions,
Sell you creams and prescribe lotions,
But summer heat and sweat galore,
Will spread the poison more and more.

Then Mother Nature grants surcease,
As summer ends and heat waves ease,
You’re not a tenderfoot—no more,
You know it’s three leaves, and not four.

Boreegard  

Oberbeck Iceland Trip

Longtime Woodland Valley residents Sally & Pete Oberbeck went on a fabulous trip to Iceland in March to see the northern lights and the eclipse. They had a great time and sent us back a message and some photos (see below). Sorry I am a bit belated it putting up this post but I think you will enjoy it all the same. Those northern lights are amazing!! Here is what they had to say.

"Here are a few select pictures of our eclipse trip to Iceland. Although March is not the best time to visit, (eclipses have their own schedule) it does get dark enough to see the northern lights. Weather on the whole was very good with one or two days being pretty nasty. As you can see from the pictures there was lots of sun, but temps never got higher than the mid 40s. Food was great, people friendly and the scenery out of this world.

On Tuesday March 17th one of the most intense geomagnetic storms in years hit the earth and we had clear (mostly) skies in Iceland to witness the event. It was spectacular. The following Friday we had clear skies, but not nearly the intense nothern lights, but great non the less. Sally was in 7th Heaven with her camera. I just watched and drank Armanac to keep warm."

- Intrepid Peter 'n Sally

Lost Dog

The dog that was found over the weekend in Mt Tremper is still at the SAVE shelter behind town hall. Below is the information from the Shandaken Facebook page. If anyone has any information please call the numbers listed in this post.  

** DOG FOUND** On Rt. 28 - Mt. Tremper at pull-off by Emerson.Saturday 4/18. Female Reddish Pitbull. Very friendly. Collar & leash NO tags. She is safe at the dog shelter but we can't find her owner. If you have any info. Call Nancy Hudler 845-688-7284 or Town Clerk 845-688 5004. PS -This photo was taken as soon as she was found and put in shelter. The choke collar was switched out for a regular collar immediately after the picture was taken. (Thanks to those that donate to SAVE - we have extra collars!)

Rebecca Ffrench Book Event

Woodland Valley's own Rebecca Ffrench will be appearing at the Phoenicia Library on Saturday May 2nd for a demo, tasting and book signing. Besides being an AWESOME writer and cook Rebecca is an all around nice person. So go and meet her and find out just how much your blender can do!

THE ULTIMATE BLENDER 

COOKBOOK

Demo, Tasting and Signing

Saturday, May 2 at 1 PM

At the Phoenicia Library

48 Main Street, Phoenicia, NY

with

Rebecca Miller Ffrench

That trusty blender on your counter is good for so much more than just smoothies. Did you know that you can whip up better-for-you pancakes and gluten-free cookies, quickly chop a salad or slaw, make your own nut butters and milks, and even cut down on your meat intake with easy burgers made from vegetables and fish?

Rebecca Miller Ffrench is here to show you that blending not only saves you time and effort in the kitchen, but it is also an incredible way to pack more nutrition into every meal, with black beans in brownies (no one will be able to taste it!), pasta sauce loaded with roasted vegetables, and creamy, velvety soups that are fiber rich and dairy free.

With sales of high-performance blenders up more than 50 percent in the past year alone, it is time to harness all that blending power and put it to work for you and your family. Save money, eat healthier, and get dinner on the table in a jiffy with The Ultimate Blender Cookbook.

Bobtown At The ESRM

Bobtown in Concert

for
Flying Cat Music

Saturday, April 25

7:30 p.m. (sharp), doors at 7:00

Empire State Railway Museum

70 Lower High Street, Phoenicia, NY 12464

Admission price $17 or $15 with

reservations to flyingcatmusic@gmail.com

For information email as above

or call 845-688-9453

Link to band's website:
http://www.bobtownmusic.com/

Flying Cat Music is thrilled to bring back the dynamic five-piece band Bobtown on Saturday, April 25. The show will be at the Empire State Railway Museum located at 70 Lower High Street in Phoenicia. The doors open at 7:00 p.m. with the show beginning at 7:30 prompt. Admission is $17 or $15 with RSVP to flyingcatmusic@gmail.com or by calling 845-688-9453.

Young Violinist Miriam Rose In Concert

Here is an announcement from the Miriam's mom Lauren Silver about the upcoming College-Youth Symphony concert where Miriam is doing a solo.

