Thano Schoppel's Blog Posts

Goldfish Survive Tappan Winter News At Eleven
  I long ago gave up trying to keep koi in the small pond in front of our screened porch.  After the latest bunch died off one winter, I bought about a dozen goldfish for...

Tappan Resident Sees Great Film
  A few nights ago, with nothing better to do (since our cable was down), my wife and I headed to the movies to see 42.  It was a great show, and the experience was made ...

PearlRiver Nyack Piermont Sparkill Blauvelt Tappan Cleanups
     The Keep Rockland Beautiful campaign rears its ugly head for yet another year!  Community-motivated volunteers spend a couple of hours each year at this ti...

Tappan Loss Is Sparkill Gain
   I've blogged about the Grape D'Vine- my favorite wine shop in the area.  Its owner, Joe Prinz, is an all-around great guy who really knows his stuff oenologically...

Tappan Zee Bridge Impact on South Nyack
  I just rented an apartment to a person connected with the Tappan Zee bridge project.  As we were going through the lease signing process, we talked about the impending ...

Tappan and Palisades Historic Districts
   I am constantly surprised at the number of people living in the area who say something like, "Oh, the Tappantown Historical Society- they're the ones who decide what c...

Orangetown Historian to be Honored in Tappan
    Christ Episcopal Church in Sparkill is pleased to present the Horatio N. Powers Award to Mary Cardenas, Director of the Orangetown Museum and Historian of the town of...

Interesting Commercial Property in Sparkill
   Usually I only get to see new residential listings when I go on Broker Open House tours every Tuesday.  Yesterday, however, I got to see a commercial listing in S...

Flu Shot For Tappan Resident But No Lollipop
   I'm old enough to admit that I've had a lifelong abhorrence of injections, probably as a result of seeing my grandmother prepare her insulin shots.  At any rate t...

Old Sleigh in Tappan Part Two
   As I was reconstructing the sleigh damaged by superstorm Sandy, I couldn't help but notice the kind of craftsmanship that went into its making, so long ago.  This...

A Restored One Horse Open Sleigh in Tappan
   Many years ago, my neighbor gave us an old one horse open sleigh that had been stored in her barn for decades after the original owners had stopped using it.  It ...

Last of the Autumn Leaves in Tappan
  When a Marcel Proust character took a bite of a madeleine, the taste took him back to his childhood for the next three hundred pages.  For me, it's the smell of burning...

Holiday Decorations in Historic Tappan
It's about that time when the holiday decorations come out.  I'm a bit old fashioned- I wait until the first weekend in December before bringing everything up from the basemen...

Tappan begins to emerge from the nineteenth century
   Two days in the 19th century were enough, even for a history enthusiast.  Hurricane Sandy left its mark here as it did all along the East Coast and far inland. &n...

Ecology Day at Historic Sparkill Church
  This Saturday, October 13, Christ Episcopal Church in Sparkill will hold its annual Ecology Day, from 11 AM until 4 PM.  The event will start with a visit from Akta, th...

A Good Day in Tappan
  Well, another Colonial Day in Tappan is over, and I can hang up my musket until the next event.   Despite the threatening clouds overhead, it never rained, and hundreds...

Colonial Day in Historic Tappan
   On Saturday, September 29, the Tappantown Historical Society will host its annual Colonial Day from noon to 5 PM.  The event will take place on the grounds of the...

Old Uncle Bill Makes the NY Times
  Compared to my wife's family, my family just got off the boat.  Hers goes back to early colonial days on her mother's side, and it seems that many of them were invetera...

Tappan Resident Has A New York Moment
Yesterday, my wife Jean and I took our daughter, son-in-law, and three grandkids to see The Lion King.  Now, this type of stage production isn't my favorite, but I figured I'd...

Summer Programs for Orangetown Kids
  I picked up my 7 year old grandson this morning at the Pearl River Middle School.  He is enrolled in a five day summer program called Secret Agent Lab for first through...

Tappan Vineyard Yearly Update
  The Chateau Schoppel vineyard continues to grow,albeit very slowly.  After last year's debacle when a deer ate most of the leaves of my two grape vines, the plants reco...

The Palisades Swim Club
     It is to the eternal shame of Orangetown that it does not have an outdoor municipal pool.  For those residents who do not want or cannot have a pool of the...

Wolf Appears in Historic Tappan
  For the first time in centuries, a wolf trotted down a pathway in the Tappan Memorial Park.  Over two hundred people, mostly kids, came to see Atka, a white wolf from t...

The New Piermont Historic District
  Piermont now contains Rockland's newest historic district.  It joins the two Orangetown historic areas in Tapppan and Palisades, and the Clarkstown Historic District in...

Our Newest Tappan Resident
The world is divided into two different groups- dog lovers and cat lovers. I'm a dog lover, even though it's been years since my last mutt, Ben.  My wife, on the other hand is...

