We’re baaaaack, UESiders!

And glad we are to be so on this anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner and as National Honey Week draws to a close!

sanguinaria-canadensis

Now…

Let’s see how much of the piles of important/fun info we can cram onto this page this week:

Saturday, September 13th:  82nd Street Greenmarket

82nd Street between First and York, 9am –2pm

Compost & Clothes Collection – 9am – 1pm 

At their respective tables will be American Seafood, Bread Alone, Samascott, Cherry Lane, Gajeski, Rising Sun Beef, Fresh Radish, Nature’s Way Farms and Valley Shepherd Creamery!

And there’s this news flash from Manager Jesse:

“There are leaves on the apples and on the GROUND in our market’s beautiful courtyard! Come enjoy the swan song of summer with chiles, heirloom tomatoes, corn, pears, eggplant, and all the bounty of late summer — we’ll be roasting an eggplant on an open flame and making babaganoush to keep off autumn’s chill! As always, we’ll be collecting corks and batteries, textiles and compost, and Barbara will be sharpening knives — join us!”

And lucky we are that our formidable Master Knife Sharpener will yet again with us and honing in her accustomed place!  

So just what recycling totals have we been wracking up these last 4 weeks?

Answer:  Big ones, folks!!

In fact, Compost Maestro Jared has asked for a 10th bin for this coming Saturday!

Last 4 week’s recycling totals: 145 lbs batteries;  21 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges; 17 pairs of eye glasses; 25 bins of compost; 81 bags of clothes.

In a word:  WOW!

Saturday, September 13th: Exploring New York’s Natural Side Tour

Payson Center, Inwood Hill Park, 5-7pm

Walk through this remnant (really, we’ve got one!), ecologically important forest at the northern tip of Manhattan with brilliant “Mannahatta” author (now pioneering the Weliikia Project), Eric Sanderson.  Free.  For reservations and more… 

Sunday, September 14th:  92nd Street Greenmarket

92nd Street and First Avenue, 9am-3pm

Compost & Clothing Collection 9am-1pm

With us will be Atlantic Seafood, Gonzales, Stannart, Norwich Meadows and Phillips Farms, Bread Alone and Meredith’s Bakery.

And a new dairy farm with even more delicious yogurt and other milk products will be on hand this Sunday!

Meanwhile, Phillips’ peaches of every kind are just incredible! 

Last 3 week’s recycling totals:  44 lbs batteries;  7 lbs cords, cellphones and cartridges; 16 bins of compost; 3 pairs of eyeglasses;  3 1/2 giant bins of clothes (the equivalent of 7 giant bags at 82nd Street).

Yes, you divided that compost number correctly!  Another 4 more solid weeks of 4 compost bins!! 

Go, 92nd Street!!

bauhinia-galpinii

And then:

Saturday, September 20th:  Native Plants and Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden

East River Esplanade at 60th Street (enter at York & 60th), 1 & 3pm

Accomplished local horticulturalist Maureen Regan shares her wisdom on beautiful things to grow that’ll turn our gardens into butterfly magnets! (Maybe even get us recognition as an official monarch butterfly migration route stop like Stuyvesant Cove!)  Organized by the great Green Park Gardeners (check out the gorgeous work they’re doing on the Andrew Haswell Green portion of the Esplanade).  Free and absolutely kid friendly.  

Saturday & Sunday, September 20th and 21st:  Maker Faire 2014

New York Hall of Science, Flushing Meadow, Queens

Be witness to the future of what science’ll is and will bringing to the world and Manhattan in particular with inventions and activities ranging from 3D printing to home-scale bio-diesel production! Family-friendly, too!  Tickets:  $17.50 – $70.  For full details…

Sunday, September 21st:  People’s Climate March 

Beginning at Columbus Circle, 11:30am

Let there be an insane number of orderly, smiling, determined marchers… Be there!!

Friday, September 26th:  The Five Thousand Pound Life – Land –
A Symposium on Land and Climate Change

The Great Hall, The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, 2pm

Who better than “Mannahatta’s” Eric Sanderson and Ted Steinberg to discuss the historical ecology of New York City and the changes throughout time that have resulted in our present land use?  Presented by the Architectural League NY.  Members & Students:  Free.  Non-members:  $20. For tickets and more…   

Saturday, September 27th:  Smithsonian Museum Day

Select Museums throughout NYC

Including UESide’s own Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden!  Entrance free to one and all presenting a Museum Day ticket!  For the full list of participating NYC museums and those tickets…

Commencing in October 1st:  Ellis Island Hospital Tours

Ferries depart from Battery Park 

Off-bounds to visitors for 60 years, groups up to 10 will be guided through the most telling of the 30-some buildings in the complex and with tour proceeds going to restoration.  Tickets and prices of those tickets available on September 25th.

On our horizon:

Sunday, October 5th:  It’s My Park Day – Part I

East River Esplanade at 96th Street, 10am-3pm

Picking up where we left off in spring…  Renaissance of the once forlorn 96th Street planter continues…  We’ll be further lengthening the “ribbon of daffodil” and scraping/painting more railing!   (We’ll be having fabulous refreshments, too!)

Sunday, October 19th:  It’s My Park Day – Part II

East River Esplanade at 96th Street, 10am-3pm

No need to hit the gym this particular Sunday!  Armed with brooms, dustpans and multitudinous garbage bags, we’ll be working our way north and leaving a squeeky-clean Esplanade in our wake!   You bet, we’ll have refreshments to go along with the intense satisfaction you’ll feel!

themeda-triandra

Only a smidgen of miscellany this time out:

More than rumor that meat packers are attempting to reintroduce pink slime…  

What reason could there possibly be for clothing being made from rain forest wood?  (If you think this is a poor idea…)

And why on earth are 100 of our federally protected wild burros being shipped off to Guatemala?  (If it sounds crazy to you, too…)

AND 13 years later and 2 years post-Sandy, how could the city not have completed mapping our waterfront?

On the upswing:

California’s just passed the 100,000 mark of plug-in cars purchased and on the road!

Be interesting to know who the negative 9% are thinking, but 91% of parents polled support including fruits and vegetables in school lunches! 

Sure says something when Teamster Locals are encouraging New Yorkers to take part in the Climate Day March! 

Very nice capsule portrait/history of Belvedere Castle from Inside the Apple…

Now for some off-the-reservation wackiness:

 Remember Evil Knieval? 

crassula-ovata

Just a mini-taste of animals:

Time to sign up for this year’s (Cornell Ornithology Lab’s) Project FeederWatch!  (Wonderful for kids!)

And, yes, there are plenty of adorable nocturnal animals! 

sugar gliders

We close from the Hudson River Almanac:

88/22 – Newcomb, HRM 302: The leaves were beginning to turn. Some of the red maples were gaining a blush of color and the aspen trees had a hint of yellow. A few leaves have already drifted down to the ground as we prepare to set out our leaf litter traps as early as next week. August temperatures have been about average, but our rainfall total (5.09 inches) was above average. – Charlotte Demers

[Our NYState leaf litter traps are part of a larger project with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program. We put out eight leaf collectors, collect all of the leaves that fall in them, and then send them to the U.S. Geological Survey for mercury analysis every two weeks. It is believed that mercury is not transported through tree systems, so what is detected on the leaves is the result of atmospheric deposition. – Tom Lake

Forever green,

UGS