In and Around Kendal

6 AM: Talk About Your Rosy Fingers of Dawn!

Photo by Greg Lozier

The Return of the Familiar to Rockwood Preserve, by Edward Kasinec

A stone planter

Have you heard: our herd returns!

Another Warm-Weather Return

Photo by Joe Bruno

Remembrance: Passover 2024

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

A Working River

Photo by Joe Bruno

A Working Artist

Philip Monteleoni creating a linoleum-block print

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Preserving Spring Beauty in Rockwood, by Carolyn Reiss

And home again — to our own beauty

A Resting Place for Walkers—and a Kendal Founder’s Suitable Memorial

Photo by Art Brady

And Back at Home

Blooming Redbud Tree

Mallards happy to be back at Kendal

Photos by Joe Bruno

Out and About

Tracking Trolleys

On April 24, a band of Kendalites rode up to East Haven, CT, to Shore Line Trolley Museum for a guided tour of the museum’s collection and a ride aboard an historic electric trolley.

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Photo by Cynthia Ferguson

Closer to Home: White Plains and its MLK Statue

Photo by Art Brady

Visiting the WHI of the HHV

On April 26, 20 Kendalites visited the Women’s History Institute of the Historic Hudson Valley organization. The Women’s Historic Institute (WHI) brings to life the hidden stories of everyday women of the Hudson Valley who shaped the area’s life and culture. Like many other museums, initially, the Historic Hudson Valley (HHV) focused on the contributions made by prominent men to American government and society. However, the researchers typically neglected another — and rather compelling version of history — the hidden stories of the everyday women who shaped their families, communities, and the nation. The WHI has corrected the historical record by introducing us to the daily life and many achievements of previously unheralded women. The WHI is part of The Historic Hudson Valley’s Library,  restoring, preserving, and interpreting historic landmarks of national significance to the Hudson River Valley. 

Akin to a Farmer’s Almanac

Photos by Mimi Abramovitz

Oh, the Places You Will Go

Someone made suggestions for our vacation plans for this year. So many choices!

  • I have been in many places, but I’ve never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can’t go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone else.

  • I’ve also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

  • I have, however, been in Sane. They don’t have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work.

  • I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I’m not too much on physical activity anymore.

  • I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often.

  • I’ve been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

  • Sometimes I’m in Capable, and I go there more often as I’m getting older.

  • One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenaline flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get.

  • I may have been in Continent, but I don’t remember what country I was in. It’s an age thing. They tell me it is very wet and damp there.

Contributed by Barbara Wallach

Rubber Ducky Derby Day: And Kendal Was There!

Jean Eccleston (far left) and Hildegarde Gray (center, with Fred right behind) at the Kendal Sponsor Booth with official Rubber Ducky Day Cheer Leaders

A grueling day for the duckies! The Sponsor Heat is really for a warm-up. With each successive heat, the winners are recorded until the Final Heat — when the six winners battle it out for the ultimate glory! (Autograph-seekers are discouraged after each heat, since the athletes must rest prepare for the next heat.)

The athletes dive quickly (and gracefully) into the stream . . .

They quickly take their positions. Some go for the front, others — understanding that they can save their energy for the final surge — chose the back.

And they’re off!

The crowd cheers on its favorites as the duckies surge past! Tension rises as the duckies reach into their very souls for the stamina needed to stay in the race, much less to win it.

And we have a winner! Race officials help the exhausted ducks off of the track (along with those who, literally, got lost in the weeds on the way to the finish line) so they can rest up for the next heat.

I Never Knew That

Continued from Last Week

Nursery rhymes, some dating back centuries, have left a strong mark on many of our childhoods, but we often don’t realize where they came from. Some have evolved over centuries, bringing a whole new version to modern children, while others have remained tried and true since their inception. From women’s prisons and peep shows to wholesome tales of beloved pets, here are the origins of some beloved nursery rhymes.

Here we go round the mulberry bush

The mulberry bush

The mulberry bush

Here we go round the mulberry bush

On a cold and frosty morning

Although this rhyme likely started out using Bramble Bush (mulberries actually grow on trees), historian R. S. Duncan suggests this version came about at Wakefield Prison in England. The facility has been home to an extremely recognizable mulberry tree for centuries, and the theory goes that Victorian female prisoners used to dance around it and made up the rhyme to keep their kids amused. (Back then, men, women, and children were often confined together.) The tree eventually died in 2017, but it was replaced with a cutting from the original.

