I’m proud to be a participant in the Open Studios event of Upstate Art Weekend. I will open my studios to visitors on May 16th & 17th, 2026 from 11am to 5pm. Visitors will able to see my current projects, and buy printed photography and original artwork.
It’s been a joy to spend the first month of spring inspecting the trail at the East Branch Nature Preserve at the Catskills Water Discovery Center, a local Catskills conversation non-profit where I have been a board member and secretary since last fall. Last October, a fellow board member and I walked with Laura Silverman of the Outside Institute, and we identified many plant and tree species on our trail. We developed a list of everything that we found on the trail and spent spring watching all of it slowly wake from its slumber.
This week, we walked with the Catskills Forest Association to identify our tree species and prepare for a Tree Identification event that will be open to the public this year.
The board was contacted last year by the DEC to ask permission to stock brown trout in the East Branch River along our trail, and this week, 750 brown trout were released into the river. In response to this request, we decided to permit fishing in the Preserve. Please feel free to obtain a fishing permit and fish for brown trout. The Preserve is open to the public from dawn to dusk.
The nicest access to the Preserve is from the parking lot at the Catskills Recreation Center. Park at the far right of the lot as you go in, the farthest from the Volley Ball court, and then taking the Becky Manning Trail through CWC property to find the trail. You’ll find this map at the trailhead:
Please look both ways when crossing the Delaware and Ulster railroad that will be starting up its train tours this spring. Dogs should be leashed and please pack out the poop. Poop needs to be packed out so its smell doesn’t deter wildlife. We have a regular hunter on the trail, that could be coyote, or fox, and we would hate for it to move on. Plus we have very active beavers who are taking down trees to build their dam.
It probably doesn’t need mentioning that nature is the only part of life that seems to make sense at the moment, because we are nature itself. Just a half-hour walk on the trail and all my worries dissolve for a short time. I’m proud to be a working naturalist on the East Branch Preserve trail.
This week, we found some spring ephemerals hanging on despite the snow on Monday: a patch of Trout Lilies. Spring ephemerals flower only for a few weeks in spring when the forest canopy has not yet filled in, which makes them so special. This patch was dotted with the lily’s drooping yellow flowers:
And in wonderful news, we have many serviceberry trees, in addition to plenty of fruiting ironwood (hornbeam), crab apple, willow, birch, quaking aspen, dogwood and sumac. We also have invasive species that can be used in many ways: honeysuckle, and knotweed, which is an edible plant rather like rhubarb or celery: a bitter vegetable with lots of fibre.
I have found solace in the trail this week and I wish that for you too. Please join me on the trail. I will post here when I visit, to give you a chance to catch up with me.
And in bigger news, I will be offering my Art x Nature art classes at the Preserve throughout Spring for a donation to the Center. Your donation will help to manage the trail and pay for events and outreach. Please post in the comments section or DM me if you would be interested.
Happy Spring!
Upstate Dispatch studio is open for business throughout April: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12-4pm and by appointment.
Drop by for tea and snacks, take in the local art. Pick up a copy of the journal Upstate Dispatch!
A new journal for Summer 2026 is going to print in May.
For decades we’ve known and experienced automation eating up not only our jobs, but more important, our life and work experiences. For me, working in journalism opened my eyes in ways that normal life could not. I have heard the stories of hundreds of real people over the decades, on three continents, enriching my life immeasurably. . Although not dead yet, journalism is fading quickly and it’s impossible to make a living in this field now for most of us. Local newspapers are struggling. Influencers don’t have to adhere to journalistic rules and methods. One way we can all help is to buy our local newspaper every day or week.
Eventually social media created the “citizen journalist”, someone who doesn’t need to even leave their living room, and the web is filled with talking heads who have never been anywhere. Much of working journalism in cities half the time is liaising with PR agents on the latest brand offerings.
Much of my business work, helping people run businesses, can be executed with an app these days, but people are still wary of putting their books or other sensitive data in an app on their phone. Plus, people will still not take a picture of every receipt with their phone, for the reason they didn’t want to collect physical receipts.
