← DispatchesANDREWPHAN
A man in a grey hoodie and a white face mask leans on a long wooden counter in a timber cabin kitchen, hands in his pockets. Daylight comes through tall windows, with bare branches outside.

Callicoon, New York

Nobody tells you about the dry skin

The end of a first winter in New York, in a cabin in Callicoon. Where Callicoon is, and why winter dries out your skin.

Where
Callicoon, Sullivan County, New YorkA private cabin, so only the town is given.
When
Spring 2022, by the captionThe day wasn't recorded. Posted 1 May 2022, which was the evening of 30 April in New York.
Posted
1 May 2022
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Spring has most definitely sprung. My first winter in New York had its fair share of adventures, from snow drifting slowly past the windows of wood cabins, to an inch-thick layer of ice on your car that you can't chip off, to dry skin. (Nobody tells you about the dry skin.)

Lately, when Google reminds me of old memories, I realise I'm not in a lot of my own photos. They're disembodied of my presence. So here is another on-set self-portrait. Hopefully I get a little more comfortable in my own skin, too.

Callicoon

Callicoon is a hamlet on the east bank of the Delaware River in Sullivan County, New York. At the 2020 census, 206 people lived there. Pennsylvania is on the other side of the river, and a bridge that opened in 1962 joins the hamlet to Damascus Township across the water.

The Erie Railroad came through in the 1840s, and for a while the settlement was called Callicoon Depot, after its station. Passenger trains stopped running in 1966. Since 1978 this stretch of river has been protected as the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, a National Park Service site where people come to canoe, raft and fish.

The name can trip you up. The hamlet of Callicoon is in the Town of Delaware. The Town of Callicoon is its neighbour, a separate place that includes the village of Jeffersonville and the hamlet of Callicoon Center.

Why winter dries out your skin

As the temperature drops, so does the humidity, outdoors and inside our homes. Turning up the heating or lighting the fire dries the air even more, and skin has a hard time holding on to its moisture.

The American Academy of Dermatology suggests moisturising straight after washing, choosing a cream or ointment over a lotion, keeping showers to five or ten minutes in warm water, and running a cool-mist humidifier in the bedroom.

Sources

  • Callicoon (CDP), New York,_New_York), Wikipedia: a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Delaware, Sullivan County, on the east bank of the Delaware River, 206 people at the 2020 census, the Erie Railroad in the 1840s and the name Callicoon Depot, passenger service ending in 1966, and the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River created in 1978.
  • Callicoon, New York, Wikipedia: the Town of Callicoon is separate from the hamlet, which is in the neighbouring Town of Delaware; Jeffersonville and Callicoon Center are in the town.
  • Callicoon Bridge, Wikipedia: the bridge between Callicoon and Damascus Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, opened in August 1962.
  • Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River, National Park Service: the river as a park site in New York and Pennsylvania, with rafting, canoeing, kayaking and fishing.
  • Cold weather and your skin, American Academy of Dermatology, 31 January 2023: humidity drops outside and inside as temperatures fall, furnaces and fireplaces dry the air, skin has a difficult time retaining moisture, moisturising immediately after washing, ointments or creams over lotions, and a filtered cool-mist humidifier in the bedroom.
  • Dermatologists' top tips for relieving dry skin, American Academy of Dermatology: baths and showers of five to ten minutes in warm water.