ALMANAC WEEKLY
LINOCUT OF PILEATED WOODPECKER BY CAROL ZALOOM
A miscellany of Hudson Valley art, entertainment and adventure | Calendar Ca l e n da r & Classifieds | Issue 51 | Dec. 22 – 29
Winter in the Catskills
O
ne of the great pleasures of winter in the Catskills is taking long, solitary, digressive walks in the snowy woods—the kind of walks that simultaneously soothe the mind and hone the senses to the acuity of starlight on a frozen creek.
Trekking through the bare stands of oak, the occasional birches like incongruous zebras, and the tufted masses of pine, one thing we begin to gradually become aware of is that, while the woods are, for the most part, still, they are never wholly silent. A crow barks, harshly, from an equally haggard hickory; the snowy branch of a neighboring spruce abruptly sproings, betraying the clandestine acrobatics of an unseen squirrel. And, of course, there is the crunching of our own boots, a rhythmic figure that connects us to the distant whine of a chainsaw, or the incidental drone of motors in the sky, or the muffled, almost subliminal din of traffic on the Thruway—miles away, but close enough to add its tint to the canvas of our ramble. So we stroll through the winter woods, gently reminded of the paradox: we are intruders, but we somehow belong there. Our souls take solace in the frosty beauty; we know it to be an essential thing, yet also a fragile one, contingent upon our stewardship. As we listen to the stuttering industry of woodpeckers and the dark murmur of icy streams mingle with the dull hum of the Thruway, perhaps we can be moved to resolve, in this second decade of the third millennium, to not let environmental vigilance be the road not taken. –Mikhail Horowitz