I’ve helped so many artists and creatives start and run businesses and this has given me so much invaluable knowledge and experience that, in future, will get gobbled up by an app and get sent as information to a corporation. We are giving our lives (and work) to corporations instead of each other. How are young people getting the experience they need now? How are they becoming resourceful enough to live a rich life?
What we are losing with automation is not just jobs, but community and we need to get back together, friends.
We are also losing focus. Fewer and fewer people are reading books. People have plenty of time to scroll, but no time to read a book. Book reading broadens the mind the way travel does. If you don’t support your local library it will go away, like your local newspaper. The argument against books (that it uses up trees, a precious resource) seems hypocritical now that we know how endless disposable electronics are using up our precious earth. Books are not disposable. Over the next few weeks, I will be giving away several books a week to the local library.
Finally, here at Upstate Dispatch, I’ve produced hundreds of words and images that may now just be stolen, recycled by AI and used for free, and so I decided to start my own analog project, which appears to be a growing movement. I’d like to use my background in communications for a real life. I opened a studio/gallery to sell real art and words, to real people and invite people into my life physically instead of virtually. I’m going to publish two new Upstate Dispatch journals and start a local publishing house.
Coming next:
Sunday Letter Writing Project (part of The Analog Project)
SUNDAYS 11am – 1pm, March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th March, 2026
Come and write actual letters or postcards to, or make sketches for, people you haven’t spoken to, or heard from for a while. This group will be guided by me and, perhaps, you! Postcards of my photography will be for sale. Assorted art supplies, pens, printer paper, and small envelopes will be provided. For long fancy letters, bring your own stationery. Suggested donation: $10.
818 Main Street, Margaretville, NY
I look forward to helping you write IRL.
Future Projects coming up in Spring: A Writers’ Room, The Catskills Mandala Project, book club, small works club, and a sketch Club. I will also be highlighting ways to be more analog, if not “go analog”, here in the Catskills.
I’ve heard from some of you about wanting to write (stories, letters) but not wanting to commit to a class, but more importantly needing community and suffering from cabin fever. So I’m starting a weekly writer’s room, opening at days and times below. Drop in for some tea, a desk, and a dash of inspiration. There will be a new Spring show up on the walls.
Sunday lunchtimes will also be part of the letter writing sessions as part of the UD Analog Project. Postcards will be on sale, or bring your own stationery.
Opening Times:
Wednesdays 3-7pm. March 4th, 11th, 18th & 25th, 2026
Sundays 11-1pm. March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th March, 2026.
818 Main Street, Shopfront, Margaretville, NY. Suggested donation: $5.
Creative Writing for All Levels: Wednesdays 4pm-7pm beginning Feb 25th, 2026
Although this class welcomes beginners, it will also be a good refresher for those who have not written in years. Hone your existing craft, or start from the beginning. For distracted writers and those suffering cabin fever, this will be a chance to focus on yourself for three hours a week, for six weeks.
The sessions will be guided with prompts like tarot cards, art, flash cards and a small library of contemporary memoir.
Participants will be expected to write in class, asked to read their work aloud and receive constructive critique in a safe, supportive and respectful forum.
Six classes over six weeks beginning Wednesday February 25th, 2026. 4-7pm in person at 818 Main Street, Margaretville, NY. Places are limited to ten participants. $120 per person.
An additional remote-only class will also be available beginning in March.
Sign up for Future Memoirists: Journaling Classes – All Levels
I’m gauging interest for a spring journaling class to begin in February. This class is for budding memoirists who would like to turn their diary into a future memoir. The class also welcomes beginners and writers who have not written a diary in years. Hone your existing craft, or simply learn more about yourself by writing. For distracted writers and those suffering cabin fever, this will be a chance to focus on yourself for three hours a week, for six weeks.
The sessions will be guided with prompts like tarot cards, art, flash cards and a small library of contemporary memoir.
Participants will be expected to write in class and read their work aloud and receive constructive criticism a safe, supportive and respectful forum. Weekly homework will also be set and critiqued in following classes.
Private sessions are also available. Please email info@upstatedispatch.com.
