The Rockefeller State Park Preserve is a wonderful place.

Conveniently located, with entrances in Pleasantville and Tarrytown it has an extensive network of trails, originally for carriage use.  It’s an ideal location for a morning run, afternoon hike or evening stroll.

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from V-Day Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow 2012:

A group of Rivertowns women are producing, directing and acting in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, to be performed on April 28, 8pm at The Purple Crayon Center in Hastings-on-
Hudson.

V-Day Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow 2012 is a group of mothers, daughters, girlfriends and professional women from all walks of life that came together out of a conversation over wine, food and friendship.

This idea of giving something to the sisters, mothers and friends in our communities who live in fear and violence quickly grew into an organized well-oiled production  once co-producers Tracy Brown and Elyssa Feldman- Most assembled their team.

“We emailed, we registered, and we committed,” says Feldman-Most. “Our individual reasoning for committing differs from woman to woman and of course our experiences and histories are varied, but our desire for all women and girls to feel safe, empowered and proud unites us.”

 
All proceeds from the fundraiser and performance will benefit V-Day (www.vday.org) (10%) and Hope’s Door of Westchester (90%).

There are few finer places to stroll through history on a Spring day than Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow. The farm, at one time, stretched from the Bronx to Croton.

Manor House c. 1750

Grist Mill

Historian represents enslaved occupants of Philipsburg in 18th Century

Threshing wheat

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Irvington

A plethora of listings from our friends at RivertownsGuide.com

Thursday, March 22 from 6pm – 9pm
Best Practices: The Do’s & Don’ts of Social Media [link] | Westchester Burger Company Rye Brook
275 South Ridge Street, Rye Brook
Presented by Westchester Business Connection. Appetizers included, cash bar. Networkin, A Great Social Media Education(Nothing Technical!!!) for “All levels of expertise.”. The event highlights feature: A presentation from Keith S. Chan from The Froogle Institute for Social Media. www.keithschan.com/about/ and www.FroogleInstitute.com

Thursday, March 22 from 6:30 – 8pm and Thursday, March 29 from 6:30 – 8pm
Home Buyers’ Workshop: Two-Part Series | The Warner Library, Tarrytown
Thursday, March 22: Buying a Home:What You Need to Know
Thursday, March 29: Securing a Home Mortgage
Both workshops are FREE. Registration is requested. Please call Reference at 914-631-7734. The Westchester Housing Council will present tips and recommendations for first-time home buyers. Co-Sponsored by Housing Action Council and Key Bank

Friday, March 23, 10:30a.m. – 2:30 p.m
KAPLAN testing service will offer a KAPLAN PRACTICE SAT Test | Warner Library, Tarrytown
for all interested students. Call the library at 914-631-7734 for registration information, or register at 1-800-KAP-TEST. Use Event Code:SKXY2332

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Voters in 15 villages in Westchester go to the polls today to elect local offices.

Contested elections in (alphabetically) Buchanan, Irvington, Pleasantville, Scarsdale, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.

Elections are uncontested in Briarcliff Manor, Bronxville, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, Larchmont, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Rye Brook and Tuckahoe.

Find out who’s running: Visit LoHud.com’s Village Elections 2012 guide.

Some upcoming Westchester events posted by Found in Yonkers:

“The Kid with a Bike” Screening Jacob Burns Film Center March 23-29 ~Pleasantville~
SOURCE: http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Rosetta, L’Enfant) are acclaimed for their intense portrayals of people at the gritty fringes of society. They reveal a more hopeful face in this new drama about a sensitive but uncontrollable 11-year-old and a woman who believes in him. Winner of a raft of festival honors, including [...]

The LOFT Open Mic Nite March 24 ~White Plains~
SOURCE: http://www.loftgaycenter.org Time: 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Cost: $10.00 includes snacks, finger foods, and beverages Each person or group will have seven minutes to do a stand-up comedy act, a song sung, played, or karaoke, a poem or story, a song or dance, just about anything. Come share yourself and your talent at the [...]

REI FREE Bike Maintenance Workshop March 27 ~Yonkers~
SOURCE: http://www.rei.com This class is an informative presentation that will teach you how to lube a chain, fix a flat tire in record time, and make other minor adjustments to your bicycle. No experience necessary! REI is located at Ridge Hill, 49 Fitzgerald Street in Yonkers. For complete class details visit http://www.rei.com.

Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble at Paramount Center for the Arts Band March 30 ~Peekskill~
SOURCE: http://www.paramountcenter.org Tickets: $25.00 to $45.00 Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble will host a lively program that featured a variety of short ballet performances and excerpts, giving the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the making of an artist, from the barre to the stage, and exposing them to the company’s “unique yet classic” brand of [...]

Louie Anderson Tarrytown Music Hall March 30
SOURCE: http://tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org Tickets: $34.50 to $99.50 (Meet & Greet) Louie Anderson is one of the most versatile and successful comedians working in Hollywood today, loved by the television audiences who never missed his nightly hit series “Family Feud” or his appearances on late night chat shows. He is adored by standing-room-only crowds in Las Vegas [...]

Hand-to-Mouth Players Call for One Act Plays Deadline April 16
Manuscripts should be twenty-five minutes, minimal staging and sets, with casts of fiver or less. The winning five plays will be performed August 24-26 in Montrose, New York. For complete details visit http://www.htmplayers.com.

Ever long to be a beekeeper?  Me neither. But Stone Barns Center saw enough interest in Westchester to start a beekeeping series for beginners.

Dan Carr, Stone Barns livestock assistant and beekeeper, will lead you through the ins and outs of getting started with bees, including ordering equipment, obtaining a queen and a colony, and working in the hive.

This workshop is the first in a four-part series for “Newbee” beekeepers. Future workshop topics may include: spring hive inspection, insecticide-free treatments for Varroa mites, supering the hive, harvesting and processing honey, and preparing for winter.

Saturday, March 17 at 10:00 am. Cost: $10.

Stone Barns 630 Bedford Road Tarrytown, NY

If you spend any time following #westchester on twitter, you may know the chatty girls at the Chat Shop. We think of it as a virtual talk-fest where no one yells and you can come and go as you please.

Readers have come up with a Westchester “bucket list,” each making a list of some of the local treats they’d like to experience before they well, you know.

Have a peek.

photo: Jacqueline Silberbush

Plans to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge moving ahead.  And there are two opportunities this week to tell transit leaders what you think.

The proposal calls for building a two-span, eight lane bridge to replace the existing structure, which was built in 1955.  The new bridge would be twice as wide as the old one and could include space for mass transit.

The old bridge needs serious structural improvements and is not equipped to handle today’s traffic, as anyone who’s driven across on rush hour knows.  Built to hold 100,000 cars a day, the Tappan Zee today carries 138,000 vehicles, including big trucks, across the Hudson.

Governor Cuomo says the project will potentially create more jobs than any other infrastructure project in the country.

If you like the nitty gritty, read the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which found no major problems with building a new bridge.

Then there is the question of what to do with the original Tappan Zee.  In January, we wrote about a proposal to turn the 3-mile span into a park over the Hudson.

A public meeting addressing the environmental impacts of the project will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown.  Another  meeting will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. tonight in the Palisades Center Community Rooms in West Nyack.

Dr. Elizabeth Thompson

As a radiation oncologist, Elizabeth Chabner Thompson focused much of her career treating breast cancer, a disease her mother battled.  But it wasn’t until Thompson was a patient herself and chose to have preventative mastectomies to reduce the risk of the developing the disease, that she realized how hard it is to be on the other side.

“Getting prepared for treatment, coping with side effects … feeling undignified and exposed, organizing medications and therapies can all make treatment seem overwhelming,” the Scarsdale resident says.

Outdated garments and accessories didn’t help.

Last year Thompson launched  Best Friends for Life, a Scarsdale company that creates and sells products to help make patients’ recovery easier. Specially designed pillows, designer-style BFFL bags filled with comforts like cozy socks, skin cream, and post-surgery needs are among the products currently available. Special bras that patients can wear during treatment and after surgery are among the items that will become available this year.

Thompson has also expanded the business to serve patients battling traumatic brain injury. Inspired by her best friend Sara Kerr Reges, a nurse whose son was in a four-month-long coma after being hit by a car, the BFFL bags geared toward individuals with brain injuries and their caregivers are filled with items from rehab tools to word games.

Recently four local 12 and 13-year-old boys boys – Larchmont twins Will and Jack Powers, Rye’s Gus Rodriguez of Rye and Solomon Thompson of Scarsdale – filled 100 bags assembly line-style, personalizing each with a hand-written note to its recipient. The bags are being donated to help those with brain injuries through Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The breast bags normally retail for about $100 and the brain bags cost $120, with 15% of the profits going to specific charities.

