Another Reason to Visit Cranberry Lake Preserve in New York

Tags

Cranberry Lake Preserve, David Licata, nature, New York state, NY, photography, Pink Ladyslipper, pond, water lilies, White Plains, White Plains NY

Last March, I wrote a post about our visit to the beautiful Cranberry Lake Preserve and how it had been affected by Sandy. You can read the post here.

I received several messages following this post, including in the comments, notably updating me on how the place was being cleaned of the debris and damages made by Sandy.

More recently, I received a email letting me know that “David Licata, a local glass artist, [wa]s installing glass orchids throughout the park inspired by the locally growing Pink Ladyslipper Orchid.” He is giving tours and the exhibition was supposed to last until December 1st. Unfortunately, upon checking Mr. Licata’s website, it seems that the orchids had to be removed due to vandalism. But he will display some during his tours. Please click on the links for more details, on Mr Licata’s website.

I have not seen this exhibition and will not be able to see it since, as you know if you’ve been following me for more than 6 months, I have now moved from New York to Texas. But you might want to see it!

I also thought it would be the occasion to update my March post by pictures we took on our second visit to Cranberry Lake Preserve in June.

[Click on any picture to enlarge and open the slideshow]

Enrico’s Pastry Shop’s Answer to the Cronut: A Review

Tags

bakery, Cronut, Cronuts, Enrico's, Enrico's Pastry Shop, Hartsdale, new york, Westchester county

The day the Cronut left New York.

Okay, I’ll admit it: this sentence is a little (too?) dramatic.

Yes, you can still have a Cronut in New York, I guess (Sigh: I’m not there anymore). Now you can have a Cronut – or at least something that claims to be a Cronut – in many places around the U.S. and possibly the world, too. Is the Cronut craze going worldwide?

You tell me.

I was told you could get Cronuts in Dallas, TX. You can certainly have them in Cincinnati among other places… For a croissant sake! You can find them around the world! (I know Mom, not in Paris. Not in Austin either.)

For those who cannot find them (or get in the line at 5.30 am at Dominique Ansel’s Bakery), you can also find recipes online like this one or by following this simple recipe at Fashion Cooking here.

That’s the beauty of the market: people come up with great new ideas to make our taste buds happy. Competition brings choice and the new products to more people.

If I could have tried a Cronut from Dominique Ansel’s Bakery without needing to be there at 5.30 am for an hour or two waiting – because the number of Cronuts baked were limited to create, or at least encourage, the craze – I would have stuck to the real thing: Ansel’s Cronut. I don’t blame Ansel: it’s a good idea to create a buzz around a product and nobody is forced to wait in line anyway. I surely didn’t.

Like I mentioned in my post on Ansel’s bakery, I went for the next best thing: Cronut-like pastries from an Italian bakery in Westchester County, NY.

Enrico’s Pastry Shop is located in Hartsdale, NY, in Westchester county (about 1 hour from Manhattan by train).

When I visited the bakery, I was interested in the “Westchester’s Answer to the New York Cronut:” not only were there plenty of them, but there were several flavors too.

[Yes, you can click on the pics to enlarge them, but be warned that it may make you hungry. Please don’t blame me for salivating on your keyboard]

One was topped with Nutella (definitely a favorite). I love the lemon with salted caramel. We tried the Madagascar vanilla bean with raspberry topping too. Yummy!

No, they don’t look exactly like the Ansel Cronuts you’ve seen. Whatever, really. These things were extremely good: rich but not to the point of not being able to finish one in one tasting. I paid $2.50 each if I remember well.

We tried them in July, so we didn’t have the time to go back to Enrico’s bakery. Too bad because there were many other cakes that looked equally delicious.

If you get the chance, give this bakery a try!

Enrico’s Pastry Shop and Caffe
214 E Hartsdale Ave
Hartsdale, NY

4th of July at John Jay Homestead

Tags

4th of July, Fourth of July, Independence Day, John Jay, John Jay Homestead, new york, New York state, photography, Westchester county

For the 4th of July, we chose a less-crowded event than the Macy’s Fireworks this year, and stayed in Westchester County.

We went to a special Independence Day Fair at the John Jay Homestead.

John Jay was Governor of the State of New York and the first Chief Justice of the United States. He also was one of the authors (with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison) of the Federalist Papers.

There were many activities for children and adults, and we mostly walked around the porperty after enjoying a hot dog and a cheeseburger. My favorite part was the Herb Garden!

[Click on any picture to open the diaporama and enlarge the pictures]

Carriage Barn Education & Visitor Center

Coachman’s House

Main Barn

Main Barn

Potting Shed

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Pump House

This was a very nice and original way to spend the Fourth of July.

I already had the occasion of watching the Macy’s fireworks with the NYC skyline in the background in the years before. Indeed, my husband (then fiancé) even filmed the whole show back in 2008, when I first brought him in New York City. I will share the video with you tomorrow.

Pelham Bay Park and some of its wildlife

Tags

cycgnet, horseshoe crab, new york, New York state, Pelham, Pelham Bay Park, seagull, swan

Here is the long-overdue end of our visit to Orchard Beach and Pelham Bay Park.

We encountered some animals too, not always alive :-/

The first pictures are of (dead) horseshoe crabs. I had no idea what it was until I spotted one in one beach around where we live and hubby got all excited about it ;-) Fossils of these strange animals were found dating back to 450 million years ago! Also, their blood is a beautiful blue and is used to detect bacteria and impurities in pharmaceutical drugs!

