What a Hoot of a Time We Had Discovering All the Coxsackie Owls

 As life returns to normal, so do we begin to get back to enjoying some retirement traditions we started.  One of those traditions (in life and here on the blog) is visiting the various art displays in Greene County, namely the Cat'n Around Catskill exhibit, the artful Bears of Cairo and the What a Hoot owls of Coxsackie.  We hit all three of them this past week after taking last year off and boy, it felt great to be back at it.  There's so much talent out there, so much creativity and such great little towns to explore so close to home.  I'll start this year's series with, "What a Hoot".

The first year the owls appeared on the village streets was in 2017, following the examples of the horses and ballet slippers of Saratoga, the moose and mountain lions of Bennington, and sailboats of Saugerties.  Local businesses sponsor owls by donating $500 to cover the cost of the owl and all related expenses including shipping, mounting equipment, art supplies and promotional fees.  Each owl has a name plaque which displays the owl's name, the artist who created it and the sponsoring business. Some of the artist are so talented they design and paint cats too!  Owls are displayed outside of the sponsoring businesses from Memorial Day through early September.  Owls are then gathered from their perches to be auctioned off at a gala at the Coxsackie Yacht Club on September 25, 2021.  Due to Covid restrictions last year, the annual gala could not take place.  The 2020 owls were held over and are back on display this year - lucky for all of us who missed them.  

This year's collection features 41 owls - 39 in Coxsackie, one in Cairo and one in Catskill.  We didn't try to find every owl this time, but I was immensely disappointed looking at my collection that I missed two.  Darn!  Why didn't I check my map?   My apologies to the two artists whose amazing owls I've left out. Visitors can pick up maps at local participating businesses, although most of the owls are easily found just by driving around this really quaint historic town.  Did you know that the word Coxsackie is a Native American word that translated means 'hoot of the owl' or 'place of the owls'?  How lucky for me since I used to be a big owl collector and still find the owls my personal favorite of all the art collections.  Shhh.....don't tell the cats or bears I said that.  So without further ado....here's the owls of Coxsackie!

I don't know whoooooo could disagree, these owls are just spectacular.  And I'll borrow the two we missed from the brochure (thank you) so you won't miss any!

I wish I had space here to show you the back sides of these pieces, but you'll have to take a trip and inspect them all for yourself.  Visit the fine businesses of Coxsackie and stop in and meander around the wonderful Coxsackie Antique Center - home of over 100 vendors where you'll take a trip back in time and feel like you're in your grandmother's home again.  For more information, check out the What a Hoot website: https://www.coxsackieowls.com/ and Facebook page: Hoot of the Owl.  Stay tuned to upcoming posts featuring the cats of Catskill and the Cairo bears.  You won't want to miss them.  

Thanks for reading and come back soon for more Life As I See It.