In and Around Kendal

Conspiracy Theories Alert: Bears Are Now Using Camouflage!

Clearly a bear in green disguise—captured, luckily, by Bob Abramovitz.

Alida Garden Bounty

Photo by Edward Kasinec

The Grass Is Always Greener . . . Proof Positive

Photo by Hildegarde Gray

Snoozing in the Shade: Who Wouldn’t?

Photo by Edward Kasinec

Rockwood Hall Glories, Grand and Mini

The Great Lawn

Wild Whites

Photos by Edward Kasinec

Out and About at Pinkster

The annual Pinkster festival takes place in spring. The name is a variation of the Dutch word Pinksteren, meaning “Pentecost.” Pinkster in English refers to the festivals held by the Black populations of New York and New Jersey, particularly in the early 19th century. To the Dutch, Pinkster was a religious holiday, a chance to rest, gather, and celebrate Christian sacraments such as baptisms and confirmations. It also had a long tradition as a day of dance and merriment. For enslaved people, Pinkster was a time free from work, a chance to gather with family and friends. Over the centuries, Pinkster grew into a multifaceted celebration of African culture, featuring music, dance, drumming, storytelling and foodways that enabled enslaved and free Black Americans to reclaim their heritage and served as a form of joyful resistance against oppression.

Since the 1970s, New York has made efforts to resurrect Pinkster. Our own Sleepy Hollow Philipsburg Manor restoration has celebrated Pinkster since 1977. It’s the only true Pinkster recreation in North America. Every spring, it recreates an authentic celebration of Pinkster in North America, combining both Dutch and African traditions. For guests of all ages, Djembes and Dance—which includes a recreation of a colonial Pinkster festival—is a delightful and instructive experience. The occasion recognizes both slavery's tyranny in New York and its final defeat.

And this year, Ruth Dinowitz and Harry and Marianne Bloomfeld joined in the fun! 

Traditional instruments (with some modern help)

With song and story-telling

Preparations for celebrating Pinkster

And the happy results!

for a brief video on the history of the Pinkster Festival, click here

I Never Knew That

The Beer Flood of London, 1814

London was once a prominent beer-brewing city. In the 1850s, the U.K. capital was home to the largest brewery in the world. London’s beer business was robust in the 19th century—and it was also the source of an industrial accident that sent thousands of gallons of beer flooding the streets.

It happened at the Horse Shoe Brewery, located at the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court. On the afternoon of Monday, October 17, 1814, one of the large iron rings used to hold together the brewery’s wooden fermentation tanks broke. The vat was massive: It stood about 22 feet high, and held roughly the equivalent of more than 3,500 standard barrels of the company’s porter beer.

Within an hour, the damaged tank burst, sending a gush of beer that broke through a wall and caused several more of the tanks on the premises to split open.  More than 380,000 gallons of beer then rushed through the streets of St. Giles, a densely populated, poverty-stricken London neighborhood. The wave reached up to 15 feet high, and came crashing into nearby homes and businesses. Although everyone at the brewery survived, the London Beer Flood claimed the lives of eight people in the neighborhood.

In the aftermath, the media reported a respectful atmosphere as St. Giles residents reckoned with the tragedy; stories about locals scooping up as much beer as they could drink also emerged, although historians now dispute the likelihood of these reports. A hearing ultimately found that the brewery was not responsible, dubbing the incident an act of God.

Source: historyfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

In and Around Kendal

Far and Near, by Edward Kasinec

Lumbering Beeches . . .

with Green Streamers . . .

‘Tis the Season of the Goat

A feeding frenzy, by Carolyn Reiss

Siesta time after a lovely meal, by Mimi Abramovitz

“So glad we’re at Kendal, and not some place where an old goat is just a number, “ says photographer Jane Hart

May Kendal Birthdays

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Near and Far at KoH, by Carolyn Reiss

Waiting for the worm?

Our blue heaven

Kendal Anniversary #20: A Dedication--Tree, Time Capsule, and Poetry

Our second anniversary celebration featured planting a beautiful—and indigenous—dogwood in the Sunnyside garden. Nearby, we also planted a time capsule to be opened in 20 years to remind Kendal residents in 2045 of those of us in 2025. Jean Eccleston, Hildegarde Gray, Muriel Fox spoke, and, to top it all off, Kendal Poet Llyn Clague read an ode to our community (scroll all the way down for Llyn’s lovely poem).

What’s In the Time Capsule?

