A morning layer of overnight snow had melted by by mid-afternoon. Overcast and 40F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Daily Catskills: 12/04/15
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Tag Archives: Catskills
Daily Catskills: 12/03/15
35F at 8.30am and overcast with snow flurries beginning mid-morning, taking break for lunch and then continuing throughout the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Catskills Art At The Commons Gallery
Local Catskills’ artist Alix Travis invites everyone to pop into her new winter studio in Margaretville for a cup of tea and to watch her work. In the gallery you can view her latest exhibition entitled “Family Friends Celebration and Holiday Colors”, which consists of gorgeous works of oil on canvas, watercolor and collage on the subject of relationships, warmth, brilliant color and the shared values of the holiday season and all year round
the Commons Gallery, the Commons, 785 Main Street, Margaretville, NY; December 3, 2015 through March 31, 2016. Open Saturdays from noon – 4pm, and any day when you see the lights on.
Daily Catskills: 12/02/15
47F at 8am and gloomily overcast with layers of fog cloaking the mountains, and rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.10am
Cold Catskills: Dressing for Winter Adventures
by: Jeff Vincent of Catskill Mountain Wild
© J.N. Urbanski
With winter approaching, we’ll start to see more and more ill-prepared hikers in the Catskills. It’s important to know the right clothing to wear and special gear you may need on a cold weather trip.
Your clothing should be broken down into three basic layers: a base layer, an insulating layer and a top layer that will protect you from the elements.
Daily Catskills: 12/01/15
35F at 9am with steady rain melting overnight icy patches and fog smothering the mountains.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.40am
Daily Catskills: 11/30/15
25F at 8.30am and bitter, with the landscape coated in a layer of grey frost evaporating in the sun. Clear skies save for a distant cloud of fog hugging a far off mountain. 34F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Daily Catskills: 11/29/15
41F by 9am and frosty, with thick, rolling fog hugging the mountains. Clear skies at dusk.
Daily Catskills: 11/28/15
Daily Catskills: 11/27/15
56F by 2.30pm and warm with an enigmatic mix of sun and cloud.
Daily Catskills: 11/26/15
40F at 10.30am and overcast, rising to 48F by 2.30pm.
Daily Catskills: 11/25/15
38F at 8.30am, with clear skies except for a thick layer of frost evaporating off the mountains in the strong, morning sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.20am
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
Daily Catskills: 11/24/15
24F at 8.30am and bright despite clouds, rising to 38F by 2.45pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.45pm
Daily Catskills: 11/23/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/22/15
40F at 8.30am with a sky dappled with cloud, rising to 43F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
On Hunting
© J.N. Urbanski
Today is the first day of hunting season for shotgun users and I’ve been hearing gunfire echo over the mountains for the last month in preparation. The past few weeks of hunting season have been strictly for bow users only. Over the next month or so, there’ll be a plethora of camouflaged, gun-toting neighbors creeping around in the woods that abut my property, and sitting in makeshift deer stands. My husband saw a crossbow wielding neighbor stealthily striding out of the woods last week and felt like I had dodged an arrow.
As a new country lass, the first experience I had with a hunter was when I was hiking. Rounding a corner, our group chanced upon a man; perfectly still, holding what looked like an AK-47, looking like a stocky, camo-version of Bruce Willis in Die Hard. The gun made him look at least eight feet tall. He stared. We stopped. He silently crept towards us and then passed us without so much as an excuse me. We kept calm and carried on.
A Mink Sighting
© 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.
Daily Catskills: 11/21/15
34F at 8.30am with hazy sunshine, quickly rising to 38F by 9.30am and warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
Daily Catskills: 11/20/15
45F by noon, clear skies with a light breeze. Warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 11/19/15
55F at raining by noon. Overcast, blustery and humid.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Daily Catskills: 11/18/15
43F at 8.30am, partly cloudy, sunny and breezy. 50F and cloudy by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.20am
Daily Catskills: 11/17/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/16/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/15/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/14/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/13/15
45F at noon, overcast and gloomy. Mid-afternoon rain with bone-chilling winds.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
Daily Catskills: 11/12/15
Daily Catskills: 11/11/15
A Day of Remembrance: 11/11/15
© J.N. Urbanski
For Veterans’ Day in the US and Remembrance Day in England: a shelf full of history in the Skene Memorial Library in Fleischmanns, New York. When I’m trudging through the rain in New York City today, I will remember those who trudged much longer and in far worse conditions.
Daily Catskills: 11/10/15
Daily Catskills: 11/09/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/08/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/07/15
48F by noon, drab and overcast with thick, rolling monochromatic cloud casting gloom over the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 11/06/15
65F at 9.30am, gusty, cloudy and humid, rising to 70F by noon. Rain mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Catskills Conversations: Raji Nevin
© J.N. Urbanski
JN: How long have you lived in the Catskills?
RN: Lived in Woodstock for about four and a half years now.
Where did you move from?
I just moved across the river from Rhinebeck.
Did you grow up in Rhinebeck?
No, I grew up in Oklahoma, smack in the middle of the USA, but I have moved quite a bit. I’ve probably lived in about 28 states.
