Published May 21, 2014 at 2:49 pm (Updated May 21, 2014)

Address: 4 Frog Pond Road Price: $423,500 Taxes: $8,227 Agent: Sean Clarkin, Coldwell Banker, (973) 729-6111

BLAIRSTOWN Imagine escaping to a land of enchantment.

A gorgeous and tranquil place with a river running through it is located on 11 acres. You will experience the thrill of heightened awareness of life and nature as you enjoy the soothing sounds of rustling water. This roomy home offers all of the space you have been searching for with three bedrooms and three and a half baths.

A spacious kitchen with center island and cabinets galore entices you to explore your inner chef. Skylights and built-in shelves, a sun room, hardwood floors and plentiful storage space makes this one a real treat. A lavish home designed to enable you to entertain in style outdoors with luxurious amenities that you have been longing for including a Japanese Garden, terraces, decks, and gazebos all connected by walking/hiking trails including a foot bridge and ATV bridge. This uniquely positioned one-of-a kind home offers a separate two-story heated work studio.

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This is the perfect space for a telecommuter to enjoy the good life while working at home. There are several options including a 29x20 art studio, two-work shops and a small office and kitchenette. The location also is ideal within one hour from New York City and abundant opportunities for recreation at your fingertips. Play golf within five miles from home, hike the Appalachian Trail and be entertained at the Historical Blairstown Theater.

For pilots, the Blairstown Municipal Airport is just minutes away. This property must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Contact Sean Clarkin for an appointment and see how good it can feel to come home by calling 973-729-6111.

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New home offers tranquil place with a river

Buy Marquees and Gazebos at Wholesale Prices
Marquees and gazebos are popular at this time of year. Not only can they provide shade from the sun but they can also provide shelter from the rain - a commo...

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The Chelsea Flower Show has inspired us all with its opulent gardens You too can have epic statues, stellar lighting displays and giant gazebos

By Etan Smallman

Published: 16:35 EST, 21 May 2014 | Updated: 18:47 EST, 21 May 2014

Seen the opulent visions of paradise at the Chelsea Flower Show and fancy a piece of the action for your own garden? Well, never fear. You, too, can have epic statues, stellar lighting displays and giant gazebos just as long as you have some spare cash to flash.

Here is a selection of the most lavish, and wacky, ornaments, gadgets and furniture items your garden is missing ...

Up to 1,600, enchantedtrees.co.uk

Enchanted forest: These 3m tall trees can illuminate your garden for more than 50,000 hours

Let there be light! These 3m-tall trees come pre-decorated with more than 3,000 LED bulbs, which can illuminate your garden for more than 50,000 hours. They can be installed permanently or just for a party, and are happy indoors or out.

895, thegardenedit.com

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Would you fork out 900 for a watering can?

May 21, 2014, 10 p.m.

THE Chinese Pavilion was officially opened at the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden yesterday.

RELATED: Name recognises curator's dedication

THE Chinese Pavilion was officially opened at the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden yesterday.

Designed and built to look exactly like a pavilion in a Chinese park, it even has genuine roof tiles sent from Taiwan.

Honorary curator Maurie Kupsch said he travelled to Japan and China to obtain a concept for the design.

The Jones Boys sang a bracket of four numbers for the audience.

Mr Kupsch also had the help of his son, who lives in Taiwan.

``He organised pictures of gazebos and pavilions so I could get an idea of what I could build,'' Mr Kupsch said.

``He talked to a tile maker who presented different sizes and organised the tiles to be shipped over.''

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Pavilion is a labour of love

As Gucci scoops a silver medal at Chelsea Flower Show, we dig into the fertile relationship between fashion and gardening

BY Lisa Armstrong | 21 May 2014

While Mary Berry, Monty Don, Benedict Cumberbatch and other cosy BBC treasures communed with delphiniums, peonies and swivelling TV cameras at the opening of the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday, the stylist Lady Mary Charteris - she of the sheer-fronted Pam Hogg wedding dress - picked her way daintily past the rustic trugs and rust-proof gazebos to the Gucci garden: a reminder that you don't have to look like Alan Titchmarsh to be seduced by a ravishing garden.

