An 80F high, humid and bright despite hazy clouds, with a faint breeze.
© J.N. Urbanski 3.40pm – Usage prohibited without consent
Daily Catskills: 09/21/17
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Tag Archives: Summer in the Catskills
Daily Catskills: 09/19/17
Hot in the sun with hazy sunshine, with a cool breeze ushering the fall and a high of 82F. These last few days of summer end on Thursday. Fall begins on Friday with the Autumnal Equinox.
© J.N. Urbanski 3pm – Usage prohibited without consent
A Summer Party in Halcottsville
© J.N. Urbanski 2.30pm
On Saturday August 12th at 4pm, Ella’s Mercantile is having a summer party in Halcottsville, a favorite haunt of mine. It’s an exquisitely picturesque haven on a large boating lake, through which the historic railroad (DURR) runs. It’s postcard perfect. I’ve taken watercolor classes there; participated in a plein air painting group (with or without attendant goats); interviewed the reverends of the church for a local publication; exhibited my prints in The Grange and tasted tea with a friend. You can stay at Susan’s Pleasant Pheasant Farm and kayak on Lake Wawaka. There’s even a fledgling Shakespeare Company in the works. The whole village is arguably one of the Catskills most beautiful places. Continue reading
Catskills Weekend: July 22nd
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Saturday July 22nd
Phoenicia
You may just be able to register in time for Taste the World, at 1.30pm on Saturday – if it’s not sold out – at the Phoenicia Library. Sample a medley of traditional foods that The Recipe Hunters learned to make in the homes of locals from around the world. Hear about the stories of people behind these recipes. ADVANCED REGISTRATION required, please call the library 688-7811. 48 Main Street, Phoenicia, NY 12464.
Hobart
Hosted by Transition Catskills, Hobart Methodist Church is holding a Repair Cafe from 10am to 2pm. Take your broken household items, like lamps, vacuum cleaners, small appliances and clothing to be fixed. Hobart Methodist Church, 186 Maple Avenue, Hobart, NY 13788
Bovina
Gardens of Bovina Tour, hosted by Bovina Historical Society will take place from 10am to 4pm. 124 Bob Hall Road, Bovina Center, NY 13740. This is a rare chance to get an insider’s glimpse of one of the hippest areas in the Catskills. Feel free to bring a picnic lunch.
Arkville
If you are interested in becoming a member of the non-profit Catskill Center, they are holding a members-only event entitled The Hudson River School and the Ice Age with speakers and geologists Johanna and Robert Titus. The Catskills Mountains were once at the bottom of the sea where the Bahamas are now. Found out how they got here, Saturday 22nd, 7pm to 9pm. 43355 State Route 28, Arkville, NY 12406. Membership is $35 for individuals and $50 for families.
Andes
Wayside Cider are hosting a Wallabout Fire Roasted Beef Dinner at 6pm Wayside Cider, 55 Redden Lane, Andes, NY 13731. $60 cash at the door.
Monday 24th July
Pine Hill
The Zephyr in Pine Hill is hosting a trivia game night. from 7pm to 10pm. 302 Main Street, Pine Hill, NY 12465. $5 margaritas and some delicious local eats.
Finding Home
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I’ve been in England for a family wedding for the last two weeks and although the British countryside is in my blood, and I’m shaped like a missing piece of its jigsaw, it was moving to return to the mountains, to our densely overgrown, untended property. It had a party in our absence.
We arrived yesterday, early evening, to find that the short path from the car to the house was a thick carpet of clover sprinkled with aging chanterelle. Half of the field that was mowed around our small farm is now festooned with yarrow, bee balm, milkweed, thistle, mushrooms, mullein and wild strawberries.
Last night’s weather was its own production deserving of an Oscar, with thick, white mist stubbornly hugging these vast mountains. Rings of fog capped the peaks like fluffy crowns that dissolved into the sunset to reveal a surly, grey armada of larger clouds above.
My new sister-in-law, who I call my bonus sister, said, before I left for England: “you’ll notice how remarkably flat Norfolk is”. Continue reading
Daily Catskills Lightbox: 06/28/16
© J.N. Urbanski 6/8/16 11.40am
Harvest: Garlic
© J.N. Urbanski
After picking, the garlic has to be hung out to dry for three weeks, which has been tricky during these past few weeks of heavy rainfall. A neighbor put his garlic in the wood-drying kiln because his property was so wet. Home grown garlic is so different from store bought garlic, but the main difference is that a clove of home grown garlic bursts with oil when you cut it.
Daily Catskills: 08/19/16
82F by 2pm with a mixture of sun and cloud.