Vines Invade Tappan Property and Owner Fights Back
    We were twenty four when we bought the house we now live in, and as they say in the city, we knew "nuttin from nuttin."  The property had, how can I put this nic...

Bald Eagles Spotted in Palisades
    I saw my first bald eagle on a raft trip down the Snake River in the Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming in 1968.  It was a majestic sight, and one that I neve...

Trees Removed From Historic Tappan Village Green
After a couple of phone calls from concerned Tappan residents, I found out that the Orangetown highway department was indeed cutting down the large evergreen and deciduous trees th...

John Murphy to Receive Award in Tappan
      On Friday, April 13, Rockland County legislator and all-around good guy John A. Murphy will receive the first Horatio N. Powers Award, given by Christ Episcopa...

A Real Bargain in Sparkill
   I see some truly beautiful houses when I go on broker open house tours every Tuesday.  There was one on River Road in grandview today- a gorgeous stunner for &nbs...

A Crocus Rears Its Head in Tappan
   Where are the snows of yesteryear?  Last Friday, as I loaded the car for a ski trip to Vermont, I saw several crocus flowers in one of our plant beds.  This ...

Romantic Valentines Day Restaurant in Orangeburg
We have all been there: where do you go for a Valentine's Day Dinner where the food is great, the atmosphere suitably romantic, and where the bill at the end of the meal will not p...

Snow Storm Dining in Tappan
My wife and I have a tradition that dates back to the 1960's, when we lived in Manhattan.  Whenever there was a snow storm, we would eat at O'Henry's Steak House, a great rest...

Diplomat Gym in Piermont Aids New Years Resolution
I always end up the year weighing too much, and every year, I start with a diet to lose the holiday pounds.  Usually, I lose weight, and then gain it back by the end of the ye...

Historic Tappan Holiday Stroll
  This Monday evening, December 12, will see the second annual Holiday Stroll on Main Street in historic Tappan.  From 7 to 9 PM, Main Street will be closed to ...

Rocky Raccoon Visits Tappan Home
  Some weeks ago, I went up to my roof to clean the gutters.  There I came face to face with a rather large raccoon who somehow climbed up there without benefit of a ladd...

The Tappan Turkey Trot
     Our two cats are lifetime members of the Bird Watchers' Society.  Their usual perch is atop a love seat in the bay window, overlooking the bird feeders. &n...

An A Liszt Event in Sparkill
     On Saturday, November 5th at 7PM, Christ Episcopal Church in Sparkill will present the internationally acclaimed pianist Christina Kiss in an all- Liszt program...

ECO Day in Sparkill
  On Saturday, October 15, Christ Church in Sparkill will hold its second annual ECO Day, celebrating the relationship between humanity and the environment.  The event wi...

Tappan celebrates Major Andre
     On Monday, October 3, I'll be in my Revolutionary War uniform, marching a group of fourth graders from Cottage Lane elementary school in Blauvelt up Andre Hill ...

Colonial Day in Tappan
On Saturday, September 24, the Tappantown Historical Society will hold its annual Colonial Day on the grounds of the DeWint House Masonic Shrine. Taking place from noon to four in...

Tappan emerges a little damper after Irene
After all the hoopla, Tappan awoke this morning to the sounds of Irene picking up her skirts and traipsing northward. She left behind a fair number of branches and leaves on the...

Cycling from Tappan to Piermont
For some years now, I have only ridden my bike during our annual stay on Martha's Vineyard, where it's nice and flat. Now that I'm home again, I'm determined to keep going, and...

History Day in Sparkill
The hamlet of Sparkill has always interested me. Only a mile or so from Piermont, Tappan, and Palisades, for many years it seemed to have resisted the pressure to change in any...

Nudes in Historic Tappan
Back at my favorite wine shop, the Grape D'Vine on Main Street in Tappan, the owner, Joe Prinz, uses his walls to feature the work of local artists. When I walked in yesterday,...

A Vine Grows in Tappan
Well, actually, two vines. I went to Lowe's and came home the proud possessor of two grape vines, each about a foot tall. Right away, I began with a mistake- I didn't want Chard...

Trellis Envy in Tappan
There's this great wine shop in Tappan on Main Street- The Grape D'Vine. I know, the name's a little too cute for my taste, but the owner, Joe Prinz is wonderfully knowledgeable a...

Rowing on the Tappan Zee
For about ten years now, people have been seeing (and sometimes hearing) members of the Piermont Rowing Club as they row their shells on the Tappan Zee. I'm looking forward to ...

Winter in Piermont
My wife forwarded an email to me with a link to YouTube. Winter in Piermont is a five minute feature on YouTube that reminded me that even in the depths of winter, Piermont is a s...

Its All Downhill From Here
One of the advantages of living in Rockland County is that getting to good skiing is pretty easy. There are several smaller areas within an hour's drive of the county. The best of...