#GobbleGobble: A Hashtag Thanksgiving

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving, reflecting on how the digital world of hashtags and Pinterest have brought us closer together by tapping on hashtags to see food ideas, table centerpiece ideas, and close moments between people.

If two (?) years ago was the time of one if the most damaging snowstorms for Beacon and surrounding areas on Halloween, this was the year when a nor'easter kicked off Thanksgiving and made travel a little dicey (note picture of our trip across Pennsylvania on I80 through a mountain range before cell service goes out).

Here's a toast to the creativity coming out of everyone as they tap and search and follow inspirations.

PS: did you know that Beaconite and tech enthusiast Stowe Boyd of BeaconStreets.com was part of the behavior movement that encouraged hashtags to be an official way of categorizing thoughts and tweets on Twitter and other platforms? We are living in transforming times.

Cherry Bomb Opens Tonight - Picture Roundup of Artisan Gifts You'll Find!

It's happening! Cherry Bomb PopUp Shop is throwing its grand opening party tonight, and shoppers are invited! Visionary behind the shop, Kat Stoutenborough, has hot chocolate on the stove with bourbon infused marshmallows. Oh yes, you'll leave happy after you've toasted yourself a high-five for finding unique gifts for friends and family. The rule in this store is... 2 for them, 1 for you! And to make your night even more fun, more shops are open late, and you'll discover more special finds from other popup shops on Main Street. Check our always updated PopUp Shop Guide for details of other stores!

Find Cherry Bomb in what is normally Zora Doras, 201 Main Street.

This designer uses semi-precious gems in rough designs.

Mason jar art is hot, especially in henna!

Beautiful.

Actually mine! My name is Katie Hellmuth Martin, the publisher of this blog, and this is my accessories line, Katie James. Do investigate the jewelry pouch for the pockets and ring loops that secure rings with a snap!

Adorable cards.

Kat herself attaching one of her felt flowers onto a braided knit wreath.

A must-have belt.

Holiday cheer!

Something for guys! These cigar boxes went like hot cakes last year.

An early shopper! These are unique items, so buy them while they are here!

Where's Kendra, My Favorite Barista? She Opened Magpie Studio, Her Hair Salon!

Kendra's specialty is vivid hair color and an edgy cut.

Regulars at Bank Square Coffee Shop know where their favorite barista disappeared to. When she wasn't serving up your favorite cup of coffee, or winning competitions in mountain biking, Kendra was cutting hair in her apartment above the coffee shop. But now...

Magpie Studio's waiting room for hair cuts and color.

Kendra is the proud owner of Magpie Studio, the most rad hair and beauty salon in Beacon. Why "rad"? Because Kentra's specialty is color. Not just any color, but serious color pallets for hair that you would normally find in a nail bar, she will paint in your hair. And that's not all. Blowouts, keratin smoothing treatments, waxing, brow shaping, and more.

Look for Magpie Studio's green front door around the corner from the Howland Cultural Center.

And because your daughter has been asking for pink highlights, Kendra is also known for her way with kids, where kids haircuts are listed as a service for $20 (but "$300 if they won't hold still"). If you need "vivid shades or double process blonde", an appointment at Magpie Studio with Kendra is a few clicks away.

Pick up a services sheet and enjoy the art.

Find Magpie Studio at:

2 Tioranda Avenue
(near the swoop by Beacon Bagel, across from the Howland Cultural Center)

Beacon, NY

845-202-7072

Book Online

Congrats on this dream come true, Kendra!

Belated 3-Cheers for Crosswalk Signs on Main Street!

Crosswalk signs are helping cars slow down for people.

Earlier this summer, a few crosswalk signs popped up in the middle of Main Street on the yellow lines, making it easier for drivers to notice the white crosswalks painted on the pavement of different areas of the street. Despite some crosswalks being white and some being brick with faded paint or no paint between the bricks, noticing the crosswalks was difficult to a driver. Often times, this driver (me!) would zoom past families waiting to cross the street, thinking "Oh, look at that cute family!" instead of "Duh, that family really needs to cross the street and I should stop."

