No, a highway is not being built inside Philipsburg Manor, but the historic site saw the official unveiling this morning of new Thruway signs that will guide travelers to Philipsburg and other HHV attractions.

"The Authority is pleased to partner with Historic Hudson Valley to promote these nationally recognized historic locations within the heart of the Hudson Valley," said Thruway Authority Executive Director Michael R. Fleischer.

"Historic Hudson Valley is proud and honored to have its attractions featured in this Thruway project," said Waddell W. Stillman, president of Historic Hudson Valley. "The new signs will inform visiting travelers and remind local citizens that history and entertainment are just around the corner."

You can see the signs northbound along I-87 just south of Interchange 9 and southbound along I-87 just north of Interchange 10.

The signs -- quite attractive as highway signage goes -- highlight Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, Union Church of Pocantico Hills, Philipsburg Manor, Van Cortlandt Manor, and Washington Irving's Sunnyside.

Shown above at the unveiling are HHV President Waddell W. Stillman, HHV Trustee Herb Nass, New York State Thruway Authority Board member Brandon R. Sall, and New York State Thruway Authority Executive Director Michael Fleischer.

Who has time to read or post to an actual blog anymore? Well, your good friends HVBlogger and BlazeBlogger do, but we must admit to being increasingly transfixed by Twitter and its meditative exercise of forcing wannabe web writers to reduce online musings to 140 characters.

Not sure what we're talking about? Why, it's Twitter, which, depending on whom you ask, is either the new Facebook or the new SixDegrees.com. We tend to lean towards the former view, so we're jumping in with gusto.

Our tweets (like a blog post, but no longer than 140 characters) will run the gamut of all things doing at HHV...just like here.

Omit needless words? That's last century's advice. Omit needless characters. That's where it's at. Come play with us! Start following HHValley and we'll follow you right back. Fair warning: Twitter is rather addictive. 

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!

Greg Clary wrote an outstanding piece in today's Journal News about the Historic Hudson Valley Youth Conservation Corps. The piece, which ran on the front page of the "Your World" section, comes complete with great photos, too.

With the seven-week program ending this Friday, the article is perfectly timed to be a great memento for the participants. Kudos to all the students who took part this summer!

Read Greg's piece here.

So what was the motivation behind launching the Youth Conservation Corps? As fans of the organization know, Historic Hudson Valley has long been committed to environmental conservation.

Now,  the YCC is a way to use its historic sites as contemporary learning laboratories with an environmental focus. Goals for the project include instilling the values of hard work, responsibility, service, respect for the environment, and education.

In the program two teams of six students, each with their own supervisor - Rebecca Watkins of Nyack and Travis Mockler of Plesantville, each working with the assistance of Elizabeth Wilkins of Red Hook and all under the aegis of Thom Thacker, site director at Philipsburg Manor - are engaged in a curriculum of environmental education, career and leadership training, and recreation activities.

Over the course of seven weeks this summer, the program's students are helping to restore the walking trails at Sunnyside, originally designed and used by author and ambassador Washington Irving in the mid-19^th century. At Philipsburg Manor, they are removing brush and other debris from the bed of the Pocantico River. They are also participating in the annual rye harvest.

Fridays are reserved for field trips to locations such as the Hudson River Museum, Beczak Environmental Education Center, Breakneck Mountain, and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, places that help reinforce the lessons learned here.

Big rounds of applause go out to the programs supporters, which are The Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation, Entergy's Environmental Stewardship Program, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey, and the New York City Environmental Fund.

Want to see the Corps in action? Drop by Sunnyside on a Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday. The program's season ends on Aug. 15.