35F at 8.30am, brilliant sunshine with scant cloud like cotton wool balls. A light, frigid breeze. A thinly spread, easily broken sheet of ice on the pond where the beaver has been beavering.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.20am
40F at 8.30am with a sky dappled with cloud, rising to 43F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
© J.N. Urbanski
A mink has moved into my neighbor’s yard and my dog, desperate as always to make new friends, was a little overly zealous in his introduction. My dog almost made friends with a bold, friendly deer once, and for a few minutes they chased each other around, but I ruined it by getting in too close for a picture. That’s country life. We left the mink in peace and haven’t seen him since.
© J.N. Urbanski
A beaver has moved into the hood, specifically the woods at the end of my road, and now I realize why the term “eager beaver” came into existence because he’s highly prolific. In his new habitat, a roadside pond, he has downed nearly ten trees in the short space of a week and was spotted yesterday, clearly from the road, swimming around on his back, surveying his work. One of the trees he felled looks to be about a foot in diameter. The town excavators who were clearing out all the gulleys in the area last week may not have noticed his handy work, but it looks like the over-achieving beaver is building the Empire State Building of dams and this could be a problem for the small stream that drains through the pond. He swims late in the day when the sun has warmed the pond, so I’ll be back around 4pm to see if I can catch him.
© J.N. Urbanski
Back in August, during the Fleischmanns Art Fair, I was given a pinhole camera by Wanda at The Painter’s Gallery in Fleischmanns. Like so many other exciting projects I intend to start, it went on the back burner, but the results have been published in their website and that has given me the impetus to use the camera. It’s new home will be on a tree in the forest for the next two weeks.
45F by noon, clear skies with a light breeze. Warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
55F at raining by noon. Overcast, blustery and humid.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
43F at 8.30am, partly cloudy, sunny and breezy. 50F and cloudy by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.20am
40F by 8.30am, a layer of frost, clear and sunny with a dash of haze on the horizon. 46F by 2pm with frost lingering in the shaded areas.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.20am
45F at 8.30am with mist rolling off the mountains to reveal a hazy sunrise. Update: 55F and warm in the sun by 2pm.
© Jenny Neal 8.20am – Usage prohibited without consent
45F at 10am with brilliant sunshine and wispy layers of cloud, rising to 48F and warm in the sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
An inch or two of overnight snow, cloudy misty and 32F at noon. Fall seems to be officially over in these parts. Nevertheless, it’s technically still Autumn until December.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
45F at noon, overcast and gloomy. Mid-afternoon rain with bone-chilling winds.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
50F by 11am, clear and sunny. 53F by noon, with long strips of passing cloud cover and warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
44F by 1pm, cloudy and overcast. Some scattered showers that rolled in with new cloud cover and sunny periods when the cloud cover parted. Mostly sunny by the end of the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.40pm
48F by noon, drab and overcast with thick, rolling monochromatic cloud casting gloom over the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
65F at 9.30am, gusty, cloudy and humid, rising to 70F by noon. Rain mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
59F at 8.30am, still and enigmatically overcast. 69F by 2pm, cloudy and still but for the occasional breeze wafting leaves to the ground.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
63F at 8.30am, clear skies with a hazy horizon. The Catskills are experiencing a welcome warm spell. 70F and clear by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.45am
58F at 9am with hazy sunshine through thin cloud like gauze and a light breeze. A glorious 71F and mostly clear skies by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.15pm
42F at 8am, mostly clear with fine wisps of cloud, rising to 58F by 1pm. Bright, and warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
A relatively balmy 55F by 1pm, breezy, partly cloudy but warm in the sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
45F at 11am with hazy sunshine. 46F at 3pm with a murky veil of hazy cloud casting an ethereal glow on the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.20pm
Overnight rain had stopped by morning. 42F by 11am and overcast and blustery, rising to 45F and virtually clear skies by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
63F at 9am, humid and cloudy after continuous overnight rain that had started at 3pm yesterday. Gulleys running like waterfalls. More rain mid-morning, cloudy, windy and 58F by 1pm. Showers in the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
43F at 8.30am with overnight rain continuing into morning and sodden trees waving in the gusty winds. 50F by 3pm, with misty cloud and strong winds blowing throughout the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.15pm