Sign up for the Analog Project: The Art of Letter Writing – All Levels
I’m gauging interest for the Upstate Dispatch Analog Project. Please comment below or email: info@upstatedispatch.com to register interest and your best times/dates to participate. The Letter Writing Project invites members of the community to come together in an easy environment to write actual letters to friends or family all over the world. Bring your own stationery, pens, notes, books and any other writing materials.
The sessions will be guided. Participants will not be required to read aloud, but they can if they would like to. Tea, coffee and stamps will be provided so those letters can go out immediately. $10 per person per session.
Upstate Dispatch also offers private writing classes in journaling, creative writing and letter writing. Contact info@upstatedispatch.com for details.
About Jenny Neal
Jenny Neal has three decades of experience as a published writer-for-hire and journalist on two continents, and locally here in the Catskills for Watershed Post, Green Door, Hudson Valley Edible and here on Upstate Dispatch. Subscribe to her Substack here.
It felt like 2025 barreled like a runaway train, right out of the gate, headlong to its sudden and swift end, like it was shuddering on the rails, at speed, while we bounced around on the seats and clung to the handrails for dear life. Was it just me that felt that way?
For me, the holidays very much seemed like 2025 hit the buffers in the terminal with a crashing thump. I couldn’t write nor paint during the festive season, so I had to stop and think for a few weeks. I did a lot of winter hiking and the season seems to be getting colder and colder every year, but it sharpens the senses. I focused on the requests I’ve had in 2025: a few more chapters on Alfie. (The first three you can find here, here and here). He is coming up on his 13th birthday and his kidneys appear to be slowly winding down, a fact that overshadowed the year. There were also requests for more watercolor birds, which have been my most popular art so far, and it was rewarding to offer affordable original pieces to everyone.
Nobody wants the nudes, (one is currently on show at ArtUp Margaretville), which was disappointing because I’ve worked quite hard in figure drawing over the years and produced work that nobody wants. I’m told that it’s a good exercise to do good work, then rip it up and start again. I hope to start winter figure drawing soon.
And then there is the new space, a new studio on 818 Main Street in Margaretville that doesn’t feel quite right somehow. It feels lonely to be out on the street on one’s own instead of nestled in a studio with other artists all together. I’m already looking around for somewhere else to put Upstate Dispatch, but it has to have a kitchen, so I can make everyone tea and coffee. Next weekend, I will be opening the studio January 9th, 10th and 11th from 12pm-4pm for the final showing of the seasonal show “Spring in Winter” that includes my Catskills Mandalas.
The Catskills Mandala Project will encompass other artists this year and I am planning a show of that work in the summer. It’s going to be a colorful 2026.
Finally, The Delaware National Bank of Delhi on Route 28 in Margaretville has asked me to show my work there, so all my framed photographic work will be going up there when I can get to it in the next week or two.
Happy New Year! I wish everyone a peaceful and fulfilling 2026.
The Gallery on 818 Main Street, Margaretville, NY 12455. Opening hours: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12pm-4pm.
It’s official! Upstate Dispatch has a shopfront at 818 Main Street in Margaretville, Upstate NY.
Who starts a new business at the onset of a Catskills winter? You might ask. I had been looking for a location for about a year and this one came up for rent unexpectedly. Properties like this don’t come along very often, so I decided to grab it and try it for a year or two. Historically, it has been difficult to get customers out of the house in the depths of winter, but there are so many business in the village now that I’m hoping to get some holiday foot-traffic.
It’s always been a dream of mine: to have a shopfront art studio. Back when I first visited New York City in the late 1990s, there were so many artists who took up residence in the “missing teeth” – empty shopfronts – of places like Williamsburg and Greenpoint, areas that were ghosts of their present selves at that time. There was even a makeshift art gallery run by artists in the cavernous depths of one of the gigantic abutments of Williamsburg bridge, where I bought my first painting on an installment plan. A group of artists had got together, painting the interior of the abutment’s basement a blinding white and put in sections for each artist.
Right now, glistening residential tower blocks rise like shards of glass out of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, making them look like Manhattan’s Soho, but 30 years ago they were ghost towns that had cars burning in the streets, with artists burrowed into abandoned commercial spaces.
