In and Around Kendal

March Birthdays

Photo by Marianne Bloomfeld

And Meera, too!

And Joanne Rapaport—aka Queen for a Day—celebrates a landmark 80! Photo by Cynthia Ferguson

You don’t need a birthday to enjoy a birthday party, by Ruth Dinowitz

A New Day Begins

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

A Kendal View of Kendal View for Kendal Viewing

Photo by Greg Lozier

Signs of New Life

Magnolia buds, by Carolyn Reiss

Signs of Life, by Aruna Raghavan

The melt is on! By Aruna Raghavan

Meanwhile, Back in the Bistro

Ready for St. Patrick’s Day, by Harry Bloomfeld

Collage Class in Full Swing

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

New Dress Code for Fulton Puzzlers

Photo by Joe Bruno

Slicing Through

Photo by Philip Monteleoni

Breaking News! Sip and Snack Goes Wild . . .

Our old friend Sip & Snack had a recent upgrade. Along with the good wine and ordinary Kendal tap water previously served during the popular Wednesday and Friday Happy Hour, high-quality root beer, ginger beer imported all the way from Maine, and various sparking sodas have been added to the offerings!

Thanks go to Bobbie Roggemann, Cynthia Ferguson, and Henry Neale who clearly understand the vital need for variety. Well done!

A Dream Come True

As others may have noticed, once a container of ice cream has reached the end of its scoop-ability, it is retired—but still containing a feast-able remnant of delectable fare. And especially if it’s Cappuccino Crunch. Sad to see it go—a tragic loss to Cappuccino Crunchers. Not if you have Barbara Plimpton on your side!

Securing the prize

A boy’s dream come true . . .

Photos by Harry Bloomfeld

Duck!

Forget the flowers that bloom in the spring—tra la. There’s another harbinger of the season: mallards. Amanda Slattery captured their return to our area, which reminded her of a poem from her English childhood, written by Kenneth Grahame of Wind and the Willows fame.

First the poetry:

Ducks’ Ditty

All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!

Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim—
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!
We like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!

High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call—
We are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!

And, now, ducks of the coming spring:

All this discussion of ducks reminds us of a poem by Ogden Nash from our American childhood:

The Duck

Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.

Helpful Neighbors Wanted!

Sock It to 'Em

Kendal is a place of socks. While some can be quite bland, there are a host of colorful, historic, symbolic, creative, punny, and fun varieties. And now the team of Lukach (Sharry) and Slattery (Amanda) are on a mission to Record the Socks of Kendal. Just a sample:

So, if ya got ‘em, flaunt ‘em! And don’t be surprised (or shy) if Amanda approaches and asks you to raise your pants leg. As Nike would say, “Just do it!” And there’s more! The august news venue of The Residents Website shall provide a photo display(s) of said photographed socks! Something well worth waiting for.

Don’t Toss it! Repair It! Help’s at the Repair Cafe

“But it’s still good!” The perpetual moan when something you’ve always counted on, loved, found essential—whatever—is broken. At the Repair Cafe, you’ll find folks who know how to fix it. For free. And they can help you understand how to do it in the future, should the need arise.

Early Warning for Grandparents (or Great Grandparents) Awaiting Family Visits at Easter Time

I Never Knew That

“Mitochondrial Eve” Is the Common Ancestor of All Humans

If you were to trace all our family trees as far into the past as possible, you’d find we’re all related—albeit extremely distantly. The common female ancestor from whom all humans are descended is Mitochondrial Eve, and scientists believe she lived in Africa some 200,000 years ago. Recent research may have narrowed down that location to an oasis in the Kalahari Desert, making it the “ancestral homeland of all humans alive today,” according to the researchers. Eve is technically known as Mitochondrial-Most Recent Common Ancestor, or mt-Eve and mt-MRCA for short, and her lesser-known male counterpart is known as Y-chromosomal Adam. He’s also believed to have lived in Africa, around 150,000 to 300,000 years ago.

The idea of a common ancestor has led to the misconception that Mitochondrial Eve was the first female human, which isn’t correct. Rather, she was the most recent common ancestor to whom every living person can trace their genealogy. Every human on the planet carries the Eve gene, including 147 people and fetuses from the original 1987 study. That study wasn’t the first to hypothesize a common ancestor, but the researchers behind it did coin the term Mitochondrial Eve.

Source: history facts.com Contributed by Jane Hart

For Your Funny Bone

Art by Hart

Beryl was brand new to birding

The community center pool was usually crowded at lunchtime

Roscoe and the Bedbugs were having a moment

Hester wore makeup creatively

Dara’s social climbing took her to the top, but nobody liked her

The Ruffins didn’t like flying creatures in the hous

Art and photos by Jane Hart

Hope VI, by Sheila Benedis

Art and photo by Sheila Benedis

In and Around

Kendal Purim, 2026

If you know Purim, you know joy. In the celebration, the Book of Esther (the Megillah) is read aloud, with great shouting, noise-maker rattling, and foot stomping with each mention of the villain’s name: Haman, the evil prime minister to the king of Persia. Haman plotted to wipe out the Jews of Persia in a single day. But with the courage of Queen Esther and the wisdom of her adopted father Mordecai, Haman was thwarted and done away with. Costumes are customary for children and adults alike. Donations of both food and money in the broader community is customary—and, of course, hamantaschen: traditional triangular-shaped, filled pastries or cookies made with a cookie dough and filled with poppy seeds, fruit jam, or chocolate. They’re designed to resemble Haman’s three-cornered hat.

