Tuesday, February 9, 2010
ROCK N' ROLL IS HERE TO STAY
15 minutes from our historic Caldwell House Bed and Breakfast is Eisenhower Hall Theatre at West Point, www.ikehall.com. Coming on Friday, March 26 a sold gold rock and roll show with Little Anthony & The Imperials and The Drifters featuring Charlie Thomas will sing such hits as "Tears on my Pillow" and "Save the Last Dance For Me". While we are not "Under the Boadwalk," "Please Stay" and have a "Some Kind of Wonderful" time with us. Then Sunday, April 11 Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Bobby Rydell come into town, all the way from Philadelphia. Bring your "Run Around Sue" or "Venus" or that special "Wild One" and stay with us after the show.
STORM KING ART CENTER
Last weekend I joined members of the Storm King Art Center for a Winter Walk. It was chilly and invigorating to see sculpture as reveled by winter light in their magnificent setting. America's largest sculpture park is one of the many artistic jewels of the Hudson Valley. Located three miles down the road from us on 525 acres the works of Maya Lin, Mark di Suvero, Sol LeWitt, Alexander Calder and many others are displayed. Another Winter Walk is scheduled for members on Saturday, March 6 from 2 to 4 pm. If you can't make the next walk, the Art Center reopens the first week of April. Have lunch or a Saturday dinner in their lovely picnic grove. Don't forget the wine. Visit on them line www.stormkingartcenter.org. Then make that reservation to relax with us in a comfortable guest room at the historic Caldwell Bed and Breakfast.
Friday, January 22, 2010
WHAT’S COOKING AT THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA?
For the third year we will be dining at the CIA Diner Series which takes place from now through early April. Carmela and I enjoy the lectures about wine makers, partake in five samples of their brand and then dine in one of the CIA great restaurants and have five more glasses of wine. Some nights wine is not the subject. How about dining as they did on the Titanic without jumping ship?. If whiskey, beer or cheese is your favorite, they have it too. It is wonderful experience and value. Being Irish I usually ask Carmela to be the “designated driver” on the way home to our B & B just an hour South of Hyde Park. Check it out at www.ciachef.edu/restaurants/events/diningseries.asp. Maybe we will see you there and here.
Monday, December 28, 2009
SUNSHINE
The sun poured into this house this morning. It glowed. Now it has become overcast, yet the house sparkles with the Christmas lights and seasonal decorations. Many ask us if our bed and breakfast is haunted and we reply it is not. Many guest have remarked that is "very peaceful." While the economy is struggling and many people have tragically lost their jobs, we have had the busiest year in our eleven year history. We want to thank all our guests who have stayed with us and have made reservations for future stays. Mention this blog and take $10 off your new reservation. Happy New Year!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
NOVEMBER 12 AMERICA A MELTING POT
“What then is the American, this new man?...He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims.” Letters from An American Farmer, 1782 edition
On this day, back in 1813, J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur, a resident of our area for many years, and the man who is attributed to the concept of America as a “melting pot” died. The term has been often challenged and perhaps we really are a “salad bowl.” On the anniversary of his death we at the Caldwell House Bed and Breakfast want to celebrate a neighbor who wrote about us and inspires many of us.
J. Hector St. John was born January 31, 1735 in Caen, Normandy France. He landed in New York on December 16, 1759 and ten years later he came to Orange County and bought 200 acres of land, six miles from our bed and breakfast. In that same year he married Mehetable Tippe, a member of a prosperous and prominent Tory family of Westchester.
This property knowN as Pine Hill is located midway between current day Washingtonville and Chester, just after Roe’s Orchards. Hector St. John lived there until late 1778 and left his wife and three children to stay with friends in New York City. While there he was arrested by the British as an alleged sympathiser to the revolution and eventually made his way to England in 1781 when his sold his manuscript "Letters From An American Farmer." He then went on to France.
"Letters" became the first literary success by an American author. In the first part he wrote that in the American colonies a “new man” was be formed where groups from different countries and religious were “melting together.” These phrase inspired peoples for generations. Reading his description of the American Colonial period one can see the term “farmer”, a cultivator of the land, had an Enlightenment connotation. Jefferson called the farmer “the chosen people of God.” The plow in his writing has a mystical or holy symbolism to it. Exuberance, fertility, regeneration are powerful words in his book. Americans were “Masters of their own property and lords of their own soil” Being an American was living in America - plowing the land, facing the wilderness.
