Tag Archives: Catskills

Daily Catskills: The Edits

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© J.N. Urbanski 5/18/15 12.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 5/18/15 12.30pm

I’m eight months into my Daily Catskills project, in which I take one image a day and publish it on the day. There’s such an incredible abundance of life to record here though, that sometimes I spend all day deciding on one image. I take anywhere from one to 100 images a day on the days that I haven’t hired another photographer to do the job. A couple of weeks ago, I took 95 images of the same cherry tree stand at different angles and I didn’t like a single one of those images I took. I reluctantly published the image that I thought was the best, but changed my mind – and it – several times and eventually gave up and moved on. The whole process took four hours. Needless to say, I have thousands of unpublished images and there are plenty of vantage points in these mountains from which I’ve taken a picture many times, capturing snow, rain, mist and sun from the same location.

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Daily Catskills: 05/20/15

A gloomy and dismally overcast morning with light winds, still on 44F at 9am. Gusty and raining by noon. Update: still overcast by 3pm with briefest glimpses of sunshine.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm

En Plein Air

© J.N. Urbanski Noon 5/07/15

© J.N. Urbanski Noon 5/07/15

The summer comes alive for artists when the En Plein Air group reconvenes for the season. Gracious homeowners kindly let our group gather every week in some of the most picturesque spots across the mountains and it’s difficult not to be stunned by the extraordinary beauty of the countryside. This year, May 7th was the group’s earliest meeting on record because of the extraordinary high temperatures for the day, but the landscape was still bare and it seemed like we were able to watch the leaves pop before our eyes. The sun had become so strong by noon on May 7th, however, that whomever didn’t have an umbrella had to move to the shade. Taking part of the day out to paint really clears the mind. To focus closely and solely on the landscape for a few hours is much-needed therapy after the long, arduous winter. All worries dissipate into the air with the drying watercolour and if the homeowner is home, we make a new friend. Today, we had a gorgeous view of the mountains.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon 5/19/15

© J.N. Urbanski Noon 5/19/15

Daily Catskills: 05/19/15

60F and rain at 8am. Gloomy, misty, wet and relieved that the landscape is getting a thorough, much-appreciated drenching. Update: 70F, dry and sunny despite the cotton wool clouds by 2pm.

© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm

© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm

Daily Catskills: 05/18/15

64F at 8am with hazy sunshine, rising to 82F by noon with clouds moving in. Update: gradually receding warmth followed by late night showers.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

Daily Catskills: 05/17/15

75F at 10.30, overcast but still rather bright, light winds and damp from overnight showers. 80F, scudding cotton wool clouds and hot in the sunshine by 1pm.

© J.N. Urbanski 1pm

© J.N. Urbanski 1pm

© J.N. Urbanski 1pm

© J.N. Urbanski 1pm

Weekend Links

Seed Swap at local libraries from April 1st to June 1st in Delaware County, publicised by Transition Catskills.

If you didn’t have time nor space to nurture seedlings this past harsh winter, the Catskill Native Nursery will have it for you. They are hosting the Annual Seedling Sale at the Wildflower Festival this weekend.

For next weekend: get recycled furniture and doors for your new country digs at the Western Catskills Revitalization Council which “provides homeowners and builders with unique, affordable materials for home improvement projects”. The nonprofit organization is “dedicated to improving housing, community revitalization, and economic development in Delaware, Greene and Schoharie counties”. Open to the public on Fridays (10-4pm) and Saturdays (10-3pm).

Daily Catskills: 05/16/15

Much needed overnight rain ushered in a damp, overcast morning. 68F at 11am and humid with mist over the mountains. Update: 76F, overcast and humid at 4.30pm. Steady rain at 6.30pm dwindled to light showers by 8pm.

© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm

© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm

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Catskills Conversations: Heather Rolland

© J.N. Urbanski

© J.N. Urbanski

Jenny: How long have you lived in the Catskills?

Heather: I moved to the Catskills in 2007, so I’ve been here going on eight years.

Where did were you living before?

I was living in Dutchess County in Dover Plains and I had been there 17 years. I grew up in Nyack. I’ve actually never lived anywhere more urban than Nyack. It’s been a slow and steady march northward.