There were some seagulls (alive!) and the skeleton of a creature we were not able to identify (it pretty much looked like the skeleton of a goa’uld to me!).

Finally, we met a cute little family of swans: Mom and Pop Swan and their cygnets. Adorable! Needless to say, one of the swans (the mother?) was paying close attention to what we were doing.

Finally, a short video (mostly so you can see the Swan family):

Super Moon from New York State

Tags

New York state, photography, Super Moon, Supermoon, United States

This past weekend gave us the occasion to see a Supermoon, that is a full moon in the position the closest to the earth for the year.

The moon is then considerably bigger in the sky… and this is an interesting time to take pictures of it. That is, if the weather cooperates.

While we had a great summer day on Sunday with high temperatures and a clear blue sky, clouds appeared around 10 pm, blocking the view completely from where we lived.

Would we let the clouds stop us? No way! The clouds were rather localized above us (thank you, clouds), so at 11 pm, we decided to drive about 40 miles north to find a clear sky. But the clouds were following us visibly.

[Click on any picture to enlarge]

So we drove the 40 miles back home, knowing that the pics we took would not be very good… only to find a proudly showing moon back home, in an almost clear sky ;-)

Ms. Moon, you had us at hello!

[Click on the image below to see a bigger, animated file]

Happy Flag Day 2013

Tags

American flag, Flag, Flag Day, New York state, Old Glory, photography, Westchester county

Today is Flag Day in the United States. This is the day to honor Old Glory.

[Click to get a bigger version of the image]

Westchester County – May 2013

Vamos A La Playa: Orchard Beach at Pelham Bay Park on Puerto Rican Day Parade

Tags

Bronx Riviera, new york, New York state, Orchard Beach, Pelham, Pelham Bay Park, photography, Riviera of New York City, The Bronx, Westchester county

Sunday, we decided to explore part of the Pelham Bay Park:

More than three times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park, Pelham Bay Park is the City’s largest park property. Visitors to the park enjoy miles of bridle paths and hiking trails, Orchard Beach, the Bartow-Pell Mansion, two golf courses, and a breathtaking 13-mile saltwater shoreline that hugs Long Island Sound. Athletes frequent its numerous fields and courts while children frolic in its playgrounds. Pelham Bay Park also has a wide and diverse range of plant and animal life and features prime locations to view one of nature’s most skillful hunters, the osprey.

We went to Orchard Beach and for a small walk in part of the park (the latter will be featured in another post).

Orchard Beach used to be referred to as “the Riviera of New York City“:

Orchard Beach, the park’s most popular feature, is the only public beach in the borough. The 115-acre, 1.1-mile-long engineering marvel was created on Long Island Sound by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses during the 1930s. “The Riviera of New York” consists of a 13-section sandy beach, a hexagonal-block promenade, a central pavilion with food stores and specialty shops, two playgrounds, two picnic areas, a large parking lot, and 26 courts for basketball, volleyball, and handball.

It is sometimes called “the Bronx Riviera” today.

Sunday was also Puerto Rican Day Parade.

[Click on any picture to get a bigger view]

Random New York State: Stairs to Nowhere

Tags

new york, New York state, NY, photography, Rye, stairs

Rye, NY – April 2013

A spring (really?!) visit to Cranberry Lake Preserve (White Plains, NY)

Tags

Cranberry Lake Preserve, frogs, nature, New York state, noisy frogs, NY, photography, pond, White Plains, White Plains NY

Yesterday, we decided to go out and try our luck at one of the several parks in Westchester County. The sun was shining most of the day, and I am yearning so badly to see some spring flowers (enough with the snow!). Since I had seen some crocus here and there, I was hoping that maybe – maybe – I could see some signs of spring coming (did I say “enough with the snow!” already?).

I chose Cranberry Lake Preserve, near the Kensico Reservoir, mostly because of the name :-) No cranberry involved though!

Well, we saw no flower, unfortunately. What we found looked more like a winter landscape. As you will see, Sandy, and probably Irene too, visited the preserve and left a mess behind.

[you can click on pictures to get a bigger size]

We did see some interesting signs of life though, like this spider…

Sorry for the bad composition. The spider was next to the floor and I had no intention to crawl on the floor to take the picture – being a little arachnophobe… Does anyone know the name of this spider? It’s not evident on the pictures but she was doing a nice job almost camouflaging herself on this dead tree branch.

We also saw this mushroom that looked a bit like a shellfish to me :-)

In the not-alive department, we were impressed by this huge, dead vine, hanging above the ground:

The most interesting part was a little pond full of… frogs. Very noisy frogs. I put up a little video at the end of the post for you to see and hear them up, close, and personal (almost).

Here’s the video. If you are patient, you’ll be able to see a close-up on one of the little frogs.

[If you cannot see the video on this blog, click here]

Advent Calendar – December 23rd, 2012

Tags

Advent, Advent calendar, Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas in New York, Christmas in NYC, new york, New York state, NY, Westchester county

Here are some pictures of houses all taken in Westchester County, NY. I would have taken more if my battery had not let me down this night because of the cold weather.

Advent Calendar

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 5

December 6

December 7

December 8

December 9

December 10

December 11

December 12

December 13

December 14

December 15

December 16

December 17

December 18

December 19

December 20

December 21

December 22