The New York Botanical Garden is stunningly beautiful right now. With verdant green vistas, intimate gardens, and primordial forests, there’s no better place to enjoy nature in the city over this three-day weekend than at the Garden. Take a hike in the Forest, stop to smell the roses in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, experience the sublime beauty of the waterlilies and lotuses in the Conservatory Courtyard pools, search for migrating birds, and get a few tips to take home and put into practice in your own garden. Soothe your storm-frazzled nerves by relaxing along the babbling Bronx River, bask in the sun on one of the Garden’s many benches around the grounds or in the beautiful Perennial Garden, join harvest activities in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, and take a tour of the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. The three-day weekend is full of beauty and fun for the whole family.

The Waterlily and Lotus Pools in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyard

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Saturday, September 3

Bird Walk – 11 a.m.

Meet at the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center
Search for the birds that use the Botanical Garden in various seasons. Bring your binoculars and walk the Garden grounds with our bird expert, Debbie Becker, looking for the species that live here year-round as well as those just migrating through: owls, hawks, songbirds, and more. Learn about the bird-friendly plants and habitats that provide food, shelter, and nesting sites.

Forest Tour – 1 p.m.

Meet at the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center
Experience the beauty of the Garden’s 50-acre Forest on this one-hour walking tour with an expertly trained Docent. You’ll learn facts about the trees, history, geology, and ecology of this original, uncut woodland.

Home Gardening Demonstration: Naturalistic Garden Design – 2 p.m.

In the Home Gardening Center
Seasonal Walk reflects the naturalistic approach of its Dutch designers, Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet. Examine the border and get ideas to implement in your own garden.

Sunday, September 4

Garden Highlights Tour – 12:30 p.m.

Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center.
The sights and scents of the season flourish across the 250 acres of the Botanical Garden. Join a Garden Docent for a walking tour featuring highlights of the gardens and plant collections.

Home Gardening Demonstration: Naturalistic Garden Design – 2 p.m.

In the Home Gardening Center
Seasonal Walk reflects the naturalistic approach of its Dutch designers, Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet. Examine the border and get ideas to implement in your own garden.

Monday, September 5

Conservatory Tour–1 p.m.

Meets at the Conservatory entrance
Explore the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, an acre of plants under glass, with one of the Garden’s docents. Take an eco-tour around the world through 11 distinct habitats, including two types of rain forest, deserts of the Americas and of Africa, and aquatic and carnivorous plant displays. Admission included with an All-Garden Pass.

Home Gardening Demonstration: Naturalistic Garden Design – 2 p.m.

In the Home Gardening Center
Seasonal Walk reflects the naturalistic approach of its Dutch designers, Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet. Examine the border and get ideas to implement in your own garden.

Ongoing Children’s Programs

Dig, Plant, Grow!

Tuesdays–Saturdays, 1:30–5:30 p.m. in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
Children and families learn about plants and the natural world through hands-on gardening at this one-and-a-half acre site. Each afternoon children—with help from their parents, volunteers, and staff—are encouraged to dig, weed, compost, plant, tend, and harvest in garden plots. These ongoing gardening activities are complemented by a changing roster of programs that encourage children to explore seasonal garden-related themes. The Family Garden offers whimsical topiaries, a pond teeming with life, a flourishing meadow, rows of planting beds, two open-air pavilions for relief from sun and rain, and lively display gardens featuring an array of plants, including heirloom varieties of tomatoes, aromatic herbs, and colorful vegetables.

Mario Batali’s Edible Garden

August 27- September 25
Explore the three Mario Batali gardening plots featured in the Howell Family Garden this year, all showcasing Chef Mario’s favorite vegetables and fruits. Strawberries and raspberries delight in the “Batali’s Berry Patch;” savory veggies surround a table for two at the “Babbo Beets, Beans, Garlic and Greens Garden;” and the ingredients in the “Otto Pizza Garden” are scrumptious. Read and learn while exploring with your own recipe booklet in hand. Regular cooking demonstrations highlight easy, classic recipes created by Mario for you to try at dinnertime!

Why Fireflies Flash At Night—The Lusty (And Flavorable) Lives Of Fireflies

Filed under: Wildlife

by Monica Malpass, 6abc.com, link to original post

If you’re like me, you enjoy biking and you want to include your little ones on your outings both to let them get some fresh air and so that you can get a workout while caring for them. But there are some safety issues to consider before you put a young baby in a bike seat, trailer or sidecar.