What started that slow march?

When I was in High School. I had a buddy who – and this is a crazy story – we both turned sixteen, got our driver’s licenses. She quit high school and moved all by herself as a sixteen year old to Woodstock.

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Daily Catskills: 05/15/15

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A crisp 58F at 9am, overcast rising to 76F and sunny by noon. The blossoms seem to have survived the frost intact, but half the tomatoes have died.

© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler.com

© Margaret Helthaler

Daily Catskills: 05/14/15

36F at 6.30am, rising to 61F at 1pm with sunny skies. Too early to say if this morning’s frost ruined the blossoms. Burn ban extended to May 21st.

© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler.com

© Margaret Helthaler

Spring Shoots Update

Green shoots are emerging from the raspberry sticks; the beetroot is flourishing; the cauliflower is shooting; the asparagus is prolific, as is the rhubarb; the hops are hopping, but the spuds and blackberries have yet to emerge. The dog is already too hot and has dug a mud hole under some equipment. His home for the summer.

© J.N. Urbanski 5/11/15

© J.N. Urbanski 5/11/15

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Daily Catskills: 05/13/15

54F and cloudy at 10.30am. Update: Frost forecast for the evening, threatening blossoms and seedlings. Lows of 30F are predicted for the early hours of tomorrow morning (4am to 6am).

© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler.com

© Margaret Helthaler

Daily Catskills: 05/12/15

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64F at 8.30am, with a mix of sun and cloud. Much-needed rain expected this afternoon. The landscape is thirsty. Update: Rain! Late afternoon.

© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler.com

© Margaret Helthaler

Asparagus Update

On May 1st, we planted a long bed of twenty new asparagus and in less than ten days we already had a six-inch tall shoot from one of the mounds (bottom middle of the picture). All the other roots planted have shoots of about an inch. The image of the “tall poppy” below was taken yesterday morning.

© J.N. Urbanski 5/11/15

© J.N. Urbanski 5/11/15

Daily Catskills: 05/11/15

76F at 8am. Warm and sunny with no breeze. Asparagus acting like a sundial will be later eaten for breakfast. Update: they were juicy. The crab apple tree in full bloom.

© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 9am

© J.N. Urbanski 9am

© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am

Daily Catskills: 05/10/15

90F by noon, clear skies dissolving into a haze on the horizon. The hops wind slowly around the twine in the blazing sun.

© J.N. Urbanski 12.15pm

© J.N. Urbanski 12.15pm

Daily Catskills: 05/09/15

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61F at 8am with hazy sunshine and light winds, rising to 75Fby the afternoon. The Juneberry blossoms.

© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am

Daily Catskills: 05/08/15

74F at 9am, clear and sunny, rising to 80F by mid-afternoon.

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm

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Daily Catskills: 05/07/15

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72F by 8.15am with hazy sunshine. Asparagus, ramps and fiddlehead ferns in season.

© J.N. Urbanski 8.45am

© J.N. Urbanski 8.45am

Catskills Conversations: Peter DiSclafani

© J.N. Urbanski

© J.N. Urbanski

Peter DiSclafani is proprietor and chef of the Catskill Rose Lodging and Dining in Mount Tremper, New York with his wife Rose Marie Dorn.

How long have you lived in the Catskills?

Rose and I moved here in 1987 after we got married. I was born and raised in Saugerties. I was out in Colorado in the seventies after high school just to check things out and that’s where I met Rose. She’s from Colorado.

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Daily Catskills: 05/06/15

60F at 8am with hazy cloud cover and a light breeze rising to 70F by mid-afternoon.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm

Daily Catskills: 05/05/15

59F at 7.30am with misty, hazy cloud cover and the landscape still damp with overnight rain. 78F by 2pm with the same hazy cloud. The magnolia has bloomed and is falling, but the wisteria waits.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

Daily Catskills: 05/04/15

72F at 8am, rising to 81F (for the first time this year) by midday with mostly cloudless skies.

