On Sunday, I was sitting in a chair outside in front of my house, enjoying the evening. It was around 7 p.m. and just beginning to be dark. The crickets were singing, but slowly: it was a cool evening. And then I heard him, and knew immediately, as I always do, that it was the […]
Category Archives: Life in the Catskills
Death in the Woods.
17-Sep-13A Political Campaign.
15-Sep-13http://echem-eg.com/quality/ This year, I am the Democratic Candidate for Town Council in the Town of Denning (my township). The caucus was this past Friday, and I was nominated and accepted as candidate. I will be the only registered Democrat on the ballot for any town position, and the chances of a Democrat winning are not good. […]
Cutting Wood.
28-Aug-13The woodcutting has started in earnest, and it’s such pleasant work I have to stop my body from doing it so much I’ll get injured. As sad as I am to say goodbye to summer, there’s just something about fall. It’s beautiful.
Singin’ in the Rain.
21-Aug-13Last Saturday there was a party to celebrate the Denning Town Garden, the creation of a group of citizens who wanted to create the town’s first public space. After the party – which was a wonderful celebration of our little upstate community – an artist who lives next door to the town garden showed – […]
Wildcat Woodstacking.
14-Aug-13Down in the upper 30s at night. Beautiful, early autumnal weather. Time to stack up the wood for the winter.
An interesting article on the importance of native plants for wildlife. The logic is obvious – animals need energy, and they derive it all ultimately from plants, and they have evolved with certain plants and need them – no bamboo, no pandas. No eucalyptus, no koalas. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence as well. It’s […]
Bald Eagles on the Rondout.
06-May-13I stopped by the bald eagle nest on the Rondout a few days ago – a bald eagle male has been nesting just north of Grahamsville on the reservoir every year for over a decade now – and there were some big chicks in the nest. For a sense of what they look like, see […]
My Evening Commute.
06-May-13Route 55, which I drive daily to work, along the Rondout Reservoir, in evening light.
Pointlessness.
06-May-13Driving in to work Sunday morning I passed four police cars, lights blazing, parked outside a house which is far from any town, in the woods. In the driveway three police officers were apparently making small talk with a long-haired man, laughing and apparently feeling quite relaxed. The long-haired man was in handcuffs, hands behind […]
The Golden Spruce and our Forests.
19-Apr-13A friend recently lent me a book and I repaid him by reading it. The book, The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant, is about an unusual Sitka spruce, several hundred years old, which had golden needles in place of the usual green ones. Golden foliage is an odd but regularly occurring plant mutation, highly prized […]