Warm and sunny with a hazy horizon and a high of 75F. Crunchy yellow grass and parched dirt. We need water.
Daily Catskills: 05/30/23
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Monthly Archives: May 2023
Daily Catskills: 05/29/23
Sunny and cloudless with a high of 80F.
Daily Catskills: 05/28/23
Clear skies and sunny with a high of 85F. Drought conditions continue. Rivers dwindle. The dirt has been parched and baked.
Daily Catskills: 05/27/23
Sunny and clear with a high of 79F. The spuds are doing well despite the drought.
Daily Catskills: 05/26/23
Another sunny day: drought conditions continue. Mostly clear sky and a high of 68F.
Catskills Conversations: Gary Mayer
“Are you coming to the drawing tonight?” Gary Mayer asks me. I’m honored to be part of a Catskills figure drawing group with local artists such as Steve Burnett, Gary, Peter Mayer, and Sandy Finkenberg.
“No,” I say. “I’m going to a potluck dinner”.
“Well, you won’t find potluck in here,” he says as he steps up into his studio. “More like shit out of luck,” he laughs, highlighting a disparity between the lightness of his personality and the intensity of his work. He’s quick to laugh, good company and chatty, but this magnanimity belies the intensity of his imagery. “I have a wild imagination,” he frowns, nodding gravely. “I didn’t sleep a lot as a kid”. We have something in common. “Me, too,” I say. It’s a little exhausting. But I’m keen to keep him laughing because all the profile pictures I see of him make him look flummoxed, for want of a better word.
His general demeanor is nonchalance, however, like his image: hey, look at this shit I did. I don’t get it either. *Shrugs* The ad for his new gallery in Margaretville named Art Up is photo of a handwritten note, for example. I get the sense that his reward comes from expressing himself, while painting, rather than the final work being appreciated.
Continue readingDaily Catskills: 05/25/23
Sunny and warm with a high of 64F and a cooling breeze. Drought conditions. Browning grass begging for some rain. Sunny sunset down by the dwindling river.
Daily Catskills: 05/24/23
A moody day: some sun breaking through the cloud in the morning, then humid with showers in the afternoon, and a mist over the landscape making it look covered in a veil of thin whitewash. A high of 74F.
Daily Catskills: 05/23/23
Hot, sunny but overcast with a milky blue sky and a high of 73F.
Daily Catskills: 05/22/23
A still and humid day with sprinkles of rain, and overcast with heavy mist. A high of 71F. The Catskills have filled in with green, and the dandelions are taking their leave.
Daily Catskills: 05/21/23
A humid morning with heavy, misty cloud and rain on the peaks. Sun in the afternoon and a high of 64F.
Daily Catskills: 05/20/23
A sombre day: the ghost of springs past. Cloud shimmering, light breeze and a high of 67F. Some of the salad bloomed early.
Daily Catskills: 05/19/23
A moody day with giant clouds and a strong breeze, but humid with a high of 67F. The sun sank slowly into the dusk like an ember fizzling into the sea.
Daily Catskills: 05/18/23
Another sunny day: warm in the sun, cool in the shade with a high of 64F.
Daily Catskills: 05/17/23
Sunny and clear, but a little colder with a sharp breeze and a high of 54F. Another frost warning for tonight.
Daily Catskills: 05/16/23
Another gorgeous day with a gauzy sky and a high of 73F.
Daily Catskills: 05/15/23
Another beautiful day, the sun glowing through a hazy sky of white smoke, and high of 70F.
Daily Catskills: 05/14/23
Another glorious day: breezy, with only sheer cloud stretched over the sky late afternoon, and a high of 63F.
Daily Catskills: 05/13/23
A glorious, clear summer day with high of 75F and strong breeze. Buds budding.
Daily Catskills: 05/12/23
Another hot day with a high of 81F and a jumble of clouds. At lower elevations, the blossom is in full effect.
Daily Catskills: 05/11/23
Baking in the sun with a high of 78F and an empty sky, save for the odd wisp of stray cloud, and throngs of dandelions taking flight in the light breeze like the tutus of tiny ballet dancers. The sky becoming more crowded late afternoon. A pre-summer scorcher.
Daily Catskills: 05/10/23
Sunny and mostly clear with a high of 65F. Violets join the dandelions.
Daily Catskills: 05/09/23
At upper elevations in the middle of the Catskills, the foliage has yet to fill in completely, and there is still no lilac. A waxy layer of cloud and a high of 63F with a warm breeze.
Daily Catskills: 05/08/23
Brilliant sunshine with a gentle breeze, chiffon clouds and a high of 68F.
Daily Catskills: 05/07/23
Sunny with a high of 69F and humid, with the cloud thickening to the texture of wrinkled wax paper by days end. Dandelions out in force.
Daily Catskills: 05/06/23
A warm sunny day with a high of 66F. Hot in the sun with drifting clouds looking like they had sailed through a dirty puddle.
Daily Catskills: 05/05/23
A sunny morning, at last, becoming overcast after lunch, but still bright with a high of 57F. Late afternoon sprinkles, combined with the sun’s rays bursting through gaps in the enormous clouds. A true mess of weather.
Daily Catskills: 05/04/23
“Empty your mind. Be formless, be shapeless, be water. You put water in the cup. It becomes the cup. Put water in the teapot. It becomes the teapot. Water can flow, drip creep or crash. Be like water, my friend.” Bruce Lee (who never labelled Tree Juice Maple Syrup). Yet more water falling from the sky causing impatience, and a high of 55F.
Daily Catskills: 05/03/23
An enigmatic day with continual showers, a high of 46F, and fine misty cloud like a wedding veil. The earth gets married to the rain.
Daily Catskills: 05/02/23
Nature just couldn’t make up her mind today: rain, sun, rain, sun with a high of 51F and a bitter chill. Cinematic cloud cover.
Daily Catskills: 05/01/23
Rainy, overcast and chilly for most of the day with a high of 54F, but you would hardly believe that on the peaks at sunset, under a shining sky layered with milky blue whipped cloud. A glorious end to an unremarkable day.
Daily Catskills: 04/30/23
All-day drizzle, with misty, foggy cloud and a high of 56F. Leaves unfurling in the rain.
