Travels in the 2nd half

Three Tons of Pumpkins   Fall comes to New York City in many ways.Trees in the parks turn beautiful colors. People pull out their coats, hats and scarves. Pumpkin Spice everything shows up in stores. One of the prettiest celebrations of autumn takes place at the New York Botanical Garden. Every fall, the Botanical Garden, in the Bronx, brings together the products of pumpkin growers from around the area to create its “Pumpkin Patch.” Now, when I think of pumpkins, I see an orange gourd. But visiting this exhibit I found out that there is a wide variety of pumpkins and gourds. They come in a rainbow of colors, shapes and textures. The Amazing Ms. D In addition, the Garden has created Jack O’Lanterns that are placed around the grounds, and some lovely fall flowers.     Nuts and Bolts New York Botanical Garden : 2900 Southern Blvd. Bronx NY.  Tues.-Sun 10AM - 5:30 PM Advanced Reserve Tickets are required at this time. Admission $22 - Adults/ $19 - Seniors & Students...

In the hills of Van Cortlandt Park Living in new York City, person o ften looks for a place to outside, find some open space, and get a taste of n ature. In the Bronx, the Van Cortlandt Par k is a great place to do this. The Van Cortlandt Park occupies land in the northwest corner of the city, that was part of the estate of Adriaen van der Donk, one of the original Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam. After his death, the land was bought by Frederick Philipse, whose land holdings grew to over 81 square miles in what today is Yonkers and The Bronx. When Philipse’s wife died, he married the daughter of the Van Cortlandt family, and his daughter eventually married his brother-in-law. The land in the Bronx was transferred to the Van Cortlandt family in 1699. It was farmed for corn and other grains. Tibbett Brook was dammed to form a mill pond, and that pond still exists today as Van Cortlandt Lake. The family built a house on the land, although the spent most of their time in the home in Manha...

Enid A Haupt Conservatory Every winter, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Gardens is transformed into a miniature version of many well known buildings of New York City, complete with trains running in and amongst them. This year, the 27 th Annual Holiday Train Show (which ran from November through the end of January), was, again a wonderful and fantastical exploration of the historic architecture of New York, along with a tribute to the buildings of lower Manhattan. When you enter the exhibit, you are first treated to a 10-minute video about Paul Busse and his company Applied Imagination . You can watch a time-lapse video of the show’s set up here . Each structure is built out of natural materials, leaves, sticks, bark, even fungi. They are used to create the wonders of the exhibit.   Pennsylvania Station After the video, the doors open, and you enter a hall filled with some of the largest models in the show. The original Pennsylvania...