A belated Three Cheers for the City and

Highway Superintendent Anthony "Zep" Thomaselli

for grabbing some of these signs and placing them in the middle of the street. The signs are making it easier for walkers to cross the street, which can take quite a long time if cars don't stop. When we contacted Mayor Casale to ask about these crosswalk signs, and he verified that Mr. Thomaselli placed them in spots on the streets to see how cars and trucks handled them, and that the curb across from the Howland Cultural Center near Beacon Bagel and Echo was too narrow to handle a sign. The mayor also mentioned that Beacon was awarded a substantial federal grant for maintaining crosswalks. Yay! We vote for neon green paint of the brick crosswalks so that drivers really see them, and neon green coordinates with the already green neon signs!

And in slightly related news, there is a vote tonight on who pays for sidewalks that are repaired or replaced during roadwork projects - homeowners or the City. Turns out, a possibly well-intentioned rule was having negative impact on homeowners, which erupted after projects on Oak Street and Henry Street where new sidewalks were put in over the summer, as tracked by a recently created

Facebook page, Beacon Sidewalks

. Normally, personal property owners need to pay for 100% of their sidewalk repair or replacement. However, if the City is doing roadwork and needs to repair or replace the sidewalk as part of that work, the City splits 50% the cost of replacing or repairing the sidewalk with the homeowner. This sounds like a deal, but in real life, a homeowner puts off replacing their sidewalk and is not prepared to receive a bill for thousands of dollars if the City happens to work on the sidewalk outside their home.

Sidewalk news is becoming a hot topic, as there are different ways to get a sidewalk paid for, including

this federal grant that Beacon received for replacing sidewalks on Liberty Street

as part of a Safe Routes to School Program. There is mention of narrowing the street, which would be a huge bummer because driving along parked cars is hard enough to squeeze past, not to mention when snow falls and the streets are even more crowded until plowed snow melts or is removed. Not to mention how nerve wracking it is to get children out of car seats in cars when cars whiz by. Wide streets also make it easier for cyclists to ride bikes to work or the store, a movement which Stowe Boyd at

Beacon Streets

has

actively been working on to cultivate through grants

and new painted bike symbols on the streets themselves called "sharrows".

UPDATE on 12/2/14:

New crosswalks are painted in residential areas.

Golden Leaves to Garden: What Are Your Fall Prep Plans?

What is more beautiful than a thick layer of golden leaves on a back porch? Before they get too soggy or crisp, I'm going to transfer them to be leaf mulch on my back yard garden to hopefully nourish and warm the soil. The other hope, however, is to block the spreader weeds that love shooting under ground from other areas into my garden. Last year I waited too long to put the hay mulch down, and did a few rounds of weed pulling before finally throwing down the hay. And even then, throwing down hay around sprouting vegis was also enough of a kick-myself action to get ahead of it all this year!

What are your plans? Do you turn old stalks into compost? There are still bunches of tomatoes on the ground that the squirrels have been enjoying, so I put those in a pile in the very back.

Thanksgiving Catering Menu Ideas for Pies, Breads, Shrimp, and Turkey!

The ovens are getting hot on Main Street, cooking special treats for you to serve at your Thanksgiving gathering. If you are hosting a Thanksgiving Dinner, you're going to want to invite more people because your catering menu choices are that good. If you're packing it all into a car to travel to Grandma's house, you're going to want to make room for a large storage box to transport the amazing food that's on the holiday catering menus at a few Main Street bakeries. After you read these choices, you may want to host a "Leftovers Party" just so that you have an excuse to serve more accent dishes.

For all of these menu options, you'll need to call each store ahead of time to place your order and check their hours for when they are closing for Thanksgiving. Some bakeries as well as a few restaurants are offering special hours around the holiday. Not all of your favorite eateries are closed on Thanksgiving Day!

Make your menu, decide what you're making and what you're ordering, and get to dialing!

Cheeses at Beacon Pantry.

