MY OCT 24TH WORKSHOP ON THE NEW CREATION STORY

Here at The Mount I have grown in my love of what Thomas Berry and the astronomer, Brian Swimme call "The New Creation Story" On Saturday, Oct 24th from 10am till 4pm I will present what I have studied about the formation of the physical world, showing how truly gigantic and wondrous our universe truly is, and how dangerously fragile our planet earth has become. My workshop will show, as Fr. Berry, Brian Swimme and many others believe that we must do all we can, STOP doing what we should so that our relationship with our fellow human beings of all nations and our relationship with the biosystems that keep us alive....become "mutually enhancing". For me this phrase "mutually enhancing" means in plain English that, "Our wounded planet makes out and we who are here to care for it also make out".
Here below is a video clip that will give you an idea what my workshop is about. PLEASE CONSIDER COMING. The day includes a great lunch, coffee and cookies and is only $35.

NATURE'S HALF ACRE

One of the nature documentaries that I will always remember was done, I think, by the Disney people. It was called, "Nature's Half Acre" It was all about bees and bugs and worms and the creatures that are right there beneath our feet. When I was in the Bronx one of my happiest projects were three years of running Summer Day Camps. It is so great when kids can get out in the country and discover birds,flowers, fresh ponds and streams....and Yes...bugs!!!! I remember that there were some kids, mostly but not always..girls, who did not like to be near dirt and bugs, salamanders and the like. I was initially quite misunderstanding about this. But now I know that all people do not have the same sensitivity to the outdoors. But one thing that I most certainly believe that all people, like or not like dirt and bugs...is that we are "all connected". Those little critters in Nature's Half Acre all have their purpose in the web of life and it is not just to be shunned by the people they disgust or try to bite. They all are important or they would never have come into the circle of life. I say this because one of the easiest things I can do with my little digital camera is take great shots of bees, flowers and bugs. So enjoy.

MORE SHAUPENEAK PEAK BEE SHOTS

Shaupeneak Bee' Work is Never Done

Rambing Through Pell Farm on Labor Day

My brother Dan and I took an early walk to the Pell Farm. The Purple Beach, which is one of about four, "may or may not" be 200 years old. Many of these trees were planted by Robert Livingston Pell himself. Or they "may" have been there long before he inherited the farm. They are powerful and beautiful. There is a small cementery with what were probably Pell workers behind what seems to be a "House of Leaves". There are the name Terpenning there. There is one grave to an "AMANDA" who was born around 1732. Fr. Gene takes care of the cementery in the sense that he mows around and up to it. The cementery measures about 30 by 20 feet and has about 7 or eight gravestones, most of them now fallen.

Pell's "Barnless Silo" at Esopus

Pell Farm "House of Leaves"

My Brother Dan and 200 Year Old Purple Beach

My old friend: "Cedar Hill at Central Park"

In 1997 I was in New York City in September and October on a preaching assignment. On my "downtime" I discovered what was then a very well organized "Hawk Migration Count" which happened mostly on the top level of Belvedere Castle which is right below >"Turtle Pond"strong> and right at the beginning of "The Ramble" which is pretty much the center of Central Park. There I met many professional birders and bird photographers and naturalists as Lloyd Spytylnick, Debra Allen, "Birding Bob De Candido and many others. Today I was with two two gentlemen whom I have known since then: Bernie Nathan and Art Le Moyne. Now "Cedar Hill" which is right above what is known as the "Boating Pond" and leads up to the Boathouse where "The Ramble" begins is the best birding spot in all of Central Park, most especially for seeing warblers during this Fall and also Spring bird migration. In 1997 I spent my Thursdays during September at the morning Hawk Count. On days with a load cloud cover and good northwesterly winds one can see many hawks, falcons on there way south to winter and some to nest. It is a truly splendid sight to see an enormous "kettle" of accipiters or falcons soaring, gliding and spiralling sometimes a thousand feet up in the sky. The picture below is of Cedar Hill where today, even with the 60 degree temperature and the winds sunbathers and others enjoy these "last days of summer". I arrived at the Ramble around 11am and so there wasn't much movement of warblers, just a few Black Headed Blues, one Worm Eating Warbler, a number of Black and White Warblers and some Cedar Waxwings chewing away at the berries near Belvedere Castle. This "Hudson River Birder" began as a "Central Park Birder". I still feel a great love for the "lung of New York City" because that is what this great creation of two great arquitects: Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux truly is.

Cedar Hill at Central Park

A Day at Shaupeneak Peak/ Lake Louise

I have been at Esopus over a year and never visited Shaupeneak Peak and Lake Louise which are just three miles from The Mount. There is a blue trail that goes around the lake, a Red Trail that goes to great views of the upper Catskills and looking due East over the Hudson. There are both black and red birch there. The land is owned by Scenic Hudson, but a West Esopus Trail group cares for the trails quite well. There are didactic plaques on the trails the help one realize how nature can be treated either with respect....or its opposite!.... For this "birder" well I need to kick myself. Because that's where the Worm Eating Warblers nest. There are Eastern Wood Pewees galore, Red Tailed Hawks, Red Eyed Vireos "invisible but vocal as always"....high in the tree tops. It is a wonderful little piece of God's own earth...and "ours too"...right under my nose. I met a very nice retired NYC Fire Captain with his two "well behaved" Irish Terriers: Molly and Kiera...

Shores of Lake Louise at Shaupeneak Peak

Maple at Shapeneak Peak-Ulster Park

Lake Louise

A "MOUNT ST. ALPHONSUS SUNRISE"

Robert Livingston Pell Fish and Trout Ponds-4

THE ROBERT LIVINGSTON PELL FISH AND TROUT PONDS

Recently I received a request from an author doing a study on the Fish, especially trout that Robert Livingston Pell imported from Europe and placed in five artificial ponds that he created on this property when it belonged to him around 1844. Reading the memoirs of the grandaughter of John Burroughs (Elizabeth Burroughs) in a piece she wrote for the Esopus Klyne Museum around 1978, Ms. Burroughs says that "three of the original ponds are still visible on our Mt.St. Alphonsus property. And so I have photographed the three that are just below the 9W entrance on the southern part of our property. Our Redemptorist cemetery is just above the first and 2nd ponds and just across the macadam road from the third. There are two more heading south towards Black Creek. But I could not ascertain if these had also been ones built and stocked by Mr. Pell.

Livingston Pell Fish and Trout Ponds-3

PELL FISH AND TROUT POND-2

THE PELL FISH AND TROUT PONDS-1