Transcript of introduction by KoH CEO Jean Eccleston

Transcript of remarks by Hildegarde Gray

Transcript of summary of capsule’s contents by Time Capsule Chair Muriel Fox

View of KoH buildings

Quaker Values and Practices booklet

Annual report of KoH Residents Association

Spotlight issue

Kendal View magazine

List of Residents Association committees

List of Residents Association interest groups

List of book groups

Staff appreciation letter, backed by list of fund-raising appeals

Photo of staff members at Staff Appreciation Fund party

Photo of Facilities staff at Staff Appreciation Fund party

Photo of KoH staff group in Halloween costumes

List of local charities served by annual appeal

T-shirt from annual Alzheimer’s Walk

Mask worn by sick residents during the covid pandemic

Photo and crafts item from Tuesday Morning Club, where independent-living residents join Adirondack residents for weekly songs, crafts, and discussions

Instruction sheet, FAQ sheet, and monthly volunteers list from Co-pilots

List of KoH menus for one week

Photo of Executive Chef Eddie Dias in KoH kitchen

Photo of KoH dining staff

Photo of Healing Garden, adjacent to Clearwater

Promotional materials: brochure written by residents …celebration of 20th Anniversary

Group fitness schedule for March 2025

Fitness newsletter for March 2025

Calendar of events for month of May 2025

List of KoH events & concerts available in KoH video library, 2024-25

List of movies on demand available in KoH video library

List of operas shown Saturday afternoons by Opera Committee

Report of Committee on Lenape, the indigenous tribe whose land is occupied by KoH

Front page of New York Times, May 9, 2005, the day KoH was opened

Front page of New York Times, May 9, 2025

Front page of Journal News, May 9, 2025

A Sapling and a Capsule

Dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of Kendal on Hudson Llyn Clague

Collaborate, celebrate, commemorate, Twenty years to date, twenty years to come       

We are gathered here to mark a milestone along the path of this place we call home. Standing on two decades of past success, to a Kendal two decades hence we present a gift from our vibrant present. 

To honor the moment, we plant a tree that in time will grow and mature,         and we bury a can affording the future cameos of our daily reality: sapling and capsule, symbol and sample, avatar of life, scraps and mementos.

Collaborate, commemorate, celebrate Twenty years to date, twenty to come

We honor the body of Kendal, the campus on this hill beside the gorgeous Hudson: four sand-colored buildings, solid examples of physical fact, their names iconic symbols of river boats floating on a river of green.

We honor the lives of the people of Kendal, from the first, a full score of years away, to the some fourteen score here on this day, to the latest moving in just yesterday, to you, another score of years from today.

Collaborate, commemorate, celebrate Twenty years to date, twenty to come

We honor the spirit of Kendal, sample and symbol embodied hourly in word and gesture of our people, in every item and object in the buried capsule, a spirit aspiring, past missteps, to move, through friendliness, to friendship, to community.

And we honor the spirit of community in the imagination, for only in imagination do we bond with you, in the future, as, in history, with Founders, a bonding more perfect in the imagination than on a real campus— sample and symbol of quintessential community.

Collaborate, celebrate, commemorate, Twenty years to date, twenty years to come

I Never Knew That

What “LOL” Meant in the 1960s

Long before anyone laughed out loud on the internet or in emails, “LOL” was in use by virtue of a different phrase: “little old lady.” The acronym was popularized by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen in the 1960s. Caen used the abbreviation “LOL” in many of his works to refer to a “little old lady.” In his 1960 book Only in San Francisco, he described an outfit that included a tricorn hat topped with an “evil-looking bird of prey” as the “regalia of the authentic LOL.” He also once used “little old lady” as an affectionate nickname for a woman who angrily called the White House and told one of Richard Nixon’s aides of her wish that the commander in chief “go COMPLETELY to hell.” After calming down, she made another call, this one to the FBI, to ask, “Is telling the president to go to hell the same thing as threatening his life?” They assured her it was not.  In other words, not every LOL was as quiet and demure as that description makes them sound. That was certainly true of the title character in the 1964 hit song “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena,” which describes this situation: “And everybody’s sayin’ that there’s nobody meaner than / The little old lady from Pasadena / She drives real fast and she drives real hard / She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard.” It seems this particular LOL was nothing to LOL about.

Source: historyfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

Art by Hart

The Fentons liked to birdwatch up close and personal

Edie was never shy to say if you were having a bad hair day

The cool crowd 60 years later was an eye opener for Vinnie

You needed just the right words to talk to Thornton about his halitosis

All the rare species knew Collingwood’s whistle

Art and photos by Jane Hart

Out and About

Peonies A-Plenty

Every year a host of peonies—given Rockefeller State Park Preserve by the Japanese government to honor those who died on 9/11—burst into radiant bloom. And Kendalites were there, again, to see them this year.

Photos by Harry Bloomfeld

‘Tis the Blooming Season

Carolyn Reiss visited the Newington-Cropsey Foundation Bird Art exhibit and took time to enjoy their gardens, as well.

Red bud with blossoms on the trunk!

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

Really, Really Out and About

View from the Bruno’s hotel room in London

Photo by Joe Bruno

© Kendal on Hudson Residents Association 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 all rights reserved.  Please do not reproduce without permission.

Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.