85F by mid-afternoon, sweaty and humid with a mix of sun and cloud. Late afternoon showers.
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Daily Catskills: 07/20/17
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Tag Archives: Country Living
Daily Catskills: 07/19/17
85F by mid-afternoon, warm in the sun, pleasant in the shade.
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Daily Catskills: 06/30/17
84F by mid-afternoon and humid with refreshing afternoon rain.
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Daily Catskills: 06/27/17
After a wet, gloomy morning, 67F by mid-afternoon and mostly sunny. Huge, thundering clouds quickly rolling through stealing the scene, cracking lightning and later issuing some torrential, late afternoon rain. Moody.
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Daily Catskills: 06/18/17
86F by mid-afternoon, hot and very humid with periods of sunshine through a veil of cloud, rain showers and a warm breeze. Sunset in the forest.
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Catskills Conversations: Julia Reischel
© Joe Damone
Julia Reischel is a co-founder of the Watershed Post and resident of Margaretville.
JNU: What brought you to the Catskills?
JR: I came here because of my family. I’m not from here. I like to describe myself as a carpet-bagger [laughs]. Lissa, my wife, grew up here and has about six generations of family in the Margaretville area. When I started dating her in Boston, I knew pretty much immediately that I was going to end up here if I stuck with her, because she has this magnetic pull to this area. All her potential stories ended here. So the Catskills were in my future and when we got married we moved here. We started the Watershed Post, our now defunct news site that we ran for seven years.
Is The Watershed Post still up?
It’s up, but just not being updated. We’ll keep it up as a sort of archive and honestly, it’s Lissa’s call on that because I formally quit a while ago. [Laughs]
Did you have a contract with her? [Laughs]
We actually do have a contract in place.
That’s very sensible!
[Laughs] If we were going to have some sort of acrimonious split, one of us would have to buy out the other. What actually happened was that I decided to give her de facto control over it in exchange for not doing anything for it anymore. So I’m still technically part owner. She ran it by herself for a couple of months and came to the same conclusion that I did, which was that there’s no money in journalism. Continue reading
Daily Catskills: 06/14/17
80F by mid-afternoon, fresh and sunny.
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Daily Catskills: 06/13/17
89F by mid-afternoon, overcast, muggy with showers at 4pm. Hot and sweaty. Berry blossoms in abundance.
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Daily Catskills: 06/12/17
89F by mid-afternoon, sun blazing with hazy cloud moving in around dusk.
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Daily Catskills: 06/11/17
88F by mid-afternoon, hot and sunny with a cool breeze in the shade. Looks a like this will be a good year for apples.
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Daily Catskills: 06/09/17
74F by mid-afternoon, mostly sunny with some cloud and a persistent, cool breeze.
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Daily Catskills: 06/07/17
70F by mid-afternoon with a summer breeze and a blue sky naked except for sporadic, plump clouds.
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Daily Catskills: 06/05/17
70F by mid-afternoon, humid and breezy, clouds ready to burst all day, mist crawling over mountains. Sultry.
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Daily Catskills: 06/04/17
54F by mid-afternoon, gloomy, chilly with continual afternoon rain.
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Daily Catskills: 06/03/17
66F by mid-afternoon with a cool breeze and rolling, cotton wool clouds.
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John Burroughs’ Bookshelf
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Since I became a trustee of Woodchuck Lodge, John Burroughs’ last home and site of his final resting place in Roxbury, NY, I’ve become fascinated with his bookshelves. He left behind a vast collection of Atlantic Monthly magazines and (pictured above) a sturdy collection of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Atlantic Monthly is still published to this day and is a progressive periodical devoted to covering “news and analysis on politics, business, culture, technology, national, international and life”, but what was it like back then? Last month, at one of Woodchuck Lodge’s Wild Saturday events, I had just about enough time to flick through most of an Atlantic Monthly magazine from April 1923 and took photographs of what I considered the most interesting bits (below). I cannot help but wonder what John Burroughs himself thought when he read about Mrs A trying desperately to avoid “social suicide”. Continue reading
Catskills Cocktails: Gin & Spruce
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If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’ve been making natural sodas with forsythia and spruce tips. I’ve discovered that spruce tip syrup goes particularly well with whiskey, too, like the forsythia, which made a tasty Catskills Collins. I’m also working on rhubarb juice that makes a first-rate bitter addition to cocktails for people who find bitters too intense or overpowering for their taste. Here are a couple more refreshing cocktails for the summer.
The Final Part of Fleischmanns, by Bill Birns
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Parts 5, 6, 7 & 8 of Fleischmanns, A Poem in Eight Parts
(Imaginative Historical Projection)
By Bill Birns
- Griffin Corners at Armstrong Park
Bit hard for me to make a hero
of him, Matthew Griffin, though
lots of folks do. It’s hard not to
admire his sheer American-ness.
That photo-of-the-founder look
on his weathered face as he sat
posing for that end-of-long-life
first-time photograph in
front of his office (or shop)
with the hand-lettered L-A-W-Y-E-R
over his head behind his chair. Maybe
he believed that founder stuff himself.
Armstrong Park must stay out of the public view,
a gentleman’s name need only appear
in print when he is married and when
he dies.
Daily Catskills: 05/22/17
58F by mid-afternoon, overcast and gloomy with hovering mist and sporadic rain.
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Daily Catskills: 05/20/17
75F by mid-afternoon with rippled, early morning clouds evaporating in the brilliant sunshine.
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Daily Catskills: 05/19/17
75F by mid-afternoon, sunny with wispy cloud. Clouds of yellow and green pollen coursing through the air and gathering on cars, barns and houses as if spring can’t stop sneezing. The may flies endure.
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Daily Catskills: 05/15/17
52F by mid-afternoon, overcast, windy. Occasional patches of blue floating in the gloomy sky like empty spaces in a jigsaw puzzle.
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Daily Catskills: 05/13/17
48F by noon. Continuous rain, wet, muddy, gloomy and overcast.
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Zephyr’s Chili Bowl
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The Zephyr’s Chili on the dinner menu stands out for its lightness, uncharacteristic for a chili bowl, achieved by the addition of sweet, juicy chunks of tomato amongst the beans. You won’t go home with a brick in your stomach, but you’ll have enough fuel for a long walk in the country air, the wet, wet, gloomy country air. I took a couple of bites of the cheesy biscuits, wrapped the rest up in a napkin and ate them later. Where’s spring? Yesterday was warmer at 62F and cloudy with some late afternoon sun. Today: more rain. My seasonal affective disorder is only just held at bay by remembering how low the Catskills reservoirs were last year and how much they need replenishing. Spring has been more of a gastronomical tour around the mountains, ducking into restaurants, sitting at the bar and trying some of the Catskills’ best fare. Try also, Traveler’s White Tea with Hibiscus, (which also goes well as a vodka mixer).
Daily Catskills: 05/11/17
62F by mid-afternoon, scattered clouds, but warm in the sun with a cool breeze.
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Daily Catskills: 05/10/17
54F by mid-afternoon, chilly but warm in the sunshine once the clouds cleared late afternoon.
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Daily Catskills: 05/09/17
48F by mid-afternoon, overcast and gloomy.
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Daily Catskills: 05/08/17
36F at 8.30am with a layer of overnight snow melting in the sun, chilly and overcast with the snow flakes swirling in the wind. 44F by mid-afternoon.
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Daily Catskills: 05/06/17
60F by mid-afternoon, overcast, dreary and continual rain with occasional sunny breaks in the cloud.
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Daily Catskills: 05/05/17
50F by mid-afternoon, gusty winds, overcast, heavy rain leaving mist over the mountains.
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Daily Catskills: 05/03/17
51F by mid-afternoon, chilly, windy and overcast with a sunny afternoon.
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Prelude to a Kiss at STS Playhouse
Two years ago, I saw Proof at the STS Playhouse in Phoenicia and it was riveting and engaging. At the time, I called it “remarkable: deeply engrossing, funny with excellent performances from the cast. Proof explores the world of madness and mathematics”. It was a great production, starring Jennifer Paul, Farrell Reynolds, Stephen Powell and Kimberly Kay.
This year the Playhouse is putting on a production of Prelude to a Kiss, by Craig Lucas, directed by Michael Koegel, owner of Mama’s Boy Burgers. You may remember the movie with Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan. Opening night is this weekend, May 5th, running until May 21st. Make a perfect night of it and get early dinner and drinks at nearby Peekamoose Restaurant– the play starts at 8pm.
STS Playhouse, 10 Church Street, Phoenicia, NY. Tickets $20 or $18 for seniors and students. Call 845-688-2279, or click here for more information.
Daily Catskills: 05/02/17
58F at 9am, raining, overcast and humid. Last night’s rain gushing down the mountains. Breezy afternoon.
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Daily Catskills: 04/28/17
77F by mid-afternoon with hazy sunshine. Asparagus sundial.
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Catskills Conversations: Rebecca Andre
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UD: What brought you to the Catskills?
RA: My husband Mark and I would travel north from our Pennsylvania home just on a whim. This was before we had our daughter Isabella. We always ended up coming home from Lake Placid, the Adirondacks or wherever we ended up, through the Catskills. After we had our little girl and we weren’t traveling around the world anymore, we decided to get a vacation home here. Then once my daughter was of age to go to kindergarten, we made a decision to move here, so that she could start kindergarten here and not have to move mid-term.
Daily Catskills: 04/24/17
71F by noon, warm with hazy sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Daily Catskills: 04/20/17
50F at 9am, fog receding into the mountains leaving a dewy landscape. 61F by mid-afternoon with torrential early evening rain. Wet.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.20am
Daily Catskills: 04/19/17
55F by mid-afternoon, overcast, humid, and raining. Spring takes a break.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
Donate
© J.N. Urbanski 6/16/15 12.39
On my jaunts around the neighborhood, I regularly bump into people who love Upstate Dispatch. Last week, a reader told me: “I love the site! I just wish there was more of it”. Me too!
Upstate Dispatch takes hundreds of hours per month to research and write. All of the food and drink you see reviewed here has been paid for, with one exception, and where tickets are sold to local cooking, foraging, writing and art classes, they have been purchased. In the past, when we’ve had contributors, we have paid them. As I a writer, I believe artists and writers should not have to work for free. We are also an advertisement-free site, so we rely on donations.
If you love reading Upstate Dispatch, please consider donating. Future donations will fund a small summer arts and literary studio in the local village for Upstate Dispatch. We want to expand our coverage over the summer, move into the community, and revive the Catskills Conversations series, shedding more light on our local luminaries and their stories.
Lastly, I want to thank our past donors who have expressed their appreciation of Upstate Dispatch in a meaningful way. I’m sincerely and immensely grateful for the love!
Please find our donation page here.
Happy Spring!
J.N. Urbanski
Daily Catskills: 04/18/17
55F by mid-afternoon, mostly clear and sunny with distant clouds on the horizon.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
Daily Catskills: 04/17/17
68F by mid-afternoon, with hazy sunshine and breezy. Tiny rhubarb emerges.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Daily Catskills: 04/16/17
79F by mid-afternoon with a cool breeze and cotton wool clouds that turned grey and burst early evening.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.20pm
Daily Catskills: 04/15/17
62F and sunny with wispy clouds. The forest springs to life under the hemlocks.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Peekamoose’s Ramen Bowl
© J.N. Urbanski
The new bowl on the block: the sensational ramen with braised pork at Peekamoose. Ramen can be too salty but not this one. House made noodles with a soft boiled egg, kale and some very tender braised pork, all in a mouthwateringly delicate chicken broth. Move over, charcuterie board, you are no longer the go-to. Wait, I didn’t mean that.
Daily Catskills: 04/14/17
60F by mid-afternoon, clear skies and sunny with a slight chill in the air.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
Catskills Food Guide 2017
© J.N. Urbanski
I’m proud to have had the opportunity to contribute text and images to this year’s Catskills Food Guide published by the Watershed Post that hit the stands today. I’ve tried many of the region’s burgers and sandwiches for the WP. I’ve interviewed and photographed local producers and store-owners too, but the best assignment I’ve ever had was interviewing Ray Turner, an eclectic old-timer who traps eel on the Delaware River in a gigantic weir that he built with his own hands. The weir is truly to be seen to be believed – constructed with available stone and wood – and the man himself is a true Catskills character. He has a pet emu. We had some seriously eccentric exchanges. He only likes Black Labradors:
Him: “The only good dog is a lab, all the others are goats as far as I’m concerned.”
Me: “I LOVE goats!”
Him: “…”
I hadn’t been at his establishment an hour before he had me in a pair of thick rubber waders in a canoe out on the river.
Me: “None of this equipment likes water”.
Him: “No standing in the canoe”.
Pick up a copy of the Catskills Food Guide at any establishment in the Catskills. The guide includes a large pull-out, color map of the region detailing the places where you can eat, drink and shop locally.
© J.N. Urbanski
Daily Catskills: 04/13/17
55F by mid-afternoon, chilly and overcast. Hazelnut catkins swaying in the breeze.
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Daily Catskills: 04/12/17
55F, humid with overnight rain, mist lingering in the valleys. 61F and sunny with an afternoon armada of clouds sailing quickly like they’re on their way to somewhere much colder.
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Daily Catskills: 04/11/17
80F scorcher, hazy, humid. Wading in cool streams, under waterfalls, shaded by pine trees.
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Daily Catskills: 04/09/17
68F by mid-afternoon with wisps of cloud in an azure sky. Laundry swaying in the breeze like huge flags.
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Daily Catskills: 04/08/17
A 45F high with a bitter wind and scattered woolly clouds under brilliant blue sky. The remnants of last night’s snow lurking in the shadows. Weather gone completely bonkers.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
Life Drawing at Willow Drey Farm, Andes
© Sandy Finkenberg courtesy of William Duke
William Duke, owner of Willow Drey Farm is hosting a life drawing event on Thursdays from 4pm to 7pm in their beautiful barn overlooking the rolling mountains of Andes. The barn is an event space, the site of many a summer wedding and, for an artist, a gorgeous setting in which to work on figure drawing for three hours with a nude model. We’re lucky to find people willing to take their clothes off! Life drawing is a deeply meditative exercise and focussing intently for three hours really brings one’s sketching skills up to speed. If you’re interested in sitting for the group, or joining the group, please contact William Duke here.
Daily Catskills: 04/06/17
38F by 2pm and overcast with persistent heavy rain throughout the day.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Daily Catskills: 04/05/17
60F by mid-afternoon with clear skies and flowing streams reflecting the blazing sun. Spring springs.
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Daily Catskills: 04/03/17
49F by noon and cloudy with periods of sunshine warming a nascent landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am