Dear Friends and family, please join us for an evening of beautiful music

CYS Concerto Competition winner

Miriam Rose Silver-Altman 

will be a featured soloist
at the
Spring Concert
of The College-Youth Symphony

of SUNY New Paltz
performing
Violin Concerto in G Major, 1st move. by Mozart

Carole Cowan, conductor
Vic Izzo, conductor Wind Ensemble
***********

Works by Beethoven, Bruch, Chopin, Copland, Borodin, & Marcello

Sunday, April 26, 2015
7:00 P.M.
Julien J. Studley Theatre
845 257-2799
Tickets: $8, $6, $3 Available at the door

Burning Ban In Effect

As the weather warms and we are all starting to clean up our properties remember that there is a burning ban in effect until May 14th. Fires spread quickly at this time of year due to the lack of green vegetation and the abundance of dry leaves and grasses. So make sure you don't try and burn any of the excess debris that is lying around from the winter.

Once the ban is lifted on May 15th Joyce Grant, the Town Clerk, will be issuing burn permits from her office in Town Hall. For more information go to the DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/80920.html

Woodland Trout Fund

Twice every year an intrepid group of fish enthusiasts stock our beloved Woodland Valley Creek with brown trout. This is a private effort and depends on donations from the community. Mike O'Neil (aka Boreegard) spearheads the effort. He collects the funds, contacts the fishery and coordinates with the homeowners along the stream. Right now he is the fundraising part of the endeavor. He wanted me to pass on the note below in case some of you are interested in donating. Here is what Mike had to say.



WOODLAND TROUT 2015

Onward and Upward in the Stream

A definition from the Woodland Brook Glossary: Brook Trout, Speckled Trout—Salvelinus fontinalis—The true native trout to American eastern waters (though pedantic biologists will quibble and insist that it is actually a char). One of the most beautifully colored fish in all the world, John Burroughs noted that "The [brook] trout is dark and obscure above, but behind this foil there are wondrous tints that reward the believing eye." By the end of the 19th century it was fast disappearing due to environmental degradations and the huge popularity of sports fishing. Native brookies can still be found in Woodland Brook, but only in the coldest headwaters—stunted in size and much reduced in population.

We have stocked the fly fishing section of the stream with browns, exclusively, lo these many years. I use that term “many years” advisedly. I’m shocked to contemplate that 2015 will mark the 51st year we have stocked our lovely stream, and I look forward to continuing into our sixth decade, God willing and the Creeks don’t rise. How many fledgling business ventures have stayed afloat for so long, I wonder?

The reason we’ve chosen browns is simple. They are one of the several varieties that New York State will allow to be stocked in the tributaries of the Esopus, and they tolerate the blight of low warm water that Ulster County often delivers in mid to late summer.

Still, one is mindful of the beautiful natives fostered by the cold uncorrupted stream waters that were the norm before man mucked things up in his quest for the almighty buck. The primeval forest that once shaded our waters with towering hemlocks was leveled in the nineteenth century to promote the tanning of hundreds of thousands of “green” cowhides shipped up from South America. Goodbye brookies—hello stocked browns and rainbows.

Enough of the history lesson, which I have no doubt you knew already. Let me cut to the chase. Last May I decided to order brook trout instead of browns for the first of our two stockings. I did this out of a sentimental twinge, out of curiosity, and finally to succumb to the urgings of a valley neighbor, who earns his living in trout management, Nat Gillespie. Nat will be happy to educate you on his scientifically based belief that reintroducing Salvelinus fontinalis into the brook makes sense. I can report that the brookies seemed to do fine in the early part of the summer. They did well enough so that I intend to stock them again this May. In July, it still seems appropriate to stock the hardier browns.

Now to business—As will occasionally happen with ventures of this sort, the kitty is dramatically low. To be able to continue funding the stocking of our fly fishing run, I would ask you to think of the fun you can look forward to this summer when you visit the stream. Please make out a check to THE WOODLAND TROUT FUND, in the amount you feel the stream deserves, and send it to Mike O’Neil, 101 Rambling Road, Vernon, CT 06066.

Many thanks 

Mike                                                                                                      

Free Pass To Mohonk Preserve for Ulster County

Ulster County residents who enjoy walking or hiking can get a free pass to explore the Mohonk Preserve property for a month. The program starts during Healthy Ulster Spring Week which begins on April 23rd. Although it is a bit far from us here in Phoenicia, this is an excellent opportunity to explore this gorgeous property at no cost. So it might be worth getting the pass even if you just use it once or twice.

For further information on where and when you can get your pass here is a link to the article in the Daily Freeman: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20150409/free-pass-to-mohonk-preserve-to-ulster-county-residents

Funeral For Jay Fahey

Anyone wishing to go to the funeral service for Jay Fahey it will be on Saturday, April 25th at 11:00am in NYC. The address of the church is below.  I still can't believe he is gone.