© J.N. Urbanski 5.30pm
Daily Catskills: 08/18/16
73F at 8.30am rising to 84F by mid-afternoon and humid with rolling clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
Daily Catskills: 08/08/16
A chilly 58F at 8.30am with clear skies, rising to 80F.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.45pm
Daily Catskills: 7/25/16
67F at 8.30am rising to 84F by noon with gossamer cloud and hazy sunshine. Continual, heavy afternoon rains.
© J.N. Urbanski 4.40pm
Daily Catskills: 07/18/16
83F by mid-morning, breezy but humid and overcast with a sprinkle of rain. Thunderstorms pending.
© J.N. Urbanski 5pm
Daily Catskills: 06/28/16
70F at 8.30am and sunny with rolling clouds. 81F at 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.40am
Daily Catskills: 9/22/15
52F at 8.30am, overcast and grey, rising to 65F and hot during the sunny periods by 1.30pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
A Catskills Weekend
© J.N. Urbanski
I was honoured to have been invited to a friend’s wedding on Andes’ Willow Drey Farm over the weekend and spent a gorgeous late summer day catching up with neighbors in one of the most beautiful settings in the Catskills. (It’s technically still summer until the Autumnal Equinox on September 23rd.) I already have fearsome village envy over Andes and Willow Drey Farm is not helping. It’s a stunning 65 acres of big sky country farmland with rolling hills, a grain silo, barn, lake and old-style wooden fencing throughout. See my Daily Catskill pictures here.
Daily Catskills: 09/21/15
43F at 7.15am, dry and breezy, with a thin film of hazy cloud, rising quickly to 49F by 8am and 60F by 11am.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 09/20/15
64F by 10am, clear skies with overnight rain evaporating into the sun. Breezy with scattered, wispy clouds. 70F by mid-afternoon: perfect day for a Catskills wedding.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.20pm
© J.N. Urbanski 11.40am
Daily Catskills: 09/19/15
78F by 10.30am with hazy, hazy sunshine and a whisper of a breeze. Mostly sunny with flotillas of cloud moving in mid-afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 5.30pm
Daily Catskills: 09/18/15
A balmy, dewy 70F by 8.30am with sun rising through the mist to reveal crystal clear skies. Another gorgeous day in the making.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
Daily Catskills: 09/17/15
A very dewy, misty 67F at 8.30am with clear skies above the morning haze rising to 75F by 12.30pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
© J.N. Urbanski 6.15pm
Daily Catskills: 09/16/15
A misty 50F at 7am, rising to 80F by 1.30pm and clear skies with a layer of haze over the mountains.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
Daily Catskills: 09/15/15
A crisp 60F at 8am with dew underfoot and a crystal clear, azure sky. 70F by 11.30am.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 09/14/15
50F at 7.30am, with overnight rain still drizzling and being shaken off trees, overcast and gloomy. 59F by 2pm and cloudy with periods of sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
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: 09/12/15
70F by 10am and until 1.30pm, overcast with occasional bursts of sunshine and a slightly chilly afternoon breeze. Update: heavy rain mid-afternoon and into the evening.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.40pm
Daily Catskills: 09/11/15
Overnight rain left dampness in the ground that evaporated in the morning sun. 70F by noon, an armada of cloud and a warm breeze: a perfect late summer day.
© J.N. Urbanski 1.30pm
Daily Catskills: 09/10/15
68F at 8am, rising to 72F and cloudy with heat-relieving light rain having fallen overnight. Rain expected. Update: late afternoon/evening rain.
© Margaret Helthaler www.margaretdhelthaler.com
Daily Catskills: 09/09/15
68F at 9am and mostly sunny rising to 82F by 1pm. A sprinkle of reds, flicked as if like paint, here and there.
The Catskill 35: Balsam Lake Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski
There are five fire towers in the Catskills, three of which I have visited, but I still have not mustered the courage to get to the top of one. Flights one, two and three of Balsam Lake Mountain fire tower were a piece of cake until a slight breeze blew, which rattled me to the core, then I looked down. Huge mistake; I sank to the floor (which looks like flimsy wood paneling when you’re kneeling on it), clinging on to the handrail. Is there a handrail? I can’t remember, but it hardly matters. I managed to execute a nice crawl/shuffle combination down the stairs on my bum, like a socialite spilling out of a nightclub at 3am, knees and elbows first. I spent the descent of Balsam Lake Mountain trying not to collapse in a heap, deeply in thought, musing on vertigo. Modern fire towers are steel structures bolted into solid rock, but older versions were made of wood. The earlier wooden structure on Balsam Lake Mountain was built in 1887, but was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground in 1901.
Happy Birthday Upstate Dispatch!
© J.N. Urbanski
It’s been another beautiful Catskills summer. In the last few weeks, red leaves have been scattered sparingly on the forest floor like clues to a treasure hunt, leading me to my autumnal prize. A spectacular show, like the forest’s own Mexican wave, a static riot of color will commence later this month. A benevolent Mother Nature now has a cool wind in the works while Old Man Winter waits behind her gleefully rubbing his hands. I hope she flicks an acorn in his eye.