New projects are planned for this new space on Main Street: a writer’s room, art classes, art talks, hosted salons by visiting art dealers and gallerists, and more.
Save the date: Friday December 5th 4-7pm, there will be a soft opening and artist’s reception with a group art show tentatively entitled “Spring in Winter”. On display will be some colorful spring scenes to brighten up these dim days. But mostly, it’s a party to celebrate being part of the local art community, to offer a warming beverage and some local catering.
In a year-long project that begins this month, entitled Art x Nature, I will be hosting seasonal shows: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. I am now looking for artists to represent in these shows and studio visits will begin next week. I’m looking for small, medium and large works, and of course, I’d like to include affordable art, like postcards, books and magazines.
This holiday show will feature David George (scenic European watercolors pictured above), Elena Peabody (botanical illustrations), Cena Pohl Crane (oil on canvas), and myself (new bird studies, and mandalas). The show will run through the holidays and include my own photographs of the Catskills, prints, books and more.
Set weekend opening hours will be begin in December closer to the holidays. However, this month (November), I will be posting my attendance on this blog and Instagram if you happen to be in the area. Please email me at info@upstatedispatch.com or message me on Instagram (below) to arrange a visit.
Upstate Dispatch Studio, 818 Main Street, Margaretville, NY. (Next to Annex).
Wish me luck!
As a long-term, full-time resident of the Catskills, I’ve been on boards and community organizations for almost 15 years, starting with a 7-year stint on community radio at WIOX in Roxbury in 2011. Since then, with the exception of the COVID years, I have been a board member of The Catskills Center, John Burroughs’ Woodchuck Lodge, and briefly for the Catskills Water Discovery Center (CWDC). I am now returning to the CWDC.
The CWDC is an educational organization that tells the story, past and present, of the New York City water supply system. It has also recently completed the wonderful East Branch Nature Preserve in Arkville.
Water is one of the world’s most precious resources, and here in the Catskills, residents are burdened with an additional obligation to protect it now that is the drinking water for millions of downstate residents. It’s a complicated, and sometimes painful history, for many Catskillians. The CWDC is tasked with conveying that story, and promoting good land and water stewardship.
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June 28 saw the opening reception of artist Luke Dougherty’s superbly ethereal “Here a Mist, There a Mist” at Hawk & Hive gallery in Andes, NY on show until July 27, 2025.
There is much more to this body of work and so the gallery show has been named “Part I” of the show. The artist will also host a one-day open studio and reception on July 13 2025 from noon – 3pm for a viewing of “Part II”.
Continue readingThere’s something for everyone in this beautiful little hamlet.
Last month, Estro New York opened in the former Wilson’s Bread premises on Main Street in Andes. This eclectic new design store with “furniture, art and objects”, mostly vintage, joins coffee shops, diners, a grocery store, book store, a working farm, art galleries, a hotel-restaurant-bar owned by one of the community’s most committed members, the tasting room of a local cider-maker, library, historical society, vintage clothing stores, record shop, wine store, a yoga studio, and finally, an art space, where weekly figure drawing classes are held during the summer by the cool, babbling brook that runs through the town.
*Pauses to take a deep breath* Have I left anything out?
All these businesses make this gorgeous little hamlet one of the Great Western Catskills’ most diverse small towns.
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No nudes is bad news.
I joined the Catskills life drawing group back in 2016 and I credit these weekly sessions, that only paused during the pandemic, for improving not only my sketching skills, but also my observational skills. The human form is the most difficult subject to draw and I’m only just beginning to draw feet after almost ten years of practice. I’ve given myself a goal of decent hands by the end of the year.
I have lived for this habit over the years. For three hours, I shut out the world with intense focus. Our little group of dedicated life drawers, assembles wherever we can, sometimes in the Upstate Dispatch studio, whenever we can, in all weathers.
This past winter, we dedicated artists have braved all the atrocious Catskills weather, the bone-crunching frigid temperatures that freeze the fluid in your eyeballs, emerging from our snug hiding places to hone our skill at ArtUp, organized by Gary Mayer. Not to mention our brave models that bare all for us for three hours every week, after having driven from far-flung corners of the region.
