New Paltz Halloween 2.0

Celebrated Halloween for the second year in a row! Of course, we did our tradition of carving pumpkins! We each did two pumpkins. Mine were a four-eyed monster and one with lots of sharp, narrow teeth. Marc decided to try the shaving of the pumpkin flesh and play with a smoke bomb in one of his pumpkin's mouth. We had a blast carving them. We also attempted to enter them into The Bakery's Pumpkin Carving Contest...clearly the judges do not know artistic good taste when they see it! haha. Just kidding! But year, we did not win. Next Year is the Year! haha. As for costumes, we were a little late on the planning committee, so it was a good year to reuse what we had in the costume box - a penguin from ski school/gaper day and a twirler from high school. Yup. Do not hate, just enjoy.

TheChristyBel

Our Pumpkins Lit Up

Smoke Bomb!
Also, this temporarily stained our kitchen table cloth!

My Two Favorite Heroines From the Mountain House!

F*ck Couples Costumes!
Happy Halloween from a Twirler and Her Penguin!

Mohonk Red Witch Hazel

I Still Cannot Get Over This Red in the American Witchhazel!

The Gem of the Gunks

Autumn Peak Was On Point.

The Colors of Autumn

Favorite Part of Being Back East - The Colorful Autumns!
(Photo Credit: Elizabeth Long, Director of Conservation Science)

Mohonk Red American Witchhazel

While my parents were in a tour of the DSRC Archive Room with Paul,
I discovered the Mohonk Red American Witchhazel in bloom!

Super Pretty!

Parental Visit

My parents came to visit for the week. While they stayed up here, they did a bunch of site-seeing on their own, but when we were together, we visited the Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck (mom had a blast!), took them up to Sky Top at the Mohonk Mountain House, and got them a private tour of the Daniel Smiley Research Center's Archive Room with the legendary-Paul Huth! They seemed to have enjoyed their stay and hang with Ted!

On Top of Sky Top

Silly Moments

Just Posting a Silly Picture Today to Say HI!!!

Traditional Autumn Apple Pick

Went Apple Picking at Hurd's Apple Orchard Today!

Now Off to Go Home and Make a Pie

Post-Work Snuggle

This Post-Work Moment is Brought to You by Tedders McTedderson
Thank You For Cuddling My Foot After a Tiring & Challenging Day
Love, theChristyBel

National Boyfriend Day

#TBTuesday to our days at Phelps Lake...Or, just because it's #NationalBoyfriendDay

What Goes Through a Mind of a Cat

Marc and I are huge fans of the Oatmeal. While at a bookstore in New Paltz, we found one awesome book that we had to purchase, How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you. When we got home we were reading it in bed and when we came back up, guess who was found right next to it! Mr. Ted. I think Marc and I should be worried...right?!?

TheChristyBel

Ted, Do You Have Something You'd Like to Tell Us

Kaaterskill Falls - Pt. II

This morning Marc and I travelled back to Kaaterskill Falls. It is sooooo different from when we went back in April. Bastion Falls (the falls at the base of the trailhead and off the road) was completely dried up with no pool and the two tiers were barely trickling. Below are some pics from back in April to now. It's really amazing and very scary to see how much can change when we have not gotten a lot of rain and had very little snow from the winter to create enough snowmelt for the falls to feed and flourish. Very scary! I really hope that since this winter is not an El Nino year, we get a snowier winter and that we can get enough precip to get these falls flowing again.

TheChristyBel

Bastion Falls (April)

Bastion Falls (October)

Tier 1 & 2 of Kaaterskills Falls (April)

Tier 1 of Kaaterskill Falls (October)

Tier 2 of Kaaterskill Falls (October)