The Catskill Mountains are a year-round playground for outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers. You will find a number of relaxing inns ready to meet your needs.

Caleb Street's Inn

    Located in the historic village of Catskill at the base of the mountains, Caleb Street's Inn was built in 1785. It provides a view of the garden and Catskill Creek or guests can step outside for a walk along the Hudson River. A full breakfast is served every morning. Each of the four Pet-friendly rooms offers a private bath and a view of the river and neighboring buildings. Hiking trails(小路), golf courses and historic sites are only a short drive away.

Winter Clove Inn

    Nature lovers can enjoy a pleasant location in the Northern Catskill Wilderness Preserve at Winter Clove Inn. With wood floors, each room has a private bath and air conditioning(空调). With active days of tennis, hiking or cross- country skiing ahead, guests don't have to go far for a breakfast, lunch or dinner beside the fireplace at inn's restaurant.

Windham House

    A former pub built in 1805, Christman's Windham House is the oldest inn continually operating in the Catskills. The 300 acres of grounds in the town of Windham include a tennis court, golf course, heated pool and a restaurant. Guests can relax on private balconies (阳台) overlooking a golf course and take their meals at Christman's Windham House Restaurant. The inn is less than 2 miles from the hiking trails of Windham Mountain.

Washington Irving In

    If you're looking for a mountain inn with a Victorian feel, Washington Irving Inn has much to offer. Furnished with antiques, each of the 15 rooms has a private bath. Free breakfast is served. Hikers are a short walk from Kaaterskill Falls and Hunter Mountain trails.

    Eco-Cruises

    It covers the areas from Lakes Entrance through to Lake King.

    Wild native animals are protected by law

    We may see dolphins and seals in the Gippsland Lakes system during the summer/autumn months, but more so during the winter/spring seasons: during these times we exercise great care not to disturb them.

    However, these are intelligent creatures and on many occasions they will interact with us. During this time, we show them respect they deserve and appreciate the opportunity to see these wonderful animals at play.

As a bonus, the amazing bird life is always there and changes through the seasons.

    We will do our best during the cruise to locate the animals for you to experience, but, of course, they don't always co-operate and are sometimes beyond our view. Therefore, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee sightings.

    How to book

    Phone 0413 666 638 for prices and bookings.

    Don't forget to ask about our family ticket special.

    Seniors and group discounts also available.

Blood Drive & Marrow（骨髓）Registration

    “These patients deserve a chance at a normal happy future and they rely on the kindness of the strangers to make that happen.”

— Daisy, Isabelle's Mother

    Isabelle is the daughter of Daisy and Saman Mirzaei. In January 2014 Isabelle, 12-year-old, was diagnosed with a genetic blood disorder, beta thalassemia. Isabelle's body is unable to produce healthy red blood cells. As a result, Isabelle has been receiving blood transfusions (输血) every 4-6 weeks since she was 13 years old. A lifetime of regular transfusions can lead to serious medical problems. Her only chance at a normal, healthy life is to have a marrow transplant. Isabelle is only a child, so doctors have started a search for an unrelated marrow donor through The Match Registry. The Mirzaei family asks that you consider helping patients like Isabelle by registering to be a marrow donor and give the gift of life, the gift of blood.

Held at Wiley Hall

Wednesday, March 26

Behind Heathman Dormitory/Butterfield Rd.

12:00 PM - 6:00 PM

    Don't forget to bring your driver's license or another form of identification when you donate.

    Visit www.ribc.org to make an appointment, Sponsor Code 3390.

FREE Kingston Pizza ! ! !

www.ribc.org     800－283－8385

    The Rhode Island Blood Center distributes blood products to hospitals in Rhode Island and Southern New England.

    School days are supposed to be the best days of your life and part of that experience usually involves some unforgettable physical activities. I asked some people to give me their memories of what happened to them on the sports field and beyond, and this is what they told me.

