BD Party and Nor'easter.

10-30-25 SHORT HILLS: It’s another Nor’easter. The rain started during the night and, we have had two inches so far. The wind hasn’t been an issue, so far, and it’s not cold. The weather map shows plenty of storm left even though the rain has stopped for the moment.

The feeders are seeing lots of bird action including the first swarm of grackles. They travel in large packs of fifty or one hundred and descend on the feeders like a street gang and drain them in no time at all. They chase all the other birds away like a pack of bullies. I suppose I should let the birds work it out, but the grackles are too much.

Emmett’s birthday party happened last Saturday, his second BD. It was attended by many local rug rats and family from near and far. There was music, singing, dancing, painting, eating and cake decorated with train tracks and trains. There was very tasty blue icing.

I took some pix of color in the neighborhood.

A brief look at an old favorite.

The trains have been side-tracked for the slicing.

Intact cake with rolling stock.

Maple color with electric wires.

More maple.

More color.

Flicker in a Tree.

10-23-25 SHORT HILLS: We did have more rain, 0.6 inches, now it’s 40° at night and 70° in the afternoon, everyday. Last weekend we had dinner with Lonnie and Bette and brunch with Elaine and Richard. We are caught up with med visits, but are still waiting for the dryer repair to be finished. Both cars have been to the car doctor.

I sat out front watching the feeders today and took new bird pix, including a flicker, who is probably passing through on his commute.

Northern flicker, male, perhaps thinking about the feeders.

Juncos are usually here for the winter.

Mourning dove has just turned up.

Downy woodecker, male, working the suet feeder.

Downy woodpecker, female, doesn't have that red yarmulke.

White-throated sparrow, is another winter resident.

What do the robin and finch talk about at the local hangout.

The holly trees are full of new red berries.

The burning bushes still have the best color.

Hawk in a Spruce.

10-17-25 SHORT HILLS: The first Nor’easter has come and gone. We got a bit more than an inch of rain with some gusty wind that brought down a few branches, but was no problem for us. The coastal areas had flooding and damage. Slowly we are getting cooler, but no frost in site.

The parts for the dyer repair have arrived, and it is being fixed as I write, but not usable til next week. The water sprinklers have been shut down for the season.

We had dinner with Trina and Jeffrey earlier in the week. 

As I drive around on errands, I see the fall color is getting pretty good in NJ. The exciting thing here was this afternoon, I sat down on the porch to watch the feeders and saw something white on top of a spruce tree across the street. The tree is about a hundred yards away. When I zoomed in, the white thing was a hawk. After a ton of pix, it flew away, revealing a red tail.   

 

The burning bushes know how to say red.

Zooming in on the tree top showed a hawk.

More zoom, more hawk.

When the hawk left the spruce, in the middle of the shot, the tail shows red, making this a Red-tailed hawk. The most common hawk we see. All the song birds were in hiding until the hawk left.

A pair of house finches, male on the left and female on the right, in their winter clothes.

There's a lot of berries in the fall, food for the birds to find on their own. These are beauty berries, in vivid purple.

Appliances and Pumpkins.

10-10-25 SHORT HILLS: We came back here to the chaos of failed appliances. The refrigerator had a bad piece of insulation for the freezer door. We knew about this and had tried to get a replacement, but it was a discontinued model and no parts could be found on the secondary market. It turned out to be 14 years old, but was otherwise OK. We bought a new one at Home Depot. 

The clothes dryer popped a fan belt on the first run back here. So we had four repair people here on Tuesday, dryer repair, new frig installers, furnace servicing, and the sunroom window replacement. The sunroom window had rotted sills. Everybody did their jobs and by noon it was done, except for the dryer part, which is still pending, but available, we are assured. 

Otherwise we have had warm weather here, sunny and in the eighties, until a recent storm that delivered a half inch of much needed rain. Since the storm it is cooler with seasonal temps, or what used to be seasonal temps. The indoor plants are all safely back inside, including the succulents and herbs. 

The quince has given us two fruits, we're not sure what to do with them. The holly berries turned red almost overnight.

Anna, Gardner and Emmett were here on Sunday for their second annual trip to NJ for pumpkins to decorate their stoop back in the Village. They bought many, many pumpkins of all sizes and colors as well as squashes and mums. The visit included a petting zoo stop. The stoop looks very gorgeous and gourdy. 

We had dinner with cousins Alice, Stu and Louise, and then with Bebe and Ronny.  

New blooms: rosemary.

Three deer came to assess the new window in the sunroom. The palm and peace lily leaves and their plants are safely back inside.

Me and Emmett helping with the pumpkin purchase.

Emmett and the goats. That could be a name for a rock band.

The stoop fully loaded.

Rosemary flowers.

Quinces, now what?

Reunion Review.

10-1-25 VERMONT: Reunion is over, and I think a word of thanks is due to the small group of classmates who organized the event. They organize all of the events and always do a great job. 

While it was good to see people that I have known since I was an undergraduate, it is sad to see how much we have aged. We were smart, talented, able, strong and now are shadows of our former selves, those of us still standing. 

I do have an issue. The last meal the Hanover Inn served was unbelievably horrible. There was rubber chicken and undercooked risotto that nobody ate. I watched the waitstaff clear the tables, and I could see that all the chicken went back to the kitchen uneaten. I thought it was sad that all those birds died for nothing. The previous meal was OK, not great but OK. Had I known what was to happen, I would have brought in food from the golden arches that would have been infinitely better. The Hanover Inn always disappoints. The class should feel insulted at this colossal disrespect.

I look forward to the 70th reunion, if I’m able to make it, but will eat before the dinner. 

Careful what you eat.

Reunion, Asters, Birds.