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm

Daily Catskills: 05/03/15

72F at 10am and mostly sunny with multifarious cloud cover stealing in at noon and dampening the blazing sun.

© J.N. Urbanski 1pm

© J.N. Urbanski 1pm

Daily Catskills: 05/02/15

64F at 11am with scudding, cotton wool cloud cover allowing hints of blue skies beyond and brief flashes of blazing sunshine. An intermittent warm breeze. Update: 70F by mid-afternoon.

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm An army of beet seedlings

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm An army of basking beet seedlings

Spuds

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© J.N. Urbanski

© J.N. Urbanski

Back in England, I have a friend who has a spud bucket, a large metal rubbish bin filled with soil, into which she thrusts a needy hand and miraculously pulls out a spud or two for dinner. She keeps it in the backyard and, needless to say, does not need to buy spuds, ever. Potatoes need well-drained, loose soil, but lots of rain, so they are perfect for high elevations here in the Catskills. To have your own potato bucket simply:

1. Drill three or four holes in the bottom of a bucket, about half the size of a garbage pail;
2. Line the bottom of the bucket with a three-inch layer of rocks for drainage;
3. Add a six-inch layer of peat and compost on top of the rocks;
4. Throw in four seed potatoes;
5. Cover with a two-inch layer of peat/potting soil mix and pat down.

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Asparagus

Asparagus is going in at Upstate Dispatch HQ. A perennial, it takes a few years to get started with a low initial yield, but it’s a low maintenance crop that’s ideal for the novice gardener. Not only is it delicious, highly nutritious and otherwise quite expensive, it freezes well so you can eat it year-round. Let the asparagus grow to long ferns in the first year and the whole plant can last 20 years. Today, two beds (6-12 inches deep and 6 inches wide) were dug and a 2-3 inch layer of wet compost and peat mixed together was added. 10 asparagus roots went in each bed, 18 inches to 2 feet apart from each other. Soak the asparagus roots for a half hour before you plant. Spread the roots out like a flattened spider, lay crown-up, and cover with a 2-3 inch layer of dirt. Don’t fill in the trench with dirt until the shoots make it through their individual dirt pile. Keep adding dirt as the shoots grow over the forthcoming weeks. The weeds you see growing in the middle of the trenches are last year’s over-wintered parsnips. They were pulled.

© J.N. Urbanski 05/01/15 11.30cm

© J.N. Urbanski 05/01/15 11.30am

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Daily Catskills: 05/01/15

55F at 10am and overcast as the daffodils struggle to open. May 1st marks the Celtic celebration known as Beltane, a Spring festival, in which participants dance around a maypole, sit around fire circles and usher in the Summer with good spirits.

© J.N. Urbanski 10am

© J.N. Urbanski 10am

Catskills Then and Now: The St Regis Hotel

Lake Switzerland was built in 1907 for boating and ice harvesting by damming the Bushkill stream. It was later removed and thereafter Lake Switzerland drained considerably. The St Regis, which was originally on the banks of Lake Switzerland, now faces a valley, the original stream, and houses that have since been built on the stream banks. Trees have since grown back and the same view as the old postcard is not really possible from Breezy Hill Road (bottom).

© J.N. Urbanski 4/30/15 2pm

© J.N. Urbanski 4/30/15 2pm

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Catskills Then and Now: Lake Switzerland

Built in 1907, the dam that created Lake Switzerland was later thought to be structurally unsound and removed. Just to the right of today’s picture is the road and the spot on which the St Regis Hotel still stands. If you look at the postcard of the St Regis Hotel, it will give you an idea of the area covered by the lake. In the right of today’s picture are some white concrete barriers where the bridge used to be. The image at bottom of the post is the view of the St Regis today from other side of the bridge.

© J.N. Urbanski 4/30/15 11am

© J.N. Urbanski 4/30/15 11am

Postcard courtesy of Jeanine Pascarella

Postcard courtesy of Jeanine Pascarella

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Daily Catskills: 04/30/15

60F at 9am and sunny, with clear skies dissolving into haze over the mountains, and birdsong. An armada of scudding, cotton wool clouds and 65F by noon.