The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute has a web article that’s worth reading. It convinced me that any child under the age of 1 year old SHOULD NOT ever be taken biking. Between the chances that the trailer will flip, dust and small gravel might fly up from your tires into their little faces or you could crash and hurt them…it’s just not worth the risk. There are no helmets made for children under age one for a reason…pediatricians and scientists believe even a small amount of jostling potentially injures a newborn’s brain in the skull. It’s possible there are microtears or bruises that could later affect your child’s I.Q. when they are 6 or 7-years-old. At that point, you wouldn’t know the reason. And you obviously shouldn’t even consider letting a newborn ride a bike without a helmet. The weight of their head and the weak neck muscles wouldn’t offer enough support for them to breathe correctly; in fact, sitting in a slumped or curled position for prolonged periods is potentially harmful, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

So the first rule of thumb is never take a newborn biking, no matter how short the distance or what the riding surface.

After age one, you should get your children helmets and make sure they are safely buckled in a trailer, bike seat or side car. You should also ask your pediatrician first if your child is ready.

I just got my 1-year-old twins bike helmets last weekend through the Children’s Hospital Mobile Bike Safety Unit that came to a park near our home. The CHOP workers used a tape measure to make sure the fit was right. Then they showed me how the side straps should go around their ears and where the chinstrap should fall…so that the helmet is squarely on their heads, not aimed up on the back of their heads. You’re trying to protect the top, front and back of the skull if there were a crash.

Zeke and Hunter don’t want to wear the awkward helmets. I’m sure they’ll put up a bit of a struggle when I try to put the helmets on. But I will gently keep trying and hope that they get used to it soon. Also I am taking the Safety Institute’s advice and putting a small pillow behind their necks to help support them…so I hope that will make it a more comfy ride. Hopefully they’ll like being outside in the breeze plus seeing the other athletes that it’s worth the trouble. Or they’ll just fall asleep. That means I can take a little longer ride!

As for specifics on the type of bike trailer to choose…the American Medical Association recommends one that is lower to the ground so that if it flips the child doesn’t have far to fall, decreasing the chance of injury. You can also lower the tire pressure in the bike trailer, which can reduce the small vibrations your child will feel if you hit a rock or bump. Check the manufactures instructions for the lower end of the recommended tire pressure range.

You might also want a trailer that’s built to protect the child in a rollover, like one that has a rollover bar. And it wouldn’t hurt to see if there’s protection for the child’s bottom if a rock or obstacle passes between the two wheels. If you buy a new trailer, be sure it has a label stating that it meets the ASTM-1975 bicycle trailer standard.

Bike seats mounted to the front or back of the adult’s bike have their own issues. The front-mounted ones let you see if the child is hurt or needs something, but you can also fall on top of them if you crash. The front-mounted seats might also obstruct your legs while you’re trying to bike.

Rear-mounted seats feel every bump and jiggle that you feel because the child is located right over the back tire. Except they don’t have a padded seat like the bicyclist. So a minor jolt to you is a medium jolt to your child. Watch carefully for rocks, potholes and debris.

A Japanese survey in the DAILY YOMIURI reported that 49-percent of the injuries to children in bike seats happen when the bikes are parked…like when the parents have put the child in the seat and turn to grab a water bottle, iPod or their own helmet before starting the ride. Only 17-percent of children fell off bikes when they were in motion and 13-percent were hurt during collisions with other bicycles, cars or pedestrians. So make sure your bike seat also meets the ASTM standards. And if you have time check out the “Ottawa’s Citizens for Safe Cycling” article. It lists seven potential problems with child carriers.

If you’ve done all the background checks, read the articles, bought the child carriers or trailers and helmets, and found a safe bike route or trail, then you’re ready.

I plan to give it a try with a short bike ride this weekend with my boys. Happy riding to all the safe bicyclists out there!

Filed under: Biking, Gear, Kid’s Activities

Saturday June 11 is Get Outdoors Day, and several campgrounds in NY state are participating with geocaching and other activities.

