(Many thanks to BobX for the cheerful spot of color above!)
Howdy! Sorry I’ve been so long in posting a new cafe…things have been CRAAZY at work (trip to Orlando followed by big presentation and other minor chaos).
It’s pouring here this morning, but the colder is holding off until later this week, thank goodness. I need some time to adjust to the fact that it’s almost winter.
Ugh. Hopefully we won’t see the freeze. It’s actually rather warm now. I was just out checking all our roof gutters. Thankfully all seem to be working fairly well.
Ours are in various states of exhaustion here. One in particular causes an ice jam that develops a 5′ icicle every year. One of these days the gutter’s just gonna fall off — which would probably be OK.
Of course they should all be repaired/secured, but there’s only so much an old wench can do for a massive farmhouse by herself. Time dictates other priorities. Constantly.
Down in the valley is the Ashokan Reservoir, busily giving NYC its water. Because the Catskill State Park, where we live, is ‘forever wild’ (read ‘restricted development’) — there’s minimal filtration involved and the city’s municipal water is some of the most delicious & healthful in the nation.
Unfortunately, we’re also sitting on one of the largest natural gas plays in the world, which is set to change everything .. thanks to our friends at Halliburton.
The skis belonged to the farmer’s granddaughter, who’s now a grandmother herself. She doesn’t live here in the valley any more, but she stopped by for a visit recently & was thrilled to see them.
We didn’t crack +10 all day. Very windy, too — I can’t imagine what the wind chill was. I feel for the kids on their country lanes waiting for that bus.
At this point, only half of it is insulated, thanks to Ulster County’s weatherization program. The other half was too holey for the spray stuff.
We have 2 wood stoves, though. The county also helps with heating oil.
If I were building today, I’d build a small house. Preferably circular — the most efficient space to heat.
NOAA says we’ll have wind chills of about 5 below today. After 25 years of Christmas in these woods, I can’t remember this kind of cold in December at all. Late Jan/early Feb, yes, but not now.
Wow. Beautiful shot, Andi! Love seeing the wood ducks.
Kudos to you for going out in this bitter weather for the shot — if, like me, you’re nutty enough to do such a thing.
Just wonderful!
I put on a lot of layers including glove liners under heavier gloves — that way I don’t have to completely expose my fingers to take a photo. The worst part is trying to see what I’m taking through my fogged up glasses. 🙂
Back at the trailer, I had a nice pair of fingerless wool gloves that I wore to shoot; this worked well as long as the temperature stayed above 20 F or so.
I left the gloves outside on a rock to dry one time & the next day they were gone. Some critter, no doubt — there weren’t any other people there.
I like the liners better than fingerless gloves because all my skin is covered so good in all temps. Of course today with that big “warm-up” I didn’t even need the over-gloves.
I’ve been working really hard to find a wrong way to take your comment so I have an excuse to be a big grump but it was just too much effort so thanks instead. 😉
Good morning!
Those few days off two weeks ago for a brief NY-trip demanded pay-back.
Still trying to catch up…
It’s beautiful outside – 3-4 inches of fresh snow overnight (the foot we got early December all vanished last week) and now the sun is out.
We’re experiencing raised temperatures here (24 F now! Hoo boy!) & there appears to be some sort of floating, shining disc in the sky that might or might not have something to do with it. An incredible phenomenon! Could it be the Rapture?
Minor announcement, but Finn likes The Clash and started dancing to Police on My Back and The Call Up this morning. So, the little subversive is starting early with his preference for Side Four of Sandanista!.
Good choice.
I left my old vinyl collection with young asklet a little over a year ago (with a record player that can convert the stuff to mp3).
Heavy rotation of London Calling and Sandinista ensued and the Clash is now the favorite band.
Celtic Wedding The Chieftains
The Circle Game Joni Mitchell
Hold On Carrie Newcomer
Twist and Shout The Beatles
Pajarillo Barranqueno Joan Baez
Fatso The Story The Angel
Like The Weather 10,000 Maniacs
Little Green Joni Mitchell
Southwest Passage Dave Grusin
Sing Joy Spring The Manhattan Transfer
Peggy Sue Buddy Holly
Holy Waters Joan Osborne
Ray’s Dad’s Cadillac Joni Mitchell
The Work Song Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Cellophane Amanda Ghost
Not that we’ll be able to see it.