And, of course, there’s a Kendal Purim celebration!

Naomi Gross, reading the Megillah

Bright costumes are traditional

Hope Springs Eternal

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

The First Sunset of Daylight Savings 2026

Photo by Philip Monteleoni

Out and About

Strolling the Old Croton Acqueduct—NYC Branch

On a visit to The Big Apple, Carolyn Reiss decided to check out a piece of history: the NYC end of the Croton Aqueduct. Starting at 94th Street, she strolled in the park to the top of what was the top of the old aqueduct, then made her way down to the 42nd Street library where you can still see vestiges of the old reservoir. Want to know more about the Old Croton Aqueduct? Check out Hubert Herring’s article in the recently released March-April 2026 issue of Kendal View.

Heading downtown

The promise of spring, behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Central Park

Last stop

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

Be a Good Neighbor

For Those Who Love Writers and Writing

A New Opportunity Brought to You By the Lifelong Learning Committee

Located nearby in the old Philipse Manor train station, the Hudson Valley Writers Center invites you to explore their wide range of writing and reading classes. Some are held in person at their Sleepy Hollow center; many are offered online. New courses are added regularly, and you’ll find everything from 2 and 4 hour intensives to multi‑week workshops.

For March and April 2026, all Kendal residents receive 20% off any class.
Use code KENDAL20 at checkout.

A few upcoming offerings among the many workshops offered:

Memoir with David McLoghlin: a supportive space to begin shaping your own story.

The Book of Ruth: Gleanings from Many Corners with Jessica Greenbaum—a reading class pairing the Book of Ruth with contemporary poetry.

You can browse their full schedule of workshops on the Hudson Valley Writers Center website, by clicking here.

Questions? Contact Dominika Wrozynski, HVWC Program Director at dominika@writerscenter.org.

They’d love to welcome you into one of our classes online or at 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow.

Marilyn Bottjer Exhibit

Waste to Weave in Textile Art: On Exhibit Now

Don’t throw out that worn-out tee shirt! That stained tie. That moth-eaten sweater. Turn them in to art! That’s what Sleepy Hollow weavers—practiced and new, and some Kendalites, too—did in 2025 in a Community Weave project throughout Sleepy Hollow, creating art from said “trash.” Marilyn Bottjer partnered with Kersten Harries, members of the Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective (SHAC), attracted community members of all ages to make “potholders” out of tee-shirt yarn (tee shirts cut into strips) along with other spent items. Sewn together, they made wonderful wall hangings. Kendalites joining in were Florence Walker, Alice Clague, Meera Srinivason, Carolyn Klinger, Susan Yao, Sally Costa, and Marianne Bloomfeld, all led by Marilyn

Why do all that? Fact: 92 million tons of textile waste are produced each year? Only 12% of textiles are recycled globally, while 57% go to landfills and 25% are incinerated. Why not turn it into art instead? That’s just what the Community Weave project did. And the results are now on exhibit at the Warner Library for the month of March.

Photos by Marilyn Bottjer

I Never Knew That

Ben Franklin Proposed Something Like Daylight Saving Time as a Joke

In most US states, the clocks get set forward an hour on the second Sunday in March, making Monday morning arrive just a little too soon. While daylight saving time can seem like a cruel joke to groggy night owls, the concept is logical enough that even Benjamin Franklin suggested, albeit humorously, maximizing daylight by getting up earlier.

In 1784, when Franklin was living in Paris, he submitted a satirical letter to the Journal de Paris called “An Economical Project.” In it, he wrote that he was up late discussing ways to save money on lighting and went to bed around 3 am or 4 am, before “[an] accidental sudden noise waked [sic] me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light.”

Franklin, who was the author of Poor Richard’s Almanack, noted that he consulted his almanac and was “astonished” to find that the sun “was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June.”

In the letter, Franklin calculated that Parisian families could save millions of pounds by waking up with the sun and swapping candlelight for sunlight. He jokingly suggested levying a tax on closed shutters, setting limits on candle purchases, and ringing all church bells right as the sun rises—switching to cannons if the bells proved ineffective.

Franklin did not, even as a joke, suggest changing the time, but his letter was still somewhat prophetic. Ultimately, when countries started implementing daylight saving time, the main argument for doing so was fuel savings.

Source: Sarah Anne Lloyd, historyfacts.com Contributed by Jane Hart

For Your Funny Bone

Contributed by Joe Bruno

Hope V, by Sheila Benedis

Art and photo by Sheila Benedis