In the second part, which is not often quoted, he wrote about the American Revolution. For him it was chaos and disorder, disruption, destruction, hatred. Horrified by the Revolution he had the fictional character of his story go into the wilderness to live with the Indians, not returning to Europe. He went West not East, into the unknown. It is not an end but a continuation, it is a becoming....becoming an American.
He eventually came back to America to find his wife had died and his farm destroyed, but he was reunited with his children. Later he went back to France where he died. Again, we celebrate a neighbor.
On this day, back in 1813, J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur, a resident of our area for many years, and the man who is attributed to the concept of America as a “melting pot” died. The term has been often challenged and perhaps we really are a “salad bowl.” On the anniversary of his death we at the Caldwell House Bed and Breakfast want to celebrate a neighbor who wrote about us and inspires many of us.
J. Hector St. John was born January 31, 1735 in Caen, Normandy France. He landed in New York on December 16, 1759 and ten years later he came to Orange County and bought 200 acres of land, six miles from our bed and breakfast. In that same year he married Mehetable Tippe, a member of a prosperous and prominent Tory family of Westchester.
This property knowN as Pine Hill is located midway between current day Washingtonville and Chester, just after Roe’s Orchards. Hector St. John lived there until late 1778 and left his wife and three children to stay with friends in New York City. While there he was arrested by the British as an alleged sympathiser to the revolution and eventually made his way to England in 1781 when his sold his manuscript "Letters From An American Farmer." He then went on to France.
"Letters" became the first literary success by an American author. In the first part he wrote that in the American colonies a “new man” was be formed where groups from different countries and religious were “melting together.” These phrase inspired peoples for generations. Reading his description of the American Colonial period one can see the term “farmer”, a cultivator of the land, had an Enlightenment connotation. Jefferson called the farmer “the chosen people of God.” The plow in his writing has a mystical or holy symbolism to it. Exuberance, fertility, regeneration are powerful words in his book. Americans were “Masters of their own property and lords of their own soil” Being an American was living in America - plowing the land, facing the wilderness.
In the second part, which is not often quoted, he wrote about the American Revolution. For him it was chaos and disorder, disruption, destruction, hatred. Horrified by the Revolution he had the fictional character of his story go into the wilderness to live with the Indians, not returning to Europe. He went West not East, into the unknown. It is not an end but a continuation, it is a becoming....becoming an American.
He eventually came back to America to find his wife had died and his farm destroyed, but he was reunited with his children. Later he went back to France where he died. Again, we celebrate a neighbor.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
PRIDE OF NEW YORK
At the Caldwell House B & B we buy local and proudly use products produced by New York State farmers and processors: organic products from Blooming Hill Farm in Washingtonville. maple syrup from Remsburger Farm, Peasant Valley, Chobani Greek Yogurt, New Berlin, French toast bread from a Newburgh bakery, fruit and flowers from Roe’s Orchards in Chester and Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh, Commodore Chocolate, Newburgh and blueberries from our backyard.
At the Caldwell House B & B we buy local and proudly use products produced by New York State farmers and processors: organic products from Blooming Hill Farm in Washingtonville. maple syrup from Remsburger Farm, Peasant Valley, Chobani Greek Yogurt, New Berlin, French toast bread from a Newburgh bakery, fruit and flowers from Roe’s Orchards in Chester and Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh, Commodore Chocolate, Newburgh and blueberries from our backyard.
Friday, October 30, 2009
SPECTACULAR FALL COLORS
Even this late in the season our bed and breakfast is surrounded by a bevy of fall foliage from the local trees to the local hillsides. Bear Mountain, Schunamunk Mountain, Black Rock Forest and Storm King Mountain are filled with with multi-colored trees. Great hiking, scenic driving and farm stands.
Even this late in the season our bed and breakfast is surrounded by a bevy of fall foliage from the local trees to the local hillsides. Bear Mountain, Schunamunk Mountain, Black Rock Forest and Storm King Mountain are filled with with multi-colored trees. Great hiking, scenic driving and farm stands.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