© J.N. Urbanski 11am

© J.N. Urbanski 11am

Catskills Then & Now: Fleischmanns Railway Station

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The original station is gone, but what remains was the building behind it.

© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am

© J.N. Urbanski 4/29/15 9.15am

Postcard courtesy of Jeanine Pascarella

Postcard courtesy of Jeanine Pascarella

Catskills: Then and Now

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© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 4/28/15 1.30pm

Postcard courtesy of Jeanine Pascarella

Postcard courtesy of Jeanine Pascarella

Daily Catskills: 04/28/15

49F at 9am and sunny with clouds, rising to 60F by 2pm with light winds.

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 12.40pm

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm

© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm

Daily Catskills: 04/27/15

46F at 9am, quickly rising to 54F by 10.15am. Overcast and gloomy with rolling clouds in gunmetal grey.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski 3pm

© J.N. Urbanski 3pm

Catskills Conversations: Jeanine Pascarella

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© J.N. Urbanski

© J.N. Urbanski

How long have you lived in the Catksills?

I moved upstate with my family in 1979 when I was nine years old and my parents were partners with my mother’s parents – my grandparents – at the Emery Brook House, that’s now the Evergreen. They ran it as a German Cuisine bed and breakfast.

Were you born here?

I was born in Huntington, Long Island.

So what made your family move to the Catskills?

Well, my grandparents had found the area. They had a boarding house in Rockaway and the area was being developed so they had to sell, or were bought out. I don’t really remember the story of how they left Rockaway, but they were looking for a German community and that’s how they wound up in Fleischmanns. There was a nice German community here and they were looking for a similar situation to what they had left: a boarding house. So when they contacted a real estate person in the area, the real estate person told them about the St Regis, which is huge and much bigger than anything they had envisaged managing, so they then found the Emery Brook and that’s where they settled.

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Daily Catskills: 04/26/15

50F at 9am. Mostly clear skies with a small armada of clouds on the horizon. 52F mid-afternoon with full cloud cover. A good sunday for a hike to Panther Mountain.

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

© J.N. Urbanski Noon

Daily Catskills: 04/25/15

42F and sunny clear skies at 9am. 50F at 2pm and with an armada of cotton wool clouds. Cherry blossoms bursting.

© J.N. Urbanski 2pm

© J.N. Urbanski 2pm

Daily Catskills: 04/24/15

28F at 8.30am with overnight snow lingering in the scantiest of flurries. Overcast and gloomy. RIP Crocus.

© J.N. Urbanski 9am

© J.N. Urbanski 9am

Daily Catskills: 04/23/15

38F by 9am. A sprinkling of overnight snow lay dissolving into puddles. Update: Continual flurries for the rest of the day with 30F by 7pm.

© J.N. Urbanski 9am

© J.N. Urbanski 9am

Catskills Conversations: Lorraine Lewandrowski

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© Eve Taverne

Lorraine Lewandrowski does not live in the Catskills, but our radio interview and half of our phone conversations, which are always fascinating, take place in the Catskills, so I’m printing them here. Lorraine is an agricultural lawyer and dairy farmer with 60 cows in the Mohawk Valley, New York. She is a very active spokesperson for the farming community, speaking at agricultural conferences and writing articles for trade publications. She tries to do things like link deep rural farmers with urban food groups. Lorraine is a descendant of Polish immigrants who arrived in the valley about 100 years ago and one of a long line of farming advocates. Her grandfather was one of the founders of a co-op, of which her father was the president for many years. She’s on Twitter with 15,000 avid followers.

I’ve never met a dairy farmer and lawyer before.

There are a few of us around. Actually, I know some attorneys and dairy farmers in England and we keep in touch on Twitter to compare notes on contracts and things that are going on. In fact, I keep in touch with farmers in Wales, New Zealand, Australia, all over the place and to the best of my ability in France. I’m not that great with French. We try to share information that way. The global corporations have far more extensive communications networks than we do, but this is a way of us getting at least some idea of what’s happening.

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Daily Catskills: 04/22/15

54F at 11am. Overcast with mid-morning rain showers. Update: Rainy, cloudy and gloomy for most of the day.

