awaiting spring

Spring 2019

After much rain and cool weather, Spring really did arrive. It is always gorgeous in Chichester.

Stony Clove Creek

Memorial Day weekend, 2014

Stoney Creek, Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27) 2013.

Video

Monday 5/26/13, 1.26pm

Mid-March in Chichester

A foot,  or so, of snow remains in places in Chichester. There has been quite a bit of melt. Last Friday, 11 March, Phoenicia received 4.9 inches of rain. As a result of all that melting snow and precipitation, the creeks and streams are running fast, and muddy. I took this video (Spike Lee has nothing to worry about) early on Saturday afternoon. Take a look, and a listen, to how Stoney Clove Creek looks, and sounds. [Click on the four-arrow icon to pop out the video viewer to full screen.) Click on the title of this post to see a slideshow of how other parts of Chichester, and Wilson State Park, looked.

end of May

As always, Spring arrives in Chichester about three weeks after it arrives downstate. This rhododendron is in full bloom on the morning of May 29.

There appears to be a large outbreak of poison ivy this year. In our yard there is poison ivy camouflaged by ferns and other plants. But it is also out in the open:

these are leaves of a poison ivy vine clinging to a tree along Stoney Clove Lane.

Colgate Lake in May

One of the nearby treasures to our community is Colgate Lake. In Green County, north of Tannersville, it is a half hour ride away from Stoney Clove Lane. The grounds were refurbished a couple of years ago. Boating, swimming, fishing and hiking.

May days

The winter floods left our grounds in bad shape. Note the damage to the familiar sights of familiar places. That is a beach on which yes, that dog again, stands; those boulders used to be in the middle of Stoney Creek last summer.

Stoney Creek overruns its banks when the water rises rapidly; our parking area is part of its natural flood plain.

Notice how detritus and flotsam gets trapped behind the trees before the riding toys.

mid-April

Along upper Stoney Clove Lane, signs of Spring brought the first bright sprigs of color.

Beavers continue to make Warner Creek home.






To get a good look at some of the severe damage wrought by this past winter, take a look at the pictures attached to this post.

Early April

Along Stoney Clove Lane tree litter remained as memento of one of the roughest winter storms anyone can remember. Some claim it was the worst snowfall in memory. Tannersville received 80 inches of snow. There was an avalanche at Notch Inn, along Route 214. Clearing snow and making roads passable became the order of the day for several days.

After the snowstorms, after contacting insurance, electric, cable and telephone companies, came the cleanup. Needles and branches and limbs fell from many of the Eastern white pine trees that tower over our roads and yards.

As April started the snow has almost-completely melted. Here and there, in shady spots that received very little sunshine, packs of ice lingered. Some tree breaks loomed as reminders of the power of the winter's storms.

Up at Warner Creek the effects of the winter waters remained. This picture shows the expanded stream bed that the usually-placid stream carved as it roared with the power of an engorged river. And early signs of approaching spring appeared.

Some kept a watch.