The result of this past winter’s work is the new exhibition “Skin and Bone”, at ArtUp in Margaretville.
Participating artists: Suzanne Ausnit, Steve Burnett, Chris Criswell, Sandra Finkenberg, Patrice Lorenz, Gary Mayer, Joe Miller and myself, Jenny Neal, all representing wildly differing styles, all dedicated observers of the human form. I have sixty small nudes on offer including the one pictured above. Last week, a fellow artist described me as follows: “you paint like you’re whispering in someone’s ear” after I told them that I paint like somebody who can’t afford paint; less is more, my brush seems to be saying.
Gary Mayer, who organized the winter sessions says: “intense observation and concentration unites our little group of artists and model, once a week”.
The show runs until Sunday April 6. Opening reception: Friday March 28, 4-7pm.
ArtUp, 746 Main Street, Binnekill Square, Margaretville, NY 12455.
“Since I have benefited from making art, and it has been part of my healing journey, I want other people to have that opportunity. I want to help as many people as I can, providing the place and the materials, because I am passionate about art and what an incredible practice it is. You move emotions by making art.”
Fine artist Bea Ortiz has had her own health issues abated by staying true to her artistic practice.
Having arrived in New York City in 1998 from her native Spain after graduating in 1997, her first job as an artist was restoring a mural in a Spanish restaurant in Astor Place. The owner of the restaurant, which had suffered a leak that washed out the painting on one wall, asked her if she could re-paint the damaged wall of the mural that resembled the work of Joan Miro. The restoration was a success and the owner was pleased with her work, so he recommended her to other people. Soon she had a thriving business in the decorative arts: painting murals, gilding and creating faux finishes like marble and Venetian plaster, in private homes and businesses across the city, elsewhere in the US and abroad. She also did set design creating murals and faux finishes for an advertising company based in Long Island City.
“I didn’t know that there was such a world before I got into it”, she says. “First off, I had to learn a lot of very specific English. When anybody asked me if I could do [a job], I just said yes, and if I didn’t know, I would just figure it out. Mostly, I would be working in a team, so I was learning as I went, tips and tricks even taping – to prepare for painting – is a method. How to prepare surfaces. So, I learnt a lot of technical things about this trade that I did not learn in college.”
After many years of freelancing, in 2016 Bea took a full-time job in decorative arts and shortly thereafter her health began to deteriorate. She experienced a lot of physical difficulties in a job in which she had to be very athletic on a daily basis, climbing scaffolding and constantly moving. “I could barely walk. I couldn’t move my hands. It became an incredible struggle just to make it to work”.
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When I first began to explore Jake’s farm, Lazy Crazy Acres, in that winter of 2020, I noticed what looked like old, dead bamboo by the river – very tall beige rods with those distinctive horizontal ridges – but it was actually Japanese Knotweed, a member of the buckwheat family. This imported Japanese ornamental is everywhere and is as exceptionally difficult to eradicate as any living pest like the emerald ash borer or hemlock wooly adelgid. It’s a problem because it’s so incredibly voracious, growing by feet in a day, and its roots can destroy the foundation of a house. The stems can grow up to 15ft tall, and they block natural light for any other plant beneath it. The plant quickly takes over large areas and smothers everything on the forest floor below and disrupts wildlife habitats. It has beautiful large spade-shaped leaves with their deep blood-red stems, all shooting from hollow green bamboo-like rods.
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Water is ubiquitous in the Catskills, flowing along side us everywhere we go: rivers, streams, and creeks provide nature’s musical summer backdrop as we drive the roads and hike the mountains. Country homeowners – outside village municipal water supplies – are delivered this precious resource via wells and springs. Residents and business owners of the Catskills are tasked with protecting the water and sending it down to New York City as cleanly as possible.
Things you may not know about the Catskills when you move here: constant work is needed to protect our groundwater. The Catskills Watershed Corporation hosts conferences, events, and organizations like the Water Discovery Center in which you can educate yourself and help to protect the water.
