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February 24- March 2 |
 Leap Forward!Daffodil green is already spotting the ground, and the maple sap is flowing. This leap year, soar right over winter into spring. You get the feeling there's payback for this mild weather somewhere, but you might as well jump while you can. The weeks ahead will be packed with events, so keep an eye on our calendar and watch out for our virtual efforts to keep you informed. Stay tuned to our Day Trip Map for good ideas for a scenic drive! Or use the Outdoor Map for links to all sorts of adventurous hikes and outdoor fun. Forge ahead and face the music! |
 Award winning decoys by John "Jack" / "Woody" Wood Art FriendlyOn Sunday, February 26, the Decoys and Wildlife Gallery hosts their Nineteenth Annual Open House at 55 Bridge Street in Frenchtown. Get to know some of the painters and carvers that will be at the gallery, find out what inspires them, and how they learned to do what they do. With a raffle of wildlife art donated by the gallery, the event also serves as a benefit for the Mercer County Wildlife Center, who will bring some of their rehabilitated live birds of prey to the gallery. 55 Bridge St, Frenchtown, 908-996-6501. |
 Head StartGet a big jump on your community garden--or figure out how you might start one--by signing up for the Second Annual Community Garden Conference on Saturday, March 3 at The Frelinghuysen Arboretum. You'll learn some very practical applications from an impressive list of speakers on topics like soils, weeds, pollinators, wildlife control, and intensive gardening practices. The Conference, co-sponsored with Rutgers NJAES Cooperative Extension, will also feature moderated roundtable discussions for gardeners, coordinators and activists providing a forum for solutions to specific challenges. The conference will run from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm, and lunch will be provided. The Frelinghuysen Arboretum, a Morris County Park Commission facility, is located at 353 E. Hanover Ave. in Morristown. For more information or to register, click or call 973/326-7603. |
Early BirdsIf you yearn to learn the ways and means of bird watching, now's the time. The concentration of ridges, valleys and wetlands in our area holds a fortune of interaction with the avian experience any time of year, but especially in spring. Time to get your feet wet! Scherman-Hoffman Sanctuary, the Bernardsville outpost for NJ Audubon , will sponsor two trips this weekend. On Saturday, Feb. 25, a beginning field trip to the Great Swamp, will start out learning the distinguishing characteristics or “field marks” of the abundant birds at the sanctuary birdfeeding station and then caravan to the National Wildlife Refuge. You can borrow binoculars, field guides and spotting scopes, but you have to bring your own warm clothes. Or join Sunday's (2/26) trek to Merrill Creek, Round Valley, Spruce Run and the Alpha Grasslands in search of winter waterfowl, raptors, gulls, and other birds of late winter. You might even catch a glimpse of the now-famous Snowy Owl at Merrill Creek. For details, click or call 908/766-5787. |
 Whose Woods Are These?It looks like a giant petrified bullfrog sitting there in the middle of the field, big enough to eat a tree, and rather otherworldly in the late winter chill. Beyond the brown wispy remnants of last summer's green field at the edge of the woods, there sits a small, gray, alien hill, a pile of what might be lunar matter or crushed-up meteor. What the heck kind of rock is that big brown toad anyway? All those layers... it looks kind of like its growing out of the ground. How did it get here? A walk in the woods at this time of year can reveal more than you can imagine. The beaten-down forest rewards hikers with visible reminders of a busy past, sometimes in remote tracts high in the hills. And there are less renown, but equally intriguing remnants of history lurking in the woods of Northwest New Jersey. Try walking the domain of the former Pequest Furnace near Oxford, which played a role in the Industrial Revolution along with dozens of other sites in Northwest New Jersey. However, the part played here is relatively obscure, pieces of a puzzle hidden in the Warren County woods. More... |
 Subscribe!If you're a subscriber you've probably noticed that we've abolished winter. Our next issue will be out for Spring, in just a few weeks. Northwest New Jersey and destinations just beyond those borders, in Pennsylvania and New York, are equally intriguing and convenient offer brilliant ways to get out and enjoy the pleasures of the season. Enjoy a year round supply of great things to see and do in Northwest New Jersey by signing up for a magazine for each season here. If you prefer to receive updates on stories, upcoming events, and special offers via Facebook, you can follow along here. Share this email |
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