Photos: Elizabeth Chabner Thompson

When we wrote about the local filmmaker nominated for an Oscar, for Best Documentary (see the trailer in the link- very powerful) we didn’t realize there were more!

Westchester Mag writes, “One of the nominees, God Is the Bigger Elvis, is directed by Rebecca Cammisa of Tarrytown, produced by Julie Anderson of Scarsdale, and centers around Bethlehem, Connecticut, native Dolores Hart. Hart was a successful actress, with a claim to fame that she received Elvis Presley’s first on-screen kiss in the movie Loving You. ”

photo: miheco on Flickr

Cold turkey commute. Don’t even think about lighting up while waiting for your Metro-North train. Doing so could get you kicked off the platform, up to $50 in fines or a trip to jail.

The MTA‘s new ban on outdoor smoking starts today, following a months-long grace period the agency gave smokers to get used to the idea. The ban, which had a soft launch in November, prohibits smoking on Metro-North and Long Island Railroad outdoor platforms, as well as ticketing and boarding areas.

The ban does not apply to Metro-North stations in Connecticut.

Violators have gotten away with just warnings since November. But after several months of  leafleting, signs, announcements and electronic alerts, the MTA now expects passengers to play by the rules.

The Voracious Reader

Westchester may have more writers per capita than any place in the country. You, too, can learn about writing prose, poetry, blogging, memoirs, food writing, young adult fiction….here:

The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center– is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1988 with a mission to advance the art and craft of writing by encouraging writers and readers at all levels to participate in and enjoy the literary arts. It offers classes for professional and amateur writers, presents public readings by well-known and emerging prose writers and poets, does outreach work in several community sites, and publishes at least one book of poetry each year under the imprint Slapering Hol Press.

The Center’s headquarters is the restored Philipse Manor railroad station, which overlooks the Hudson River in the village of Sleepy Hollow.  Workshops include Blog Writing, How to Write Page Turning Fiction, Memoir Writing, Writing About Food, as well as workshops for young adults.

Learn to Tell: Storytelling Workshops at The Rye Library: This winter and spring the Rye Storytelling Guild will offer a course in how to spin a good yarn.   Classes held on the first Tuesday of each month from 6.30 to 8.30 pm and will focus on how and where to find a story you yearn to tell, how to shape and prepare the story, how to enhance its telling, the presentation of your story, and a celebration of storytelling graduates. Workshop led by celebrated storyteller Carol Birch. To sign up call 914.231.3161 or email Neva Winter at newinter4@optonline.net.

Adult and Young adult workshops at The Voracious Reader: Got a Work In Progress? Register now to prevent the winter blahs!  Adult fiction classes will be held Thursdays, 12:00-2:00; 
February 5-April. 5^th. 
Workshop Fee: $825.00.   For adults writing YA or middle grade fiction: finish your work-in-progress or start a new one in this 10-week workshop with author, Phyllis Shalant, author and adjunct professor in the Graduate Writing Program at Manhattanville College.  Call The VR at 914.592.2278 to register.

WritopiaLabs at The Voracious Reader–As part of its dedication to nurturing young writers, The Voracious Reader has partnered with WritopiaLab, a wonderful national non-profit that offers writing workshops for kids from 8 to 18 years old. The Voracious Reader is the southern Westchester home of this group, with engaging and inspiring workshops led by director Lena Roy.  “The kids practically run through our front door to get to their class!” says owner Francine Lucidon.

As layers of government weigh in on building a new Tappan Zee Bridge, a group of walkers and cyclists have their own plans for the existing one.

The Tappan Bridge Park Alliance (click here to sign a petition) is proposing turning the 3-mile, 33-acre span into a recreational path across the Hudson — sort of like a High Line for Westchester. The group already has several local leaders on board including White Plains Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona, whose vision for the park you see here.

At this point, the proposal is just that — an idea. But advocates say reusing the massive structure for recreation makes perfect sense.  As committee member David McKay Wilson puts it, “The bridge – now in the prime of middle-age at 56 years old – will have plenty of life left in him when the new bridge opens. ”

“This bridge is our heritage, the iconic image of the lower Hudson Valley and the northeast corridor. Why not preserve it? Why not make it a preserve?” he says.

Up in Highland, NY, Walkway Over the Hudson turned an old abandoned railroad bridge into a pedestrian park that opened on October 3, 2009.

