Getting chillier: dull and overcast for most of the day with a grubby, matte blanket of cloud. A high of 54F and afternoon rain continuing into the evening. Overnight low of 41F.
Daily Catskills: 05/28/21
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Daily Catskills: 05/27/21
Getting cooler: a high of 70F with mixed sun and clouds. Canada mayflowers join the forest crew of spring ephemerals.
Daily Catskills: 05/26/21
A hot start to the day, 73F by 9.30am, rising to a high of 86F: the afternoon sky looking like it was stolen from a film set. Much-needed rain begins at 5pm and continues intermittently until just after sunset.
Lilac Lemonade
There are all manner of syrups and mixers that you can make with spring blooms: but one plant we haven’t covered here is lilac because it has such a short window of blossoming. It has reached its prime in the last week here in the Catskills. Lilac has such a distinctive, unique flavor and pairs well with any citrus, but tastes better in lemonade. To add a little body, add some thyme to the mix to make this a mixer that works better with gin.
For A Lilac Lemonade (with or without thyme)
Pick a ziplock bag of blooms for every mason jar. Cut them off the stalks. Stuff only half of them in the mason jar if you’re adding thyme. Add a quarter cup of freshly picked thyme, then add the other half of the bag of blooms. Steep in the fridge overnight and strain in the morning. It will go bright pink.
Daily Catskills: 05/25/21
A warm sunny morning, rising to a high of 77F. Blazing sun despite some cloud cover.
Daily Catskills: 05/24/21
Sunny and bright despite the clouds that become ominous early evening. Breezy and warm with a high of 68F.
Daily Catskills: 05/23/21
More gorgeousness. A high of 81F with a mix of sun and clouds, early evening rain and fog on the peaks. A sultry day. Grasses are high and filled with ticks. Hay season on the horizon.
Daily Catskills: 05/22/21
Sunny despite the milky blue cloud cover. Humid with a high of 82F. Balmy. Planting of seedlings continues.
Daily Catskills: 05/21/21
A bright morning warming up to a sweltering high of 87F, well, sweltering for this time of year. Bees doing their first swarm of the season (the dark mass at top right).
Daily Catskills: 05/20/21
A day of mixed cloud, but still hot in the sun, with a high of 83F. Another scorcher. Lilac blooms.
Daily Catskills: 05/19/21
A high of 83F, humid and hot. Cool in the creeks.
Daily Catskills: 05/18/21
A spring scorcher: a high of 76F and mostly sunny.
Daily Catskills: 05/17/21
A warm morning, mostly sunny and a high of 73F. Brief mid-afternoon rain with the cloud cover breaking up into jigsaw puzzle pieces at sunset.
Daily Catskills: 05/16/21
Warm and humid with milky blue clouds. A high of 71F.
Daily Catskills: 05/15/21
A warm and sunny Saturday. Rolling clouds with grey undertones and a high of 71F.
Daily Catskills: 05/14/21
Clear skies all morning with the odd faraway cloud and a hazy horizon, with clouds moving in mid-afternoon. Warm and humid with a high of 69F. Fields full of new white wild flowers to take over from the dandelions. Lilac budding. Brief early evening rain produces a double rainbow.
Daily Catskills: 05/13/21
Balmy, with huge clouds looking like an armada of space ships and a high of 64F. Rivers still running high and spruce tips busting out.
Daily Catskills: 05/12/21
Rolling clouds, a high of 61F with the landscape of greens becoming greener by the hour in the warm sunshine.
Daily Catskills: 05/11/21
Periods of sunshine with billowing cloud and a high of 55F.
Daily Catskills: 05/10/21
Gloomy and overcast. A high of 52F. Threatening rain all day and finally delivering at before sunset.
Daily Catskills: 05/09/21
A sunny morning leading to afternoon rain. Overcast and raining for most of the afternoon and a high of 47F.
Daily Catskills: 05/08/21
Humid and overcast with rain for most of the day, ending just before dusk. A high of 48F. Fields of dandelions closed for the day.
Daily Catskills: 05/07/21
Another gorgeous day: a beautiful morning with a cloudless sky, rising to 58F. Cool in the sap bush.
