Pileated Woodpecker.

12-7-13 VERMONT: Today we had snow flurries, sun, colder temps and a bit of wind from the northwest. Bally is now Invisible Fence trained.

We saw the Pileated Woodpecker again this afternoon. She was in the apple tree for a few minutes. I got some pix through the window and a short video that is up on Facebook. Males have a red moustache and red forehead, but she doesn’t. These are big birds about the size of crows.


There's an apple in the beak. Red mustache is absent.

Forehead is grayish.

Female adult.

Bally discovers Vermont.

12-6-13 VERMONT: The night we arrived, Wednesday, was so clear the milky way and thousands of stars were brilliant dots of fire. Since then it’s been total overcast and fog. Today the rain seems to have moved on after melting most of the one inch of snow cover. The pond is back to full and draining and frozen enough for the dogs to walk on it and through the new puddles from the rain.

We are teaching Bally the Invisible Fence routine. He seems to be getting it. Otherwise, I put up reflectors to guide the driveway snow plowers and set up the shoveling tools for the deck clearers. I took down the pasture gate for the winter, turned off the outside water faucets. All the swollen and stuck doors are now unstuck, closable and lockable. We're ready for winter.


Gus on ice.

Maizie and Bally doing a tasting on aged horse poop.

Maizie in camo.

Goldfinches changing into winter clothes.

Turkey and Music.

12-2-13 SHORT HILLS: It is warming up after several quite cold days. We finally had a bit or rain. As usually happens, a few forsythia flowers opened with the warm up.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas looms in the distance. Alison’s and Valerie’s families were all here for the holiday. Everyone over ate of course. Lucy’s birthday arrived on schedule with the festivities. That night we all saw the new “Hunger Games” movie. Lily said she is getting tired of YA, post-apoc dystopias, and I agree.

Saturday we went to Lincoln Center with Alan for the NY Phil doing Mozart’s last three symphonies, 39, 40 and 41. My favorite is whichever one I’m hearing at the moment. I thought they did their usual excellent job. Before the concert we ate at Bar Boulud across the square on Broadway, also no complaints. Tuesday we’re back in that neighborhood for “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Met. There’s a sample from the Met website on my Facebook page.

Is the NYT Stealing from my Blog?

11-25-13 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday’s NYT had an article about the possible extinction of the Monarch butterfly. Only a relative handful of them made it to their wintering grounds in Mexico. The problem may have multiple origins, but a major factor is the loss of milkweed that the caterpillars feed on. We have lots in our pasture, but mono-culture farming and herbicides have wiped out much of the wild milkweed. I mentioned in August that all the butterflies were in short supply this summer, unfortunately it’s worse than I thought.

Today’s NYT had an article about leaving the leaves alone where they fall. I have been doing and advocating this for several Falls. By April the old leaves have disappeared, each one turned into a drop of golden mulch.

Why waste time and energy gathering up and discarding a natural resource. In the forest, under the decaying leaves, is a rich, black, loamy organic upper layer of the soil, which is the product of years of accumulated leaves. The minerals and nutrients that the trees take out of the soil to grow and make new leaves are thus returned for next season.

I have a new camera, another Canon, the SX 50 HS, mostly because it has a 50 [fifty] times optical zoom. Below are a few samples.


Mourning Dove puffed up against the morning chill.

Dove profile.

Long shadows of Fall.

Holly Berries.

Mystery Shrub ID.

11-20-13 SHORT HILLS: Thanks and kudos go to Alison, horticulturalist extraordinaire, for her ID of the mystery shrub. She named it as blue mist or bluebeard, both are correct as common names for, ta da, Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Longwood Blue'. The shrub is hardy to Zone 5, drought tolerant, has silver-green leaves and blue flower cluster in late summer, is aromatic and attracts pollinators, including butterflies.

Los Gatos Trip.

11-16-13 LOS GATOS: Our trip west was uneventful, and we arrived at the mountaintop in the evening. The views are striking, dramatic and beautiful. At night the whole valley is lit up from south of San José to Palo Alto and across to the east bay. In daylight the bay is visible as are the hills east of the bay. Last year, when we first saw the property, I told Jon that I would have bought it for the view alone without even looking at the house.

The house does need rehab, and J and S are working on it. They have rewired and started to redo the plumbing, a new drain was put in while we were there. There are lots of decks for outdoor living that can be used almost year round, but some need extensive repair.

We had a tour of Los Gatos. Every house is spic and span, the streets are clean, the cars are clean, everybody seemed to be walking a dog. The people look outdoorsy. Dog sizes varied from tiny to huge. Lots of the stores had water bowls outside for the dogs and hooks so the dog walkers could shop and leave the dogs hitched up outside. Many of the stores were high end, and they all looked prosperous.

There are lots of Victorian houses all looking spiffy. Nearly every intersection is an all-way stop, and all the drivers are polite and stop for crossing pedestrians. Joey had a soccer game Saturday afternoon on an artificial turf field.


The house with eucalyptus trees.

Los Gatos High School campus with future students.

San Fran Bay with Palo Alto on the left.

San José.

Moonrise.

Night lights.

Can You Name This Shrub?

11-15-13 SHORT HILLS: Here are some pix of the mystery shrub. It's blooming in mid-November, growing on the strip between two parking lots and attracting pollinators that may be honeybees. The leaves have a spicy scent when crushed. It appears to be hardy for our Zone 6 locale. Based on the aroma and gray-green, lancet-shaped leaves with opposite leafing pattern, I'm guessing it's a Salvia, a sage-family plant.


Bees don't mind the lateness of the season.

The blue-purple flowers have a top petal that overhangs the rest of the flower.

The whole shrub seems happy in a tough spot that gets full sun and probably dries out quickly.

Close-up of the flower.