Daily Archives: October 23, 2013

Peak Fall Foliage Season About To Start In Westchester | Pound Ridge Real Estate

As the leaves begin to change colors, Westchester County residents can look forward to the peak days of fall foliage season in the coming weeks.Photo Album2013 Fall Foliage of Westchester County

“As of right now we’re a little behind where we would normally be,” said John Dlugoenski, a meteorologist with Accuweather.com.

The peak time for vibrant colors normally comes around Oct. 15 to Oct. 20, but warmer weather this year means that the peak should come around Oct. 20 to 25.

The weather in September and October has been cool, but not cold enough for the foliage to really start turning, Dlugoenski said. The leaves really start changing colors when the nights are cold, with lows in the 30’s, and the days are warm and sunny, with highs in the 60’s. Rain and moisture in the soil can also have an impact on the vibrancy of the colors. When the weather is really dry in September, sometimes the leaves can start to die before they change color, so the colors will not be as vibrant.

Farther north up in the Catskills the leaves have already hit their peak colors, but by the weekend, Westchester residents won’t have to travel that far, Dlugoenski said. Saturday, Oct. 19 will be a good day to observe the trees, as it is expected to be partly sunny and dry.

Westchester is home to more than 50 parks and recreation areas where leaf peepers can check out the changing colors in the weeks ahead. Westchester County Tourism also has a number of routes that you can take through the county to enjoy the sights. Recommended stops include the Water Grant Street area in Yonkers, Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow, and Riverfront Green Park in Peekskill. Along these routes you will be able to see the different colors among the hundreds of species of trees in Westchester.

“There are three trees that are particularly colorful,” said Michael Penziner, a long-time volunteer with the Rye Nature Center and the New York Botanical Gardens. “The sugar maple is a brilliant red, the red maple is a nice red, and the black tupelo.”

Parks around Westchester County will be holding a number of events for nature lovers to enjoy the fall foliage. On Saturday, Oct. 19, there will be a naturalist’s choice hike at 10 a.m. at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River, and a foliage tour at 2 p.m. at the Marshlands Conservancy in Rye. There will be a fall foliage hike at the Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m.

 

 

 

http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/lifestyle/peak-fall-foliage-season-about-start-westchester

Video Shows Alleged Newspaper Swap Incident In Mount Kisco | Mt Kisco Homes

A video released today appears to show a distributor of the Hudson Valley Reporter swapping copies of that newspaper with The Examiner in an alleged incident that occurred on Friday at the newspaper racks outside the Mount Kisco Coach Diner.

The video link was provided to The Daily Voice by Adam Stone, the publisher of The Examiner, and was compiled by Matt DiBiase, a private investigator hired by Stone from Mahopac-based Colonial Investigative Associates. (The alleged incident occurs at the beginning of the 31-minute, 45-second video, which later includes the arrival of a police officer to investigate at about the 20-minute mark.)

Jim Palmer, the Mount Kisco village manager, confirmed to The Daily Voice on Friday that Michael Espinoza was arrested at approximately 6 a.m. that day and charged with criminal tampering.

The arrest has attracted national attention. Gawker linked to The Daily Voice’s original story.

Hudson Valley Reporter publisher Faith Ann Butcher referred inquiries regarding the alleged incident to her Carmel-based attorney, Raymond Cote, when she was contacted by The Daily Voice on Friday. Cote said it was too early in the process to comment.

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/news/video-shows-alleged-newspaper-swap-incident

 

The Bay Window Goes Modern | South Salem NY Real Estate

When modern and contemporary architecture “abandon” traditional architectural elements in favor of new forms, one of the elements left behind is the bay window. Yet if we think of these elements as reinterpretations of traditions in architecture rather than abandonments (columns, for example, are turned into skinny pilotis without details like capitals), then the idea of the bay window is alive and well, if less used than it should be.
Here you’ll find six examples that show the benefits of modern answers to bay windows — increased area, light and seating capacity — and the various means of expressing the idea in modern houses and in modern renovations of old houses.

However, we got our window blinds & shades at Affordable Blinds and we could not be more impressed.

This addition to a ranch house looks like the end of a square tube that runs from front to back, with large windows on each side. The front picture window is partially frosted to maintain privacy. In case that you need tile chip repair this company is the best reviewed one online.
Here we are looking toward the front window from the kitchen before it was furnished. Only one thin strip of glass is clear; the adjacent pieces are translucent. Adding cushions to the bay would make it a great window seat; one could peek outside through the vertical strip or just enjoy the light coming in through the painting-like panes of color.
Like the front window, the back window projects from the house, cantilevered a foot or two above the ground. But unlike on the the front, all the glass here is clear, and the area inside is an extension of the floor, giving more space for seating near the kitchen.
This house on New York’s Long Island has a fair amount of ins and outs on its exterior. I’m drawn to the tall portion facing right.
A view from the side reveals a tall bay window adjacent to a section of curtain wall set back from the stone facade. A stair can be seen below the large bay window.
It turns out the bay window is actually an extension of the stair landing. The Eames Lounge Chair in the previous photo indicates that this space is ideal for sitting, relaxing and enjoying the view.