Shopping carts are rolling away. Cars are shaking. Hold onto your hats — and just about everything else.  The strong winds that blew into Westchester this morning, prompting a National Weather Service Wind Advisory, are expected to stick around at least through midnight.

The gusts could reach up to 50 miles per hour, according to the Weather Service, meaning travel could be hazardous.

Flight delays at area airports were already growing long by early afternoon.  Flights at La Guardia, for example, were running an hour and 40 minutes behind schedule at 1 p.m. The speed limit on area bridges, including the Tappan Zee, had reportedly been reduced.

Although the winds are expected to die down overnight, forecasters are calling for a weekend that feels like winter. The Weather Service forecast calls for sunny skies with a high of 37 on Saturday and just 29 on Sunday. Temperatures are expected to bounce back a bit on Monday, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, to a high of 39.

In honor of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Volunteer Center of United Way has organized a day of service projects at the organizations below on January 14. Interested? sign up here! Or call 914-948-4452 for more information.

Volunteers can choose from 29 service projects at Academic Pathways (New Rochelle), Charles Brieant Community Center (Ossining), Children’s Creative Response to Conflict (Nyack), Family Services of Westchester (Yonkers), Ferncliff Manor(Yonkers),  FSW Sharing Shelf (Port Chester), Green Chimneys (Carmel), Groundwork Hudson Valley (Hastings), Institute of Applied Human Dynamics (Tarrytown), Mount Vernon YMCA, My Sister’s Place (Yonkers), Nepperhan Community Center (Yonkers), New Rochelle Public Library, Richmond Community Services (Yonkers), Rockland Country Day School (Valley Cottage) , Somers Manor, Therapeutic Equestrian Center (Cold Spring), Wartburg Adult Center (Mount Vernon), White Plains Youth Bureau, White Plains YMCA, White Plains Public Library, WJCS Kid’s Kloset (White Plains), and Yonkers Public Library – Will Branch.

photo: flickr

Westchester Symphonic Winds, is a wind ensemble in residence at the Tarrytown Music Hall.

Sunday, November 6th at 3pm is its first concert of the season.

“This is a great opportunity for students to hear a professional level band playing a great program,” says Denise Ruchala, a Band instructor in the Mamaroneck public schools.

The concert will feature trumpet soloist Rick Henly, as well as a lively percussion feature by John Mackey.

You can find out more about the group or the concert here.

Headless Horseman, Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow, home of the Headless Horseman himself, is all about hosting a super-haunted Halloween with a range of events for all ages this month.  The Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce sent us this roundup of what’s on tap in our fellow Westchester community:

Sleepy Hollow, NY, birthplace of the most famous Halloween legend of all, beckons with haunted happenings all month long.  Named one of the top three Historic American Towns by a national survey and one of the 10 Great Spooky Adventure Destinations in the world by National Geographic Traveler, the Sleepy Hollow area draws thousands of visitors unable to resist what lurks in the dark corners of the night.

“There is no escaping the lure of Halloween in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown,” said Bill Hammer, who heads a new sub-committee focused on branding Sleepy Hollow. Halloween has evolved into a season that now starts in September.  The internationally recognized Sleepy Hollow Brand is projecting record numbers of Tourists expected to visit this season.  In addition to large sponsors like Kraft, TD Bank, Mahopac Bank, CARS Inc, The Village of Sleepy Hollow, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and FLY Communications over 30 other Sleepy Hollow area businesses and organizations contributed over $50,000 in money & services. “The dark night holds centuries-old, scary secrets and we welcome all visitors to our sequestered little glen.”

• Climb aboard Sleepy Hollow’s annual Haunted Hayride and hold on to your head! For two nights only on October 28 and 29, the Hayride rumbles off into the dark following Ichabod Crane’s flight from the Headless Horseman.  A block party on Beekman Ave. will keep you entertained before and after your hair-raising ride.

• Historic Philipsburg Manor takes the tale of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” to its darkest extremes on weekend nights in October with Horseman’s Hollow, a half-mile candlelit path winding through a terrifying landscape.

• Creep though winding roads and soaring monuments on an evening lantern tour of the famous Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, final resting place Washington Irving. You may even enter the crypt of vampire Barnabas Collins, star of the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.

• On weekend nights in October hear the Legend of Sleepy Hollow brought to life at the Old Dutch Church by master storyteller Jonathan Kruk. Accompanied by live organ music Kurk’s 45-minute performance captivates.