9-29-25 VERMONT: My reunion is in full swing. My class’ 65 reunion makes most of us 87. About 400 of the original 800 or so matriculands are still alive, and the health status varies from vigorous to doddering. Turning up here are about 55 alums and an equal number of friends, caregivers, children, spouses, widows. Also in attendance are members of the classes that were 5 and 10 years before us, but I don’t know how many of either class. The class from 10 years before our graduation would be about 97.

We drove around a few days ago—we went to Peacham, Danville and Joe’s Pond and found a little color, but not the dramatic foliage that we have seen in other years. We also went to Chelsea and Tunbridge and Royalton, there was no color, but a fair number of trees are still green. The disappointing fall color is due to the summer long drought, it is widely assumed.

The big rain that we had delivered about three inches here and filled the big pond half way up. The upper pond will need lots and lots more precipitation to fill.

The robins are still here. The robin parents raised three broods of three or four chicks for 9-12 total chicks, all a few months old. They are all busy flying around the yard and eating crab apples and whatever else prepping for the big commute in a month of so. Some of the winter birds are arriving, juncos, chickadees, nuthatches and are looking for the feeders that I can’t put out until the bears are sleeping. Lots of warblers are busy in the yard also. 

Asters, as any crossword solver knows, are fall bloomers.

More asters, different color.

Peacham cemetery, very peaceful.

Peacham, worth a visit even without much color.

Nice color at Joe's Pond.

Robins do eat apples.

Another robin, in the wiollow tree, everyone knows what robins look like, but I respect them as a very successful species.

Pine warbler, the tree is a clue.

Vermont in Fall.

9-24-25 VERMONT: We came up yesterday. It threatened to rain, and it started as we hit VT. Any and all rain is appreciated after the summer long drought. There was an inch in the gauge today, we need a foot of two. Maybe we need a hurricane. Today we have had a drizzle, but worked through it. Because of the drought, both ponds are at their lowest ever. 

With a lot of help from Scott, we got the storm doors up, the benches put in the garage, the deck furniture put away, the porch rockers and the hammock put in the garage. Only a few seasonal chores remain undone that we can get done later this week. 

Judy and I each took a lot of photos, the fall color here is OK. Here, we are at the highest and most northern point of our visit so far, which is why the color is good. We will drive further north next week in search of more fall foliage.

There are lots of asters and still phlox in bloom.

New blooms: toad lily.

Pretty good color.

More color, overcast sky.

Peachez in the barnyard.

Peachez agaain.

Toad lily is a complex flower.

Autumnal Equinox Upcoming.

9-20-25 SHORT HILLS: The tree that had partially fallen in the back yard during the summer was taken down this week. About half of the bamboo by the sun room was cut down so that the window unit can be replaced, it’s rotted at the base. The bamboo-less view is better than the look of the bamboo, and we may take down the rest of it. 

Lily and Danna were here last Sunday, we went to Lorenas for brunch. I had the avocado toast, which was great. While there, we saw Paul, Helene and Marylou, who were also brunching. Today we were in the Village to see Anna, Gardner and Emmett before his nap and before they went to the Mets game. I had lunch with Bill yesterday.

Judy and I both had med visits to HSS to see Dr. Lee, who did my knee. Judy had a consult for her hip and was re-assured that no surgery was needed. I was given an OK and told to come back in five years, we’ll see.

It turned out that the pool cover pump needed to be replaced, but I got credit from Home Depot for the one that failed. 

We are caught up with medical visits and shots, and we go back to VT for my Class Reunion and some fall foliage.

Here's the tree, suspended by another tree, but now gone. It was a red maple.

While waiting for X-rays at HSS, you get to watch traffic on the East River.

Gardner and a little gardener working in the back yard.

Lunch time after all the work outside.

Judy with GD Anna and GGS Emmett on his way to nap after lunch.

Re-certification Test.

9-13-25 SHORT HILLS: She, Blue, passed as I knew she would with many complements as to what a great therapy dog she is. I wasn’t there— not allowed by Judy. I knew things would be OK when they called before hand to see what judy’s T-shirt size was.

Otherwise, our road was paved and the bushes and trees along the road were tarred in a few places. I trimmed them and now have a pretty big pile of cuttings on the road.

New blooms: white-star clematis, aster.

 

How do you get re-certified? Practice, Practice, Practice.

The Rain Came.

9-10-25 SHORT HILLS: We finally got rain here. The gauge goes up to 1.75 inches, but the gauge was filled beyond that—at least 2 inches of rain. I had been running the sprinklers, but they deliver only 0.05 inches or so a night. They are turned off for now.

We both are seeing lots of docs, and Judy is doing dog visits. She is fretting that Blue will not pass her re-certifying test this weekend. She and Blue have been practicing all week, several weeks actually.

I am trying to get the pool cover pump to work. The outlet needed to be replaced, but the pump shorts the electric circuit every time it’s plugged in. I can’t find the service manual with the purchase receipt to get it replaced under warranty. It will probably end up on the pile of #$%&** pumps that don’t work, and I will have to buy yet another one that will work for a while and then fail.

We are having dinner with Alan and Nancy tonight, and Lynn and Bill Saturday night. They’re paving our road today, so I hope we can get out tonight. 

New blooms: white snake root.

On a hot, sunny day the dogs know to lay down in the shade.

Sunset from our dinner with Bette, Ellen, Lonnie and Bruce.

First day of school for Emmett, first of 20 or more years of 'first' days.

This bald cypress looks a lot like the dawn redwood, but the fruit visible at the tree top is different.

Here's a closer look at the cypress fruits.

The dawn redwood has fruit that look like odd little cones. [picture from a few years ago]