31F at 8.30 with hazy sunshine, rising to 43F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Daily Catskills: 02/07/16
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Tag Archives: Photography
Daily Catskills: 02/06/16
22F at 8.30am with a layer of frost sparkling under a hazy sunrise.
© J.N. Urbanski 9am
Daily Catskills: 01/29/16
28F at 10am with light but persistent snow throughout the morning: a white out on the peaks. 34F by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.40pm
Daily Catskills: 01/27/16
35F at 8.30am and overcast with a chilly wind blowing the odd snowflake. Scattered snowstorms by mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
The Catskill 35: Slide Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski
A return to the stunning Slide Mountain for the second time this year, ascending into the seductive clutches of a dense forest of snow-laden conifers, with a copy of John Burroughs’ In The Catskills. A commemorative plaque to Burroughs is affixed to a large rock at the summit under which the writer frequently camped. Slide is so named because of a landslide that occurred in the early nineteenth century on its north face where the scar is still apparent after having been refreshed by another landslide in 1992 and the entire area was thoroughly traversed by the writer.
The Catskill 35: Big Indian
© J.N. Urbanski
Winter hiking in the Catskills is mostly magical, tranquil beauty but uncomfortable if you’re ill prepared and occasionally terrifying. I’ve been conveying my winter hiking experiences here under the Outdoors section on Upstate Dispatch. Or, rather, I’ve been writing about what could possibly go wrong should you decide to attempt a Catskills high peak when it’s 10˚F and weather conditions are a fickle master. True to my British nature, I seem to have created A Pessimist’s Guide to Winter Hiking or a Pessimist’s Guide to Conquering Winter Summits. Last year, I decided to attempt to hike all 35 Catskills peaks over 3500ft in order to join the Catskills 3500 Club and there are four extra peaks required in the winter. What I discovered after having hiked those four is that you can see a lot more of the landscape when it has lost most of its foliage. You literally get the lay of the land. So I’ve been continuing down the list instead of doing the sensible thing and waiting for the spring thaw. However, winter hiking is not for the uncertain.
Daily Catskills: 01/22/16
21F by 11am, with hazy sunshine, shimmering cloud cover and snow remaining on the peaks.
© Urbanski 3pm
Daily Catskills: 01/21/16
21F at 9am and mostly sunny.
© Niva Dorell 10am
Daily Catskills: 01/18/16
16F at 9am with shimmering blue-white cloud and a thick layer of snow rising to 18F with cloudless, hazy skies.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 01/16/16
38F at 9.30am and foggy with 2 inches of powder dripping off trees loudly onto the forest floor.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.50am
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Daily Catskills: 01/14/16
14F at 8.30am with still air, shimmering sky and with the barest of flurries.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
The Catskills 35 (W): Blackhead Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski
There’s a part of the final metres of the ascent to Blackhead Mountain that is a vertical climb and one from which you should not look back down if you suffer the slightest vertigo or you will invite a case of the wobblies. It’s even worse now that it’s entombed in ice. My husband and dog hopped up it like mountain goats and I was left in the metaphorical dust, grappling with uncertainty, stabbing my spikes into the ice and, finally, hoisting myself up over the rocks with the roots of an aging birch tree. As I finally managed to haul myself over the top, I wondered if there was such a thing as hand crampons attached to a set of gloves because they would have made the job much easier.
Daily Catskills: 01/05/16
0F at 7.30am and still, with some areas reporting as low as -11F at dawn. Clear skies to the horizon, rising to 15F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Daily Catskills: 01/04/16
A hair over 10F at 7.30am and still with clear skies. Not much warmer by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.45am
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Daily Catskills: 12/30/15
39F by 2pm, overcast, misty and dark.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
Daily Catskills: 12/20/15
Only 31F at 2pm, with most of yesterday’s snow melting, except parts that were in the shade. Clear skies all afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
Daily Catskills: 12/19/15
26F at noon with an overnight snow flurry having dusted the landscape. More gentle flurries beginning in the afternoon. 30F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.20pm
Daily Catskills: 12/15/15
45F at 8.30am with the sun twinkling through the gaps in the shimmering cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.40am
Daily Catskills: 12/14/15
53F at 8am, cloudy humid and warm. Almost 60F by noon: t-shirt weather.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.30am
Daily Catskills: 12/12/15
54F by 1pm, balmy and overcast.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.15pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1.20pm
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: 11/18/15
43F at 8.30am, partly cloudy, sunny and breezy. 50F and cloudy by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.20am
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: 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
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
Daily Catskills: 10/16/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/09/15
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
Daily Catskills: 10/07/15
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
Daily Catskills: 09/28/15
A hair under 70F, cloudy and humid at 9.30am. Warm, sunny with multifarious cloud cover for the rest of the day and a blazing sunset.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.40am
Honey Harvesting at Chasing Honey Farms
© J.N. Urbanski
Chase Kruppo of Chasing Honey Farms in Fleischmanns has been harvesting the honey from his pesticide-free apiary recently. Chase operates a honey CSA which is more like a club membership where customers “buy-in” on a hive and reap the benefits come harvest time. They can either keep their share of the produce of the hives, or Chase will sell it for them. This year is Chasing Honey Farm’s first harvest from the bees he installed earlier this year. Many beekeepers I know lost some or all of their hives last year due to extremely cold weather and Chase lost the bees he installed in 2013. This morning I joined him for what he thinks might be his final harvest of the year and will be interviewing him later for an update. By the time he had harvested the first hive and opened the second, the bees were quite agitated and one dive-bombed me in the face, so I beat a hasty retreat. The farm property is dotted with very old apple trees, a thick carpet of blackberries and strawberries and a field of waning golden rod. His product will be raw and unfiltered. You can’t call honey organic because you can’t be sure where your bees have roamed, but you can use chemical-free hives and operate completely without pesticides. The honeycomb (pictured above) melted softly in my mouth: light and delicious. Find Chasing Honey Farms’ website here and check back for a harvest update.