St. Gregory The Great Church
144 W 90th St
New York, NY, 10024-1202
United States
T 212-724-9766 F 212-579-3380
stgregorymanhattan.com

Passenger Pigeons & John Burroughs Day

There are so many cool things happening at the Phoenicia Library it is hard to keep up. Here is the schedule for Saturday, April 18th.

Passenger Pigeon & John Burroughs Day Saturday, April 18^th with Exhibit, Talks, Story Telling, Refreshment and Visit by Live Homing Pigeons

10:30 – 1 pm           

An exhibit on the life and tragic extinction of the passenger pigeon will be on display at the Phoenicia Library in Phoenicia NY from April 15^th through the end of April.  Sponsored by John Burroughs’ Woodchuck Lodge, the ten-panel exhibit is a lament for a bird that once darkened the skies over our region, but which was hunted to extinction within the lifetime of the Roxbury-born naturalist (1837-1921). The last captive passenger pigeon died September 1, 1914.

On Saturday, April 18^th, the library will host “John Burroughs and a Feathered Frenzy,” a day of discovery about our Catskills natural heritage.  The schedule will include:

10:30 AM  "From Billions to None: What Happened to the Passenger Pigeon?" with Diane Galusha, author.  This year is the 100th anniversary of the passing of the last passenger pigeon, a species that once dominated our skies.  Diane will tell us about these beautiful birds as well as the naturalist John Burroughs who appreciated these birds as an integral part of our Catskills naturescape.

11:15 AM  “ Words of John Burroughs” with Brett Barry, Producer/Narrator of John Burroughs: Afloat and Afoot ~ an audio celebration of John Burroughs, famous Catskill native and naturalist.

12 PM  Live Homing Pigeons with Mickey Gramowski with

Live Story Telling:  Carrier Pigeons in World War I, with professional story teller Jean Druffner, best for ages 8 and up

The exhibit, developed and designed by the Chicago Museum of Science and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, includes a locally produced panel about Burroughs and his sightings of and comments on this amazing bird.

In the year 1800, more than five billion passenger pigeons crisscrossed the skies of the eastern United States and Canada, perhaps a quarter of the continent’s avifauna. The species occurred only in North America, primarily east of the Rocky Mountains, and bred almost exclusively in the eastern deciduous forest. Passing flocks could darken the skies for three days straight.  The beats of their wings would create drafts that chilled the people over whom they flew.

Naturalist Burroughs recalled being transfixed by the sight of huge flocks descending on his family’s Roxbury farmstead. “In my boyhood the vast armies of the passenger pigeons were one of the most notable spring tokens. Often late in March, or early in April, the naked beechwoods would suddenly become blue with them, and vocal with their soft, childlike calls; all day the sky would be streaked with the long lines or dense masses of the moving armies.”

However, in the face of relentless slaughter for food and recreation, coupled with habitat loss, this seemingly inexhaustible resource was depleted in just a few decades. By 1900 the species was virtually extinct, and on the afternoon of September 1, 1914, Martha, the last of her species, died in the Cincinnati Zoo.

For more information on the passenger pigeon, its life, demise and legacy, visit www.passengerpigeon.org.  For more information on John Burroughs or Woodchuck Lodge, visit www.woodchucklodge.org.

The library is at 48 Main Street, Phoenicia NY.  All programs are free and open to the public.  For more information on the library please visit www.phoenicialibrary.org.

Opening Day!

Today is the official start of the 2015 fishing season! To celebrate, here is a little ditty from Mike O'Neil (aka Boreegard). Happy fishing!!


PISCATORIAL CORRECTNESS

It seems so goddam exclusionary and elitist,
That the Catch and Release bunch,
Should shine their holy light on trout and salmon,
And ignore—nay—denigrate by exclusion,
The other fish who share the same waters.

I was taught as a boy to throw the chubs and suckers,
And others of their ilk, up onto the bank,
To rid the stream of such trash—
To let them die in a cruel deprivation of their primal elements—
How else should one treat junk fish?

I never thought of them as a part of the grand,
Pesce scheme of things, though surely GOD
Made them, as he too fashioned the pretty ones.
As I trudge slowly towards decrepitude, the common fish seem,
More valuable for their balancing and presence.

The clumsy grandeur of huge Podunk River carp,
Slowly vacuuming offerings of day old bread,
Thrown to them in the sluggish muddy waters,
By boys of a certain age,
Is as exciting to me as the scarlet flash of a lunging rainbow.

Boreegard