It’s at the waning end of this glorious summer that Upstate Dispatch celebrates its birthday. It turns a year old tomorrow, September 9th. I would, firstly, like to thank you for reading and all your wonderful comments, feedback and admiration. Readership support means such a great deal.
Daily Catskills: 09/08/15
Misty and 69F at 7.30am with a hazy horizon, rising to 88F and mostly clear by 1pm. Update: 88F until 3pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.40am
Daily Catskills: 09/07/15
A dewy, hazy, misty 64F at 8am, rising quickly to 80F by 11am. Update: a sweltering 85F by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10.20am
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: 09/05/15
70F by 10am, breezy and partly cloudy. Another 80F scorcher, with scattered cotton wool clouds, by 2pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 10am
Daily Catskills: 09/04/15
65F at 7.30am with the usual fog receding into the valleys, rising to another scorcher at a hazy, breezy 79F by the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 2.50pm
The Catskill 35: Balsam Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski
The start of the hike to the summit of Balsam Mountain from Rider Hollow Road is a soft, mossy incline in a slender canyon between two mountains, crossing back and forth five times over (two) bridges and gushing streams, enveloped by the heady, familiar aroma of evergreen trees.
It’s an exquisitely picturesque hike with a narrow trail off which the dog strays, excitedly sprinting down to the gushing stream for a splash around and then back up the mountain to chase chipmunks. After the last bridge, the going begins to get rocky and steep, requiring hands and feet both in places, giving little respite until the next mile marker. Even after the mile marker, it’s a first-rate clamber in parts, second in line to the great rocky Giant Ledge/Panther Mountain hike. However, I’ve only done five of the Catskill 35, so I’ve little to compare it to, but it’s a thigh-busting challenge.
However, as the great lady said, by heck, it’s gorgeous. Not only gorgeous, it’s magical, evoking memories of childhood books in which squirrels and other spritely mammals live in enormous trees, like they’re Brooklyn brownstones, and go to forest school in uniforms. The magic was compounded by the fact that the base of the mountain was shrouded in fog when I hiked, so my ascent was a misty rise into a lushly ethereal world. You are never really alone until you’ve done a steep, perilous mid-week hike into the mountains after the summer season has finished and revelers have retreated to their city habitats. Always sign in for hikes. It could save your life. There is nothing like the doom of having unwittingly wandered off-trail and being lost in the wilderness with darkness looming. I recommend it at least once, because if you have stressful concerns about business, trivial family wrangles or superficial worries, they will dissolve like a desert mirage once you get lost on a hike with no cellphone service.
Hiking the Catskills 35 has taught me that I can start a hike fretting about a demanding client and by the time I’ve gone off-trail, become lost and suddenly relying on the dog to get me back to civilization, that formerly important client is miraculously dead to me.
The Year of the Apple: Catskills 2015
© J.N. Urbanski
2015 must be The Year of the Apple in the Catskills such is their abundance this year. a neighbour guesses that we have heritage apples on our property. Yesterday, I borrowed a dehydrator in exchange for ten pounds of apples. It’s clear that I’ll be making apple products like apple sauce, fruit leather, dried apples and apple crisp, for days and days to come. The image above is my breakfast for the foreseeable future: plain yoghurt layered with homemade apple sauce.
© J.N. Urbanski
© J.N. Urbanski
Daily Catskills: 09/03/15
60F at 7.30am, misty and humid with a chill in the air. Update: an 84F scorcher. Theme for the week: starts out misty then turns up the heat.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
The Catskill 35: Hunter Mountain
© J.N. Urbanski The view from John Robb lean-to about 2 miles into the Spruceton Trail to Hunter Mt.
If the Spruceton Trail to the summit of Hunter Mountain were a movie it would be a Kate Winslett vehicle: remarkably efficient, obvious, solidly reliable with a spectacular finish. An old logging trail, it has a very wide berth, leading the way like any seasonal road flattened with pebbles and flinty rubble. There’s really no chance for an idiot writer to get lost on this trail; even the Black Lab fell in line quickly and took a steady, dependable pace all the way to the top where there is a large fire tower, upon which should read the words: don’t look down. Looking down from the midway of the fire tower invites a severe case of the wobblies.
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
Daily Catskills: 09/01/15
A dew-dropping, foggy 68F by 8.30am. An 80F scorcher by 1pm.
