Welcome, Spring! It’s good advice to wait until temps are regularly over 50 degrees Fahrenheit, especially to do a big, sudden cleanup, which we may wish to rethink in general. Still, there are plenty of thoughtful ways to get started…
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Long Island needs more people to give to local organizations addressing our local challenges. Here are just a few to consider:
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This is an advertisement for the Huntington Art Center, 7 Wall Street, Huntington, 631-423-6010. A custom picture framing and art gallery in the heart of Huntington Village. They’ve been designing fine frames since 1957.
Huntington Art Center services include custom picture framing, photo and painting restoration, custom made mirrors, digital imaging with retouching and editing, photo frames, local and national art for sale, art scanning and giclee printing as well as prints and posters for sale. You can get your images on canvas, acrylic, metal, and all kinds of papers. They will even print photos from your phone and frame them for you.
There is jewelry, lovely fine art and craft works…perfect things to give that folks are sure to treasure.
Whether you’re an art enthusiast, a collector, or someone looking for a unique and meaningful gift, Huntington Art Center in Huntington, NY is here to inspire. Stop by today to experience their collection, meet the artists, and discover how their custom framing can elevate your art to a new level.
They love to help you find that perfect piece.
A Map of the Huntington Art Walk from earlier this year. All great places to visit any time!
While the Village is blessed with all sorts of entities who contribute to the cultural life of Huntington, and who have been regularly taking the concept of “Art Walk” to the next level, The Huntington Art Center is a place where it all started. They have long been central to nurturing this annual event, and remain to this day the best place to find out what and when all is going on.
Wendy Curtis inside their Wall Street location.
Huntington Art Center used to be much more tucked away. At a time when I felt like I knew every corner of The Village, discovering it was delightful. I was just starting out as a fine art photographer, and looking at frames and art in ways I never had before. They say when the student is ready the teacher appears, right? I guess that’s why, after a lifetime of wandering the streets of Huntington, it was then I found the then-tucked away shop that had served the Village of Huntington since 1957.
Wendy was thoughtful and enlightening. I had so many questions! I’m not sure when I found out she was a regular reader of the newsletter – or if maybe that same day I discovered her was the first time she found me, too. I also had no idea that she was a major creative spirit behind Huntington’s Art Walks.
What I did know, instantly, was that this place was grounded in love of art and craftsmanship. It was a beautiful shop, for the frames alone, but it was also …. An art gallery…. Almost like a secret gallery…
Just knowing it existed made me smile.
Now! Now, I smile to think this frame shop is where it should be: Right on Wall Street in Huntington where anyone can see it. Inside is a gorgeous selection of frames as well as local and national art; a beautiful gallery that can frame whatever you need.
Go see!
To explain why this is so beneficial, let’s start with another post from deeply knowledegable local expert Anthony Marinello of Dropseed Natives, “Leave the Leaves!”
This is rapidly becoming a very mainstream concept.
Here’s a piece from Homeserve.com, “Rake It or Leave It? Here’s Why You May Just Wanna Leave Your Leaves Where They Fall,” one from the USDA, and even one in Good Housekeeping.
Here’s an article from James Doubek for NPR on the subject.
Environmental groups have been saying this for years. Here’s the National Wildlife Federation on why.
And one from The Xerces Society: “Leave the leaves.”
BTW the Xerces Society is interesting. It’s really focused on saving invertebrates. Their work is deeply fundamental and yet applied at our level in the food chain, so it’s also really helpful! Their Facebook page is a wealth of basic, excellent advice.
…There are tips on winter cleanup, saving seeds, a beautiful sight of Monarch Butterflies migrating….
I learned about them from Long Island Native Plant Group on Facebook, a great community of incredibly knowledgeable and helpful folks who think about our local ecoscapes all year long
…but I digress…
…I was talking about leaving the leaves…
The movement to leave the leaves is really important, but should be taken with a little common sense.
It also remains important to keep the driveway clear, as well as stone patios and pathways, assuming you wish to preserve them. The same goes for grass (though a thin layer of leaves may be mowed quite healthfully), which also likes to be aerated from time to time.
On my property, I’m dealing with invasive Norway Maples that I’m working to eradicate and replace with native trees as quickly as I can afford to do so. With them, I have found raking the leaves is fairly important as they seem particularly smother-y and slow to break down. As I am working to reduce their spread, I also want to be able to get their whirlybirds up in the spring!
As such, my approach isn’t so different from what these folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have to say, or The Spruce, here.