© J.N. Urbanski 10am

© J.N. Urbanski 10am

Daily Catskills: 04/21/15

44F at 8am, overcast with heavy rain and a glum, sodden landscape. Overnight thunder and lightning, together with yesterday’s high wind had snapped branches and downed trees. Update: 55F and much dryer and brighter by the afternoon with cotton wool cloud cover.

© J.N. Urbanski 4pm

© J.N. Urbanski 4pm

© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am

© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am

Catskills Conversations: John Hoeko

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© J.N. Urbanski 4/2/15

© J.N. Urbanski 4/2/15

John Hoeko, a lifelong fly fisherman, owns Fur, Feathers and Steel in Fleischmanns. He’s writing a book about his life and times and his work with the Catskills waterways.

How long have you lived in the Catskills?

My whole life, except for one day. I was born in Jamaica, Queens. My grandfather was Chief of Radiology in a hospital in Queens. He thought that the local hospital here in Margaretville, the old one, was too provincial. So he insisted I be born in New York City.

So you’ve lived here in Fleischmanns ever since?

Yes, my parents originally lived off Ellsworth Avenue, while they were building our house.

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Daily Catskills: 04/20/15

39F and overcast at 8am. Raining with extremely high winds scattering garden implements, buckets and recently raked leaves. Yesterday’s crocus that had opened by 4pm, had closed up again this morning, beaten by wet leaves and wind. His friend had been flattened.

© J.N. Urbanski 11am

© J.N. Urbanski 11am

Daily Catskills: 04/19/15

52F at 9am rising to 56F by 10.30am. Clear skies, no wind and warm in the sunshine.

© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am

© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am

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Daily Catskills: 04/18/15

66F by noon. Dry with bright sunshine. Update: 70F at 3.30pm with gusty winds blowing laundry all over the place.

© J.N. Urbanski 3pm

© J.N. Urbanski 3pm

The Three Muses: Esther De Jong

© MGP&D

© MGP&D

And another muse makes three: Esther De Jong will be reading on Saturday night, in an evening of poetry and music at the Joma Cafe in Shokan.

Esther De Jong has been writing poetry for five years, with last two and a half intensively. She has always read poetry because it’s a great inspiration for painting. “I started reading more and more and one day felt the urge to write it myself. Right now I’m studying the official form, the educational part of it, but before that I was writing whatever came to mind.” De Jong’s poetry career developed because it was more accessible than painting. With painting comes physical baggage to be carried like boxes, easels and brushes. “A notebook fits in the purse.”

CANDLES by Esther De Jong

Two stumps sit on the windowsill

Lost romantics, almost burned out

Their melted wax dripped onto the floor

Still virgin white, just no longer saintly.

Daily Catskills: 04/17/15

50F at 8am and wet. Overnight rain turned to morning gloom with mist rolling over the mountains.

© J.N. Urbanski 12.15pm

© J.N. Urbanski 12.15pm

Daily Catskills: 04/16/15

39F and mostly sunny at 9am. Update: a splendid high of 63F.

© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler

© Margaret Helthaler

Daily Catskills: 04/15/15

48F at 9am. Clear and sunny: 55F by 11.30am.

© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler

© Margaret Helthaler

Daily Catskills: 04/14/15

43F and cloudy at 8am.

Neversink-4-14

© Margaret Helthaler

Daily Catskills: 04/13/15

49F at 8am, quickly rising to 56F by 8.45am. Beautiful, hazy cloud cover being burned through by the rising sun. Spring is here!

© J.N. Urbanski 8am

© J.N. Urbanski 8am

Poetry in the Catskills

Urging

A rupture

Unraveling

Steers the bloom…

April is Poetry Month and next week there are a couple of noteworthy events to celebrate the season: The Three Muses at the Joma Cafe in Shokan and Poetry in Your Pocket hosted by the Roxbury Arts Group.

For Poetry In Your Pocket day, RAG is celebrating by placing poems in the pockets of community members and encouraging them to read them aloud throughout the day.

RAG “would love the opportunity to highlight the work of our local and regional poets! To be included, send your poem to [email protected] by April 17”.