Coming on June 7th is Groundwater in the Catskills: Challenges and Solutions, a one-day conference presented by the Catskill Water Discovery Center with the Margaretville Rotary Club, and Rotary District 7170 from 10 am to 3 pm in the auditorium of the Catskill Watershed Corporation, 669 Hwy 38, Arkville, NY 12406. Tickets are $10 including lunch, and are available at: Eventbrite directly or access Eventbrite through the Water Discovery Center’s website.
According to the CWDC: “Globally, groundwater is an essential drinking water source that is at risk in many places. Locally, residents in the Catskills, including those in the NYC watershed, encounter variable drinking water conditions via private wells or municipal systems, seemingly illogical given that the NYC’s surface water reservoir system provides exceptional drinking water to nine million people.”
The conference will explore the problems Catskills municipalities, and residents, farms and other users of groundwater, encounter – problems such as arsenic, sulfur, iron, lead, copper, chlorides, coliform/E Coli, nitrates and gasses including methane, and carbon dioxide. Speakers will examine where contaminants come from and how they can be addressed.
Featured speakers include representatives from the State’s Drinking Water Source Protection Program (DWSP2), led by NYSDEC and NYS DOH in collaboration with other state agencies.
Residents living within the NYC watershed, may benefit from measures put in place for protection of the surface water. A representative from NYC DEP will speak to those protections.
The afternoon panel session will include the morning’s speakers plus municipal leaders from Andes and Middletown and representatives from the Catskill Watershed Corporation, Watershed Agricultural Council, and the Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District.
I’ve paused Daily Catskills because I no longer get any feedback, and this website takes hundreds of hours to shoot and write. Do you enjoy the posts? Let me know and if enough people comment, I’ll pick it up this winter. I decided to enjoy this glorious fall in the Catskills instead of feeling pressure to get the best shot.
Additionally, I have a very long story to tell and I have started my memoir on Substack, the place where writers can get paid for their work. For a monthly subscription of $5, you can be entertained by all the stories behind the best pictures that have been offered free for the last decade. Do you want to read the – sometimes hilarious – stories behind these images? Hiking mishaps, radio daze, farming, food, booze, conversations and the dog’s life, in eight long-form posts a month: that’s 62 cents for an essay of 1000-2000 words.
If you’ve been enjoying Upstate Dispatch free for eight years, please consider subscribing so I can turn my story into a book. If you love what you see, please consider sharing on social media, so I can raise my subscriber level to make it worthwhile.
Thanks!
A beautiful sunrise with the summit of Balsam Mountain getting engulfed in a tiny snow storm. A sunny day with a high of 58F.
Getting crisp, but still warm in the sun, despite giant clouds and a high around 60F.
Overcast with a blanket of rippling cloud that allows occasional sunburst and a high in the low sixties. Gloomy in the woods mid-afternoon.
A little warmer with a high of 58F and a mixed lot of multifarious cloud cover.
Nippy! A high of 52F with a mix of sun and clouds. Comfort food weather: squash soup, chickpea patty, and rose latte with oat milk at Village East.
A jumble of weather: giant, scene-stealing clouds, scattered showers and some sunny spells with a high of 60F.
All day rain and the ubiquitous foggy mist. Humid with a high of 66F. The dullness is muting the fall colors.
Overcast and gloomy today, and humid with a high of 78F. Dinner at the Print House.
Another sweltering July day in October: a high of 86F with gauzy cloud and leaves flying in the wind like confetti.
Another scorcher: a high of 86F with a virtually cloudless sky, save for the odd scattering of cotton balls in the distance. Fall and Summer collide to make a gorgeous day.
A fall scorcher: a high of 82F with clear skies and another serene sunset.
A hot sunny day, mostly clear except for a couple of big fluffy cotton wool clouds and a high of 76F. Serene sunset.
Sunny and warm with a high of 75F. Clear blue sky. A fall scorcher.
More fog and drizzle: humid and overcast with streaky chunks of cloud that cleared at sunset. Leaves a-falling.
Misty rain on the peaks becoming heavier in the valleys. Humid and foggy with a high of 66F. A muted red glow at sunset.