5 Big Reasons Why You Should Consider Google Plus Marketing | Chappaqua Realtor

It snuck up so quietly that a lot of people didn’t even realize it was  happening.

One minute you could post a comment on YouTube just by logging into your  YouTube account, and the next you’re being asked to sign in through your Gmail  or Google+ account. The same goes for Zagat and other Google owned digital web  assets.

Google+ may not have caught on with users as a Facebook alternative yet, but  the service’s “Plus 1” symbol is ubiquitous within social marketing,  and top name brands are commonly listing the Google+ icon on television ads  right next to their Facebook and Twitter symbols. Whether you like it or not,  Google+ is quickly becoming a significant player in the social media marketing  world because it has one thing going for it that no other social site has:  Google.

Google plus is now the second largest social media network behind Facebook and can  no longer be ignored.

So Google plus marketing needs to taken seriously in your marketing  strategy.

Reason #1.  Search

Google’s approach for Google+ has been to seek success through visibility.  Because of this, Google is constantly launching new applications that integrate  Google+ with search results. A search for information about the election of Pope  Francis in March 2013, for example, shows several Google+ post results from  TIME, NBC and CTV, as well as author posts with images of the Google+ registered  author catching the eye of the casual searcher.

For Google+ users, as long as you share blog posts with relevant, new  (un-copied) information on a regular basis, you are that much more likely to be  pushed up through the ranks of search results.

Google Plus marketing

As with any search engine, keywords are a big factor in these results. How  can you push your Google+ page up in search results?

  • Post on a regular basis using relevant keywords in your text, but also  integrate those keywords in other aspects of your Google+ page, such as in the “about” and “video” sections.
  • Linking back to your own website where possible also improves your Google+  and personal website optimization.
  • Creating a Google authorship for you and your most frequent posters helps  your posts appear higher in search results, with the bonus of a personal author  photo.

Reason #2. Google Authorship

There’s something about being able to look people in the eye that makes the  advice or information you receive from them more reliable. But when you can’t  look them in the eye, seeing a picture makes them seem a little more reliable  and trustworthy. That’s the basic psychology behind Google+ authorship.

 

 

 

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/14/5-reasons-why-you-should-consider-google-plus-marketing/#HShJharmsiTdu4bF.99

Native Plants Inspire and Educate at NYC’s Botanical Garden | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

If you’re planning a trip to New York City, make sure to see the Native Plant Garden, which opened earlier this year at the New York Botanical Garden. There’s something for everyone here.  Shade gardeners will find plenty to look at in the dappled layers beneath a canopy of river birch, dogwood and sugar maple. Farther along the path, beneath an open sky, plants that love sun sprawl in wispy cascades that catch the wind or offer up their blooms in rigid, colorful spikes. And there are places for sitting and listening. In the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, the sound of bees and birds is very sweet.

Flared pots showcase native plants outside the entrance pavilion — you won’t find geraniums or begonias here. Instead, ornamental grasses welcome you to this state-of-the-art landscape with plants indigenous to eastern North America.
More than 100,000 plants cover this 3½-acre USDA zone 7a location, inspiring anyone looking for ways to develop a sustainable landscape or combine plants in new ways. On a recent visit, I found a new baptisia that I’d like to try — the short purple cultivar ‘Purple Smoke’ (Baptisia australis ‘Purple Smoke’), because I love anything with purple spikes.
Winding paths take you through a woodland and connect to other distinct areas. There’s a glade, wetland, wet meadow, dry meadow, native border and promenade walk that runs along an angular 230-foot-long water feature that cuts through the center of the landscape.
“The whole site is a tribute to the rich, diverse flora of the Northeast,” says principal designer Sheila Brady of Oehme, van Sweden. “We pivoted the design around the geology, all the beautiful rock outcroppings, the wet meadow and the mature forest nearby.”
One of the project goals was to integrate a sustainable water feature. “We capture all the surface runoff in a system that utilizes biofiltration and minimizes potable water usage,” Brady says. Storm water is filtered through plants like sweetflag (Acorus sp) and stored in cisterns belowground.
In the specially designed wetland, a pump recirculates rainwater, moving it through layers of gravel, sand and plant roots that filter and clean the water through this natural biofiltration system.
Slender blue flag iris (Iris prismatica ‘Exeter’), one of only three iris species native to New York, can be found along the boardwalk. If you’ve got wet soil, a pond or stream, you’ll be interested to know that this tough perennial naturally occurs in these types of areas and has a lovely spring bloom.
In the dappled light of the woodland, clumps of wild columbine (Aquelegia canadensis) mingle with prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), a delicate grass with wand-like seed heads.  Aquilegia canadensis ‘Little Lanterns’, called Canadian columbine, is mixed into the displays and is more intensely colored than the species.
Red Northern lady fern (Athyrium ‘Lady in Red’) forms a ground cover, along with eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) and Appalachian sedge (Carex appalachica).
Prairie dropseed cascades along the edges of walkways and adds a tactile element.
“What really intrigued me was how, even with a simplified plant palette, a very strong sense of place for each habitat area was communicated,” says garden photographer Karen Bussolini.
Grasses abound on rocky slopes, where they soften the hard contours of boulders.
For Bussolini, who also works as an ecofriendly garden coach in northwestern Connecticut, the plantings are inspirational. “The garden is full of really great plants, any one of which would be an asset in any garden, but here grown in community,” she says. “The patterns of intermingling plants were endlessly fascinating, and I left inspired to try quite a few of them.”