CHEESE TEMPTATIONS
Because cheese can be stressful if you don't know how to order it, Beacon Pantry will hand select an array of artisanal cheeses for you, perfect to serve to company the night before Thanksgiving so that you don't have to cook, or on Thanksgiving afternoon as everyone waits for the turkey! You can also find artisanal cheeses at Homespun, but special to Beacon Pantry's Thanksgiving Catering Menu are cheese platters served with dried fruit, nuts, and sliced baguette or crackers. And if you're partial to your own platter, or want to spruce up your serving table by getting a new one from Hudson Beach Glass or Utensil, and bring the platter to Beacon Pantry and she'll plate your cheese for your order. Need a little olive oil for dipping? Stop into Scarborough Fare and pour your own flavor to take home.

Pumpkin fondue at Ella's Bellas.

Pumpkin Fondue...because you've never tried it, or because you've enjoyed a slice of pumpkin fondue at Ella's Bellas with a salad. It's also another reason to have a pumpkin on the table and because you don't have to prep this fondue! Ella's Bellas has a fully baked Pumpkin Fondue on their catering menu that comes stuffed with layers of cheese, bread and rosemary, baked to perfection. It also comes with re-heating instructions, and yes, you can eat the pumpkin flesh as you scoop for melted
 cheesy bread.

Thanksgiving is not complete without shrimp cocktail, and Beacon Pantry has mixed a house-made cocktail sauce to go with domestic wild caught shrimp.


THE TURKEY & STUFFING
You've got options, and an ability to give back to the community by ordering turkeys from these stores:
Beacon Natural Market is getting their turkey from three different farms this year:
Murry
Snowdance
Hidden Camp

Beacon Pantry is getting their turkey from two farms with a few options on the type of bird:
Campanelli Farm in Kenoza Lake, NY
Northwind Farm in Tivoli, NY

Key Food has partnered with I Am Beacon for the "Turkey on Every Table" food drive. Key Food will be storing all of the donated turkeys in their warehouse to be distributed. And of course you can get a turkey at Key Food.

Ella's Bellas is offering a Mushroom Herb Stuffing made with Ella's Bella's bread, celery, raisins, and apple, to be ordered per person. They are also offering seasoned cubed stuffing by the bag.


ROLLS
Oh brother, you have some tough choices to make. We are lucky enough to have a few really, really good bakeries in Beacon. We have so many good choices, that for this article, we needed to divide this carb section into Breads and Rolls. At All You Knead, find challah rolls, cranberry raisin pecan rolls, and regular white or multi-grain rolls. At Beacon Bread Company, find brioche loaf rolls, harvest grain loaf rolls, and rye rolls. At Beacon Pantry, find country white, challa, and whole wheat multigrain. And at Ella's Bella's, find rosemary or plain rolls. As with everything at Ella's Bellas, the rolls, bread, and anything is gluten-free.


BREADS
This is where your dinner planning gets tricky, but fear not, there will be a bread for your style of a meal. At All You Knead, find challah bread, cranberry raisin pecan bread, seeded rye bread, marble rye bread, and sourdough – plain or whole wheat, multi-grain, rosemary herb, or white wheat Pullman. Beacon Bread Company has a brioche loaf (it's perfection), a harvest grain loaf, as well as a baguette. Find sweet breads like orange gingerbread, banana, pumpkin cranberry, and apple raisin bread at Beacon Pantry. And expect to find has their rosemary or plain baguette at  Ella's Bella's all if which is gluten-free.

And because you need bread pudding, All You Knead has it in banana, pumpkin or chocolate flavors.

PIES AND OTHER SWEETS

Making your own pie? Utensil posted a link to this recipe at FOLK.

You thought you were already in trouble? Brew a pot of coffee from Tas Kafé (at Ella's) or Sumptown (at Beacon Pantry), or Starbucks (at Key Food) because you're about to indulge in a lot of pie that will require your very own home made whipped cream that you whipped together from a pint of Hudson Valley Fresh cream (at Key Food,) vanilla, salt and powdered sugar.

Homespun is offering a variety of pies, starting with the basic pumpkin pie, and ranging to a caramel pecan tart, vanilla cranberry jam cake with pumpkin spiced buttercream, pumpkin cheesecake, almond daquoise with pumpkin buttercream (gluten free), and an apple pecan crumble in a deep dish aluminum tin.