Daily Catskills: 05/06/21
Finally, the sun comes out. A high of 58F and a hazy sky. Ramping continues.
Daily Catskills: 05/05/21
Overcast and misty with fog hugging the mountains and a high of 58F. Rain for most of the day ending at dusk.
Daily Catskills: 05/04/21
Humid and overcast with fog curled snugly over the peaks. Some rain and a high of 71F. All colors of green budding in the lush forest. Gorgeous.
Daily Catskills: 05/03/21
Overcast and humid, rising to 61F by mid-afternoon with a light breeze. Sprinkles of warm rain at noon turn heavier by mid-afternoon. Heavy rain and fog for the rest of the day.
Daily Catskills: 05/02/21
A cold start to the day rising to 73F by noon with blazing sunshine and billowing clouds. Trees budding. Tractors out. A great day for planting.
Daily Catskills: 05/01/21
Spring in the Catskills: “frostbite in the morning, sunburn in the afternoon”. Overnight snow on the peaks and overcast with a bitter wind, rising to 60F and sunny by mid-afternoon with fat cotton wool clouds.
Catskills Conversations: Amy Masters
A YouTube interview with Catskills artist Amy Masters, who I last interviewed five years ago in 2016 in her gorgeous studio, designed by Ted Sheridan, when she was working on print making. Yesterday I spoke to Amy about how her pandemic has been, what she has been working on and her plans for 2021, which includes opening a gallery on Main Street in Fleischmanns, Upstate New York this coming summer.
Catskills Conversations: 14 Minutes with the Inestimable Dr Bill Birns
Interview with Dr Bill Birns, retired school teacher of the Catskills. Upstate Dispatch caught up with him at the beginning of this year, 2021 for a quick update on what he’s reading and writing, and how his pandemic has been.
Daily Catskills: 04/17/21
Overcast and chilly with a high of 45F. Some light drizzle. Socially distant jazz at RAG.
Daily Catskills: 04/16/21
More fog, mist, rain and humid with a high of 45F.
Daily Catskills: 04/15/21
Rain, mist and fog shroud the Catskills all day. Overcast with a high of 54F. Rain turns to snow at dusk. Heavier snow the more west you go. Spring blooms stand out against the stormy landscape.
Daily Catskills: 04/14/21
Another moody day: overcast and humid with a high of 63F. The old collapsed barn on Breezy Hill, built in 1885, is finally taken away.
Daily Catskills: 04/13/21
A gloomy start with plump clouds clearing late afternoon for a sunny evening and a high of 63F.
The Upstate Dispatch You Tube Channel: Laura Silverman of The Outside Institute
It’s always a joy to interview Laura Silverman, founding naturalist of The Outside Institute. We caught up with her just before the holidays to see how she had spent her quarantine, what she was working on, and her thoughts on the pandemic and beating the blues by getting back into nature.
Daily Catskills: 04/12/21
Overcast with dark stormy clouds with mist and light rain. A high of 45F. Moody.
Daily Catskills: 04/11/21
Humid and overcast with swirling, dark, foggy cloud and light rain. A high of 60F.
Daily Catskills: 04/10/21
Glorious spring day: a high of 73F, hazy cloud, and a balmy, enigmatic sunset.
Daily Catskills: 04/09/21
The weather takes a grim turn: overcast and humid with late afternoon rain. A high of 63F. Gloomy.
Daily Catskills: 04/08/21
Warm and sunny. Clear skies with the odd lost cloud passing through. Breezy with a high of 70F. This year’s ramps are coming up early.
Daily Catskills: 04/07/21
Clear skies except the occasional wisp of cotton ball cloud and already 57F by mid-morning. A high of 71F. The first scorcher of the year. The last maple boil of the season took place at Tree Juice Maple Syrup today.
The Upstate Dispatch Homestead Is For Sale
As the saying goes: the only constant in life is change, and I am moving on to pastures new. Upstate Dispatch is hopping over the mountain to a new HQ. We are selling the homestead in which I quarantined alone during the pandemic with my dog Alfie, the homestead that we spent over 10 years developing – for these recent events, no less – which is featured on this blog. Scroll through Upstate Dispatch and see how the property has grown over the past decade.
