Frosty Morning.

10-7-26 VERMONT: Yesterday’s arrival was on a sunny day, a little cooler than NJ. We unpacked the car, and put the heat on in the houses. The new furnace didn’t work. We called the installers, and they got back to us and sent a serviceman, who fixed it. 

I started a fire and the room went from fifties to the sixties. Outside the temp dropped into the forties and then the thirties. This morning there were scattered patches of frost in the yard.

The painters had finished the house on Monday, it looks great, and one of them came by this morning to pick up the final check. He said they both loved the house and gardens. They’ll be back to do some interior work this winter. They saw an barred owl in the pine tree behind the pond.

Two sets of storm doors are out for repair. With Scott’s help, I put three of eight storm doors in. Scott will be back on Friday to do more of the winterizing.

We had a full rain gauge, which means at least two inches of rain, maybe more, and the upper pond is closer to being full.

We visited Cousin John at DHMC this morning, and had dinner at Red Can tonight.

In Bloom: asters, sedum, fall anemone, cimicfuga.  

Asters in red, pollinators are still active.

Asters in Purple.

Small asters. Notice that the centers are of two different colors. The yellow centers are being pollinated, but turn purple after pollination as an indication of pollinated status for the bugs, buit still contribute to the mass effect to draw the pollinators.

Cimicfuga looks lioke a bottle brush. It is sometimes killed by frost before blooming.

Barred Owl, possibly using the owl box on the next tree.

Game cam pic, too big for a fox, a coyote pair I think, anyone?

This is a fox.

Pumpkin Quest.

10-5-26 SHORT HILLS: Saturday was gorgeous, warm for the date and sunny. Anna, Gardner and Emmett came out in the morning on a pumpkin quest. We all went to the Farm at Green Village, our favorite nursery. They have  acres of pumpkins—traditional orange from golf ball size to massive and other pumpkins in white [ghost], blue, green, red, pale orange, yellow, smooth or warty. The gourds are in all shapes and sizes and colors. Gardner creates a display on their stoop in the West Village of all the pumpkins and gourds. 

They bought three carts worth and loaded them in the back of their car, After feeding the koi in the pond, we went to Creekside Farms where some of us rode the tractor train, feed the farm animals and did more shopping. Judy bought key lime pies. Anna bought cookies and more. Emmett climbed on a huge wooden tractor in the playground.

There were hundreds of kids and parents at both stops. We had an impromptu picnic at Creekside.

Gardner, Anna and Emmett went back to NYC to create the stoop display.

After afternoon naps for us, Judy, Reggie and I went to Bruce’s home for an elaborate  dinner he prepared.  

A large selection, many choices.

Three carts full.

So many pumpkins.

Witch's brew.

The pond with koi.

Colored corn.

Train ride.

Pumpkin art.

The Storm is Over.

9-28-26 SHORT HILLS: The world did not end. The Nor-easter has mostly moved on to New England. We had rain, 1.75 inches of it, brisk winds some of the time, no thunder. There are a lot of leaves and twigs down, one dead branch came off a tree. For us it was a non-event. The air is perfectly still now. The sky is still gray. It’s about 60º.

Otherwise, the quince has given us a couple yellow fruits. The burning bushes are very red, but some haven’t colored at all yet. The new southern magnolia is covered in pink fruit, but the old one has only a few. These fruits are called poly-follicles. Each follicle will open and deliver a bright red seed.  

This row of burning bushes has alot of red, but others are all green.

A closer look.

Quince fruit. I don't know if it's ripe or not.

Southern magnolia fruit are turning pink. Each of those diamond shaped follicles will open down the middle to expose a red seed and then release it.

This fruit shows some open follicles at the top, an open follicle at the bottom with a seed still in place, a follicle near the top is starting to open and the seed is visible.

Finches are back at the feeders.

Big Storm Predicted.

9-25-26 SHORT HILLS: We are waiting for the Nor’easter coming up the coast. It’s south of us, around DC now. The weather people are calling for Gloom and Doom—we’ll see. We did get 0.4 inches of rain a few days ago.  The wind has been from the northeast for a few days. Yesterday I was watching the clouds from the porch, where I was resting after filling the feeders. It doesn’t take much to get me tired now. Anyway, the clouds were moving southwest pretty quickly pushed by the northeast wind, but I noticed that much higher clouds, thinner and wispier, were moving north at a slower rate. 

Years ago when I was up in a balloon, the honcho said that the wind is often moving in different directions at different altitudes. So ballooners can go higher or lower to change direction.

They’re talking about heavy rain and high winds, flooding, trees down, high surf. There is a full moon, so tides will be higher. We are on the west side of the Orange Mountains, so the Nor’easters are blunted by the mountains.

I’ll issue a bulletin from within the storm if it happens.  

Pink sky and red burning bushes waiting for the storm.

Red finches on the feeders, I thought the one on the right was a pine siskin at first, but Merlin says no.

Equinox Arrives.

9-18-26 SHORT HILLS: There’s been plenty of rain. We had 2 inches a few days ago and more tonight, maybe. 