So, I do continue to rake a bit….mindfully….
Of course, while lawn health is among the biggest reasons to still rake, folks such as those from Re-Wild Long Island (an incredible collaboration of Long Island experts) suggest you consider doing away with your lawn instead.
This powerful opinion piece in the New York Times suggests you’d best “Kill your lawn before it kills you.”
On the West Coast, this has become a serious affair. Alternatives such as Xeriscaping, which focuses on minimizing water use, have become very popular. There, many factors including severe ongoing drought are coming together to prove that fighting the ecosystem for the sake of grass isn’t worth the trouble.
Related practices are gaining popularity across the country as communities come to realize that tending their own yard is a great way to nurture a healthier environment.
I’m not quite ready to ditch my lawn myself. However, I am committed to neither watering nor fertilizing nor spraying it with chemicals, and to doing all I can to maximize the ecological value of my property.
Here’s a nice piece from Brooklyn Greenways on why native plants are so important.
I am deeply inspired by projects like these “Rewilding Long Island” examples featured on the Rewild Long Island website.
See these 12 Inspiring ideas for a lawn-free landscape from porch.com, and some more on Houzz.
Check them all out and then go, tread lightly into winter, and dream of the upcoming spring.
(BTW: You can find resources for that here … it’s never too early to start planning!)
Photo of an Antique Quack Medical Device by Katheryn Laible
You know…I’m never going to say that scientists aren’t prone to dogmatism or corruption, nor that money doesn’t direct a lot of focus and strong will. Certainly, there are plenty of non-scientists frequently willing to pass stuff off as scientifically verified that is just not…or who take some grain of discovered knowledge and just…run wild…
However, there is a huge difference between that and scientific consensus based on careful application of the empirical method and honest assessment of lots of carefully gathered data.
Scientists know they are funny subjective humans by nature and that objective reality is a tough thing to grasp, even without that. The whole point for folks who are truly scientists is to give it their best to overcome those biases, think really hard about how we might actually know what we know, and then carefully catalogue and analyze that, while repeatedly double checking each other and themselves.
A lot of folks aren’t diregarded as quacks because no one wants to look at their truth, but because they’ve examined it carefully and what they see is hogwash.
They may not not know precisely what is, but they’re qualified to give the best guess we’ve got and can often tell for sure when something doesn’t prove what someone else is claiming it does.
If we’re willing to actually sit there and listen (keeping in mind that these folks have studied their fields and methodology in general for years and it can be a little hard to follow sometimes), they might even be willing to try and explain how they’ve come to these carefully derived conclusions, and the chances they think this or that may be so.
Grateful when folks actually care about that. It makes a big difference.
The cold brew and other beverages are fantastic. The evolving menu is creative, delicious, and very vegan. It’s whimsical, smart and a little bit spooky. There are nods to history and love for old friends, antique furnishings and so much art.
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Basically, the Long Island Regional Planning Council (LIRPC) helps Long Island see its own big picture. Their next virtual meeting focuses on our groundwater…
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When things go awry, the most important thing is how we respond. Trust is hard to build and easy to break. No matter what the truth is, public perception is huge. Managing that effectively is an important skill set, especially for those giving it their best to serve the common good.
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For decades now, Vision Long Island has made a huge difference in our communities, connecting great people and generally helping all sorts of folks wrap their heads around the challenges and opportunities to improve our built environment on LI. Their 2024 Smart Growth Summit is happening Friday, December 6, 2024 from 8am-2pm.
The event will feature over 1,000 local community, business and government, downtown revitalization and community development leaders. There will be nearly 20 workshops, 100 speakers, a trade show, and a concurrent Youth Summit. The breakfast “State of the Towns and Villages” session and luncheon alone are worth the program price.
The full schedule can be viewed on their poster, posted below. Better images are available on Vision Long Island’s website.
This is a great way to get an in-depth, inside scoop on important local issues, including infrastructure, redevelopment, energy, human needs, small business, walkability, transportation and more.
The LI Smart Growth movement generally attracts great people who care about the future of our communities. For an idea of the quality of folks who attend, check out these in-depth interviews hosted by Eric Alexander featuring a broad range of local leaders. You can also check out Vision’s YouTube channel to see important discussions they’ve hosted in the past, as well as people, projects and policies that they have highlighted.
It’s really valuable stuff. Best to come check out what they’re talking about now
Thanksgiving…it’s a word that brings gratitude and kindness together. It’s a wonderful reminder to count our blessings, and pay them forward. We thought you might appreciate the following:
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