The fun continues with events for all ages.

• Hear tales, both spectral and earthly, of the area’s eerie and legendary past on walking tours of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow on October 9, 15, and 23.
• Tarrytown’s magnificent 10^th Annual Halloween Parade on Sat, 10/29 brings out the best in local residents whose creative costumes and enthusiasm for their “national holiday” do not disappoint.

• Washington Irving’s home Sunnyside, offers daytime events for children, including games, magicians, live music, puppet shows, ghost stories, and delicious picnic fare

• On Oct. 9, 500 Scarecrows will invade the grounds of Lyndhurst, a gothic revival mansion in Tarrytown for the Scarecrow Autumn Festival on October 9th (rain date on October 10th).  Or get the whole family involved in making your own scarecrow at the very popular scarecrow making event at Patriot’s Park in Tarrytown on October 15.

 For information and how to purchase tickets for all events listed above see www.visitsleepyhollow.com or www.visittarrytown.com

Photos courtesy of the Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce and Historic Hudson

For those of us who can’t wait for Spring (uh…everyone…?), we’ve compiled a garden checklist to help combat winter blues, indoors and out.

Plan ahead
Now’s a great time to assess your garden. Perhaps you want to add some plantings or move things around. Some people keep a notebook or take photos during the growing season. These are really helpful when staring out at your snowy white canvas.

• Order seed starting kits, vegetable and flower seeds from catalogs, if you like starting from scratch.
• Start growing seeds. Some helpful tips here.
• Peruse magazines for gardens that you like, See how you can incorporate some of the ideas into your own property.

Heavy snow can break the branches of evergreens. Give plants a dusting off after a heavy snowfall.

Maintenance
You may be tiring of the snow cover that’s been hanging around since Christmas, but the snow is actually a protective, frosty blanket, insulating the plants below. During winter’s home stretch, we may get days that swing between warm(ish) and arctic. That will be the time to check on your newer plantings, making sure the warming and re-freezing has not heaved them above the soil line. If you see that’s starting to happen, try to push them back in and cover root zone with extra mulch.

• Prune away storm-damaged branches, which can tear the bark off shrubs and trees.
• After a heavy snow, take a broom and brush off the shrubs and tree branches that are bent under the snow’s weight.
• Take cuttings of forsythia, pussy willows, cherries for forcing indoors. Late February, early March is the time to prune most shrubs and trees, before they start to leaf out.

Indoors
Sun-loving houseplants are probably looking a little sad right now. Shorter days=sadder plants (and people!). Make sure they are in a southern-facing window.

• Houseplants grow more slowly during winter, so increase the time between waterings. The single biggest killer of houseplants is overwatering.
• Clean the large, smooth-leaved houseplants with a damp, soft cloth. Or give them a shower. They are probably a bit dusty by now, which interferes with photosynthesis.
• Inspect for insect pests. Browning leaves are a good indication you have spider mites. Look for fine spider webbing between the leaves or between the stem and leaves. The mites are easily killed by spraying them with a homemade soap solution. Simply add a teaspoon of dish liquid detergent to a 12 or 16 ounce spray bottle filled with water. Shake, then spray. The soap smothers their soft bodies. You may have to apply two or three times, whenever you see the webbing again.
• It’s a good time to repot plants, especially if it’s been more than a few years since the last transplating.  Plants do best in terra-cotta pots because the clay is porous, which allows for water and air exchange. If your old clay pots have a white, powdery mineral deposit on the outside, you can clean them by soaking the pots overnight in a solution of 1 gallon of water, 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup bleach. Or, remove as much as you can with a wire brush and then apply linseed oil. This will make the mineral deposits invisible.
• Go over your gardening contracts carefully. Many companies apply pesticides and herbicides. They are required to supply you with a materials data safety sheet for each product they apply. One note from this organic gardener: data sheets only cover the labeled, “active” ingredients. Ninety percent of most products are “inert” ingredients. The composition of inert ingredients are considered “proprietary information” and do not have to be disclosed. Many of these “inerts” are more dangerous than the labeled ingredients. Of course, you can always hire a landscape company that practices organic controls. Keeping your property in a natural balance is the best way to ensure a healthy environment.

Catherine Wachs is a Larchmont-based landscape designer. Her company, The Lazy Gardener, creates low-maintenance, high-style designs for residential and commercial properties.