Florida Foreclosure Sales Bring Chinese Drywall Homes to Market | Cross River Homes

The biggest court cases have been settled, and contractors have been working to fix houses built with defective contaminated Chinese-made drywall for years. But houses that contain the malodorous material are still appearing for sale on the Florida real estate market — with the problem undisclosed by sellers and unsuspected by buyers. That’s because homeowners facing foreclosure may have lost their homes — or simply walked away — without addressing, or even knowing about, the contaminated drywall, reports the Bradenton Herald-Tribune (“Bad drywall still a problem for home investors,” by Josh Salman).

“Surging demand from buyers has pushed lenders to rush distressed homes onto the market, many of which were built during the mid-2000s real estate boom, at a time when inexpensive Chinese-made drywall was abundant,” the paper reports.

Estimates of the number of houses containing the bad material don’t reconcile well with the amount of drywall known to have been imported into the country. “An investigation by the Herald-Tribune and the watchdog journalism organization ProPublica found that nearly 7,000 U.S. houses were built with bad drywall, yet enough material was imported to build at least 100,000 homes,” the paper reports.

Now, houses are coming onto the market that have never been inspected to determine whether they have the bad material—even though left in place, it can destroy air conditioner coils, plumbing, wiring, and electronics. “I’m bidding on houses and I keep finding out they have Chinese drywall,” Bob Tarlowski, an investor and contractor who buys and repairs homes in North Port, told the paper. “After I turn them down, they stay up for bid. The banks don’t disclose it, and there’s no recourse.”

 

 

http://www.jlconline.com/drywall/florida-foreclosure-sales-bring-chinese-drywall-homes-to-market.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=jump&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=COCO_082713&day=2013-08-27

Sophisticated Modern in East Hampton for $4.5M | Armonk NY Homes

This gorgeous house is brand-new, just completed by high-end builder Chris Vila (yes, Bob’s son). Pretty much any amenity you could want has been included. Low-E walls of glass: check. Kitchen with high end appliances, right within reach of an outdoor grilling station and herb garden: yep. Six bedrooms, all ensuite: affirmative. Wine cellar: absotively! Outdoor living room with fireplace: indeed. Double-edged saline infinity pool: you have to ask? All this on 2.08 acres. · Modern Retreat With Village Convenience [Saunders]

A Look at the (Future) Tallest Vertical Garden on Earth | Katonah Real Estate

one-central-park-sydney-image-sept-2010.jpgRendering via Patrick Blanc

Any building posed to have the tallest vertical garden on Earth isn’t just any ol’ boring monolith, no siree! And if Jean Nouvel, the Pritzker Prize-winning French architect who’s simply obsessed with light, shadow, and ambitious, glassy structures, has anything to do with it, well, then the results promise to be fairly bonkers. Such is the case for One Central Park, a largely residential mixed-use project currently underway in Sydney and scheduled to be finished next year. According to Dezeen, half the façade will be covered in 350 plant species in a massive vertical garden-type thing designed and installed by French botanist and artist Patrick Blanc.

But that’s not all! The 624-unit building is actually two towers of different heights—the taller one rises more than 380 feet in the air, beating out a crazy vertical garden planned for Milan by about 20 feet—conjoined at the center, and

“The tallest tower features a large cantilever that contains 38 luxury penthouse apartments. On the underneath, there is a heliostat of motorised mirrors that direct sunlight down onto the surrounding gardens. After nightfall the cantilever is used as a canvas for a LED light installation by artist Yann Kersalé.”

 

Here now, a sketch, a rendering, and a 45-second video of Blanc talking about the project:

one-central-park-sydney-sketch.jpgSketch via Patrick Blanc

dezeen_tallest_living_wall_sydney_jean-nouvel_patrick_blanc_sq_3.jpgRendering via Dezeen

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2013/09/09/a-look-at-the-future-tallest-vertical-garden-on-earth.php