Mohawk Valley Living

November 22, 2011
ADK Day
Enjoyed filming with our ADK Journal host, Gary VanRiper, today in Old Forge. Hazy sun and relatively mild for November -just a trace of the recent snow left in the shadows. It was great getting back into the swing of things. The happy emails and posts have been great and so encouraging. It seems people missed the show as much as we did.

November 25, 2011
P-p-p-p-pizzelle
After dinner with the family, washing dishes, and our annual tradition of watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving together, my boys "escaped" to spend time with their friends who were also back in town for the holiday. My husband and I relaxed in the livingroom while I clicked around the channels for some holiday viewing. I stumbled across Lady Gaga talking about making pizzelle with her grandfather. I thought I would share an old MVL episode with Malio Carderelli's pizzelle recipe.

November 26, 2011
Stroll Down Memory Lane

We enjoyed Clinton's Shoppers Stroll last night as did seemingly thousands of other people! It was hard to remember that it's almost December with the weather being so mild! We stopped in to the Kirkland Art Center's new gift shop on West Park Row showcasing the work of local artists. Vartan Pagosian was there with his beautifully intriguing pottery. I dug up this old interview with him from 2 years ago when he was working with crystalline glazing.

Tuesday, November 14, 2011
ADK Journal Host's Photo Selected for Cover of 2012 ADK Calendar

We were excited to see our ADK Journal host, Gary VanRiper's, beautiful photography gracing the cover of the 2012 Adirondack High Peaks Foundation calendar! Gary captured the changing of the seasons: snow capped Whiteface summit with colorful autumn leaves in the foreground. Check it out here!

Wednesday, November 15, 2011
New Mohawk Valley Living Website Launching Soon!
We hope you will enjoy our new website which officially launches with the premiere of our show on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011. We always seem to run out of time to fit everything into a 1/2 hour show so now we'll have the room to include many more stories and adventures here. We'll also feature a regular blog and some links to other area contributers and bloggers. You can now follow us on Facebook and Twitter, too!

November 27, 2011
Autumn (or Spring???) Hike
With temperatures reaching near 60 degrees today, it's a great day to take a hike. It's always interesting to see the topography of the landscape when it's not hidden under all the foliage. Try the Goodsell Swamp Sanctuary located behind Glimmerglass Opera.

or try the 15-minute hike to Fly Pond in Old Forge. Below is the video of our hike in the autumn of 2007. *I always wear my bright red jacket during hunting season.

December 4, 2011
It's Good to Be Back
We thoroughly enjoyed planning and filming this week's show and it somehow feels like we never left. Although, I do say, there seems to be a lot that has changed: new businesses, new artists, galleries, and new events. It's been a little overwhelming and it is sometimes hard to decide in which direction to go. But we are looking forward to many more adventures exploring the Mohawk Valley in the years to come. It's good to be back.

November 28, 2011
1 Potato, 2 Potatoes, 3 Potatoes, More!
My boys went overboard peeling potatoes for Thanksgiving this year and we still had leftover mashed potatoes Sunday night. So I decided to make homemade pierogies for the first time. My boys love pierogies and we have them often enough that my middle son told his social studies teacher that he had Polish ancestors. We don't, but we sure do enjoy their food and traditions. I enjoy learning about the cultures of the people who have settled in the Mohawk Valley. In celebration of the pierogi (and ours turned out pretty good) here's our Road Trip to Polish Heritage from August of 2008.

December 8, 2011
Getting My Goat
Sometimes we have experiences while filming that just cannot be captured on the show. While shooting this week, Richard and I found ourselves in a small barn surrounded by friendly and curious goats while Lance was filming in the adjoining milking room. I guess we were in the waiting room, or what theater people would call the "green room." I was on the second rung of a hayloft ladder,

trying to keep the goats from nibbling on my coat and organizer, looking down at Richard, in an ocean of goats, laughing. Too dark for filming, but a sight to see. Watch this Sunday's show as we tour another local goat farm.

Goats Gone By
Some of the goat farms we've visited over the years

From July, 2009 Hermit Pond Cashmere Goats
Start at 4:23

From October, 2009 Beekman Goats
Start at 1:50

From March, 2010 Southwind Farms
Start at 7:25

December 18, 2011

Episode 320 of MV Living features local Jewish Heritage
While out on our travels we've met quite a few viewers who are Jewish, so, in celebration of Hanukkah that begins this Tuesday, we took a Road Trip to learn about local Jewish heritage.

We also learned that there are a couple of local musicians who are Jewish, including Al Schnier of the band, Moe. He is also part of a new progressive string band called Floodwood. My boys and I enjoyed a concert by the string band at the KAC on Friday night.

Local musicians, Nick Piccininni, Al Schnier and Jason Barady of Floodwood perform at the KAC in Clinton

December 15, 2011
Flashback 20 years

Check out Mark Werchowski, his band Dillinger, and other area musicians from 1991 recording Christmas in the Valley. Love the hair and jeans!

January 1, 2012
Happy New Year!

Thank you for all the cards and emails in December. We are happy to be back. We're busy making plans for many new adventures in 2012!

The Year

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year.

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

January 3, 2012

Check out the Writer's Block link to the upper right to read classic and contemporary work. Suggest or submit poems or short stories.

Visit the Funtrak Model Train Club at the Oneida County Historical Society
Tues., Dec 27 - Thurs., Dec 29,
10am - 4pm at 1608 Genesee St., Utica

Fountain Elms Victorian Yuletide
Tues., Dec 27 - Sat., Dec 31, 10am-5pm
310 Genesee St., Utica

Become a Junior Ornithologist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Thurs., Dec. 29, 10am - 11:30am and 1:30pm - 3pm at the Fort Stanwix National Monument's Willett Center, Rome

December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas!

Some ideas for "experience gifts"
and they're free!
Share the gift of time with someone this week.

January 8, 2012
We could have called this week's show, "Utica's Architectural Marvels." Add a tour of any or all of these brilliant buildings to your list of "places to visit" in 2012.

The Utica Memorial Auditorium was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark for its a unique dual layer cable suspension system.

Grace Church on genesee Street is a Magnificent Gothic Revival and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Utica Public Library is a five story Neoclassical style structure featuring a central pedimented pavilion with Corinthian columns. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

January 15, 2012
Coffee, Tea, and MV!
There's something good brewing in Utica this week.