Gucci is not the first fashion house to dust off its trowel for Chelsea. Chanel and Dior have both ploughed allotments there. This is not mere marketing whimsy. Coco Chanel and Christian Dior genuinely adored, if not getting their hands dirty, then supervising their gardeners to do so on their behalf. Both created gardens of lasting loveliness - daisies, mimosa, iris and 350 olive trees for her; roses and lily of the valley for him, as attested by the book Dior Impressions . Roses remain a recurring theme in Dior's collections today under creative director Raf Simons, whose first collection for the house in 2012 took place in a classically Parisian enfilade of rooms in which each wall was smothered in either carnations, delphiniums, goldenrod or roses.

Gardening clearly computes with the fashion sensibility. The milliner Philip Treacy begins every weekend at his Cotswolds cottage with a trip to the local garden centre. "Nature is the only perfection in the world," he says. Dries Van Noten, the Belgian designer adored for his easy-to-wear, timeless, often embellished clothes, has created a garden 20 miles from Antwerp which, he says, "puts everything into perspective. You can't say to your garden, 'I'm sorry, I can't weed today because I have to launch a collection.' You have to make time for it."

Dior Couture autumn/winter 2010 PHOTO: JASON LLOYD-EVANS

Perhaps all designers should be issued with gardens as a refuge for wrung-out creative minds. Hardy Amies - who once, to my delight, escorted me around his own idyllic Cotswold gardens - observed that "if more people got to experience the profound pleasure of cultivating roses, there would be fewer wars".

Yves Saint Laurent also found much-needed solace tinkering in his garden in Marrakesh. Originally created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle from a palm grove, it was filled with yuccas, jasmine and bougainvillea, all offset by searing cobalt blue (or Majorelle-bleu, as it's officially known) walls and yellow railings. After Saint Laurent restored it, it unleashed a trend for snazzy backwashes and prickly cactii in suburban gardens from North Africa to Watford. As aesthetes, fashion designers can affect decorative trends in horticulture as well as haute couture.

Failing an actual garden, there are always pictures. Flowers are one of the most popular posts on Instagram. Sam McKnight, the master-cultivator of prize-worthy hair for everyone from the late Diana, Princess of Wales to Chanel is one of the social media site's most prolific contributors of woozily seductive blooms, many of the snaps taken in his north London garden. "My interest just crept up on me," he told Vogue in 2012. "I suppose it's called being middle-aged gardening has made me a calmer, more tolerant person. I'm learning that it takes control to achieve that chaotic look - just as with hair."

Besides being therapeutic, gardens fertilise the imagination. "The garden allows me to see blends of colours and materials," Christian Louboutin wrote in his eponymous book, of the grounds around his 13thcentury chteau in the Vende. "It's highly instructive."

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Hautie Culture: Flowers and fashion

Forecasters said the mercury is expected to rise as high as 24C, possibly even 25C, in much of England A Met Office spokesman said yesterday was already the warmest day of the year so far Next week will become more unsettled with thundery showers anticipated all over the UK

By Simon Murphy and Valerie Elliott

Published: 16:58 EST, 17 May 2014 | Updated: 16:59 EST, 17 May 2014

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Glorious Great Britain was hotter than Barcelona yesterday as swathes of the country basked in dazzling sunshine.

And the good news from the forecasters was that theres more to come today, which could be the hottest day of the year so far.

But while that was given a warm welcome by those preparing for a weekend at the beach, it left exhibitors at Chelsea Flower Show in a cold sweat as gardeners took desperate measures to prevent their prized plants from wilting.

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The sun HAS got his hat on! Baking Britain hotter than Barcelona and there's more today... but it's all too much for ...

John Pawlowski looking for donations to fund 2 small gazebos 4 city Riverwalk Project @wcdailylocal
John Pawlowski looking for donations to fund 2 small gazebos 4 city Riverwalk Project @wcdailylocal By: Kristina Scala - Reporter for the Daily Local News in...

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Crowds pack The Square for North Devon's fourth Diversity Festival

THE sun was shining on North Devons fourth Diversity Festival at The Square in Barnstaple, today (Saturday, May 17).