35F at 9.30am, with a thin layer of frost and a chilly stillness. 53F by 2pm with hazy sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
36F at 8am with the rising sun bathing the landscape in an amber glow. Warm in the sun, rising to 50F by 2pm with cloudless skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
Yesterday’s late afternoon rain continued throughout the night and into the morning leaving the landscape sodden. 50F at 11.30am, cloudy and blustery.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Still only 34F at 9am with serene, satine clouds over a burnished, golden landscape and blustery winds. 42F by 1pm, but pleasantly humid. Time to crank up the woodstove for the second time this month.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
A frosty 37F at 8.30am but mostly clear and warm in the rising sun. Update: 48F by 2pm and breezy, clear and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.40pm
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
56F at 8.30am, warm and cloudy with another enigmatic Catskill’s sunrise. Update: a balmy 67F by 2pm with a sprinkle of rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
52F at 8am, with breathtaking skies ribboned with marbled cloud. 65F at 1pm and humid. A sombre dulling of the northern Catskills’ peaks.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.40pm
45F at 8am and cloudy with the breeze swirling the leaves, rising to 64F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.15pm
20F at 7.30am with the landscape caked in frosty snow and chilly, rising to 43F by 1pm and sunny with clear skies. Warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
50F by 10am, cloudy and overcast interspersed with both rain and sun showers. An enigmatic day. Update: the glorious sundown through the red carpeted forest had to be captured.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
48F by 8.30am and cloudy rising to 52F.
68F at 9am with a thin streaks of cloud stretched taught across the sky, rising to 72F by noon. Cloud moved in mid-afternoon with some rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
60F by 8.30am, with clear skies rising to 74F by 2pm. A gorgeous fall day for apple picking and pressing.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.45pm
Another gorgeous, breezy fall day: 62F, cloudless skies and very warm in the sun by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
50F by mid-morning and sunny with wispy clouds, only rising to 54F by 2pm but warm in the sun. A glorious day.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
58F at 9.30am, gloomy and overcast, with overnight rain having made the landscape soggy and wet and showers continuing into the morning. A day only enlivened by the multi-colored confetti been strewn around in the breeze.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.50am
© J.N. Urbanski The view south from Black Dome Mountain
Climbing Blackhead Mountain is like driving to New York City via the Tappanzee Bridge for the first time. By the time you’re more than halfway there it has become ridiculously difficult and you’re suddenly slightly afraid. You’ve got vertigo and you want to turn back, but you’re on a mission and survival is obligatory. The worst part about climbing Blackhead is the realization that, once you get to the top, if you want to be part of the Catskill 3500 Club, you have to return and repeat the experience in the winter. Four peaks are required hiking between December 21st and March 21st for entry into the club – Blackhead, Slide, Panther and Balsam – and Blackhead will require crampons, snowshoes and an ice pick – or all three. I already have a superb set of crampons from Hillsound, which I will be testing out on all four peaks.
46F at 8.30am and humid with thick fog. Update: 72F by mid-afternoon and a brilliantly sunny and warm day. Fall just seems to be getting better.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.05am
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
50F at 8am, gorgeous sunrise among the clouds, rising to 68F by mid-afternoon with hazy sunshines in parts, but otherwise clear skies. Another stunning fall day in the Catskills.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.40pm
52F and sunny at 8.30am rising to 66F by mid-afternoon. Graceful, wispy clouds floating through otherwise clear skies, as the breeze shakes the leaves out of the trees.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm
A crisp 38F at 7.30am with thin strips of gossamer cloud, rising to 52F by 11.30am and 60F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
55F by noon and cloudy, with periods of sunshine and gusty winds thrusting multi-coloured confetti out of the trees. Clear and sunny by the afternoon with occasional, passing clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
40F by 11.30am, cold, blustery and raining only rising to the mid-forties by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
42F, chilly and overcast at 7.30am, rising to 47F by noon with gusty winds and brilliant fall foliage.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
42F at 8.10pm and gloomy with the air chilly and still. A cold snap for the beginning of the month, only rising to 52F by 1.30pm with an afternoon breeze gently dispersing vividly colorful leaves under a monochromatic sky.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.50am
