The Beauty and Bounty of Boscobel

boscobel-the-big-band-sound

The Boscobel House has quite a history, a story that is created year after year with memories like these of the annual Big Band Concert and Sunset Picnic. This was the 16th. The Big Band tradition started with the turn of the 21st century. Seems like a long time ago but it is really just a fraction of Boscobel’s 200 year life, two centuries!

The event rings out the end of Summer with a night of festivity for young and old.

boscobel-picnic-river-view

Picnics with one the most wonderful Hudson River views.

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The event is attended by a full and happy crowd, dining, dancing and enjoying the Big Band sounds.

boscobel-picnic-crowd

This is just one of the many events held here that include the Summer season of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, tours of the house and garden, a wonderful tangle of paths that we have walked often. Frances Stevens Reese Woodland trail

If you drive 9D between Garrison and Cold Spring you will certainly have noticed the deep green signboard announcing the many seasonal events.

boscobel-entrance-gate boscobel-entrance-sign boscobel-family-bonfire boscobel-fred-rich-sign boscobel-rhyme-time-sign

Boscobel House and Garden

We love Boscobel so much we named a cocktail in its honor. The Boscobel, a Fig Shrub Manhattan

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Bellissime – Musica – Canto – Capella & Tramonti

Translated — Beautiful Music, Singing, Chapel & Sunset

What a beautiful Friday evening at The Chapel Restoration in Cold Spring.  The sky, sunset so soft and comely, the historic chapel overlooking the river, and the beautiful voices and music of Bellissime, the duo of sisters Ania Butkiewicz and Gabriela Mikova Johnson.

Luscious piano accompaniment by Tania Vaneckova and lovely costume designs  of Veronika Hindle.

The concert was performed at an over 150 year old chapel, originally known as Chapel of Our Lady, overlooking the river from a high perch.  It was built in 1833 for those employed at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring.  it was designed by, a 19-year-old from England, Thomas Kelah Wharton. And created of “locally made red brick covered with stucco, the chapel was in the Greek Revival style, then in vogue. Its columns were of the Tuscan order, a simple, unfluted version of the Doric, whose supreme expression is the Parthenon in Athens.” Restored and preserved by Chapel Restoration, a nonprofit organization created to restore and maintain this landmark.

The chapel with its view of the river is completely uplifting while it immerses you in history.

The music delightful, like angels on the wing, joy, laughter and tears were abundant in the audience. Ania and Gabriela sang towering opera, show and popular tunes that stirred our soul and filled the chapel with a rapture of harmonious notes and vibrations.

A truly wonderful evening.

More Here:

Bellissime

Chapel Restoration

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Sunday Poem — The Weaver and the Loom

Loom Cropped Enhanced

My friend Judy Becker read this moving poem after sitting in meditation together.  I hope you enjoy it too.

The Weaver and the Loom

Sit here for a bit. Place yourself outside the frenzied pace of life.

Slow down long enough to appreciate birds in flight, water drops like prisms in the grass and countless shades of green.

Step off the fast track and listen to the sound of breath and birdsong.

Take a moment to just be, and in the being, know the whole of this creation,
mystery and madness, passion and profanity, know it all as one, stunning
tapestry.

Sit still and the thin line between sacred and profane simply fades away. There is nothing then to reconcile. All the disparate threads are woven on the loom of life.

Sit here for a bit and your unique place in the pattern becomes clear. Take the still point with you when it’s time to walk away.

Make the choice to see affinity, to watch the picture taking shape as thread joins thread.

Dare to be the weaver and the loom, creator and creation, the sower and the sown.

In a moment of stillness, all that came before is seen as one.

dannafaulds

 

by Danna Faulds

Go In and In: Poems From the Heart of Yoga

 

 

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A Visit to Highland Falls Farmer’s Market and Sculpture Walk

highlan Falls Farmers Market Sign

Across the river near West Point is the historic town of Highland Falls. It has seen its better days despite being so close to the Military Academy, but there are some high points worth exploring.