    Cup winners

    When I was about ten, the football team from our year unexplainably made it to the cup final of the local schools' league. I say unexplainably because I only remember us losing nearly every match we played. Anyway, in the final I set up the winning goal, a brilliant cross to my mate David who headed the ball in just before the final whistle. I still have a photograph of the team holding the cup.

    Forest hike

    I remember having to lead a group of eight boys on a school expedition for the best part of two days when I was a teenager. Even though we got lost at one point, I managed to keep them all together and get them from one end of a large forest to the other and back by sheer(纯粹的)force of will. I was chosen to be the leader, I think, because I was the only one who knew how to read a map!

    When we arrived back at the campsite, we found out that all the other groups had cheated and hitched(搭便车)most of the way instead… I felt a bit stupid, but also rather proud of myself at the same time for having done it properly.

    Learning to swim, learning to drown

    I learned to swim comparatively late, I suppose. I was maybe nine years old but my brother had a painful experience which nearly put him off for life. We lived in the USA for a while and had access to a university pool where the coaches had trained the American Olympic team. In those days, though, their idea of teaching kids how to swim was to tie a can to their ankles with a bit of string, throw them in the deep end and shout "Swim!". I am surprised my brother survived at all. He could only have been about six at the time.

    Chinese high school students have the longest study hours compared to their peers (同龄人) in Japan, the US and the Republic of Korea, a survey conducted by the four countries said.

    The survey, released by the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC) on Monday, was jointly conducted with institutions in the four countries in September—October of 2008. It covers nearly 4, 000 students in senior high schools and vocational high schools in the four countries.

    About 78.3 percent of Chinese students said they spend more than eight hours at school and 56.7 percent said they study at least two more hours each day at home. By contrast, only 24.7 percent of their peers in the US, 20.5 percent in Japan and 15.4 percent in Korea study more than two hours after school.

    Around 60 percent of all students surveyed said their burden for studies was the heaviest; however, the Japanese felt their burden was the worst with respondents (应答者) reaching 79.2 percent.

    Among the five biggest headaches for young people in the four countries were: over—scheduling ranked first, followed by a boring leisure life, unsatisfied appearance, little time for exercise and making friends, and no spare money.

    "Moderate (适度的) study pressure can better drive students to develop, however, too much will squeeze (挤) their development space, and can even cause harm to their physical and psychological health," the survey said.

    "Balancing their studies and all-round development is a very important task," it said.

    Nine years ago, when the closest and largest full moon fell on March 19, 2011, many people used the term, "supermoon", which we had never heard before. In 2012, we heard this term again to describe the year's closest full moon on May 6, 2012. Supermoons also appeared in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

    What does "supermoon" mean exactly? And how special was the March 19, 2011 supermoon?

    The word "supermoon" didn't come from astronomy. Instead, it came from astrology (占星学). In 1979, astrologer Richard Nolle defined it as a new or full moon which occurs at or near its closest point to the earth in its orbit. In short, the earth, moon and sun are all in a line, with the moon at its nearest point to the earth.

And the full moon of March 19, 2011 was the largest moon of that year. This "supermoon" was at perigee (近地点) — its closest point to the earth in its orbit. It was bigger and brighter than other full moons of 2011. Astronomers call this sort of close full moon a perigee full moon.

    That doesn't sound very special, does it? In fact, the March 2011 full moon lined up much more closely with perigee than Nolle's original definition. But were you able to notice with your eyes alone that this full moon was bigger or brighter than usual? Astronomers said no. But it was fun to stand outside under this full moon and know that the moon was closer than ever.

    In 2019, there were three supermoons. The first supermoon of 2019 was the Super Blood Wolf Moon on January 21, which occurred with a total lunar eclipse (月全食) at the same time, also known as a "blood moon". The second supermoon of 2019 was on February 19, also called the Snow Moon, which was the closest full moon of the year. The third and final supermoon of 2019, known by Native Americans as the Worm Moon, occurred on March 21. It fell on the day of the vernal equinox (春分), which signals the end of winter and the beginning of spring.