© J.N. Urbanski
Daily Catskills: 09/13/15
70F by 8.30am, a sunny morning, but slipping to 67F by 1pm. Cool in the shade and warm in the sun.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Daily Catskills: 09/06/15
A blazing 80F by 10.30am, with scattered clouds rising to 82F by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Daily Catskills: 09/02/15
70F by 9am, with misty mountains evaporating into the hazy sunshine. Update: another 80F+ scorcher, with the haze never really evaporating.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.30am
Goats Milk, Grated Beet & Carrot Salad
© J.N. Urbanski
If you’ve grown more carrots and beetroot that you can handle, you can make a crunchy slaw with crumbly goat’s milk feta. Serves four.
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.
Daily Catskills: 08/27/15
A nippy 60F at 8.30am, overcast and gloomy, with a cool breeze, only rising to 64F by noon.
© J.N. Urbanski Noon
Daily Catskills: 08/14/15
80F by 10.30am, hazy sunshine and partly cloudy.
© J.N. Urbanski 1pm
Daily Catskills: 08/12/15
67F at 8.30am.Clouds taking center stage again, chugging through, obscuring the sun at regular intervals. Update: more rain, rising to about 80F by 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.48pm
Feminism in the Catskills
For the last three years, I’ve produced and hosted a radio show on WIOX that airs live on alternate Mondays at 9am out of Roxbury, New York. Two years ago, I did a series on feminism called Women in Film and set about doing research for the series. At the time I did my research two years ago, in about July 2013, the UK’s Guardian newspaper had reported the previous week that a recent study of 2012’s 100 highest grossing films found that only 28% of the speaking roles went to women. To say I was shocked and saddened is not exactly true because I was already certain that we have a long way to go before there’s some equality in Hollywood, so I just hunched over my desk with a long sigh and put my face in my hands.
A more recent statistic from the same publication is not much better: “women accounted for only 12% of on-screen protagonists in 2014, and just 30% of characters with speaking parts”.
Daily Catskills: 08/04/15
75F at 9.30am with hovering mist and muddy puddles caused by heavy overnight rain evaporating quickly into the clear blue sky.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
© J.N. Urbanski 9.15am
Daily Catskills: 08/03/15
85F by the afternoon, hot and humid with multifarious cloud cover. Thunder and the barest sprinkle of rain at 3.30pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.50pm
Daily Catskills: 08/02/15
82F by noon, clear skies overhead, warm and breezy with scudding clouds on the horizon.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.10pm
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Sunset Hike under a Full Blue Moon with Catskill Mountain Wild
Last night’s gorgeous sunset hike with Jeff Vincent of Catskill Mountain Wild occurred under a full, blue moon with clear skies and hazy sunset viewed from the fire tower atop Overlook Mountain in Woodstock. Go to the NYNJ Trail Conference website or the DEC to get the details of the hike. There’s nothing as quietening on the nerves as a strenuous hike that culminates in a few beers around the fire pit at one of the Catskills best bars, Commune Saloon on nearby Tinker Street. An uphill 2.5-mile battle at a thigh-burning gradient, the hike is worthwhile for the magnificent ruins of the Overlook Mountain House about half a mile from the summit. The hotel was built almost 100 years ago but swiftly abandoned by the developer mid-project. The trail is lined with burdock and mullein, but beware of the rattlesnakes. Once you ascend the fire tower you have almost 360-degree views of the Ashokan Reservoir, the Hudson River and the easternmost Catskill Mountains, once called the Blue Mountains for their blue hue. The 2.5-mile descent was under the gaze of the full, blue moon. A great hike to take visitors; the summit also includes a historical kiosk manned day and night by volunteer watchmen.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.15am
Daily Catskills: 07/31/15
70F at 8.30am with strong sunshine piercing the morning haze as the temperature quickly rises.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.20am
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Daily Catskills: 07/30/15
80F at 9am, overcast with brief flashes of sun, humid and hazy. A steamy morning. Update: rain showers moved through mid-afternoon briefly darkening the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 9.55am
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
Catskills Conversations: Lisbeth Firmin
© J.N. Urbanski
Lisbeth Firmin works out of her warmly inviting art studio in Margaretville, in upstate New York. She was part of the Catskills Open Studio Art Tour last weekend in which she showed many strikingly gorgeous cityscapes in oil.
