Sarvananda Bluestone’s Yerry Hill Haiku
Sarvananda Bluestone’s blog entries for the past weekend capture the whiteness that blanketed the region and disrupted its power.
Nature
The New Kaaterskill Falls trail – Part Four: The Side Trail
Perhaps the best thing about the new renovations at Kaaterskill Falls is the new side path.
Popular lecture series highlights science of the Gunks
Held weekly each February, the “Secrets of the Shawangunks” 2017 series highlights glaciers, the American chestnut, porcupines and wildfires.
Night Sky: Last chance to see Venus
Twilight won’t be the same without Venus hovering in the middle of it.
Beyond honey: A primer on some of New York’s 400-plus bee species
Honey bees are great and all, but did you know many native bees are actually better pollinators because the co-evolved with local plants?
An argument for nature’s innate intelligence: the wing
Random evolution can’t explain the dragonfly’s wing. Unlike the evolution of giraffes’ necks, where any incremental increase in length would offer evolutionary advantages, a step-by-step process just wouldn’t work for a wing design. The wrong shape would be useless, and confer no advantage whatsoever.
Perfect temperature: This is when it matters
Two of the nation’s top climate scientists told me that our region should see its greatest anthropogenic changes during winter nights. These are statistically the year’s coldest few weeks, with a normal high around freezing and normal nightly low around 13 degrees.
A new star in 2022? The century’s first naked-eye nova
An astronomy professor at a small Midwestern college, along with some of his students, predicts that an odd type of exploding star called a red nova would appear in our skies five years from now.
New Paltz climbing guru Rich Gottlieb philosophizes about preserving our local landscape and way of life
“People who live here, hike here, cross-country ski here all thrive when there’s proper interaction. Sharing experiences, climbing, life, is beautiful and serious. You have to be properly prepared and get the right advice from experienced people. There’s value to that.”
Deborah Dows’ Southlands in Rhinebeck open for winter rambles
Deborah Dows traveled the world – “sleeping in haystacks and palaces” – and is said to have associated with general George Patton when he was still a major, and to have done a stint at the renowned Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Dows opened her riding school at Rhinebeck’s Southlands Farm in the late 1930s. An avid horsewoman, her aim was to teach people of all ages to respect and love the land and its animals. The nonprofit Southlands Foundation operates primarily as an equestrian center, but it opens its nearly 200 acres of trails to the public for hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and birdwatching for free, seven days a week.