At All You Knead, choose from an old fashioned pumpkin pie made with Denning's Point Distillery whiskey. Or go sweet and traditional with pecan, apple buttermilk, and apple pie.

Dennings Point Beacon American Whiskey in All You Knead's pumpkin pie.

Beacon Pantry has pumpkin, apple, apple crumb, cranapple, and a mixed berry crumb for those who need a fresh flavor after dinner. Beacon Pantry also spiced it up with Frangipane Tarts in many flavors including blueberry, raspberry and more.

Beacon Bread Company has traditional pumpkin, apple and pecan pies. Ella's Bellas has the traditional pumpkin, apple and pecan, but also tempt yourself with a fudge pie with a chocolate chip cookie or hazelnut shortbread crust. (!?!)

Get Frosted Cupcakery is also baking pies in the flavors of Apple, Cherry, Pumpkin, Peanut Butter, Lemon Meringue and Chocolate Cream. Want a cupcake? Pumpkin spice cupcakes and pumpkin cheesecakes are also available.

Check all stores for hours and ordering and pickup deadlines, and no, this isn't even everything you will find on their menus. Choices...you've got choices for a great dinner, and a reason to have a second party for leftovers with a fresh pie.

Pop-Up Shops Guide: Seasonal Shops & Fairs Going On Now!

In addition to the wonderful shops found on Main Street, the hot trend in pop-up shops has come to Beacon. Pop-up shops are very special because they curate items that may be few or one of a kind, or bring access to a brand that may be hard to find. Pop-up shops usually consist of a collection of artists, or are a mini and temporary extension of a store in a new location, or are run by a single artist. This guide includes pop-up shops that are located on Beacon's Main Street, as well as those in the surrounding areas for those who work in the Hudson Valley and are driving past opportunities on their way to/from home. If you have a pop-up shop you'd like us to know about, please email editorial@alittlebeaconblog.com. If your shop is in this guide and you want to enhance it with an advertising package, please click here for details.

 * * *

Sound Shack Record Shopping Open House
Address: 148 Depuyster Ave, Beacon, NY
OPEN: Saturday, September 12, 2015
Hours: 9am-3pm 

Tons of records for sale from bargain to collector. ...must make room for more! (Plus a yard sale of stuff and more stuff
chairs, t-shirts, household etc…)

* * *

Are You Running a Pop-Up Shop?
If you are hosting a pop-up shop in or around Beacon, NY and want to be included in this guide, please email editorial@alittlebeaconblog.com for consideration and details of what you are selling and where. If you want to add a little flare to your listing by including a photo of your shop or products, click here for Feature Opportunities.

Pumpkin Roundup! Key Food, Hannaford, and These Farms Have Pumpkins and Patches

Picture of the bin of medium-sized pumpkins outside of Key Food, taken Wednesday afternoon...

Last minute pumpkin shopping? Rumor has it from here to Poughkeepsie is running low on pumpkins for carving the night before Halloween. Here are a few sources you can still pick up your pumpkins!

Key Food has a big box of medium-sized pumpkins out front, with only a few big pumpkins left. Open until 9pm.

Hannaford on Rt. 9 on the way to/from Poughkeepsie has a bin of "huge" pumpkins left, and have sold out of the white pumpkins, as quoted by their Produce Guy. Also check their local farm stand for other squash for decorations. Open 24hrs.

Overlook Farm in Newburgh reports that they have pumpkins at their farm stand. Open until 6pm.

Lawrence Farms in Newburgh does have pumpkins in their "Pick Your Own Pumpkin Patch", as well as at their farm stand. They close on Halloween at 4pm.

Fishkill Farms still has pumpkins in the "Pick Your Own Pumpkin Patch". Really fun. Pumpkin patch is open until 5:30pm, and the store closes at 6pm.

Beacon Natural Market on Main Street does not have any pumpkins. Stop in and stock up to decorate your front porch! If you aren't the carving type, you could always paint your pumpkin and sprinkle glitter and glue feathers on it...

Pumpkin picking success! At Lawrence Farms in Newburgh.

Stoney Kill's STONYART Event Happening!