We liked the farmer’s market which is held every Sunday from 9:00-2:00 through October. We also explored the “The Highland Falls ArtWalk: Leadership and Wisdom” which is on display through Nov. 20. A link to the NY Times Article and a video on this show is below . Continue reading A Visit to Highland Falls Farmer’s Market and Sculpture Walk

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A Beautiful Morning – Poem by Solomon Bright Dankwa

Constitution Island View

i have been awoken.
with my eyes still closed.
by the rising sun
from an unknown island
where the grave of my saint lies

The rays of the the sun,
bows upon my spirit
with pleasure
leaving some kind of enthusiasm in me
like a rose left with a smile.

As i open my arrogant eyes
just to see a beautiful sun
rising from defeat
at a far distance where i could not touch.

i was statued like i was electrocuted
but a smile spread over my visage
just to experience a beautiful morning.

Solomon Bright Dankwa

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ArtWare for Good News from Rwanda

Diana and KidsFrom an ocean and hemisphere away Diana reports great success with her work in Rwanda,

Her company ArtWare for Good has a program called Walls That Unite that combines art and education to create change in the world through the universal language of art.

For the last week she has been in Rwanda with her friends and partners Nancy Uslan  and Jeanine Polizzi for the culmination of a recent projects  for the Kabwende and Bisate Schools there.The girlsThe project engaged 5th grade students of the Bullock School in Montclair, NJ and  students of  Monmouth University to create an art installation and literacy project. Together they wrote and illustrated stories that were published in a book that was distributed to 2,000 children in Rwanda.  BookCover[2]

The stories were inspired by each letter of the alphabet that were also made into art that became part of a tile wall mural that was brought across the sea and mounted at the schools.

Putting Up Wall Planning Wall

The project was a tremendous success, a life changing experience for all involved.

ArtWare for Good

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Sunday Poem — These Spiritual Window-Shoppers by Rumi

Cold Spring General Store Shopping

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, ‘How much is that?’ Oh, I’m just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? “Nowhere.”
What did you have to eat? “Nothing much.”

Even if you don’t know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

Book: The Essential Rumi by Rumi Hello Poetry

Go ahead! Be materialistic! Support a local merchant and buy some stuff today.  Shop

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Sunday Poem — The Summer River by Masaoka Shiki

HIROSHIGE_MAN_ON_HORSEBACK_CROSSING_A_BRIDGE

The summer river:
although there is a bridge, my horse
goes through the water.

Masaoka Shiki, a poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan.

Masaoka Shiki was the pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (September 17, 1867 – September 19, 1902) born into a ‘middleMasaoka Shiki class’  family and raised in the classical fashion. Shiki was a rebel in his mid teens. Although best known as one of the leaders of the Modern Haiku Movement, Shiki wrote in many styles of poetry and prose as an author, biographer and critic. He also wrote on reform of tanka poetry.

Some consider Shiki to be one of the four great haiku masters, the others being Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa – Wikipedia & All Poetry 
Paining Man on Horseback Crossing a Bridge by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) Japanese Artist

 

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The Beautiful Luminaries Who Support the Desmond-Fish Library

The Roundhouse BeaconWere present in numbers, glamorously attired, and sweetly conversant for the Annual Associates Dinner to honor the 2015 Desmond-Fish award winners.

Held at The Round House Beacon Falls, we were so thrilled to be present at this grand occasion and make many new friends. Continue reading The Beautiful Luminaries Who Support the Desmond-Fish Library

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A Visit to the Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery

The Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery  Stupa

For a very sad yet very beautiful and moving event, we had the opportunity to experience the magnificent Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery and Retreat Center that overlooks the Hudson off a back road in Wappinger Falls.

Our visit was to participate in a ceremony for the passing of a dear friend who lived in Cold Spring.

Continue reading A Visit to the Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery

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