Daily Catskills: 11/05/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/04/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/03/15
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
Farm to Table Events: Downstate & NYC
© J.N. Urbanski
November 6th to 15th is Cider Week in NYC and there is Farm to Table style gathering at The Pines in Brooklyn, the owner of which is from Delaware County and a keen supporter of farmers and producers here.
They are hosting a Catskills backyard blowout on November 9th from 6pm to 10pm. They will be bringing down Delaware County-grown eats, wild-apple ciders and all manner of special things and special guests to the banks of the Gowanus including Wayside’s special crab apple cider.
They will be firing up seasonal snacks on the grill, roasting s’mores around the fire pit, and pouring cider all night long. Entry cost is $35 all-you-can-eat and cider specials a la carte. If you’re in NYC next week, please go to The Pines and support our local producers.
The Pines
284 Third Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Buy tickets here.
© J.N. Urbanski
Word of Delaware County-based Wayside Cider is spreading like wildfire and they’ve completely sold out of two varieties, Halfwild and Catskills. They have very limited amounts remaining of the Skinny Dip that included local quince. Wayside has been in business for a year and thus far have pressed about 30,000 gallons. Before the end of the season, they’ll press another 7,000 gallons. This has been a tremendous year for the Catskills wild apple and many supportive neighbors have invited Wilson, and his business partner Irene Hussey, onto their land to pick their heritage apples and they’ve found five or six varieties of apples that are geo-specific to the Catskills. Some of those trees they have marked for grafting and Wilson is putting together a “roster of apples” from what exists here in these mountains.
For Cider Week, co-proprietor of Wayside Alex Wilson will be taking part in a panel discussion at Wassail in Lower East Side entitled So You Want To Start a Cidery. Tickets are going quickly.
Further north in Cold Spring, Glynwood is hosting its third annual Cider Dinner on November 13th from 6.30pm to 10pm. Guest Chef Shawn Hubbell of Soons Orchard & Farm Market joins guests in November during Cider Week NYC for a farm-fresh meal paired with the best craft hard cider the Hudson Valley has to offer.
Glynwood
362 Glynwood Road
Cold Spring, NY 10516
Daily Catskills: 11/02/15
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
Daily Catskills: 11/01/15
A relatively balmy 55F by 1pm, breezy, partly cloudy but warm in the sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
Daily Catskills: 10/31/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/30/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/29/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/28/15
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
Catskills Culture: November Events
© J.N. Urbanski
It’s been another spectacular fall with vivid, fiery reds and yellows transforming to their final phase: brilliantly rusted shades of amber, bronze, tan, copper and gold. Tourism is the Catskills’ most lucrative business and it’s a given that many friends and neighbors fall out of touch over the summer, engaged in the reception and entertainment of visitors from all over the world. For those not in that business, summer was a time to fix up the homestead: new boiler, woodstove, siding and perhaps a window or two. Summer is our busiest time, and quiet moments snatched in between interminable chores and work in the glorious warmth of the lush summer season, are few and far between.
But, winter is coming… Winter is coming and it’s a chance to gather with everyone and entertain each other. It might get so cold that it freezes the balls off a brass statue, but our entertainment is just warming up. Join us for some Catskills culture as we kick off November with a week of art, literary and eclectic musical events.
Some forthcoming cultural events in the Upstate Dispatch sphere next week are as follows:
The Spillian Scribblers:
© J.N. Urbanski
It’s National Novel Writing Month in November and Upstate Dispatch is chronicling the life of the writer with guests on WIOX on alternate Mondays in November (2nd, 16th & 30th) at 9am. Furthermore, the Scribblers, a writers’ group that started last month after a myth-writing workshop run by Leigh Melander, will meet on Tuesday, November 3rd at Spillian in Fleischmanns. Convening In the majestic splendor of a historical Catskills landmark by a cozy fire, we read each other’s works aloud and offer comments over cake and booze. Spillian has a cash bar. If you are a writer and wish to join in, please email [email protected].
Daily Catskills: 10/26/15
35F at 9.30am, with a thin layer of frost and a chilly stillness. 53F by 2pm with hazy sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
Daily Catskills: 10/26/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/25/15
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
Halloween in the Catskills
© J.N. Urbanski 10/31/14 9am
Halloween is a treasured time at the end of summer, a time where we all get together after having been out of touch for so long, after a hectic high season in the tourist industry that sustains the Catskills. Take a ride up Route 28 and join us for these events during the forthcoming week. The Upstate Dispatch Halloween weekend will include the following:
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post included Friday night drinks at the Phoenicia Diner Lounge, but the Lounge has closed for the season. This will make the long wait for Spring even more arduous. It’s a good thing that Mike Cioffi, owner of the Phoenica Diner is working on a new bar after buying property in Woodstock. Meanwhile, we are working on a list of great bars in the vicinity of the Lounge in a new post. Watch this space for a link to the list of places to drink on Friday night. Of course, there is also our beloved Peekamoose as detailed below. Friday night drinks at Peekamoose Tap Room are everyone’s favorite way to decompress after a hard week. The bar and restaurant is further up past Phoenicia by about ten minutes on Route 28 in the town of Big Indian.
Daily Catskills: 10/24/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/22/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/21/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/19/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/18/15
35F at noon with morning snow and blustery with fast-moving clouds and periods of sunshine. A bitterly chilly day. Update: 38F and snowing by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm