© J.N. Urbanski
This year’s Reuben is a tasty, juicy and modestly-sized; this last phrase is meant in the best possible way. So much of what we order today is either a belly-deadening doorstop or enough for two people to share, which limits your options. But even if you only eat half this sandwich, it survives a night in the fridge, like so many don’t. The Phoenicia Diner was written up in the New York Times this month and if it gets any more popular, we’ll start needing a reservation.
73F at 8.30am and humid with thick cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
70F at 8.30am and sunny despite rolling clouds. 84F by 1pm. Update: almost 90F by mid-afternoon. Scorcher.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.20pm
72F by mid-morning, rising to 82F with clear skies and a breeze.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
73F by 10am, bright, breezy and sunny, becoming humid later on.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
A high of 72F, breezy and sunny with rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The East Branch of the Delaware Plein Air Group have their opening reception on Saturday July 2nd at the Commons Building, 785 Main Street in Margaretville, New York. The exhibition will be up until July 31st.
Writers in the Mountains, The Roxbury General and “community friends” have arranged an installation called “Raining Poetry” in Roxbury, New York, tomorrow morning. It’s poetry written on the pavement. It’s invisible though, so you have to throw some water on it to reveal the beauty. Watering cans will be set up so you can wet the sidewalk and watch the poetry appear.
The Painters Gallery on Main Street in Fleischmanns is hosting an opening on Saturday July 2nd from 3.30pm – 6pm called Weather Reports at Sea, an installation with multiple projections by Tona Wilson.
Woodstock Farm Sanctuary’s 9th Annual July Jamboree takes place on Sunday July 3rd from 11am – 4pm. Award-winning veggie food trucks and booths, live music, vegan-themed tattoos done on-site by the artists from Gristle Tattoo in Brooklyn, kids’ activities including face-painting, a bouncy castle, water slide, and more! Bestselling author Terry Hope Romero will also be presenting around her new cookbook, “Protein Ninja”. Spend the day with family and friends and meet over 300 friendly rescued cows, pigs, goats, turkeys and more while benefiting our rescue, shelter and outreach work for farmed animals.
There will be a free sanctuary shuttle for this event departing hourly from the New Paltz Trailways bus station.
73F by 10am with a mix of sun, cloud, afternoon rain and a tornado watch.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
64F at 8.30am and blue skies dashed with fuzzy cotton wool clouds. An 81F scorcher by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.45pm
64F at 8.30am with rolling clouds, humid and hot in the sunshine. 80F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.45am
© J.N. Urbanski
They’re fleeting because once the deer find out they exist, they will eat them all. All the more arresting for being a complete surprise, all the roses bar two featured in this post disappeared suddenly overnight. I had never seen wild roses before in the Catskills but, as a wise neighbour said, that’s probably because the deer got to them first. It was a joy to have them in our road briefly.
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The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis
The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis
The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis in watercolor on handmade paper (top) and again, in block print (underneath) both at the Commons Gallery for the next couple of days.
67F at 8.30am with wispy clouds and a cool breeze. 81F by noon. Update: 70F and raining by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
85F by noon with a mix of sun and clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
70F by 8.30am, with periods of brilliant sunshine dampened by huge cotton wool clouds sailing through. Humid and hot rising to over 80F.
© J.N. Urbanski 5.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The first harvest of beetroot and carrots has been pulled and there’s no end to the possibilities. You can eat the carrot straight out of the ground but some sources say that they have to be steamed to give you all their benefits. If you want a raw treat, grate them and mix with balsamic vinegar and feta cheese for a truly healthful side dish that I posted last year. Scroll down for the recipe.
© J.N. Urbanski
Beetroot, Carrot & Feta Salad
3 medium-sized beetroot (with leaves)
4-5 medium-sized carrots
1.5 ounces of balsamic vinegar
3 ounces of goat’s milk feta
Grate the carrots and beetroot. Chop up the beetroot greens. Cut the feta cheese into cubes. Mix the grated vegetables, and cheese together in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar for a quick, easy, utterly delicious, juicy and crunchy salad.
70F by 10am, with scudding clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
A hair under 60F at 8.30am with a mix of sun and clouds, rising to 75F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.20pm
I rarely have the opportunity to present a good sunset because the sun sets behind my ridge and is obscured by an acre of trees, but occasionally I get a good shot of our peaceful evenings.
© J.N. Urbanski 6/22/16 8.40pm
65F at 8.30am, sunny with armadas of scudding clouds, rising to 77F by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
65F at 8.30am rising to 78F by mid-afternoon. Another scorcher.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
84F by noon and very bright with hazy cloud cover.
© J.N. Urbanski 7pm
82F by noon with a mix of sunshine and clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The hike to Southwest Hunter was beautifully serene until halfway up The Devil’s Path I suddenly found myself in the midst of what I thought might be – but was not – young Giant Hogweed patch and froze in terror with my elbows in. I avoided touching it, but the dog raced on ahead of me and brushed through all the leaves that obstructed the path. “Giant hogweed!” I shouted to my hiking mate, who happens to be my husband. “Don’t touch it! Don’t touch the dog!”
“OK,” he said, nonplussed and walked on, clearly not fussed at all. I shouted out the consequences of brushing past Giant Hogweed to his back as he retreated into the forest brushing it with his bare arm. I proceeded gingerly through the patch passing what looked like enormous coriander leaves on stalks topped with large, distinctive, white floral umbrells.
