Wildlife

Wild Flowers of the Catskills II

  • Wild Rose

    Wild Rose

  • Bluet

    Bluet

  • Yarrow

    Yarrow

  • Columbine

    Columbine

  • Vetch

    Vetch

  • Milkweed Fluff

    Milkweed Fluff

  • Thistle

    Thistle

  • St John's Wort

    St John's Wort

  • Plantain

    Plantain

  • Joe Pye Weed

    Joe Pye Weed

  • Vetch

    Vetch

  • Ox-Eye Daisy

    Ox-Eye Daisy

St. John’s Wort, Yarrow, Vetch, Ox-eye Daisy, Plantain, Milkweed, Thistle, Joe Pie Weed, Bluet, Rose and many more potent and helpful herbs abound in the alpine meadows of the famous pristine Catskills of New York.

Having the opportunity to get to know these friendly herbs in this wild environment has been really helpful in understanding how the healing properties — like the volatile oils and vitamin and mineral content — can be more or less potent depending on the earth they are grown in. Growing up in the harsh contrary conditions of long freezing winters and wild warm storms of the summer have made these herbs strong.

Butterfly Hope

Butterfly Hope

Beautiful butterflies of Neversink, New York. Red Admirals and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails hang out on lovely pink milkweed blossoms. Butterflies represent hopeful transformation and in this period of transition they are a powerfully symbolic medicine to show us the path to a new way of being. ...

Wild Critters of New York

Wild Critters of New York

Turtles, salamanders, squirrels, spiders, preying mantis, milkweed bugs and other insects--just a few of the local wild-life enjoying the wilderness or the urban areas of New York state. ...

Bullfrogs and Tadpoles

Bullfrogs and Tadpoles

The big fat bullfrog hiding in the reeds here reminds me of the children's books. Frogs are dying rapidly around the world at the moment, almost half of them are threatened with extinction. They can't handle the pollution in our water ways or the chytrid fungus that is rapidly killing amphibians. ...

Mushroom Slideshow

Mushroom Slideshow

Mushrooms are such amazing and strange things, some are so cute, some are nasty and smelly, some are just out of this world. These photos are of mushrooms from all over the world. I am not a mushroom expert so I don't know what they all are. If you like an image I have a mushroom calendar and som ...

Robins Love Sumac

Robins Love Sumac

In the spring the birds feast on the sumac as there isn't much else available. We had a nest under our porch and at one point there were three adult robins feeding these babies, which I thought was pretty strange, but I saw them all at once with insects in their mouths headed for the nest so I wasn' ...

Beaver Dam

Beaver Dam

This hardworking beaver didn't notice us quietly fishing as he worked furiously on his dam. According to wikipedia: The North American beaver population was once more than 60 million, but as of 1988 was 6–12 million. This population decline is due to extensive hunting for fur, for glands used a ...

Cycle of Life – Toads

Cycle of Life – Toads

The annual toad orgy which produces tons of eggs and later turns the shallow waters near the shore of the pond black with the swimming bodies of thousands upon thousands of tadpoles. A few weeks later there are hundreds upon hundreds of miniature toads heading off in every direction from the pond. N ...

Deer in the Catskills

Deer in the Catskills

This slideshow takes us through the whole cycle of life including the birth in spring of twin bambis. We even get a look at deer droppings as well as deer eating. These cycles of life are unavoidable, death is as inevitable as birth, it is ultimately counter-productive to try to sterilize this reali ...

Wild Flowers of the Catskills I

Wild Flowers of the Catskills I

Yarrow, Vetch, Ox-eye Daisy, Plantain, Milkweed, Thistle, Joe Pie Weed, Indian Pipe, Bluet, Rose and many more potent and helpful herbs abound in the alpine meadows of the famous pristine Catskills of New York. Having the opportunity to get to know these friendly herbs in this wild environment ha ...