Exploring the local trails this week. Sunday was Butler Sanctuary, today we went to Whippoorwill Park, Chappaqua. The temp was 25 degrees, but dry. The snow is suppose to start around 1am, but you can feel it coming in the air! The trail was great, Toulouse was a bit hesitant at first, but then the overwhelming scents must have kicked in and he was enthusiastic.
We had never hiked this trail before, in fact, there are only a few local trails that we have done: Turkey Mountain, Westmoreland, Rockefeller Preserve, Ward Pound Ridge, and Mianus River Gorge. It is so nice to know that these parks / trails are so close and they are so beautifully maintained. If we didn’t know better, we would think that we were in the Adirondacks!
During these hikes I am also attempting to take photographs with a more professional camera. Learning how to hike, and hold a leash and take pictures with a sofisticated piece of equiptment is pretty challenging, and in hindsight, maybe I don’t need to take a backpack on such a local hike…but old habits die hard.
into being a mountain dog. He took to it pretty well, seemed happy, tail was wagging when he went on ahead (on leash of coarse) We really need to get him a real dog coat, although the backpack and the sweatshirt seems fine, he happily went on without a shiver.
Another rainy day, so on with the precip pants and raincoats. On days like this, there is no reason to go summit anything because you take a chance of seeing nothing but fog. On occasion, the cloud cover may be high enough to see all you need, but we opted to stay shoreline. Lewis Clearing 1.9 miles in, so roughly a 3-mile day.
summit and so we did the Bog preserve in Ausable Forks. The first portion of the trail is a boardwalk over the bog. A beautiful spongy array of mosses carpet the ground, while Lichen and bearded moss hang from the trees on both sides of the path.
I have heard of MicroGreens, but I have produced Micro Carrots! Actually, they weren’t all this size, 
but they were tiny, smaller than “baby carrots”. My beets had NO beets at all! just greens…which were pretty tasty, but, like the carrots a disappointment.
/ and other flying things have started to populate the Mason bee house. Happy to see life in it since I moved it from a different part of the garden. Bees have been more prevalent in the garden later in the season, although my roses did not bloom quite the way they did last season, there was a lot of activity.
tomatoes. I have given away many, and I have already dehydrated my first batch! The tomatoes in the raised beds are doing just OK. Most of the leaves have already died back, and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. This particular batch I raised from seed, the others that were Nursery purchased have been splitting due to too much water, so we have been bringing them in sooner before they start splitting, to ripen off the vine.
Grafedie in the Library 