© J.N. Urbanski 11am
Daily Catskills: 08/31/15
A dewy, balmy 60F at 7.30am with mist hovering over the mountains.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Daily Catskills: 08/30/15
70F by 10.30am, humid with hazy sunshine, rising to 80F by 12.30pm
© J.N. Urbanski 11.30am
Daily Catskills: 08/29/15
A dewy 55F at 8am with mist hovering in the mountains and hazy sunshine, rising to 78F by 2pm. Mostly sunny with cloudy periods.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.46pm
Daily Catskills: 08/28/15
63F at 10am rising to nearly 70F by 1pm, with gunmetal grey, rolling cloud cover dominating the skies, only occasionally breaking up to reveal sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 2pm
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
Emergency Foraging
© J.N. Urbanski
Country life means throwing on the wellies, sprinting out of the house at 8am ahead of the town mower to save a patch of wild mint and chicory before it’s razed by the town’s enormous lateral road leveler. Their incredible new machine has an industrial rake on it and the monster takes out eight-feet-tall thistles like it’s plucking daisies.
Experienced foragers often say that roadside foraging should be avoided because of brake dust and ice-melting salt, but big buckets of mint make a natural air freshener for musty rooms and workshops. Last year, the slugs got the mint, but they didn’t this year. This summer was a banner year for chicory, which is all over the roadsides everywhere. Get it into water immediately otherwise it will quickly wilt and makes good freshly cut flowers in clear vases for guest bedrooms.
Daily Catskills: 08/26/15
59F at 8.30am with hazy sunshine, quickly rising to 72F by 10.30am with scattered clouds.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.50am
Wild Apples
© J.N. Urbanski
Wild apples are extraordinarily abundant and delicious in the Catskills this summer. They’re also slightly larger and sweeter than last year’s. Foraging for wild apples at the moment could not be any easier as they are just about everywhere you look. If you don’t have a tree or two on your property, it’s likely that you have a neighbour who does. If they aren’t going to pick their apples, ask them if you can pick some. Apple sauce freezes well for a couple of months and goes perfectly with and in a varied array of sweet and savoury dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Fill a large tureen with peeled and halved apples. (Wild apples go brown almost immediately after peeling, so you can pop them in a bowl of water with lemon juice to stop that if it bothers you.) Boil the apples in water slowly until they are soft, strain and mash them with as much sugar as desired. Let the mash sit for a half hour while the sugar dissolves, stir in some spices like cinnamon, clove or vanilla and then keep stirring until cool. Freeze in mason jars, but don’t add the spices if you’re going to freeze. Spices don’t freeze well, so add those when you use the sauce.
If you’re lucky enough to find a blackberry bush under the apple tree, you can add those to the sauce. Either mix them raw into the sugared apple mash for an easy pie filling or boil them separately with sugar to make a small amount of jam.
The best part about foraging for wild apples is that the fruit is pesticide-free, although it’s recommended that roadside foraging be avoided because of contamination from brake dust, motor oil and snow-melting sand or salt.
Daily Catskills: 08/25/15
66F at 8am, foggy, humid and warm as the sun rises through the hazy cloud. Dashes of red, here and there, appear as the merest of blushing hints on the landscape.
© J.N. Urbanski 8.30am
Do It Yourself: Siding for Beginners
© J.N. Urbanski
Last year, our new neighbours told us they were quoted a price of $40,000 to replace their leaky siding and there was a lengthy pause in the conversation, more than one sigh and some sympathetic nodding. We also need new siding. So we all had a glass of wine or two and tried to forget about it but, last winter, squirrels took up residence in our chimney along with two swarms of bees, leaving too many gaping holes to ignore and soggy wood caused by the resultant leakage. A full chimney is also a fire hazard. So I asked the question: how hard would it be just to rip it off the siding and put on some more? We found out today. Well, my husband found out and I helped. Turns out if you do all of Jillian Michaels’ exercise DVDs, you will be sufficiently forceful with a hammer, but they won’t help you with your fear of heights. My next question, as I helped rip the chimney apart, was: how do the caterpillars get in there, behind the siding? And why do we build houses with particle board covered in paper? I mean, it wasn’t even real wood under there and some of it was rotten and had to be replaced.
Daily Catskills: 08/24/15
A crisp 60F at 7.30am with fog hovering in the valleys. Update: 81F, blazing sun, scattered cloud combo.
© J.N. Urbanski 7.30am
© J.N. Urbanski 10.45am
Daily Catskills: 08/23/15
72F at 9am, bright with some scattered clouds. 78F by lunchtime.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Daily Catskills: 08/22/15
A crisp, dewy 52F at 7.45am. Cloudy with fog rolling off the mountains. Update: 75F by 2pm with scattered clouds. Hot in the sunshine.
© J.N. Urbanski 8am
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm
Daily Catskills: 08/21/15
74F at 9.30am with mist evaporating into the sunshine. 82F by lunchtime with scattered clouds. Heavy overnight rains had given the landscape a good soaking, and left the rivers gushing and thick with mud.
© J.N. Urbanski 12.50pm