Source: Interestingfacts.com

To Be Continued . . .

Contributed by Jane Hart

An Important Date to Celebrate with a Feast!

Great News! Sound the Trumpets!

May 6 is International No Diet Day (INDD) 

Mary Evans Young created No Diet Day in the early 1990s when she saw how many of the powerful women she worked with put a great amount of their energy into trying not to have a cookie during an intermission in the program she was teaching. Originally on  May 5, lNDD changed to May 6 after it went international, to avoid a scheduling conflict with Cinco de Mayo.

Contributed by Barbara Bruno

Just Joking . . .

A woman and her 12-year-old son were riding in a taxi in Detroit.  It was raining and all the prostitutes were standing under awnings.

“Mom,” said the boy, “what are all those women doing?”

“They’re waiting for their husbands to get off work,” she replied

The taxi driver turns around and says, “Geez lady, why don’t you tell him the truth? They're hookers, boy! They have sex with men for money.”

The little boy’s eyes get wide and he said, “Is that true, Mom?”

His mother, glaring hard at the driver, answers “Yes.”

After a few minutes the kid asks, “Mom, if those women have babies, what happens to them?”

She responded, “Most of them become taxi drivers.”

In and Around Kendal

Spring Comes to Rockwood Park

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Enclosed Green

Photo by Edward Kasinec

Rockwood’s Secret Garden

Photo by Edward Kasinec

Torrents of Pink

Photo by Edward Kasinec

Fresh Swamp Cabbage along the Brook

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Storm’s A-Comin’

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Rockwood Is For the Birds, by Carolyn Reiss

Mocking Bird in Flight

Tree Swallow, Upon Arrival

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Tree Swallow, Upon Departure

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

The First Purple Martens

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

The Final Eclipse Shot

The Eclipse: in Abstract

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

I Never Knew That

Nursery rhymes, some dating back centuries, have left a strong mark on many of our childhoods, but we often don’t realize where they came from. Some have evolved over centuries, bringing a whole new version to modern children, while others have remained tried and true since their inception. From women’s prisons and peep shows to wholesome tales of beloved pets, here are the origins of some beloved nursery rhymes.

Mary had a little lamb

Little lamb, little lamb

Mary had a little lamb

Its fleece was white as snow

Poet Sarah Josepha Hale first published a version of this poem in 1830. Around 50 years later, an elderly woman named Mary Sawyer stepped forward as the real Mary. Sawyer’s story goes pretty much like the version we know and love today. She rescued a little lamb that had been abandoned by its mother and hand-fed it until it regained its health. One morning, she and her brother decided to bring the lamb to school. The lamb hid in a basket by Mary’s feet until it bleated, drawing attention from the teacher, who gently let the lamb outside so Mary could bring it home at lunch. The other kids did, indeed, laugh.

In a letter included in a 1928 book detailing the story, Sawyer says that the lamb grew up and had a few lambs of its own.

Source: Interestingfacts.com

To Be Continued . . .

Contributed by Jane Hart

Just Joking . . .

Students in an advanced Biology class were taking their mid-term exam. The last question was “Name seven advantages of Mother’s Milk.”  The question was worth 70 points or none at all.  One student was hard put to think of 7 advantages.  He wrote:

1) It is the perfect formula for the child.

2) It provides immunity against several diseases.

3) It is always the right temperature.

4) It is inexpensive.

5) It bonds the child to the mother and vice versa.

6) It is always available as needed

And then the student was stuck. Finally, in desperation, just before the bell rang indicating the end of the test he wrote:

7) It comes in two attractive containers and it’s high enough off the ground where the cat can’t get it.

He got an A+.

Contributed by Bob Abramovitz

Art by Hart

Terry’s birthday party was wild

When it came to poultry fashion design, Yves-Charles was crushing it

Runch-Higgins rested on his laurels so long, they took root

Nobody judged Mrs. Jervis as harshly as her own inner jury

Suzette’s Alley Cat chic was taking the fashion industry by storm

Murf was bluegrass to the core

Art and photos by Jane Hart

Out and About

On April 10, a Kendal van full of residents had a special treat: a tour of Rockefeller University, one of the world’s premier bio-medical research institutions. A graduate-only university, Rockefeller can boast 29 Nobel laureates in its 123-year history. While the institution is usually off limits to most non-researching members of the public, the hearty band of residents toured both the architectural and the bio-medical splendors of the organization.

Photos by Harry Bloomfeld

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Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.