U.S.A: The Longest Winter AGAIN.
The last time we were in New York, guess what, it was the longest winter anyone could remember. We recently had the opportunity to live for a while in upstate New York, and guess what happened? The winter was longer than the last one! Although this time we stayed a bit longer and thus we got to enjoy all the seasons in turn and I have to say it was quite lovely. Upstate New York is stunning, and it's nice to experience it slowly, not rushing about as a tourist trying to cover the main attractions. And of course, it was a brutally cold winter!
But we started off with a few weeks of fall. Since this is something we don't get in Kenya, it was quite a treat. The area around Wallkill is soooo pretty. We took full advantage of all the trails around the area that we could reasonably get to.
Lots of wildlife around, especially deer. We watched one of these deer clear the fence, which was maybe 1.2 m (4 feet) from a standing start. So graceful.
If I understood correctly, this building was used for Gilead from 1977 to 1985 before moving to Patterson. It's a beautiful walk down this street up to the front of the building.
We were super excited to have uncle Dave, Tanja and Evan come down for a visit! So excited that I didn't take very many pictures of them. Probably because we were having too much fun. But at least I found this one.
And eventually we had our first snow fall and ran outside to play. Speaking of snow: snow is amazing. It's easy to take it for granted. I tried to do a bit of basic research for the purpose of this story, and I realized I bit off more than I could chew.
First of all, each snowflake is made up of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. As the snowflake falls to the ground, the temperature and humidity changes and these molecules are added at different rates...hence why no two snowflakes are the same.
The conditions required for snow to form are very specific. The temperature (in the atmosphere, not on the ground) must be below freezing. Then, there must a certain amount of moisture in the air. There must also be a nucleus for the moisture to crystallize around...either frozen water, or maybe dust or pollution in the air. Depending on variations of this formula, the crystal will form in a particular style of pattern.
Once the crystal starts to grow, its mass makes it fall and thus we get snowfall. Even with this incredibly complex process, we still get tons and tons of snow falling. And it is consistently beautiful. It also makes everything it falls on look fantastically pretty, however ugly it might have been before.
One thing that was odd for us coming from the equator was how the sun sets early. This tree next to our building got photographed many times. This was around 5pm. It sure was strange for us to have the sun set so early in the winter and then so late in the summer.
There is a pond across the road from Wallkill. It was very exciting to walk (and fall) on it as the surface froze over in the winter.
Because of the early sunset, much of our winter was spent like this! I guess both ways have advantages, but one advantage of winter is that you have more time for reading, writing and thinking. That's my claim and I am sticking to it.
A place that became one of our favorite hikes was about 20min drive from Walkill up into the mountains to Bear Hill. It's a privately owned preserve, with a pretty little path into the forest that belies the grand views beyond. Shortly down the path you come around a corner and climb onto a rock and tadaaaaa!
The Hudson valley stretches out grandly before you. You need to have a healthy respect for the cliff face since there is nothing to stop you if you step off the cliff. We timed it perfectly because the sun began to set just at that moment and boy was it ever stunning.
And just for the record, it was freezing freezing cold. We had so many clothes on but it still took us a while to warm up again. I know all you Canadians out there are rolling your eyes and thinking, "What a wuss!" but keep in mind Nairobi temperature stays between 10 and 27 degrees Celcius annually (50 and 80 Fahrenheit).
One of my personal highlights was walking across this courtyard every day. It is one of my favorite gardens, and seeing it change with the seasons, and even within the same season it kept on finding ways to look different.
Even the snow didn't stop me from walking out.
Sometimes winter looks like this, with nice warm light. In Kenya we judge the outside temperature by looking out the window, and if it looks like this you jump out in shorts and t-shirt. Don't be fooled. It's just as cold.
I always carried my camera, and usually ended up being late because I would stop to take in the view....
...even in a snowstorm. In Aristotle's words: "To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold."
But we started off with a few weeks of fall. Since this is something we don't get in Kenya, it was quite a treat. The area around Wallkill is soooo pretty. We took full advantage of all the trails around the area that we could reasonably get to.
Lots of wildlife around, especially deer. We watched one of these deer clear the fence, which was maybe 1.2 m (4 feet) from a standing start. So graceful.
If I understood correctly, this building was used for Gilead from 1977 to 1985 before moving to Patterson. It's a beautiful walk down this street up to the front of the building.
And eventually we had our first snow fall and ran outside to play. Speaking of snow: snow is amazing. It's easy to take it for granted. I tried to do a bit of basic research for the purpose of this story, and I realized I bit off more than I could chew.
First of all, each snowflake is made up of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. As the snowflake falls to the ground, the temperature and humidity changes and these molecules are added at different rates...hence why no two snowflakes are the same.
Once the crystal starts to grow, its mass makes it fall and thus we get snowfall. Even with this incredibly complex process, we still get tons and tons of snow falling. And it is consistently beautiful. It also makes everything it falls on look fantastically pretty, however ugly it might have been before.
One thing that was odd for us coming from the equator was how the sun sets early. This tree next to our building got photographed many times. This was around 5pm. It sure was strange for us to have the sun set so early in the winter and then so late in the summer.
There is a pond across the road from Wallkill. It was very exciting to walk (and fall) on it as the surface froze over in the winter.
A place that became one of our favorite hikes was about 20min drive from Walkill up into the mountains to Bear Hill. It's a privately owned preserve, with a pretty little path into the forest that belies the grand views beyond. Shortly down the path you come around a corner and climb onto a rock and tadaaaaa!
The Hudson valley stretches out grandly before you. You need to have a healthy respect for the cliff face since there is nothing to stop you if you step off the cliff. We timed it perfectly because the sun began to set just at that moment and boy was it ever stunning.
One of my personal highlights was walking across this courtyard every day. It is one of my favorite gardens, and seeing it change with the seasons, and even within the same season it kept on finding ways to look different.
Even the snow didn't stop me from walking out.
Sometimes winter looks like this, with nice warm light. In Kenya we judge the outside temperature by looking out the window, and if it looks like this you jump out in shorts and t-shirt. Don't be fooled. It's just as cold.
I always carried my camera, and usually ended up being late because I would stop to take in the view....
...even in a snowstorm. In Aristotle's words: "To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold."