“Lunar eclipse, winter solstice to coincide“
Our forecast is for snow/wintry mix/freezing rain, but those of you with clear skies, enjoy.
Now if only someone could smite our weather weirdness. Let’s see, we’ve had September in November and February in December. Do you think that means we’ll have May in January? (we should be so lucky)
(Many thanks to BobX for the cheerful spot of color above!)
Howdy! Sorry I’ve been so long in posting a new cafe…things have been CRAAZY at work (trip to Orlando followed by big presentation and other minor chaos).
It’s pouring here this morning, but the colder is holding off until later this week, thank goodness. I need some time to adjust to the fact that it’s almost winter.
How are all of you?
Our rain turned to flakes sometime during the night, but there isn’t much on the ground yet. Bitter cold predicted for tomorrow.
We seem to be following your weather a day later…I could go for a dusting of snow just to help get the season rolling, though.
It looks very Christmasy in our little village this morning. Brings out the little kid in me:)
Looks like the kids in Brown County are getting an early present. I have a 2 hour delay.
I heard a lot of cheering coming from Facebook earlier:) Sorry you don’t have the entire day.
2 hour delay’s are better in some ways than a closing. They don’t have to be made up in June.
Now I have a day to make up too – just got the email that school’s closed today.
Enjoy your day off! Haven’t heard anything from the commissioners about the county offices being closed, so I guess I’m going in to work:(
bummer. I like the 2-hour delay better – sleep in, chill out, don’t stay later in June.
What we have today is rain + snow melt, which will probably freeze over later — on roads, bridges, etc.
A dusting of snow will help!
Good to see you, CG. Hope your next week is less hectic.
Ugh. Hopefully we won’t see the freeze. It’s actually rather warm now. I was just out checking all our roof gutters. Thankfully all seem to be working fairly well.
I’ve checked NOAA for you, b2. Looks like you’ll have temperatures in the teens by Monday night. I’m sorry.
We’re looking at single digits/icy wintry mix about then. Yippee!
Solstice can’t come soon enough for me this year.
Glad to hear your gutters are doing well!
Ours are in various states of exhaustion here. One in particular causes an ice jam that develops a 5′ icicle every year. One of these days the gutter’s just gonna fall off — which would probably be OK.
Of course they should all be repaired/secured, but there’s only so much an old wench can do for a massive farmhouse by herself. Time dictates other priorities. Constantly.
🙂
Sorry to hear that. Most of ours are recent from when we put on a new roof. How old is your farmhouse?
The house was built in 1864. My friend bought it a century later.
Here’s an image from early Spring ’09.
The old wench I refer to is yours truly, since my friend is elderly & fairly crippled; she can’t do much maintenance any more.
It sure looks like a homey place to be — I like the looks of that porch.
Come on up some time & set a spell!
On sunny days it’s our outdoor living room.
That looks inviting. Got a view-from-the-porch shot you could share sometime for an old veteran porch-sitter?
Here you go, ID. Facing Southeast at 9 AM today, temperature 8 F.
Smudge at the upper left is a brave bird.
Down in the valley is the Ashokan Reservoir, busily giving NYC its water. Because the Catskill State Park, where we live, is ‘forever wild’ (read ‘restricted development’) — there’s minimal filtration involved and the city’s municipal water is some of the most delicious & healthful in the nation.
Unfortunately, we’re also sitting on one of the largest natural gas plays in the world, which is set to change everything .. thanks to our friends at Halliburton.
What a great view, although my enjoyment diminishes when coffee freezes in a couple of minutes. Guess I’d wait for balmier weather.
Halliburton = uh oh:(
Uh-oh is right. BushCo exempted the drilling technique they developed from Clean Water Act restrictions.
I call it ‘bringing the war back home’.
I’d love to … though probably I’d rather be there in April or May than now.
Last week I felt the same way.
It can still be a bit brisk here in April. Best come in May, June, July, August, September or October.
🙂
The path past the barn leads right to the famous Red Hill Fire Tower — so you could get a little sightseeing in too!
great porch, I’d be out there all the time.
We do our best. In warm weather neighbors & guests are on it too, with assorted critters.
🙂
Love it! Especially the skis on the wall.
The skis belonged to the farmer’s granddaughter, who’s now a grandmother herself. She doesn’t live here in the valley any more, but she stopped by for a visit recently & was thrilled to see them.
That’s a great old house. Your photo has almost a vintage look to it.
Makes sense. We’re all vintage around here.
😉
.. except for Sadie, age fourish.
Can I go out now?
click for larger
Depends on where the leader is going.
Well if you’d just look around, you’d notice that we’re going to the wood stove.
Hope you’re all staying warm & comfy today!
we broke a record high today….82 i’d be over the snow after a few days, but for now, i’ll be envious.
It’s six degrees (wind chill -8) here with winds blowing snow around. I think you probably can get over being envious in a nanosecond. 🙂
The cold has come back with a vengeance here this morning…
Four more work days until vacation after today! I can hardly wait!
We got a little snow overnight here but it isn’t all that cold. The b2 boy was hoping that school was closed.
They weren’t closed here, so I’m sure they wouldn’t be closed there.
I saw the bus go by this morning, with a little coating on it.
My side of the river actually seems to have gotten more snow than the Orange County area did. As to the b2 boy, hope springs eternal. 😉
No snow here…but REALLY cold!
Same here. Temps have taken a nose dive.
We didn’t crack +10 all day. Very windy, too — I can’t imagine what the wind chill was. I feel for the kids on their country lanes waiting for that bus.
Yikes! I hope that your old house is well insulated.
At this point, only half of it is insulated, thanks to Ulster County’s weatherization program. The other half was too holey for the spray stuff.
We have 2 wood stoves, though. The county also helps with heating oil.
If I were building today, I’d build a small house. Preferably circular — the most efficient space to heat.
NOAA says we’ll have wind chills of about 5 below today. After 25 years of Christmas in these woods, I can’t remember this kind of cold in December at all. Late Jan/early Feb, yes, but not now.
This cold does have an upside: Sadie isn’t bawling me out for keeping her locked up.
I’ve been here since ’94. It is very cold for December.
Given that it’s 6° out and the lake is now frozen over, I’m guessing even they don’t think this hump day is just ducky.
click for larger
Wow. Beautiful shot, Andi! Love seeing the wood ducks.
Kudos to you for going out in this bitter weather for the shot — if, like me, you’re nutty enough to do such a thing.
Just wonderful!
I’m guessing Bebo is probably not giving her the option to stay in, see the “C’mon Mom!” shot upthread.
Very nice hump day image, Andi.
You got it — Bebo NEVER gives me the option to stay in. She’s a bully!
I put on a lot of layers including glove liners under heavier gloves — that way I don’t have to completely expose my fingers to take a photo. The worst part is trying to see what I’m taking through my fogged up glasses. 🙂
Oh yes. Been there, done that.
Back at the trailer, I had a nice pair of fingerless wool gloves that I wore to shoot; this worked well as long as the temperature stayed above 20 F or so.
I left the gloves outside on a rock to dry one time & the next day they were gone. Some critter, no doubt — there weren’t any other people there.
I like the liners better than fingerless gloves because all my skin is covered so good in all temps. Of course today with that big “warm-up” I didn’t even need the over-gloves.
Glad to hear it!
Is Winter over now? Hope so!
Not based on our forecast. More snow over the weekend and more single digits temps next week. 🙁
Damn.
All the more reason to look forward to Solstice, my favorite day of the year.
Not looking forward to Christmas, really. Mainly I see more chores than usual.
Beautiful shot!
I was actually surprised how nice it looked — I took the shot because I loved the big duck confab.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, it would actually make a really nice seasonal card.
I’ve been working really hard to find a wrong way to take your comment so I have an excuse to be a big grump but it was just too much effort so thanks instead. 😉
Gorgeous, although it’s making me cold just looking at them.
We’re having a heat wave — it’s 18 degrees warmer than yesterday at this time. Of course, there’s a cost — it’s also snowing heavily.
I’ll take it!
😉
Friday! Woohoo!
Good morning!
Those few days off two weeks ago for a brief NY-trip demanded pay-back.
Still trying to catch up…
It’s beautiful outside – 3-4 inches of fresh snow overnight (the foot we got early December all vanished last week) and now the sun is out.
they told me that the Geneva airport was closed on the news. I thought you’d had more snow.
Not closed, but many flights canceled. I guess the cancellations also have to do with delays/closures at other European airports.
Good (next day) morning.
We’ve accumulated about 7 inches of snow and the forecast says it’s going to stick around for a good while.
Wow.
Your woods must look really lovely.
We’re experiencing raised temperatures here (24 F now! Hoo boy!) & there appears to be some sort of floating, shining disc in the sky that might or might not have something to do with it. An incredible phenomenon! Could it be the Rapture?
Hmmm… perhaps you’re right.
Nah, by now the snow is one big mass of dog, deer, rabbit, and squirrel prints. 🙂
Good luck with the strange shining disk — I hope it comes back for another visit tomorrow.
Minor announcement, but Finn likes The Clash and started dancing to Police on My Back and The Call Up this morning. So, the little subversive is starting early with his preference for Side Four of Sandanista!.
I admit, it’s my favorite side, too.
You’ve got a special boy there, Boo!
Good choice.
I left my old vinyl collection with young asklet a little over a year ago (with a record player that can convert the stuff to mp3).
Heavy rotation of London Calling and Sandinista ensued and the Clash is now the favorite band.
he has good taste!
Good morning, all!!! have been offline traveling. Good to be back.
I was wondering about your whereabouts just the other day and thought you were probably “on the road again”. Good to “see” you;-)
thank you, yes indeed, that’s it.
Any great airplane window photos that we’ll wish we were going to get to see from this trip? 🙂
!!!! no, but maybe some quiet woods on a snowy evening – should have later this week! thanks for the thought!
Errol, your post reminds me of this perfect little Solstice poem.
Errol, your post reminds me of this perfect little Solstice poem.
Yes, perfect!!! I should have one with a horse and rider and will post it; also pretty sure I have a black dog enjoying the snow (special for Andi)
Hey thanks! I’ll love both of those shots (I was a horse-crazy kid).
“OMG!. I can see it all so clearly now. Our culture revolves around depthless greed, male stupidity, and endless dick jokes.”
Love it.
Our authorities need to know that Festivus is distinguished by feats of strength and the airing of grievances, and not by keeping kosher.
But at least he should have received an aluminum pole.
Celtic Wedding The Chieftains
The Circle Game Joni Mitchell
Hold On Carrie Newcomer
Twist and Shout The Beatles
Pajarillo Barranqueno Joan Baez
Fatso The Story The Angel
Like The Weather 10,000 Maniacs
Little Green Joni Mitchell
Southwest Passage Dave Grusin
Sing Joy Spring The Manhattan Transfer
Peggy Sue Buddy Holly
Holy Waters Joan Osborne
Ray’s Dad’s Cadillac Joni Mitchell
The Work Song Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Cellophane Amanda Ghost
Not that we’ll be able to see it.
“Lunar eclipse, winter solstice to coincide“
Our forecast is for snow/wintry mix/freezing rain, but those of you with clear skies, enjoy.
Very cool! Thanks for the heads-up, Jim!
Unfortunately, we probably won’t see it either. But I’ll be watching ..
difficult to be awake at that time, but hope to see it – is it tonight/ tomorrow morning?
click for larger
What a beautiful picture!!
Someone’s been trolling around during the night. I zapped a few comments in the rec diaries.
Thanks ID! Hopefully BooMan will be getting that antitroll software soon.
I think I found them all, let me know if you see anything else.
a combined effort brought about some smiting earlier this morning.
and a mighty smiting it was!
Now if only someone could smite our weather weirdness. Let’s see, we’ve had September in November and February in December. Do you think that means we’ll have May in January? (we should be so lucky)
It has been nothing short of frigid here. I can’t imagine how all those folks will stand for hours in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
They always seem to manage it, regardless of the weather. A true phenomenon!
By then, though, who knows?
Easy, just take on a great load of internal anti-freeze beforehand.
I couldn’t take standing in the mass of bodies, regardless of the temps … though I suppose a mass of bodies does generate some comforting heat.
Ack! There’s a Michele Bachmann ad on my screen, where’s my cross, garlic and wooden stake?!!
But she’s not a witch! Or so she says.
those are anti-vampire utensils, and she never said she wasn’t a vampire
You are right. Vampire it is.
I’m betting zombie. The only way she can get brains is to eat them.
This one is going to go slip sliding away.
click for larger
intriguing, beautiful picture. I love the contrast of textures!
Heading for NY tomorrow for a good 12-day break.
That is if my flight via Heathrow makes it.
My flight number did not make it today…