First, you will have a great opportunity to enjoy a  “Lake Afton Holiday” at  the Old Library building (see photo), situated on beautiful Lake Afton in the center of Yardley Boro.  Run by the Yardley Historical Association,  the Library will be open from 2:00 to 6:00 and, for holiday shoppers, there will be an opportunity to purchase a variety of Yardley themed gifts.

For more information about this, please contact the Yardley Historical Society at 215-493-6253 or email yardleyhistory@yahoo.com, or visit the following link, which will direct you to the Historical Association  website.

Hang around town on Saturday, until 3:30 and enjoy the annual Yardley Olde Fashioned Christmas Parade.  The parade will get under way at 3:30, from the American Legion building, which is on the South end of the Boro, and will proceed North on Main Street.  Yardley Boro will be filled with sights and sounds of the holiday season, for sure.

Hope to see a lot of you out for both of these wonderful, holiday events.  The weather is supposed to be crisp and clear, so it will be a really fun afternoon.

This weekend marks one of our favorite fall festivals in the area, the apple festival at Peddler’s Village.  If you have never been to Peddler’s Village, you are missing out on a treat. With unique and unusual country stores, as well as fun activities for kids and adults, Peddler’s Village is a fabulous destination for the entire family.

The apple festival offers incredible apple treats, including apples dipped in caramel!  There will be live entertainment, and you will totally enjoy this wonderful, traditional, fall celebration. The festival takes place on both Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm, and free (parking is free, too!). Live entertainment and apple pie-eating contests add to the festivities of this traditional autumn celebration.

Peddler’s Village is located at Routes 202 & 263, Lahaska. Need more information? Call (215) 794-4000.

Join the Artists of Yardley on Saturday, October 23^rd from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., as 8 amazing artists invite you to their world. They will open their doors of creativity and imagination, as they open their studio doors, invite you in, and allow you to have a self-guided tour of their own unique spaces where they create amazing works of art.

Over 300 attendees came last year, and were amazed by learning what it is like to become and work as an artist. This is a very enjoyable experience, and appeals to all age groups, from young to old!

An opportunity will also be available to stop at the AOY Art Center at Patterson Farm, where additional artists will be available to discuss their art techniques, answer questions, and more!

Here are a few, great ideas for fall  activities, in and around Yardley.

Harvest day in Yardley. An event not to be missed!

Harvest Day in Yardley

This is one of my favorite activities in the fall.  I remember taking our kids to Harvest Day when they were small.  Used

to be able to rent canoes on the pond!  The event has gotten bigger and better every year.  Definitely don’t miss it.  This year,  which is the 42nd annual Harvest

Day festival,  is next Saturday, September 24th, from 10:00 to 5:00.  It is fun for the entire family.  The streets of Yardley are lined with crafts, music

and fun activities for all ages.  Even after so many years, this continues to be one of my favorite fall events.

Shady Brook Farm Hororfest

Another of our favorite, fall time activities.  There are a number of great, fall activities at Shady Brook farm.  The haunted hayride is really amazing.

It was actually just named one of the top 13 scream parks in the country!  This is another really fun, seasonal event that you won’t want to miss.  Check

the website for dates, times and to buy tickets.  Click here for information.

Ride the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad

This wonderful tourist railroad, was incorporated in 1962.  Hop on board in New Hope, and get ready to see some of the most beautiful countryside,

anywhere in the US, in a unique and special way.  There are all sorts of special trips that you can enjoy, including Friday night fireworks express trains,

haunted halloween trains, brunch trains, and my favorite, the fall foliage trains.  This is also a really fun activity for the whole family.  Check this link for

all the information.  New Hope & Ivyland Railroad.

Peddlers Village Scarecrow Festival

If  you have not been to Peddlers Village, this is a great opportunity to see a most special, fall treat in Bucks County.  Peddlers Village is fun, any time of

the year, but fall is special.  There is an amazing display of the most unusual and creative scarecrows, that you have ever seen.  This Saturday the 17th and

Sunday, the 18th, there is a scarecrow festival.  You can learn how scarecrows are made, while enjoying the unusual assortment of fine country shops

that Peddler Village offers.  Peddlers Village Scarecrow Festival.

Snipes Farm Apple Picking

Snipes Farm is another wonderful, local farm, that offers activities all year long.  From special music events, to farm tours, Snipes is always a fun

place to visit.  They offer opportunities to pick a variety of fruits, throughout the year.  I particularly enjoy apple picking, and this was also an

annual event with our kids.  Take a hayride to the apple orchard, and enjoy picking your own apples.  The link here, will take you to information.

Snipes Farm. 

I know that there are hundreds of other, fall activities in and around Yardley.  Let me know some of your favorites, and I will write about them in future

posts.

Yesterday, McCaffrey’s supermarket, which is located in a strip shopping center in Lower Makefield Township, had their 4th annual, grocers fight cancer day.

In this quick video, Jim McCaffrey is interviewed on a local radio station WBCB, while broadcasting at the site.

This event is really a wonderful community program, that has raised a lot of money for cancer programs at St. Mary’s Medical Center, which is just a few minutes from McCaffrey’s market.

Because we have lived here for so long, and because we love it so much, I thought it would be fun to create a Facebook page that would highlight all the great things to do and see, in and around Yardley.  Thus was born, “365ThingsToDoInandAroundYardley” on Facebook.