It's finally here! You've seen the flyers, you've mentally marked the date in your mind, and now you get to go to the STONYART live auction featuring local artists to support the Stony Kill Foundation this Sunday, October 26! 

For only $20, you are directly helping the Stony Kill Foundation stay alive and well and beautiful along 9D. The event is easy-peasy to attend. It's at the Howland Cultural Center on the East End of Main Street on the big curve. It's from 3-6pm on Sunday, so you have plenty of time to do your Main Street thang after a brunch in Beacon, stop in for wine and cheese and maybe even a little auctioning of local art! You will be amazed by the art you find there, so don't miss it!

For other events and opportunities such as yoga days and kids classes, visit the Stony Kill Events page.

Honey for Fall Days - A Boutique's New Staple

Fall's chill is in the air! And so are scratchy throats. Beaconites know how to face harsh weather, and it's to embrace it and treat ourselves to nature's deliciousness - honey. And boutiques are fully stocked with local honey!

UTENSIL

480 Main Street

East End of Main Street on the Curve
Visit Utensil's Facebook Page

Catskill Provisions makes a seriously amazing raw honey. Why? Because their motto is happy bees make happy honey. Their bees must be very happy and sweetly fed. New to your tastebuds and sure to warm your body is Mike's Hot Honey which has been infused with chilis. Like you needed the extra spike of awesome! But you did because your butternut squash needed to kick into high gear. Utensil always picks the best selections for your culinary needs.

HONEYBROOK FARMS

Beacon Train Station

Beacon's Farmer's Market on Sundays

www.beaconfarmersmarket.org

Not only can you find raw honey at the Beacon's Farmer's Market, from Honeybrook Farms but you can find the Honeybee Pollen for those of you who want to eat local bee pollen to help build resistance to local allergies. And can pick up a big jug of pure maple syrup while you're down there...

LAUREN & RILEY

462 Main Street

East End of Main Street Before the Curve

www.laurenandriley.com

Normally found in Lauren & Riley are party dresses, cute tops, adorable little girl's dresses, and Betsy Johnson-esque shoes. But this season they are offering you honey with tea! Or is it the other way around. Hudson River Apiaries honey is on the shelves at Lauren & Riley.

BEACON PANTRY

267 Main Street

Middle of Main Street Across from Key Foods (who also has honey)

www.beaconpantry.com

Known for French selections, Beacon Pantry of course has specialty raw honey, and stocks the often sought after Lavender honey, in addition to Acacia, Chestnut, and Cinnamon Creamed honey (!?!). Dips and spreads for chicken just got a lot more interesting...  

Drink up! Or for you serious honey lovers, spoon it up.

A Little Beacon Blog is Hiring - Part Time Editorial/Production Assistant

UPDATED: This position has been filled! Thank you so much for your interest! We may be hiring again, so keep your eyes here and sign up for the newsletter!

We're hiring! Looking for a part time editorial production assistant to help keep A Little Beacon Blog up to date with guides, social media, and some graphics work. Ideal candidate lives in or near Beacon, and loves Beacon and all of the neat things going on here. This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to experience the business of blogging, and what's involved with running and growing a blog, which is one of today's most trusted media sources by readers. This is a production position, so some writing skills are required, but mainly in the form of writing descriptions of classes or events and short social media posts. Familiarity with social media such as Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook is a must. You will be working virtually at your location, so self-motivation and dedication is a must. This is contract, part-time work.

Responsibilities include (but not limited to):

• Researching current dates for Guide pages, such as Kids Classes, Weekend Festivals, Best Brunches in Beacon, Swimming Classes for Adults and Kids, etc. and making edits to those Guide pages on the blog.
• Linking and writing some descriptive copy for Guide pages.
• Pinning blog posts to pin boards in Pinterest.
• Scheduling photo and plain text tweets in Twitter.
• Bonus (but not required)! If you have graphic skills and can crop photos using a basic photo applications like Preview and Grab (in Macs) and creating photo collages using Fotor. 

Rate: $15/hr, 3hrs per week

BONUS:
If you have graphic design skills, this job can involve some low level designing for a different rate.

• Design banner ads for sponsors who place ads on A Little Beacon Blog.
• Design branded graphics for A Little Beacon Blog to feature special Categories and highlighted pages.