I took all the cuttings, snippings, prunings, choppings, weedings to the dump a few days ago, and Judy took some more the next day. We are catching up with a summer’s growth. The gardeners cut down lots of the bamboo in the back yard and took it away. We are going to ask them to remove the rest of the bamboo by the solarium. I still have clean up to do there also.  

Lily and Danna are visiting tomorrow, and we have dinner with Alan and Nancy tomorrow night. Judy has been doing her dog therapy visits. 

The Autumnal Equinox arrives in a couple of days to officially mark the end of summer.

Nice sky near the Millburn Library.

Anniversary of 9/11.

9-11-26 SHORT HILLS: It’s a day much like the day 25 years ago when the towers fell after the attack. I remember the day well, watching it on TV, talking to friends and family, awed by the horror. Family from other parts of the country were worried about any of us being there. We had children in NYC at the time in lower Manhattan, who got dusted by the cloud of debris. 

I remember thinking the the first hit was probably an accident, but the second hit revealed the truth of the attack. I had no idea how bad the attack was until the towers fell, one and later the other. In WWII a plane crashed into the Empire State Building, an accident that did damage, but the building stood so I thought the towers would stand.

Judy worked at the NJ center for the victims families at Liberty State Park with Fanny, one of our therapy dogs. She was there many times to aid and comfort the workers and families of the victims. Liberty State Park is directly across the Hudson from Ground Zero.

Judy writes about it—

"Fanny and I were privileged to join a cadre of therapy dogs teams working after the World Trade Center attack at the NJ 9/11 Family Assistance Center at the massive, cavernous Victorian railway station at Liberty State Park. The station overlooks lower Manhattan, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and had been the way west for many immigrants. Driving to the park, we went down a long allee that was lined with hundreds of police and who were all were thrilled to see the dogs.

"At the center itself, each family was paired with a professional grief councilor who escorted them for their entire stay. These counselors came from prosecutors offices from all over the US and its territories, as were so many of the professionals working at the center. Families were given emotional support by chaplains of all faiths and practical aid with financial issues, and psychiatric    support.

 

"A church group from Ohio provided round the clock day care and the Salvation Army, continuous food. There were pink and blue teddy bears for the children and for the spouses and parents of the fallen. Generic ashes            taken from the site were distributed by the clergy.

"These services were co-ordinated by the state of NJ which did an amazing task of providing a myriad of services, which included the beginning of identifying remains. A giant kiosk outside of the station was plastered with    hundreds of photos of the missing. For those families who wished to go to the    site itself, ferries were provided non-stop by NY Waterways and Imperatore    Ferries. Embarking and returning families were greeted by bagpipers.

"NJ families who went to Manhattan were greeted by therapy dogs from the NY Family Assistance Center. Also riding the route back and forth were the tireless workers from the site. One of those most deeply impacted was the        Liberty State guard who was on duty and watched the towers as they fell. 

"Fanny and I met many people from all walks of life, a Somalian guard, an Ecuadorian family who were here on the victim’s work visa, a dishwasher at Windows in the World, that included a pregnant wife, and her toddler and        his parents. His mom’s name was Fanny and she sat for a half an hour            stroking my Fanny and repeating the name endlessly.

"These folks and many more were going to be deported. They were here  because the loved one who died had a work visa which was now gone. While      the dogs were a huge comfort to families, they were equally embraced by          the professionals who were, frankly, doing their jobs while trying to digest all             they were seeing and encountering, as were we all. 

"It was an intensely patriotic environment. The entire country came          together in one place out of deep sorrow, to try to be of comfort to any and all.

                                       Fanny the therapy dog.

 

Back in NJ.

9-4-26 SHORT HILLS: We got back here Tuesday afternoon. When I got out of the car, I was blasted by the heat and humidity, mid-eighties with wet air. Summer is not over here, and it’s not pleasant.

It’s been a very wet summer, the ground is soggy and spongy. Most of the trees seem to have loved it, but a few are looking stressed. The Norway maple hybrid, Crimson King, which are street trees on our block, have lost lots of foliage on the top sections. Our linden tree is also thinly foliated. The diseased ash trees look great. Some things love the wet conditions, but others not.

Speaking of wet, on the last three nights we have had T-storms giving us 0.75, 0.25 and 0.15 inches, and another storm is showing up on radar for tonight.

Judy and I have both been out in the yard weeding and pruning. It’s hard work in the heat, but we’re getting a handle on it. Today it’s 86º and 60% humidity, we’re hiding inside in the AC.

I filled the bird feeders when I got back here and the first customers were the grackles, but all the regulars soon showed up.

In bloom: white snake root, rose of Sharon, crape myrtle, wild strawberry, hydrangea, abelia. 

Rose of Sharon also comes in lavender, it's a relative of hibiscus.

White snake root is really a weed, but under control could be an OK flower.

Crape myrtle is a reliable end of the season bloomer.

The 'Crimson King' has lost a lot of foliage, but the surrounding trees--dawn redwood, sweet gum, southern magnolia, elm, viburnum are all doing very well.