The event had a wonderful carnival atmosphere with people of all ages gathering to meet groups from a number of different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and sexuality, as they celebrated their diverse roots.

The festival was run in conjunction with Devon and Cornwall Police, Petroc college, Hikmat Devon and Safer North Devon.

Rapping, dancing, a bhangra band, the chance to taste delicious cuisine was all on offer, as well as the chance to bring together the community.

One of the organisers, Sergeant Lucy Skinner, of Barnstaple police, said the event was a way of promoting and celebrating the diverse community of North Devon.

The festival not only celebrates the ethnic and culturally diverse community in Barnstaple and North Devon, but it is a chance for the older and younger generation of the area to come together too, she said.

There were gazebos dotted around the square, with people on hand to offer advice and support from Devon Carers, Devon and Cornwall Police, Petroc college, Hikmat Devon and the fire service.

Crowds also flocked around The Sahara Project tent, where cooks were on hand to create traditional authentic Asian food.

North Devon and Torridge Come out, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Support Group were at the festival for the first-time this year.

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People flock to Diversity Festival in Barnstaple

Polliwog Park is a stopover for migratory geese and other birds. Photo by Kevin Cody

The large pond that makes Polliwog park a wildlife refuge for ducks, geese and other migratory birds is reason enough to spend a summer day here. But the City of Manhattan Beach also organizes family friendly events most weekdays and every weekend.

The citys Parks and Recreations Department is organizing the 19th Annual Family Campout from May 17 to May 18 at the adjacent Begg Field, where families can play games and join in on arts and crafts activities.

Friday night, May 17 at 7:45 is 3rd Annual Movie in the Park takes place that evening at the Polliwog Park Amphitheater Walt Disneys lauded animation Frozen will be shown. Sunday, May 18 at 8:30 a.m. is the 31st Annual Fishing Derby, where kids can win prizes for catching the most fish, longest fish or most interesting fish.

Three gazebospopular spots for birthday parties, anniversaries and family reunionsare available for two-hour periods if reserved in advance. The picnic area has a number of tables and six barbecue grills; the play area for young children has slides, climbing and exploration equipment. Polliwog Park also boasts a 9-hole disc golf course and houses one of the citys oldest beach cottages, which is home to citys historical museum Admission is free Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.

The citys popular Concerts in Park beginning Sunday, June 22, with the citys official band The Hyperion Outfall Serenaders Dixieland band.

The line-up this year also includes the Mira Costa Jazz Band, an Elvis tribute, Scot Bruce and Blue Breeze Band, and a Motown R&B-soul band. The concerts continue through Labor Day weekend. Umbrellas and pop-up tents are allowed before and after the concerts.

No dogs are allowed,, there is a dog park adjacent to the park, on the northwest side.

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About Esther Kang

15 May 2014| last updated at 09:56PM

ALTHOUGH the water crisis affecting Klang Valley and some parts of Selangor has just ended, there is no guarantee it wont happen again in the future.

If it does, I will be more than happy to drive to Hutan Lipur Sungai Tua for a frolicking good splash in the stream with my family.

Its less than an hours drive from Kuala Lumpur and the journey will definitely be smooth sailing if you hit the road early in the morning.

Besides taking a dip in the cool and crystal clear water, you can also take a stroll or jog along the tarmac tracks, traverse the unbeaten jungle trails or simply laze around in the gazebos.

For shutterbugs like myself, it is easy to get carried away trying to capture the images of frogs, dragonflies or fish.

It is also a way to introduce my toddler to nature.

FAST FACTS Sungai Tua Recreational Forest, Jalan Sungai Tua, Ulu Yam, Batu Caves, Selangor

GPS Coordinates 31842.9N 1014152.8E

Getting There From the city centre, head towards Batu Caves and take the route to Jalan Medan Batu at the small roundabout located right at the entrance of Batu Caves complex. Then take Jalan Sungai Tua and continue driving until it takes you to Batu Dam. Follow the signboards leading to Hutan Lipur Sungai Tua which is on the right after the Ulu Yam motocross track.

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Connecting with nature