It’s not perfect, and we spent our time paying much more attention to the outside than the inside because we were establishing a homestead first and foremost. The focus was mostly on the land, and it’s truly a sweet spot, zoned agricultural, between Fleischmanns and Red Kill Mountain, situated on a secluded dead-end road, on top of a mountain at 2,200 feet on 6 acres with magnificent views especially in the winter.
Half of the property – the three-acre field – is old pasture land lined with stone walls in which we have built a full, fenced garden with raised beds, bee hives with electrified enclosure and a fruit orchard, set amidst a mix of rolling lawn and wildflower meadow, with mullein, mint, lilac, forsythia, masses of wild thyme, trout lilies, wild strawberries, wild blackberries, a line of young hemlocks, an ancient apple tree and a small-but-expanding ramp patch. In the orchard, we have ten apple trees, peaches, plums, eight hazelnut trees, Concord grapes, rhubarb, lilac, over-wintering sage and pears. The other half of the property is forest with its own trail and a small clearing within it, in which stands the house. In our woods, over the years I have foraged mushrooms: chanterelles, turkey tail, boletes, morels, ghost pipe and medicinal reishi.
The southerly views were a source of strength throughout the pandemic. From the deck you can see Belleayre Ski-Mountain and Slide Mountain to the south, and Brush Ridge and Halcott Mountain to the east. The views are mostly filled in with a line of towering oaks during the summer, but you don’t need them then, because the sheer beauty of the property is more than enough. The three-acre field used to be all hay. When the realtor showed us the property, we got out of the car – remember getting rides in cars? – and my husband walked towards the hay and then slowly took off at a cantor until he disappeared and all we could see were the soles of his feet rising up and down in the tall brush, arms outstretched as if he were conducting a grassy orchestra. I turned to the realtor and said: “I think this is the one”. The oaks also serve as privacy from your lovely neighbors on the ridge which is a subdivision of nine houses.
In the depths of winter, with the panoramic views, you can see the weather approaching from hundreds of miles away. For years we would work at our dining table that was situated in front of large-paned sliding doors and watch nature in all her glory. Sometimes a dense chalky cloud would loom into view, hover briefly over a neighboring mountain as if it were merely stopping to drop someone off, and engulf its peak, silently laying a white cap of snow like it was a huge machine icing a cake before moving slowly on. Storm clouds would glide past in the middle distance like floating balled up socks, flashing erratically, dropping blurry sheets of rain like shower curtains, exploding with flashing lights and emitting furious, powerful thunder that made the house shudder.
Continue readingDaily Catskills: 04/06/21
Another gorgeous day, warm and sunny with a high of 63F.
Daily Catskills: 04/05/21
Brilliant sunshine all day, breezy with hazy skies and a high of 60F.
Daily Catskills: 04/04/21
A high of 58F with a mix of sun and cloud. Early spring plantings are underway.
Daily Catskills: 04/03/21
Clear skies, breezy and warm with a high of 50F.
Daily Catskills: 04/02/21
A high of 33F with a mix of cloud and sunshine. Snow lingering on the peaks.
Daily Catskills: 04/01/21
Sticky wet snow coats the landscape, and gradually wanes into the shadows before noon. A mixture of sun and rolling cloud with a high of 41F.
Daily Catskills: 03/31/21
A plump mass of swirling grey clouds like a giant duvet, greening grass and a high of 55F. Grass needs 60F to start growing.
Daily Catskills: 03/30/21
Sunny, breezy and beautiful. Gauzy cloud, turquoise horizon and a with a high of 60F.
Daily Catskills: 03/29/21
Gusty winds, bright sunshine, but freezing. A high of 41F and a light dusting of morning snow on the very peaks. Gushing streams.
Daily Catskills: 03/28/21
Rain beginning early morning and continuing all day. Overcast with a high of 54F and windy.
Daily Catskills: 03/27/21
A high of 58F, humid and breezy with billowing clouds. We’re getting some beautiful light this Spring in the Catskills.
