So, is anything going on at Van Cortlandt Manor in preparation for The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze 08? Oh, you better believe it! In fact, it's safe to say the site is gradually being transformed into Blazeland, given that opening night is a mere 19 days away. Blaze, the 18-night pumpkin-fueled fandango that is Westchester (nay, New York's) biggest, bestest October event kicks off on Saturday, Oct. 4.

In the meantime, we've gone social...networking that is. Assuming you're not too young or too old, you must be on MySpace or Facebook or both, right?

Wherever you happen to park your online self, connect with us! Friend us on MySpace, become a fan on Facebook. Tell your friends, neighbors, kids, delivery guy...we want to get virtually warm and fuzzy with you.

Click here to see the Blaze Facebook page.

Click here to see the Blaze MySpace page.

Thom Thacker, site director at Philipsburg Manor, is participating in Sunday's Hudson River Swim for Life, helping to raise money to fight blood cancers.

The three-mile Hudson River Swim For Life begins in Nyack and ends at Kingsland Park in Sleepy Hollow.

Besides raising awareness of the Hudson River and promoting swimming as a (literally) cool way to exercise, the Swim for Life most importantly raises dough for the ongoing work of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The Society focuses its efforts on finding cures for leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and Hodgkin's disease and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

A round of applause for Thom's efforts!

For those of you who subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio (and if you don't you should, really), check out the Martha Stewart Living channel 112 today at 1 p.m.

Sarah Price, landscape director extraordinaire at Montgomery Place, will be a guest on "Homegrown Gardening," a live call-in show hosted by Martha gardening gurus Tony Bielaczyc and Andrew Beckman.

As those of you who have visited MP lately know, Sarah is doing a stellar job restoring its elaborate gardens using planting plans original to the estate.

Not a Sirius subscriber? (Really, you should be.) Well, you can go to Sirius.com and listen on a trial basis.

Good luck, Sarah!

Great weather and compelling performances were on tap at Philipsburg Manor's Green Corn Festival, which took place over the holiday weekend, Saturday-Monday.

Hands-on activities and Native American storytelling, crafts, singing, and dancing made for a splendid day out and a break from the BBQ circuit.

The Journal News came by, too. Check out the coverage here.

Been looking for an excuse to visit Montgomery Place? Need something "special" to motivate you to make the trip to Annandale? Well, now you've got one.  Montgomery Place is one of the sites featured in the ninth annual Hudson River Valley Ramble planned for weekends in September. MP gets to show off its garden stuff on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 11 a.m.

Walk with Landscape Director Sarah Price through the glorious gardens that grace this former country seat of the Livingston Family. Sarah and her team have been meticulously restoring the estate using planting plans original to the property. You can see the fruits of their labor - circa early 20th century gardens that range from lush perennial, annual and herb beds to the naturalistic "Rough Garden" and the "Ellipse" with a reflecting water lily pool (shown above).

Ramble organizers say that by visiting MP you will gain a view into the colors, fragrances, and designs popular during America's estate garden era. I heartily agree!

The walk is pretty easy, and the tour will cover roughly a half mile. If you can't make it on Sept. 13, you are welcome to visit MP any other Saturday or Sunday through October. Options include a self-guided audio tour of the estate.

The Ramble is sponsored annually by the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Hudson River Valley Greenway, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Estuary Program.

MP's Ramble tour is one of 202 events taking place from Saratoga County all the way to NYC. (For a complete listing of events, click here.

More than 100,000 people participated in the 2007 Ramble -- though presumably not all at the same time and place. Cause that would have been a lot of people rambling on, and you would have noticed that.