JN: How long have you lived in the Catskills?
LF: I moved from New York City in 2000, but I kept my apartment down there, so I went back and forth for a while.
What were you doing in the city?
I was a painter and I had a two-bedroomed apartment on Sullivan Street and I painted in one of the bedrooms. My career was just taking off and I needed a bigger space, so I bought a storefront in Franklin, upstate New York.
That sounds very Williamsburg. I remember, back in the day, artists used to buy storefronts and paint out of them. Those were the days.
Oh man, those days, Williamsburg. You can’t even go anywhere near the city these days. I’ve heard Newark is happening.
Daily Catskills: 07/29/15
73F at 8.30am with dewy spider webs in freshly mown fields drying in the hazy sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Catskills Conversations: Alex Wilson of Wayside Cider
© J.N. Urbanski
How long have you lived in the Catskills?
I think we’ve had our house for about six and a half to seven years, right after we got married. Basically, we needed an escape from Manhattan. We started looking around Woodstock and realized that if you went a little bit further you could get a lot more for your money.
What were you doing back in the city?
I was producing and editing film, both documentary and commercial stuff. It’s just that being stuck in an edit room all day, the high pressure, deadlines, late nights: you need an escape from that. My wife’s an attorney so she worked long hours. We got married in a beautiful place in Vermont and we wanted to recreate that beautiful place up here. I grew up in a rural area in England and I’m never happier than when I’m in the countryside. I had to work in New York City, but I didn’t really love it. I was a big fan of London and I quickly learned that I didn’t enjoy New York as much. There wasn’t so much of a social scene with work. In London, your boss would always take you out for a drink on Friday night and you would get to know the people you worked with, but in New York City everyone went home after work. There wasn’t the same camaraderie that I had enjoyed in London and not as much space. It’s slightly more intense and slightly more money-centric. People just live to make money [in NYC] and I think, well what’s the use of money if you can’t enjoy it? Up here, you don’t need very much money but you have everything. Trout fishing, hiking, riding: friends of mine down the road have horses and I go and exercise them. I absolutely adore it.
I had a pretty serious traffic accident and I couldn’t really edit for about a year and a half because my hand was completely out of action. That gave me pause for thought in terms of what I really want to do, my love for this area and the potential in this area.
Daily Catskills: 07/28/15
63F at 7.30am with the rising sun quickly burning through the thick mist hovering over the mountains. Update: the morning mist cleared quickly and the day turned out to be a 85F scorcher with high humidity.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
Daily Catskills: 07/27/15
An typically enigmatic mountain morning with thick fog nestling in the valleys like cotton wool, rising to 85F by 1.30pm with little respite from the scorching sun despite rolling cloud cover. Hot.
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
Catskill Open Studios Art Tour: Day 2 Halcottsville
The second and final day of the Arkville Roxbury Margaretville Art Tour wherein more than 20 artists showed their work and/or opened their studio to the public. Today’s highlights were Oneida Hammond, fine artist, who showed at the Halcott Grange on Main Street in Halcotsville and Alix Travis who has a studio in the hamlet.
Barn Door by Oneida Hammond, Watercolor
It was worth making the trip just to peruse Oneida’s sketch pad and her Mexican travelogue.
Oneida Hammond’s Travel Sketchbooks
And, of course, there was an array of public art that’s on show year round:
Mark Pilato’s 911 Memorial in Halcotsville
Rust in Peace on Route 38 between Route 30 and Arkville, Lynn Johnson
Daily Catskills: 07/26/15
73F at 9.30am with overnight heavy rains evaporating into the morning haze. Heavy grey and white cloud cover rolled through with thunder and stole the show mid-afternoon. Mostly sunny at 4pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 4pm
Daily Catskills: 07/25/15
82F by 11am, hot and hazy. Another scorcher.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.30pm
Daily Catskills: 07/24/15
75F at 10am, bright sunshine with cotton wool clouds on the horizon becoming more burly as the day goes on. 78F by 2.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Daily Catskills: 07/23/15
57F at 7.30am, mostly sunny. Update: rising to 73F and partly cloudy.
© Gavin DuBois
Daily Catskills: 07/22/15
68F at 10.30am and mostly sunny with morning mist over the mountains.
© Gavin DuBois