#liny

Research about social media states that being authentic and showing your genuine personality are two ways to gain followers. Nowadays, though, bringing up things that could potentially trigger claims of “politics” or leaning one way or another can make an “influencer” lose a broader audience.  (I hope I'm never considered an influencer...)

With that being said, being authentic is much more important to me than gaining a “broad audience” or getting the most followers possible. My authenticity lies in my passion for the intersection of accurate history, social justice, and the recognition of personal privilege. Being a white woman, from a relatively middle class background, is my form of privilege and having this platform, however big or small it may get, means I need to use it to lift up voices that are not as often heard. 

November is “Native American Heritage Month” and I would like to make a pledge that was inspired by a favorite IG of mine, @thruhikers; that pledge being: I endeavor to research and recognize and uplift the plight of the tribes who’s ancestral homes we stole and colonized and pushed them out of on land where these parks that I post about reside on. 

 I decided to use Lenoir Preserve as the jumping off point for this pledge because they have done the bare minimum as a park to include some Native American history as it is related to the Preserve. They broadly explain that the land was originally occupied by the Lenni Lenape, which they defined as “true people” and that at some point in time they no longer lived there.

It was an attempt at acknowledgement, I suppose. 

There are no remnants of the Lenni Lenape that one could casually find on a walk around Lenoir Preserve, which is a travesty and is the result of centuries of colonization by the Dutch and the English and later just urbanization of modern New Yorkers.

I’m going to do my best to at the very least on IG, give you the name of the people who’s ancestral home you’d be visiting, and here on tumblr, I will always do my absolute best “former history major research attempt” to give you more information if you’d like to educate yourself about the people who lived here for thousands of years before us and treated this land with such respect and reverence. 

It feels impossible to me to be able to post about these wonderful parks, refuges, preserves, whatever, and then to just completely ignore that everywhere I post about is stolen land.

I have no interest in having followers who reject history regarding Native Americans or who think that they are somehow more entitled to the United States than people who are immigrating here now.

ALL AMERICANS are immigrants, except those who were here before the Europeans came.

I can EASILY trace my family coming here from Ireland in the 1700s and Germany in the 1800s. I come from a family of immigrants.

The Lenni Lenape people emigrated to North America when mastodons were still alive, so this is their land, and the least I can do is give them that recognition. 

ESPECIALLY THE DAY BEFORE AMERICAN THANKSGIVING… with its bastardized version of history where the Indigenous populations and the colonizers had a wonderful dinner and meeting of the minds, instead of the truth of the Native Americans teaching the colonizers how to properly farm the new land and how to hunt and forage and not die in North America, only to be then met with accidental and purposeful murder through diseases and then just erasure through forced migration or assimilation. 

I don’t have strong feelings about this at all OBVIOUSLY…. 

Recognizing the Native Americans who lived where I now live and visit is the least I can and will do, and if you don’t want to read about it on occasion, there are plenty of other places to get information about parks in New York State. 

Please watch this space for a true post about Lenoir Preserve coming this weekend and thanks for reading this far if you did!

credit for the map of the "13 tribes" of Long Island goes to a young man named Jeremy Dennis, who is a member of the Shinnecock nation out on the East End of Long Island who is trying to preserve Native history on Long Island with his incredible website which you can see more about here!

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was a prolific poet, an abolitionist, an outspoken activist for worker's rights, the long time editor of The New York Evening Post, and was the main tenet of Cedarmere. (He's also a huge reason we have Central Park and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, so big ups to WCB for all he did for New York back in the day).

Bryant created an oasis on the North Shore of Long Island that I don't even remember finding for the first time anymore but I knew that when I did.. this was something special. It's a very small estate and only has some small hills and short paths around the mansion and pond and down to the boathouse. Cedarmere, again, isn't about "the hike"; it's solely about the feeling.. the magic.. the serenity.. the beauty.. the intentionality of each piece of the estate.

This place was made with care and love and it shows.

Cedarmere is maybe a weird first suggestion of places on Long Island to visit for a "hike" or an "adventure", especially since it's small and unknown and the Nassau County Museum of Art is just up the hill (on former Bryant property as well). I think off the beaten path, the unknown and unexpected, yet completely remarkable are worth all the time in the world and the best places to seek out.

TRAIL SUGGESTION:

I don't really have a "trail suggestion" because there really is only so much of this park to explore. It is very small and I think the only technical trail is around the large pond pictured below.

Cedarmere doesn't have the trails or breadth of space, but it does have features. It has a definitely peacefully haunted house, a beautifully restored boathouse, a serene, murky and gentle pond, a stone bridge, strategic lookout points for glorious sunset views of Hempstead Harbor, an overgrown reflecting pool leading to a dilapidated fountain that fills with tulip tree petals and radiates pink in the spring, and a boxwood maze that surrounds the most beautiful magnolia tree you've ever seen in your life. Pictures and words are not enough, this place is spectacularly beautiful in the Spring especially but really, always.

Cedarmere brings me peace just explaining it to you. It is a place that makes you exhale and feel safe and still.

DRIVING ROUTE:

This will probably be the first and last time I give a suggestion of HOW to drive to a particular park. This may sound bizarre but just hear me out, Roslyn is a phenomenally old little town that is just steeped in American history and it is deeply picturesque.

My preferred route for the full effect:

If you're driving up from the southern parts of Long Island, I recommend the scenic route of Roslyn Road going North (which will turn into Main Street once you cross into Roslyn). Some of the oldest structures and houses in Nassau County live on this street and are treated with such care by their current residents. You can always stop in on Gerry Park to your right, but that's just a lovely little unnecessary stop if you ask me. Once you hit the Clocktower, which you truly can't miss, the road forks and you want to stay to the right and drive through town, a whopping two blocks? and you will hit another fork in the road. This time, you want to turn LEFT onto Bryant Avenue (does it feel like you're getting close? You are!). You will pass Diane's Bakery on your left before you go under the viaduct, and if you're looking for a little something to eat before heading to Cedarmere or after leaving there, I do recommend stopping by this long-time Rosyln staple. Once you pass under the viaduct, you should soon see a white house on the curve of the road and maybe even a gravel-filled parking lot (this is where you will pull in for the handicapped parking). I NEVER park in the first gravel parking lot, personally, I ALWAYS round the bend and park behind the house around the curve on the left side of the road.

The website has more directions but that's certainly my route of choice, and yes, I have been here enough times that I have a literal way I prefer to get there.

I've been known to haunt this place regardless of the time of year or time of day. It is most special in Spring though I think (although that's probably my opinion on everywhere as I really love flowers...).

Cedarmere is magic.

Go and experience it as quickly as humanly possible.

This is like #1 on my "Run, Don't Walk" list of places to go.

Let me backtrack quickly, first, because this park has just a LOT to offer besides what this stupid post will be about. It is a multipurpose facility run by and for the town of Wantagh. It hosts the community public pool (which actually looked really nice even in the off-season when we first went), a mini-golf course, athletic facilities/fields, nice playgrounds, a skating arena, boat launch, tons of picnic areas, a dog park, a marina, somehow even more?!? 

I’m here to talk about the “<u>Fitness Trail</u>” though.. sort of. All of the information listed above is in regards to the “Fitness Trail”. It’s nice for, like, a morning walk with your dog or chosen loved one and also views of Jones Beach and the “Pencil” and theater… honestly, whatever. That’s great. Back to what is actually so MUCH cooler here. 

<u>So here’s the story</u>:

There Rob and I were, just checking out a park for the first time that I knew would at least have views of canals. I had very low expectations, and I had very little research done. WE JUST WANTED SOMEWHERE TO WALK LUNCH OFF AND IT WAS NICE OUT AND THIS WAS SIMPLY... there!

I remind you, there we still were just minding our business walking along the marina and joking about the boat names and how the swans and ducks had clearly been fed by people over time because they kept following along with us… I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, UNSUSPECTEDLY JUST MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS and then we got to the picnic/lighthouse area and I heard just a really out of place, extremely LOUD bird call (btw, we are low-key becoming birders, please don’t judge us…me....I’m the birder and he sometimes thinks it’s cool) and I looked around and up in the tree above us were GREEN TROPICAL BIRDS?!?!?! ummmmm……?????? This is Long Island? The NORTHeast? Are they lost???

Honestly, it’s low-key embarrassing how long Rob and I stood there gawking at this tree full of deafeningly loud green birds above us, contemplating if they were parrots? Are they parakeets? Did some domesticated ones get out at some point and just have a ton of babies in the wild? Rob started googling. We followed them around the park. We literally have NO EVIDENCE TO PROVE WE SAW THESE BIRDS. We took not a single picture or video. We were, I think, too baffled. When I told him I was making this post and I had to go back to GET THE PROOF (which I only barely did, just to warn), he was like “what did you expect? It was so confusing. We were thrown off and they blended in with the trees!” All fair points.

Turns out they were Monk Parakeets. Very smoochable little heads if you ask me.

They are really rare for this area (meaning they have no business being here) and are indigenous to Argentina and South America, but for whatever reason, according to a local news article, they decided to migrate to New York during the pandemic and take up residence on Long Island, regardless of high housing prices. 

Ridiculous. But, I guess New York is still the place to be. 

This particular LARGE flock of Monk Parakeets have adjusted to the extreme temperatures and just LIVE IN THIS EFFING PARK IN WANTAGH ALL. YEAR. LONG. I don’t get it one bit. It is so weird. It is so cool and deeply funny and I am clearly overly obsessed with their presence. 

If you want your best chance of seeing them, park by the entrance to the public pool facility instead of the beginning of the baseball fields (which I thought was a good place to park because we enjoyed our little extra marina walk). Across the parking lot from the pool entrance is an athletic field with big, tall floodlights. You should see a very large nest in one of those lights. That is their home. They may have bought more real estate, but this is the one I know about with certainty. There are usually some adults hanging out protecting their property. They are so cute and bizarre and fun. It really does feel worth going JUST FOR THEM, but….

The rest of this park is great too. The trails are paved completely and have nice views, a mini beach section, tons of activities for the whole family and a free boat launch if you’re fancy... but honestly, I come back to see the wild parakeets. I also (went in early November) saw a Brant which is another rare to this area type of goose that was very cute and stout. So, this place is like rare bird heaven. (See Brant below, allowing himself to be abandoned by his flock so I could take a picture of him, I assume).