NEAR THE ANCIENT OAK TREE IN THE APPLE ORCHARD

SPRING MIGRATION AND A MORE INCLUSIVE WORLD

DAY TO BE LIKE ADAM WITH CREATION

On Saturday, April 24th Joe, Gloria and myself did my SPRING MIGRATION AND A MORE INCLUSIVE WORLD day here at the Mount.  We must have walked at least three miles, although all I'd advertised was that...:"it would be an outdoors day".   We began next to our 200 year Oak Tree (more or less!) where we said the Morning Prayer of Praise.  Then we began to be like Adam in reverse.  By this I mean that we walked and tried to discover plants, trees, birds, insects and other creatures "by their proper names".   When we name someone or "any living thing" by their proper name we grow in respect for them and for all of creation.  I feel very sure that this is what the Genesis account of creation means to teach us with Adam getting the job  of naming all the animals, plants etc.  Adam learned to both RESPECT CREATION and to CONNECT TO CREATION.  Here are Joe and I next to our Purple Beech Tree which might just be 150 years old.

THE MANY LONG LEAFED ("NEEDLED") PINES IN NORTH CAROLINA

I have been doing my best to become a better "tree identifier" during my time down here in the Outer Banks. The most numerous pines are what you see here.  They have needles that are from 8 to 11 inches and many nearly six inch cones.  They grow, as do the Loblolly Pines to up to 110 feet.  (I learned that the Loblolly Pine is not too frequent here in the Outer Banks,  But in my trips to the home of my friend Evelyn Dabbs near Florence SC  there are many, many Loblolly Pines there.

SUNSET-2 ON THE OUTER BANKS AT COLLINGTON, NC

SUNSENT ON ABERMARLE SOUND-- COLLINGTON, NC

ORGANIC GARDENING ANYONE

THIS IS THE AREA WHERE I WANT TO BEGIN SOME "ORGANIC GARDENING" HERE AT MT. ST. ALPHONSUS.  THESE FIELDS WERE POTATOE FIELDS 50 YEARS AGO.  WE ALSO PLANTED AND HARVESTED TASTY STRAWBERRIES THERE.  DEPENDING ON WHAT I CAN LEARN MYSELF ABOUT ORGANIC GARDENING AND THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE HERE IN OUR ESOPUS AREA THAT MIGHT OFFER TO "HELP ME"  WE COULD HAVE SOME GREAT CROPS HERE COME THIS JULY....THINK ABOUT IT!

OUR LADY OF THE MOUNT ALTAR

This is the place where we will celebrate Mass at 4 pm on this April 24th, 2010.  My Workshop, "Christ and Spring Migration" will be mostly outdoors because I want to show how ALL of God's Creation has to be included in our love and concern.  We daughters and sons of God have been named, since Adam got the job of being....Caretakers and Stewards of Creation

Spring Buds at the Mount

HERE ARE SOME OF THE BUDS THAT ARE BURSTING WITH LIFE AND BEAUTY HERE AT MT. ST. ALPHONSUS...ENJOY THEM!!!

More Magnolias from the Mount

MARVELOUS MAGNOLIAS OF THE MOUNT

We have four Magnolia Trees here at the Mount which are at least 70 years old.  And so they would have been planted somewheres around 1927.  Because of the high temperatures here in the Northeast this last week they reached full bloom yesterday, April 7th.  In earlier years they would bloom maybe at the beginning of May.  Ordinations to the Sub an Deaconate would happen here at the Mount close to the first Sunday after Easter (Low Sunday).  That Sunday had the Latin name of Domenicus in albis  (Sunday in White).  This allusion referred to the recently baptized adults at the Easter Vigil who would wear their white Baptismal garbs all during this week.

CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY

A HAPPY EASTER FROM THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER

Well, what a day yesterday was.  I have seen a few Tree Swallows swooping over our 412 acres.  The Juncos are clicking like crazy and seem to have their lighter spring coats.  I saw an interesting stand off yesterday with an immature Red Tailed "accompanied" on a branch below by two Fish Crows.  they just "waited" till it took off and tore at her up and down till she or he made it to the next "resting spot".  One of the adult eagles was flying out towards the river yesterday afternoon.  One tree in our area where Eagles have nested was hit bit lighting a year and a half ago.  But I am sure that they will find another "appropiate" and "safe" place.  Thank God that the "eagles are back".  It is not such an extraordinary sight anymore to see them on our river.