We have 3 kids, and so I asked my kids, wife and friends, to come up with a list of things that they love to do in and around Yardley.  I will focus on, and highlight those wonderful events, in my blog and on the Facebook page. 

I also wanted to emphasize, that although I am a very active and full time realtor, I am creating a community Facebook page, not a page to promote myself or real estate.  There will be no real estate sales on this page!  I will have links to other FB pages, websites and my blog, for anyone looking for real estate information.  365ThingstoDoInandAroundYardley, is just to focus on those things that happen in our community, that make it so special.

So, my kids mentioned Harvest Day, feeding ducks on the pond, skating on the pond, the festival on the canal, Shady Brook festival of lights, Shady Brook haunted hayrides, just as a start.  One of my kids mentioned how she absolutely loves the Yardley Ice House as spring arrives. Lower Makefield Township Community Day. I always love the huge, girls softball tournament that happens every year in Lower Makefield Township.  How about the amazing, Yardley Morrisville Soccer program’s Columbus weekend tournament.

Great dinners at the Yardley Inn.  Fun events at the newly renovated Continental Tavern.

It is ok to mention events that are not necessarily right in Yardley or Lower Makefield.  One of the great aspects of living here, is how close we are to everything.  We love the great variety of events at Peddler’s Village, for example.

So, I will start this adventure in trying to create 365 Things to Do in and around Yardley. 

I would welcome and appreciate any thoughts and ideas from the community.  Hope that this page becuase enjoyable and fun, as I know that it will be for me, to create it.

It is supposed to be a gorgeous, spring weekend in Yardley and all over the area. 

Lambertville shadfest 2010

Looking for something fun to do?

Head up to Lambertville, this weekend, which is just across the river from New Hope, and celebrate shadfest 2011!

Hard to believe that a community festival, created around a fish, could be so much fun.  Believe me, it is.  Especially with beautiful weather, Lambertville and New Hope will be alive with artists, crafters, food, music and fun. 

You will find face painting, cotton candy, and loads of other activities for kids, along with live music of all sorts.

Check out this link for a full listing of all the festivities.  If you see me, be sure and say hello!  Shadfest2011link.

Yardley, Newtown and Washington Crossing biking

If you are, then you know that Bucks County, offers a tremendous number of wonderful places to ride.  In fact, the image of the canal and the townpath on my blog header, shows a rider.  The towpath happens to be a wonderful, scenic and intesting place to ride.

I have many friends, who enjoy biking throughout Bucks County, on the many scenic, hilly and beautiful, back country roads. 

With that in mind, I wanted to mention that, in case you were not aware of it, in July of 2008 Bucks County created a task force to advocate for and support bicycling, and bicycling related issues in Bucks County.  The task force consists of ten interested members of the community whose role will be to advise the County Commissioners on recommendations to achieve their goals.

The task force has suggested that the County develop a County-wide plan. The plan would identify and inventory existing conditions, advance opportunities for the improvement and expansion of a broader network of multimodal routes serving existing residential and business areas of the County, enhance the outreach and education of bicycle safety and leverage the existing recreational resources in the communities at large.

According to the Bucks County Bike Plan newsletter, which you can read here in full, the goal is to design a well developed bicycle network that would provide opportunities for all types of riders.  The newsletter offers a master plan for an interconnected network of bicycle facilities.

If you are interested in participating in this very worthwhile endeavor, which will enhance bike riding in Yardley, Newtown, Upper Makefield and all over Bucks County, there will be 3 public meetings to discuss the master plan.  Those meetings are as follows:

• Quakertown Borough Building on April 11th 6:00-8:00
• Silver Lake Nature Center on April 13th from 6:00-8:00
• Doylestown Township Building on April 20th from 6:00-8:00.

For more information check out the link I have created at Where should we ride in Bucks County?

Enjoy fresh grown vegetables, in season, at Snipes Farm

Basically, a CSA is a program allowing each member, for a fee, to enjoy fresh, locally farm grown produce from June to November. 

Investing in a full share in the program includes the following:

• 35 varieties of in-season vegetables, fruits and herbs.
• 1/2 to a full bushel of fresh produce every week.
• U-pick blackberries, apples and vegetables.
• Weekly pick-up at the farm on Thursdays from 3-7.
• Weekly newsletter with growing updates and recipes.
• Community events.
• Volunteer opportunities.
• Opportunities to purchase other local products for partners of the Snipes Farm.

Snipes Farm has been a family owned on run farming operation for many decades.  Their mission is to model and teach sustainable farming , while building community and reconnecting people to the land.  The present generation of the Snipes family is the 11th to farm in Lower Bucks County.

When our children were young, we used to take them to the farm several times a year, to enjoy picking fruits and vegetables with them. 

Another worthwhile aspect of the CSA, is the partnerships that the Snipes Farm and Education Center continued with the Bucks County Homeless Shelter and with the Bucks County Housing Group.  With donations from CSA members along with a small, local grant, Snipes was able to provide 4 memberships to the shelter kitchen, where they prepare food for 75 residents every day, and 3 memberships for families working with the Bucks County Housing Group. 

Click on the Snipes Farm link, for information about the farm, along with their CSA.