tephen and I had a great day hiking in the Catskills today! He took the day off work and we hiked up Panther Mountain. The views from the summit of Panther are pretty impressive, but halfway up there’s a series of ledges, called Giant Ledge, with really nice views where we could actually see more. That’s where I stopped to sketch, both on the way up and the way back down.
Near the summit of Panther we first heard, then saw a Blackburnian Warbler– such a brilliantly colored, beautiful bird! We’ve only seen a Blackburnian a couple of times, so this was a real treat. This bird didn’t seem too wary and even came down closer and sang just above us. We mostly saw him from below, so my sketch (done from memory a little later) is of that angle.
This was my first time using one of the new soft-cover Stillman & Birn sketchbooks, and I am sold on them! I’ve filled many of the hardcover Stillman & Birn sketchbooks, but this one weighs so much less than the hardcover sketchbooks, and, at least with the Beta paper I was using, I had no problem with it being firm enough to paint against.
Last week, on the Fourth of July, we also went hiking in the Catskills, that time to Huckleberry Point. That was a pretty easy hike with a beautiful view and many delicious wild blueberries. As usual, I sketched while Stephen figured out what mountains we were seeing, then I added the names into my sketch.
After today’s fairly long hike (6+ miles) I was really hungry, so we detoured through Rhinebeck on the way home to stop at the Matchbox Cafe, my favorite place to get a burger and fries. It was a great finale to a great day of hiking and spending time with Stephen!
