Leaf-peeper season is getting underway in the Catskills, as the green hills of summer begin to blaze with rich reds and vibrant yellows. Photographer Ethan Myers spied some delicious autumn color in Denning over the weekend -- and got a great view of Panther Mountain beginning to turn.
For more of Myers's shots from Denning, and photos from around the Catskills, check out the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.
Above: Slideshow of exhibitors at last Friday's Ulster County Buy Local Expo. Click on a photo to see the caption. All photos by Anne Pyburn Craig.
The Ulster Regional Chamber of Commerce took over the county's Business Expo, rebranding it as "Buy Local." Last Friday, the expo drew over 70 local firms and agencies to set up booths in SUNY Ulster's gymnasium.
"You just leave at lunch time and tell them you're coming to this," a savvy attendee explains, "Come here and walk around eating chocolates and seeing all the cool stuff everyone's been getting up to lately, and you're done for the week. Totally painless."
Click on the photos in the slideshow above for a smorgasbord of what Ulster County's local business community has to offer.
Paul Fero winds up for a throw at the 2012 Rock In River Festival in Franklin, PA on August 24. Photo by Michael Henderson; reproduced by permission.
How many times can you skip a rock?
Chances are, not as many times as Paul Fero.
Fero, an Oliverea resident, competed in this year’s “Rock In River Festival” in Franklin, PA on August 24th, where he attempted to dethrone the mighty Kurt “Mountain Main” Steiner and see how far he could skip his rocks against some of the toughest competition in the country.
The festival, which hugged the banks of the Allegheny River, featured not only some of the best rock-skippers in the county, but also rock decorating, games, crafts, free food and even a petting zoo.
Fero placed third in the competition after a tie-breaking decision. Fero's highest total of the afternoon was 40 skips, a feat he shared with competitior Eric Henne. To break the tie, the judges of the competition use each competitor's second highest number of skips, which placed Fero just four skips from second place.
A Hudson Valley-wide measles alert was announced over the weekend after a child at the private Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz was confirmed to have a case of the measles, the Times Herald-Record reports.
The current Ulster County measles case involves a child who attends a school where nearly half of the students are not vaccinated against measles. Although vaccination against measles is one of the required immunizations for school children in New York, exemptions from the requirement may be granted by a school.
Above: Rocco's owner Erik Risher in front of the restaurant in May, shortly after Rocco's opened its doors. Photo by Julia Reischel. For more photos of Rocco's, see our Flickr album.
Rocco's Speakeasy, a steakhouse and bar on Route 28 in Shandaken, has only been open for five months. But already, Erik Risher's restaurant is making headlines -- for a very public spat with Shandaken's zoning enforcement officer, Richard Stokes.
On September 10, Risher paid a visit to the regular monthly meeting of the Shandaken town board with some explosive allegations. According to Risher, Stokes was drinking in his restaurant on April 21, the night it opened, and began forcibly groping several waitresses.
"This is an unedited photo," writes the photographer on this photo's Flickr page. You sure about that, MccWolf? We know the Catskills has more than its fair share of rainbows per capita, but this is just outrageous.
Photo of rainbow over Bloomville in Delaware County. Taken by Flickr user MccWolf on September 14; posted in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.
Feet and creeks: They were meant to be together. Photo taken in Jefferson by Flickr user MccWolf; shared in the Watershed Post Flickr group pool.
Calling all creek geeks: This is your week!
Creeks in the Catskills are a force to be reckoned with: They bless us with their beauty and bounty, they hammer us with their strength, and they define life around here in ways great and small. This week, Ulster County has been celebrating Creek Week -- and this weekend, there are a number of great opportunities to get to know our local waterways better.
Above: A model aircraft with its model pilot at the NEAT Fair in Downsville last week. Photo by Stan Berger, of StansPhotos.com. You can also see his photos on Facebook.
If you love electric model airplanes, then you probably make an annual pilgrimage to the sleepy little town of Downsville in Delaware County.
For years, Downsville has played host to the NEAT Fair, widely considered among electric airplane hobbyists to be "the nation's largest electric flight exposition."
Every September, hundreds of electric model airplane enthusiasts converge on the Peaceful Valley Campground and the gym at Downsville Central School, bringing with them incredibly lifelike model airplanes of all sizes representing all historical eras. Many are piloted by equisitely realitic model pilots. (See the photo at the top of this post.)
The Hudson Valley Harvest Festival is new this year but seems destined to become a perennial, with bushels of star quality, uh, cropping up among performers, vendors and sponsors alike. Combining a couple of centuries of expertise, some of Ulster County's heaviest hitters in the realms of growing, cooking and making music will join forces at the fairgrounds on Libertyville Road for two days of good times. You can cast your vote for Tomato of the Year, try your hand at the Sweet Corn Shuck Off, or slurp a pumpkin milkshake. It all benefits Family of Woodstock Inc. and Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Above: Gilboa supervisor Tony van Glad accepts a $7,500 check to the town from Oorah camp director Rabbi Avraham Krawiec in August. Photo courtesy of Oorah.
Is Oorah a good neighbor? It depends who you ask.
Oorah, a large nonprofit that runs two Orthodox Jewish summer camps on the site of the former Scotch Valley ski resort, has property that straddles the Schoharie County towns of Jefferson and Gilboa. In Jefferson, an ugly legal dispute is brewing between Oorah and the town over the camps' nonprofit status. In Gilboa, the relationship between Oorah and the town is a good deal friendlier.
Last week, the Mountain Eagle reports, Oorah re-filed a lawsuit against the town of Jefferson, after the town sought to have Oorah's original lawsuit thrown out on procedural grounds.