For example, Hickory Hill Family Camping Resort in Bath, Steuben County, is offering a community open house from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with free swimming and mini-golf, crafts, pond life adventures, guided nature hikes and Finger Lakes Trail geocaching. Go to hickoryhillcampresort.com.

Other campgrounds participating in geocaching (some of which are also hosting other activities) include Camp Bell in Campbell, Steuben County; Conesus Lake Campground in Conesus, Livingston County; Country Charm in Middlesex, Yates County; and Lake Bluff in Wolcott, Wayne County.

Go to nycampgrounds.com.

source: D&C

Filed under: Finger Lakes, Hiking, Kid’s Activities, Southern Tier Tagged: Bath NY, Camp Bell, Campbell NY, Conesus Lake Campground, Conesus NY, Country Charm, Hickory Hill Family Camping Resort, Lake Bluff, Livingston County, Middlesex NY, Steuben County, Wayne County, Wolcott NY, Yates County

By Graham Kates, The Riverdale Press, link to original post

Plenty of study has gone into potential routes for the Bronx and Yonkers portions of the Hudson River Greenway and on June 1, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council revealed short, medium and long-term plans to connect the Westchester and Manhattan portions of the trail.

The bike and jogging path currently spans half the state, but skips over the Bronx. And to the dismay of many in attendance, there is little hope of gaining access to the Hudson River through the path in the near future.

“What we’ve found is that it’s possible to get close to the waterfront over time,” Gerry Bogacz of the NYMTC, said. However, the short-term plan — which takes bikers along Kappock Street, Palisade and Riverdale avenues in the Bronx — includes no riverfront access.

The Greenway was established in 1991 to create a series of land and water trails from West 59th Street and the Hudson River Terminus to the Hudson Crossing Park Trail in Saratoga County. It currently runs all the way from Troy, N.Y. to Battery Park in Manhattan, excluding only the Bronx and part of Yonkers.

Among the long-term solutions the NYMTC is suggesting are multi-million dollar plans to either replace the Spuyten Duyvil Swing Bridge or to renovate the Henry Hudson Bridge to make either one more bicyclist-friendly.

Fred Soffa, a local biker who attended the meeting at the Riverdale YM-YWHA, however, suggested that the Henry Hudson Bridge could be made safe for bikers if its walking path was simply expanded.

“For this to be worked on for a number of years without this being brought up, for me, it’s like, should I take [NYMTC plans] seriously?” he said during the meeting.

The medium-term plan, which is at least three years away, calls for about a mile of waterfront access between West 254th Street and the Yonkers wastewater treatment plant, just over the Westchester border.

Mr. Bogacz said that while the NYMTC considers ways to gain access to the river it would also look at ways to upgrade roads for the short-term path.

Community Board 8 member Yael Levy was unimpressed.

“I don’t like the idea of studying interim solutions, because interim solutions often turn into permanent solutions, and right now we have momentum for a waterfront route,” Ms. Levy said.

Paul Elston, president of the Friends of the Hudson River Greenway, agreed that the time has come to focus on the long-term plan.

“We’ve spent much too much studying all these routes without tying them to the river,” Mr. Elston said, before adding that he is opposed to any further study of routes that don’t approach the Hudson.

The Friends of the Hudson River Greenway recently met with representatives of Metro-North to propose its own ideas for connecting the bike path with the Hudson. Metro-North representatives agreed to consider removing a portion of the train track closest to the water.

Mr. Bogacz said the idea is under consideration, but said that the NYMTC has yet to meet with Metro-North officials about it.

The Friends of the Hudson River Greenway is hoping to promote its cause and celebrate the Hudson River through its annual Riverdale RiverFest. The Sunday, June 12 event — at the College of Mount St. Vincent — will feature music by the likes of Irish Folk Singer Mary Courtney, the Riverdale Choral Society and rock and folk band the Traveling Jewburys. There will be arts and crafts, history exhibitions and a lecture on the history of Riverdale and the Hudson River from Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan. The NYMTC will also have a table set up at Riverdale RiverFest to take public comments on the Greenway. (For a more complete listing of events, go to www.riverdaleriverfest.org.)

Filed under: Hudson River, New York City, Trail Building Tagged: Bronx, Friends of the Hudson River Greenway, Hudson River Greenway, Manhattan, Metropolitan Transportation Council, NYMTC, RiverFest, Westchester, Yonkers