Happy Lunar New Year, UESiders!!
And partying marking this Year of the Pig continues with…
Saturday, February 9th: Queens Botanical Garden Lunar New Year Celebration
Queens Botanical Garden, 45-50 Main Street, Flushing, 12-4pm
Think crafts, zodiac face painting, lion dancing and plenty more!! For a complete rundown of the fun…
Then there’s the pretty amazing rest of the coming week:
Saturday, February 9th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm
Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm
At their tables will be will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Samascott, Ole Mother Hubbert, SunFed Beef, Hawthorne Valley, Ballard Honey, Consider Bardwell, Gayeski and Nolasco Farms!!
And keep in mind: Walnut Hill edibles are available at Consider Bardwell’s table!!
With Valentine’s Day closing in on us, Mega Market Manager Margaret has this advice: “Keep your Valentine in mind while shopping this week… i.e. Check out the sweet treats at Bread Alone, Hawthorne Valley and Samascott Orchard!! (Plenty of savory deliciousness at market tables, too, if that’s more to your Valentine’s liking!)”
(No way Market Manager Guramrit won’t be whipping up something to thrill Valentine tastebuds, too!!)
Last Week’s Recycling Totals – 77 lbs batteries; 15 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges; 3 pairs of eye glasses; 12 compost bins; 42 bags of clothes
Bring on those old eye glasses!!
Saturday, February 9th: Meet the Artists at the 67th Street Library
32 East 67th Street, 1pm
Take in the exhibits on the 1st and 3rd floors, then have a chat with talented creators Ellen Hughes and Al Gordon!!. Free!! (Yup, no doubt about it… Our UES libraries are up to some amazing stuff!!)
Monday, February 11th: “Black Klansman” Movie Monday Screening at the 67th Street Library
328 East 67th Street, 3:30pm
See the 2019 Best Picture nominee at our great 67th library branch… And it’s free!! (Storyline: A black detective sets out to infiltrate the Colorado chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of his Jewish colleague. In the midst of the 1970s civil rights movement, they risk their lives to obtain insider information on the violent organization.) Rated R. Accessible.
Every Other Tuesday Starting Tuesday, February 12th: Tuesday Knitting Social
AM Seawright’s Community Office, 1480 York Avenue between 78th & 79th, 2-4pm
Quote, “Join Neighborhood Knitters for Crafting and Consersation!!” (As everyone who’s ever wielded a stitch holder knows, knitters do like to chat!!) And we’re talking equal opportunity knitting/crocheting… Guys very welcome, too!! And folks of all skill levels. Just RSVP…
Thursday, February 14th: Start Local, Go Global! -Bridging Sustainable Practices Across Industries – A Focus on Food, Film and Waste
Conference Room 1, United Nations Headquarters, 11am-12-45pm
How food, film and waste industry creatives share how they’re finding new, innovative ways of reducing and reusing of what we call “waste”. Organized and moderated by UESider Cristina Delfico who’s not only the Producers Guild Green Committee Chair and NYC pollinator expert, but also founder of Roosevelt Island’s great iDig2Learn!! Sponsored by the UN’s Civil Society Unit. Free but a RSVP’s required…
Sunday, February 16th: Free Mammograms/Breast Examination on Roosevelt Island
Good Shepherd Plaza, 543 Main Street, 9am-4:30pm
To be eligible, you must be between the ages of 40-79, a NYC resident and not had a mammogram over the last 12 months. There’re no fees or co-pays and deductibles are waived. Uninsured patients are welcome, too. Made possible by a host of organizations including the Italian-American Cancer Foundation. To make your appointment, 877-628-9090!!
Monday, February 17th: Washington’s Birthday Ball
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, 421 East 61st Street, 1-3pm
Quote the Museum, “Bring the whole family to celebrate the birthday of the first POTUS with a ball, a museum hunt and tastings of historic recipes.” Plus learn 19th-century dances, eat Washington Cake and send little family members on a museum search for objects that our former presidents would have used!!” Non-members, $15. Members and children under 12, $10. For more and tickets…
Then:
Tuesday, February 19th to Friday, February 22nd: Winter Break History Days at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum
421 East 61st Street, 9am-3pm
What better way for young UESiders ages 8 to 12 to spend a holiday than with a bit of time travel, playing historic games and exploring the lives and skills of New Yorkers from days past? $60 per day or $200 for all four days. Members receive 10% discount on registration. For more and to register… Or call 212-838-6878…
Monday, February 25th: “Selma” Movie Monday Screening
67th Street Library, 328 Easst 67th Street, 3:30pm
The 2014 docu-drama detailing the historic 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama led by Martin Luther King Jr. As always free!! Rated PG-13. Accessible.
