September.

9-18-06 SHORT HILLS: The weather remains beautiful for late summer, warm with cool nights and less humidity. We had a nice rain a few days ago. The tree that had fallen was taken down, and I had the arborists leave the wood chips. I spread them on some of the muddy areas where the dogs have destroyed the grass. It was about four or five yards worth and took most of the day to move from the driveway to the yard, say 50 wheelbarrels full, and spread around. I’ll ask for more chips to get the rest of the muddy areas covered. Grass seems an impossibile dream with dense shade and four big, active dogs.

Yesterday we brought the indoor plants back in from their summer vacation outside.

We have very little in bloom now: the last few rose-of-sharon, hydrangas, hostas, fall wild asters and other fall wildflowers [weeds]. The shrubs have ripening berries that the birds pick off as the color appears.

The early summer was wet, but August was dry and we ran the sprinklers until Labor Day. Either the early wetness or later dryness was bad for the English ivy which has mostly disappeared from lots of places, but will, hopefully, return on its own.