Song sparrows, Field sparrows, lots of cardinals and off course American Robins are enjoying this early spring as are we all.  The "Peter, Peter" of our local Tufted Timouses is with us too.  OH YES!!!! And this is a very content and excited OH YES for me.  I saw two beautiful  Eastern Meadowlarks yesterday on our unmown fields at Pells.  The truth is that, as much as a patient birder as I am the only time I have seen Eastern Meadowlarks was years ago down in Columbia SC with a great now deceased birder, Mr. Robin Carter.  They are truly large and beautiful birds.  It was my "Easter Gift".
HAPPY EASTER ALL

...AND THE LAST SUPPER...JESUS BRINGS PASSOVER NEW MEANING

I hope this is alright.  Just below this animation on the Last Supper is a very wonderful animation that shows what the Passover was that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples.  Of course most Jewish people, even though they know that Christians share all the history of salvation and all of the Bible texts that they love and live, do not believe that Jesus was the Promised one or the Messiah... But at this Easter/ Passover time we all try to be in deeper contact with our COMMON GOD OF LOVE, MERCY AND KINDNESS.  Enjoy this You Tube clip on the Last Supper which features the song, "Always Knew That I'd be an Apostle"  from the play and move "Jesus Christ Super Star".

SPRINGTIME AND THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

meone said to me recently, "Your site doesn't always have birds, and you call it THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER.   Well, yes, that's true.  But I am also a Roman Catholic priest and when springtime comes, sure I am excited about the birds.  Like for instance today was such a beautiful Good Friday.  It is warm.  There more robins than ever.  Yesterday, besides the many Eastern Wood Pewees I've been seeing I also heard a number of Phoebes.  And today, if I am not mistaken, I saw some Tree Swallows flying over towards the Pell Farm.  So, yes, I am the Hudson River Birder.  But springtime is also the time when we Christians believe that, just as the birds return North each April we celebrate the return of Christ to life after the sad mistake of his being condemned to death.  So I would like to share this very well done animated video on Passover.  It is a Jewish celebration.  But it explains a lot of what Jesus himself a Jew was trying to explain as he celebrated that very same Passover with his twelve apostles who were also very good and religious Jews.  ENJOY!!!

The Basin and the Towel for HOLY THURSDAY

ABOUT THE HUDSON RIVER WALKAWAY BRIDGE

I finally did the Hudson River Walkaway Bridge across the river from Highland to Pougkeepsie, NY.  It was a windy afternoon when our staff member at the Mount, Theresa and her friend Linda and I did the two mile jaunt which is supposedly the longest walkaway bridge in the country if not the world....
Here are some facts about it...from a New York Times article---(And I have added some of today's photos after the New York Times article...Enjoy!!)
The New York Times
Editorial
October 6, 2009
The View From 1889

The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, built in the late 19th century to link New York and New England to the coal beds of Pennsylvania and the West, is a marvel of Industrial Revolution engineering. It fills the sky over the Hudson River, a muscular lattice of trusses and struts on giant footings, a survivor from a long-gone era before bridge mediocrities like the Tappan Zee. Anyone who has ever gazed on it from the riverbank and wondered what it was like to walk across will now be able to find out. It has just been opened to the public as Walkway Over the Hudson, the latest example of the new kinds of infrastructure - for tourism and recreation - that are reshaping the Hudson Valley. The bridge was abandoned in the 1970s and sat for decades because it was too expensive to tear down. Volunteers made fitful efforts to repair it as a walkway, but the project took off only about five years ago with big infusions of ambition and money, including federal and state aid and a $2 million corporate grant. This year's 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's river trip helped push the $38 million project to completion.

The bridge is part of a bigger web of things to see and do up and down the Hudson River. There are trails and bike paths from both sides linking the nearby Mid-Hudson Bridge, downtown Poughkeepsie, and parks, historic homes and landmarks. To the many civic, environmental and historic organizations that look after the Hudson Valley - including Scenic Hudson, whose land acquisitions have given the region a wealth of public greenery - the bridge has two jobs: be lovely to look at (and from), and energize the economy.

The Henry Hudson anniversary sparked many plans for legacy projects, many of them - including land purchases as a bulwark against view-destroying sprawl - still unrealized. Maybe as the economic and aesthetic benefits of this once-dreamy, impractical vision - saving and fixing a big old bridge - become clearer, people will summon the will and means to dream even bigger.

THE HUDSON RIVER WALKAWAY BRIDGE FROM HIGHLAND TO POUGKEEPSIE, NY