Another crisp morning under a big dome of pale blue with cloud moving in early afternoon. Humid with a high of 68F. Fall colors are muted by the cloud.
A clear, still morning with fog in the valleys. Mostly clear sky all day, and a giant moon. A high of 62F.
Overcast and dull until late afternoon, and humid with a high of 60F. A hazy sunset.
Windy, chilly and rainy with a high of 57F. Day 3 of Fall and we are setting off to a gloomy start.
Another chilly, wet day with cold rain, and foggy mist obscuring the yellowing of the foliage. A high of 58F.
Gloomy and chilly with rain for most of the day, and a high of 56F. A watery, soggy first day of Fall.
A bright day with cloud like a thin veil, and one big fluffy cloud that looked lost. A high of 69F and another fiery sunset. The last day of summer.
A chilly sunrise with overnight frost whitening the flora, and steaming mist rising into a crystal clear sky. A crisp day, with a high of 69F and the landscape looking like it’s slowly being sanded down. This is the penultimate day of summer.
Warm and sunny, with wispy bits of cloud like someone didn’t clean up the sky properly and a high of 70F. Overnight lows dipping into the thirties. Frost warning.
An overcast and gloomy morning clearing up mid-afternoon to late evening and a clear blue sunset. Chilly with some sprinkles and a high of 64F. Lows in the fifties.
Gloomy and raining, with all-day foggy mist creeping around the mountains, creating a enigmatic day and a high of 65F.
A chill in the air, and warm in the sun but mostly overcast with a flat swathes of menacing cloud. Late afternoon rain and a high of 67F.
Warm and sunny, mostly clear with a high of 71F.
A high of 67F, and sunny despite some flat cloud cover that transformed into a fiery sunset.
A heavily misty, dewy morning, lightening up to become sunny and warm with a high of 68F.
Gloomy and rainy, with intermittent showers leaving a trail of thick mist in their wake. A high of 71F and humid. The goldenrod is enjoying this late summer.
Bright and warm with scattered clouds like a handful of odd, mismatched clouds were chucked in the air, and a high of 79F.
Gloomy: overcast and dull with misty late afternoon rain and a high of 75F.
Muggy, still and overcast with low cloud and a high of 77F. Late afternoon drizzle gave way to some patches of blue. A barely discernible reddening of the landscape. The greens aren’t giving up yet.
Morning fog hugged the peaks. Some gauzy, thick afternoon cloud. A high of 83F. Post-sunset rain.
Yes, I’m still here! I know some of you can’t believe it. It is, however, the 9th birthday of Upstate Dispatch and this is the 2,355th post. Yes, I persist. The Daily Catskills section began again this year on September 1st for the fall season, but it’s just too much work to maintain it year-round. (BTW, there are a few splotches of red in the foliage here and there, and in small pockets, mostly shady areas, we have piles of fallen leaves, but because of the heat, it still feels like summer. Try telling that to the tomatoes, though.)
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I have mostly been focusing on art, and writing. I’m working on a memoir, not because I’m special, but because there’s a story here that I need to tell. Part of this story was published in Farmerish and it was well-received. You can read it here.
I will be publishing an introduction, some excerpts, and companion pieces to this memoir on Substack: a “new economic engine for culture”, which is a paid newsletter that gives writers a chance to earn a living. For those of you who are interested in paying a very small subscription for my content. Here’s a chance to find out more about who I am. I hope to see you there!
Finally, I often go out for lunch, breakfast or dinner in the Catskills and hear about how Upstate Dispatch has helped local businesses. I really appreciate the feedback and thank everyone for their support.
Jenny Neal 9/9/23
Another steamy day, overcast and dry with a high of 83F. Post-sunset torrential downpours cool the evening air.
A steamy day. Hot and humid, with plump, fluffy cloud and a high of 89F. Mid-afternoon thunder and rain that took a pause for sunset and then continued with epic house-rattling thunder and lightning after dark. Some epic weather.
Heavy and humid, mostly sunny with a high of 90F, but cool in the shade. Sweaty.