Then it’s March:
Monday, March 11th: GrowNYC Job Fair
GrowNYC’s Project Farmhouse, 76 East 13th Street, 5:30-7:30pm
Work doesn’t get more fulfilling than with GrowNYC, be it at a Greenmarket, a Youthmarket, the Fresh Food Box Program, Gardening, Compost and Recycling, the Youth Education program and more. Yes, there are some qualifications, but that’s what a job fair’s about: The right people and the right fit!! For more and to RSVP…
Let’s get miscellaneously active:
As in the rusty patched bumble bee could use more of our help…
And if you think that chlorpyrifos – among its many adverse effects that of stunting child brain development – should be banned from all agricultural uses…
Meanwhile, seems like our NYS DEC will be going to court to compell the EPA to enforce interstate smog regulations…
Moving to middle ground:
The New Yorker on Boyan Slat and his mission to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch…
On the upswing:
The American Federation of Teachers just voted in support of a ban of all fast food in schools!!
Let’s not get too excited, but BASF’s joined the list of companies able to chemically reduce existing plastics to produce new plastic of food packaging quality!!
And then, commercial waste handlers are working on official standards for waste and recycling practices!!
Going mostly local:
The Museum of the Dog opens today at 101 Park Avenue!!
And the Hike of the Month is… Upstate at Willowemoc Forest!!
Craziness our NYS Conservation Officers contended with last week… (Stream diversion?? A wolf pelt??)
NYS Forest Rangers have been busy, too…
Meanwhile, NYS DEC Wildlife Crime Scene Investigators have been sharing their expertise with wildlife rangers in Africa!! Wow and wonderful, huh?
Thanks to reader/gardener Jill Bauer for directing us to this lovely Times’ essay on spring in the Ozarks…
How about this for a library…??
Of course, there’s a Frozen Hair Contest!!
Time for the furry, finned and winged:
Fifteen facts about groundhogs…
How to assist a bald eagle in distress…
And we quote, “DEC Announces Completion of Annual Aerial Survey of Adirondack Moose” and they sighted 175… Congratulations, you sharp-sighted folks at DEC!!
The year round residents of Central Park…
Penguins, penguin behavior (not to be missed), penguin cams and penguin valentines…
And from the Hudson River Almanac:
1/28 – Queens: This was my first day back from a thirty-five-day government furlough. My rounds took me to the various sites that together, comprise the National Park Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area. As I stopped in Howard Beach at the corner of 83rd Street and 163rd Avenue, I saw a beautiful “gray ghost” (male northern harrier) as it banked gracefully and turned without so much as flapping his black-tipped wings. Veering away from the road, he disappeared over distant acres of Phragmites and switch grass. Everything seemed fine at this part of the park despite the shut-down. I imagine my harrier friend didn’t miss me at all.
A Northern Harrier
1/30 – Hudson Valley Estuary: This week’s fish is the ladyfish (Elops saurus), species number 17 (of 228) on our watershed list of fishes. Ladyfish are a long, slender, terete in cross-section, tropical, marine species. This relative of the tarpon are also known to anglers as ten-pounder, although they rarely grow to that size. While they can be found inshore along the Atlantic Coast north into New England, their center of abundance mirrors the tarpon, from the Carolinas south to Florida. – Dave Taft
A Ladyfish
They are one of the most ephemeral fishes on our watershed list with no more than a couple of records. One of the first occurred in October 1982 when a school of ladyfish appeared in the warm-water outflow of the power-generating facility at Danskammer Point (river mile 66.5). Of what seemed like at least a dozen ladyfish, we managed to capture just one. Its rarity earned it a place in the American Museum of Natural History’s collection of fishes in Manhattan. A few days later, Bob Vargo Sr. found a school of ladyfish in the warm-water outflow of the power-generating facility at Indian Point (river mile 42). These tropical marine fishes may have been heading seaward as autumn went on. If you would like a copy of our watershed fish list, e-mail: trlake7@aol.com. – Tom Lake
Let us all be green valentines,
UGS
This Week at The Markets 