Rate: $20/hr, 3hrs per week

If this floats your boat, please email Katie@alittlebeaconblog.com with your interest, why you want this job and why you'd be great at it.

A Sukkah Comes to Beacon in Celebration of Sukkot: "Open to the Sky: The Beacon Sukkah Project"

The people of Beacon were given a communal celebration of bounty, vulnerability and appreciation of the harvest, with "Open to the Sky: The Beacon Sukkah Project", a non-denominational celebration around the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. People visiting and walking through the park near the Visitor's Center at the West End of Main Street near the train station were able to experience this deliberately rickety structure with a roof of bamboo built by the project partners, Beacon Arts, Beacon Hebrew Alliance, the Laba House of Study at the 14th Street Y, the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Arts, and other organizations. This time of reflection came at a good period to give thanks for the rain this past week, as local reservoirs are hitting lows that are causing Hudson Valley leaders concern.

“It's hard to be vulnerable, to be open to the sky,” says Rabbi Brent Spodek of Beacon Hebrew Alliance. “It’s easier, however, to be open as part of a community. The ancient festival of Sukkot invites us to come together and give thanks for the harvest and also to be aware of the fleeting nature of life.”

For a period of eight days, the Sukkah was home to discussions, learning, workshops, stories, singing and more. Members of the Beacon community and beyond participated by sharing their knowledge of everything from Celtic folk traditions to hidden Jewish identities to a Beacon time capsule.

Did you visit the structure and what thoughts did you leave with? Please share them in the comments below.

Secret Gardener Vicki Raabin's Streetscape Project

What's being said more and more about Beacon NY is that the citizens are making it great. While that's a pretty good political slogan, it's ringing true. As one walks by the pleasantries and stops to smell the roses, one may notice they are admiring sunflowers, lavender, basil and other herbs in addition to the potted and hanging floral arrangements that adorn Main Street. What you are witnessing is an "urban streetscape project" by one of Main Street's most known citizens, Miss Vicki Raabin. She is one of several, independently driven, "secret gardeners" that keep the streets looking nice.

Several garden plots started and maintained by Miss Vicki Raabin outside of stores including Play, Towne Crier, The Pandorica, and across the street from Poppy's next to Beacon Bread Company.

In May of 2014, Miss Vicki, most commonly known as the local music teacher and music venue organizer, decided to put some action to her critical thoughts as she walked Main Street and grew dissatisfied with the sidewalk trees. "I got tired of seeing all of the gravel around the trees. My feeling is, if you're complaining about something, you need to step up and do something about it. It bothered me and I felt we could do better." 

Miss Vicki Raabin feeding and watering her plants in her urban streetscape project along Main Street.

Raabin started the project a few years ago with small tulip beds. But this year, she committed to herself to "take over small spaces and make them viable again." Working closely with several local businesses on Main Street, Raabin has received strong support from a growing number of storefronts with beds near their buildings, including Tito Santana Taqueria, Towne Crier, Bank Square, Mountain Tops, Beacon Bread Company, and Key Food.

Donations from the businesses have come in an unusual form: egg shells and water from Towne Cryer; coffee grounds from Bank Square and Beacon Bread Company; bags of mulch from Key Foods, more water from Kamel Jamel, owner of Tito's who fostered a partnership with Green Teen by way of putting in the Common Greens Garden at Tito Santana which has a water collection system. Local residents have given Raabin shubbery when splitting plants in their own gardens which is helpful for acquiring butterfly bushes, creeping thyme, lavender and maybe hostas for next year.

One of many planters designed and maintained by the Tioronda Garden Club.

Miss Vicki isn't the only one making Main Street beautiful. The potted plants you walk past at major street corners, and all of the hanging petunia baskets are put together by the Tioronda Garden Club, which fundraises for its yearly budget with individual donations and events, like a Wine and Cheese night. In fact, the Tioronda Garden Club gave Raabin some of their flox to act as ground cover for tree plots, as flox is a hearty plant that spreads easily over the years and looks beautiful with masonry.

Hanging baskets on Main Street are put together by the Tioronda Garden Club and watered by Mayor Casale.