The plants were six feet high and far too big to be poison hemlock. Out came the mobile phone, which remained raised in the air for a while and – lo and behold – you can get a faint signal on certain spots on the Devil’s Path and the occasional strong one. Good news. A spousal debate over tiny Internet images of Giant Hogweed ensued that became more annoying than the prospect of being burned by a poison plant…
A scorching 80F by noon with clear skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
64F at 8.30am and clear skies, rising to 80F by 3pm. Cloudy in the afternoon with brief periods of sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm
© J.N. Urbanski
Dotted around the Catskills through the warmer months this year, in leafy nooks and floral crannies, on (disused) train tracks and atop mountains, you’ll find Plein Air painters at their easels from dawn to dusk. The East Branch of the Delaware River Plein Air Group meet every Tuesday and yesterday they were painting on the curated grounds of The Blackbird Inn in Halcotsville, possible the most picturesque hamlet in the Catskills. There were patches of vivid red poppies; fresh mullein glistening with essential oils, getting ready to start their journey upwards like cornstalks from a double set of train tracks; kayaks laid out on the shore of Lake Wawaka were waiting for visitors from far and wide to Susan’s Pleasant Pheasant Farm.
70F by 10am, clear and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
52F at 8.30am, clear and sunny rising to 66F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
© J.N. Urbanski 10.15am
48F at 8.30am and grey with a chilly breeze, rising to 60F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
64F by mid-morning, lowering to 55F by 5pm. Windy, chilly and overcast with brief periods of sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.40pm
60F by mid-morning with torrential rain, rising to 72F and sunny by late afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
64F by mid-morning with a steady breeze, rising to 74F by the afternoon with mostly clear skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 7pm
© J.N. Urbanski
Today Friday 10th through Sunday June 12th, the Catskill Center is hosting Taking Flight: Birding in the Catskills.
Saturday June 11th, the Catskills own live radio event, Catskill Cabaradio will be hosted at the Pine Hill Center, in Pine Hill. Hosted by Elly Wininger, the event will be “an evening of music, drama, local lore, and laughs”, exploring the theme of “Food in the Catskills” with some of the region’s most celebrated and unique residents. In addition to growers, purveyors, chefs and food activists, there will be performances by a crop of regional talent including musician Chris Maxwell, poet and storyteller Margot Farrington, and young Maxwell Barnes, saxophonist. The potluck dishes are some of the best cooking in the Catskills.
Voices of Wisdom Gathering at the Blue Deer Center on June 11th and 12th. The gathering will start on Saturday at noon. People will sit by the fire and each of the two elders will speak in turn, offering the wisdom that they see is needed in that moment. The talks and conversations will be followed by a potluck dinner. The Blue Deer Center is
The 5th Annual Living History Cemetery Tour hosted by Middletown Historical Society will be held at Halcott Cemetery in Greene County near Fleischmanns on Saturday, June 18th. Tour goers will visit eight departed residents, portrayed by local actors, who will talk about their lives, loves and losses. Meet a fugitive “calico Indian;” a little girl remembering her Halcott childhood punctuated by tragedy; a farm couple whose long life together was ended by a charging bull; a young World War 1 soldier who fell to the Spanish flu. Tours begin every 20 minutes starting at 4pm. Reserve a tour time by calling 845-586-4736 by June 15th.
Straight Out Of The Ground Farm is hosting a farm dinner on Saturday June 25th for $55 a person. Make a reservation here.
Amy’s Takeaway in Lanesville is open all weekend this weekend from Friday, June 10th through Sunday, June 12th, 2016, 11am to 7pm with a special menu.
© J.N. Urbanski
63F at 8.30am with rolling clouds, light breeze and brief periods of sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
58F at 8.30am, cloudy with light breeze.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.15am
65F by mid-morning, overcast with heavy rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
77F by mid-morning, humid and cloudy. 87F by mid-afternoon and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
66F by mid-morning, humid, overcast after overnight rain and a bit gloomy. 73F by 2pm and muggy.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
65F at 8.30am, clear and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
71F at 8.30am, quickly rising to 81F by 10.30am, clear and sunny.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.20am
59F at 7.30am, sun rising through a shroud of mist. Update: 84F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.50am
61F by 8am, still humid after overnight rain with mist rising off the mountains. 82F by mid-afternoon with very hazy sunshine and early evening rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.45pm
85F by mid-morning, hazily overcast, very humid with a light breeze and isolated showers.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.50pm
69F at 8am with hazy sunshine, rising to 86F by mid-morning with scattered clouds. Scorcher.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.15am
81F by 11am, overcast but scorching in the brief periods of sunshine. Late afternoon rain and humidity. Steamy.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
© J.N. Urbanski 4/9/16 11.30am
The cluster of old A.H. Todd & Son barn buildngs between the school on Wagner and Bebert’s Cafe on Main Street in Fleischmanns were demolished last week. The picture above might be the last image of the buildings standing. Update on this to come.
82F by noon, with hazy sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
© J.N. Urbanski
The “Earthy” at Lazy Crazy Acres Farm‘s Saturday Pizza Night.
© J.N. Urbanski
To your average British immigrant fish and chips is the ultimate comfort food and Arkville Bread Breakfast’s version last Saturday was perfectly fried and, although not specified, tasted like haddock that was steamed to perfection in a beer batter. It was a distant memory even at the time because it disappeared down my gullet quicker than you can say pudding. Accompanied by tartar sauce, delicious mushy peas and jacket wedges, it was so delicate it almost slipped through my greasy, quivering fingers. Quite possibly the best fish and chips in the Catskills.
© J.N. Urbanski 7pm
63F by mid-morning, dark, humid, overcast with a dash of rain. 66F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
63F by mid-afternoon, humid and overcast with some rain.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.50pm
63F by 9am, clear and sunny. 73F by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
60F at 8am, clear, warm and sunny with rolling clouds. 70F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm