Wildlife, design, food & drink, travel, real estate, country characters, adventures, waterfalls.
All in People and Animal Friends
Niall Connolly, an Irish-born singer-songwriter who splits his time between Rockaway Queens and East Durham (a.k.a. The Emerald Isle of the Catskills), has a gift for crafting songs of hope during hard times.
Hayley Shine, a head brewer with a bioengineering degree and a focus on well-balanced beers and cider-making, shares her expertise at Roe Jan Brewing Co. in Hillsdale, NY.
Nikki Burst, a thoughtful and perceptive writer, poet, tarot reader, and astrology practitioner recently relocated from Brooklyn to the Catskills town of Hobart, NY. Whether you’re deepening your understanding or just getting your first taste of astrology and tarot, Nikki’s insights are priceless.
Phoenecia-based jewelry designer Sara Golden shares a guide to stylish gifts crafted in the Catskills, pairing her own jewelry line with chocolate, liqueur, beauty items, and housewares. Her clean-lined designs have a subtle, natural sparkle that’s eye-catching enough for cocktails in the city yet earthy enough for dinner on the deck.
5 great movies and cocktail pairings, curated by Dwight Grimm, owner of the Greenville Drive-In.
The awe-inspiring release of a great horned owl, which was rehabilitated by Wes Laraway of the NY Wildlife Rescue Center.
Aidan O'Connor is that rare politician whose interest in government is born out of his love for humanity. This progressive Greene County Legislator hopes to be the first paramedic on the NYS Assembly.
BEWARE: These fluffy, white Maremma sheepdog puppies are JUST TOO CUTE. When we visited them at Lime Kiln Farm, the puppies were 9 weeks old and already weighing around 30 pounds.
Lime Kiln Farm feels like a little piece of the Italian countryside tucked into the Hudson Valley. The owners made cheese in Tuscany for over 20 years before moving to the Catskills town of Coxsackie.
Are these deer tracks in the snow? Bear tracks? Coyote tracks? Lynx tracks?! What types of animals walk around in the snow in the Catskills?
The stick insect, also known as a walking stick or Phasmatodea, is the most bizarre creature we've ever seen up close. Tottering on thin, stem-like legs, its movements seemed mechanical, more like a robotic stick than a real animal.
This big, green butterfly-like insect is actually a luna moth. Its pale green, almost-iridescent wings shimmered in the sun on the screen of our kitchen window all day long while it rested. The 4-inch-wide nocturnal creature didn't take flight until sunset.
Like a scene from a picture book, the potluck dinner was drenched in golden light, filtered through the windows and doorways of an old red barn. On the edges of the soft green lawn, orange tiger lilies and yellow cosmos were nodding in the breeze, and the heavens above were a perfect Crayola Sky Blue.
You want to experience the fun parts of farm life (Adirondack chairs around a campfire), not the gross parts (shoveling livestock poo). You want to leave NYC after lunch and be stepping into a leafy wilderness before dinner. Time to book at room at Honey Hollow Farm Stay.
East Durham Farms is one of the main reasons I started writing about the Catskills. Whether you're a local or a weekender, it's totally worth seeking out this little farm stand at 175 Brown Road in East Durham. In the past year, I've written about their glorious sun-sweetened peas, their kid-friendly farm animals, their impossibly delicious tomatoes, and their pumpkins and Thanksgiving turkeys. I love this place.
The Irish Catskills: Dancing at the Crossroads, in the words of filmmaker Kevin Ferguson, is "a celebration of Irish culture and a record of how important the Irish Catskills were to the first-generation Irish in America." Here, Kevin talks about how the spirit of this resort town lives on.
If you're searching for an affordable dream home in the Catskills, this is a story of hope. The short version of this story is that our friend found a bank-owned, 6-acre property listed at $10K, and he bought it in a blind auction for just under $50K. The long version starts in the hills of the Czech Republic, long before he was born.