As for the watering of all of these flowers and plantings, you'll see Miss Vicki pulling her red wagon from the Visitor's Center at beginning of Main Street all the way to Towne Crier where she gets another water fill and picks up egg shells to be used as plant food. But who waters those hanging baskets? Years ago, the hanging plants were on the chopping block down at 1 Municipal Plaza during Mayor Gold's tenure. Then council member, Randy Casale volunteered to do the watering, since the Tioronda Garden Club supplied the hanging baskets through their fundraising efforts. He woke up to drive the cherry picker truck in the early mornings when it was still dark. 

As for now Mayor Casale, he still wakes up early to water.  "I do it because it I believe the beautiful flowers that are put together by the hard work of all the volunteers of the Tioronda Garden Club makes our Main Street vibrant and attractive. This is also a way for me to mentally relax. I would like to thank all our volunteers who help to keep our city the city that it is."

Gardening certainly is relaxing. And right now, it's helping Beacon to stay original and special as a train town along the beautiful Hudson River. Secret gardening is offering ways for citizens to dig in, literally into the earth of Beacon to keep it vibrant and ever-changing.

Rite Aid Gets Upgrade - And Sliding Front Doors!

Rite Aid, in the middle of Main Street, across the street from the wine store and Yanarella Dance Studio and the Dance Bag, has gotten an upgrade. Such an upgrade in fact, that this Rite Aid is unrecognizable from its former self, and is now on par with suburban drug stores that offer sliding front doors, wide open isles, and plenty of walking room. According to a post at Wigam, Rite Aid leased the space next door, a formerly empty auto parts store, and the space behind it near the parking lot for more storage.

No matter what your preference in local business, a fancy Rite Aid is certainly better to look at and walk through. Rite Aid was one of the more challenging stores to get into with a wheelchair or single or double wide stroller. The clunky, crowded, two-door system made getting in to grab something quickly quite a challenge. Not to mention the poles in the middle of the office supply isle, making shopping with a stroller or wheel chair down that isle impossible. Now, the front doors slide open and there is a lot more breathing room.

To spread the wealth, my primary pharmacy remains with Vogel, where I've learned first hand that prescriptions can be transferred within moments of a phone call between pharmacists at different pharmacies in different states.

Stocking the shelves continues, with new surprises on the shelves weekly. The school supply isle leaves room for more, as Walgreens still corners the market on most eye-candy-ish school or office supplies (at the drug store level...Target is the most fun), but as you can see, there are plenty of items to shop for, from diapers to batteries to makeup. Just as there were before, only now you won't be so claustrophobic when you run to the drug store for a bottle of laundry detergent.

Yes, you could pick up breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert at Rite Aid if you so desired. You will find the regular, big name brand items like Ben & Jerry's and Blue Moon. You won't find local names or craft beers, but there are plenty of other options to find unique brands like at The Hop, Beacon Pantry, KeyFood (artisan brands have really increased on the shelves here), and even the convenience store in the Beacon Dental plaza who carries a large beer selection and occasionally organic milk.

 Price-wise, Rite Aid has never been cheap, and prices itself on convenience. This Suave shampoo (the Aveda version), which is on prominent display at the front door, is $4.29, which is $3 more  than it is at Hannaford on Rt. 9. But - the convenience is nice.

The fun isles, for toys, costumes, and greeting cards remain, and have more choices in them, including greeting cards. A lot of greeting cards actually, and now party packaging supplies.

All in all, we're stepping up in the world! It's a pleasure to walk through and shop in the new Rite Aid!

$10 Dresses and Costumes on Sale at The Dance Bag for Halloween

On your way home from work, or while pushing your brood down Main Street, take pause at the sale rack outside of The Dance Bag (opposite corner of Rite Aid). Little imaginations think that some of these $10 ballet dance dresses look like "Elsa dresses". You'll also find cheer leader-ish dresses, girl pirate looking dresses, and just a fancy dress to add to a girl's dress-up box. Most material is elastic, and straps are easy enough to stitch shorter until little ones grow. Sign says "$10 Cash" so...bring your dollas.