The Tree and Lincoln.

12-21-15 SHORT HILLS: Franks Tree arrived early to take down the dying ash tree on the corner of the yard where three properties meet. They worked from the street below us because that location was closer to the tree. The tree was the biggest in the local area and probably parent to all the ash trees in our yard. It had been hit by lightning years ago. When we first moved here 40 plus years ago, the tree had a defect extending from the ground to twenty feet up the trunk, the edges of the gap had scorched bark.

Recently the tree was afflicted with a leafhopper borne disease which caused sections to go leafless, and storms in the last couple of years had broken off three of the five major divisions of the tree. The decision was made to take the rest of the tree down before it did more harm to the stuff beneath it. Some of the branches removed today were hollow. The tree is down to a twenty-foot high stump at the moment, and a tons of big pieces remain to be taken away.

In VT, we recently bought and stacked a half cord of wood for the fireplaces. This tree, now partly chipped, must have had twenty cords of wood, enough to keep a few VT neighbors warm for a whole winter, but in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Otherwise, we were at Lincoln School in Newark for Ms. Catalano’s second grade’s Xmas party. Judy, Maizie and I were there as well as Pam, Rona, and Jean with Charlie, Brynn, and Molly and newcomers Alison, Anna and Lily. The kids ate hot dogs, read for us, got presents, patted dogs, brushed dogs, made funny faces, fed dogs and signed autograph hounds for Ms. Catalano. One of the kids said it was the best day of his life.

Tonight we go to Brooklyn to pick up Maggie, and tomorrow we fly with her to France to meet Lucy, Val and Steve in Strasbourg for Xmas.


Tree comes down piece by piece.

Lincoln School with the usual and some new faces.

It's El Niño.

12-17-15 SHORT HILLS: It’s still in the fifties today, and we’re getting rain. While we were in VT, a big ash tree, the biggest and oldest in the yard actually, lost two of its five main divisions and part of another. Two years ago it lost the first of the divisions. It is now a remnant of the original tree, and the arborists are going to take down what remains to avoid any more damage. The falling tree limbs damaged parts of the fence separating this yard from the neighbors, and crushed a laurel bush, another ash sapling, and did damage to a hemlock.

We have lost a lot of large trees to storms and disease over the last several years. In the parts of the yard not mowed, new tree shoots pop up every year, especially in areas where trees have come down which open that part of the yard to sunshine.

The April-like December we are getting has encouraged plants to bloom including creeping myrtle, forsythia and flowering cherry trees. We are finishing what will be designated the warmest year on record as the winter Solstice approaches. Is this warmth due to climate change or El Niño? Or both?

El Niño has pushed our section of the Jet Stream far to the north allowing warm Gulf air into our region, which is super-imposed on climate change warming. I’m sure that some place in the northern hemisphere, they’re getting unusually cold weather.


Forsythia has open flowers, scattered here and there on a few bushes.

Creeping myrtle, Vinca minor, has bloomed.

Elsewhere in town, a flowering cherry has blossoms.

A closer look at the flowers.

Warm Night at the Lago.

12-16-15 SHORT HILLS: It’s still warm, in the fifties again here. This is the warmest December that I remember. It will cap the warmest year on record. We were at the opera last night for Rossini’s La Donna del Lago.

We had dinner with friends Ina and Marcel at Café Fiorello beforehand. We ate inside, but out on the street next door, people were dining outside—in December. Dante Park, across Ninth Ave. from Lincoln Center Plaza has a pretty spruce tree, I think, decorated for the season.

Sir Walter Scott’s poem, The Lady of the Lake, was Rossini’s source for the opera. It is set in the Scottish Highlands, during a rebellion against Scottish King James V, son of Mary Queen of Scots. The plot is too banal to discuss further. The Met’s sets are dreadful, dark and dreary. The only light is at the end of the opera in the palace scene denouements.

The music, conducted by Michele Mariotti, is magnificent and the singing of Joyce DiDonato, Elena, alone is worth the ticket price. Elena’s love is Malcolm, sung by Daniela Barcellona, in a ‘trouser’ role. Of the other two suitors, Rodrigo, John Osborne, dies in the insurrection and Giacomo, the king, is well sung by Lawrence Brownlee. Elena clearly missed a bet turning down the king’s suit.

New blooms: forsythia, vinca minor. [pix next post]


People dining outside across the street from Lincoln Center on December 15.

Lincoln Center Plaza.

Dante Park xmas tree. [The park is between 9th Ave and Broadway at Lincoln Center.]

Intermission at the Met Opera.

Bows after the finale. Joyce DiDonato is in the blue dress and red hair.

Warm and Sunny Vermont in the Winter.

12-13-15 VERMONT: Yesterday we had sun until evening, and today is overcast again. It’s still warm and was in the fifties today. I caught up with chores. I cleared the culvert, used that gravel to fill the drip line under the eaves, replaced torn and missing “posted” signs, even the hunting season is almost over, cleaned out the fireplaces and brought in wood, got all the driveway reflectors in place to guide the snow plowers, and refilled the bird feeders.

Yesterday we walked around the pasture, in the sun, after shopping in the morning. Judy threw one of her dinner parties last night and it was the usual huge success. There were three requests for recipes today—a sure sign of a good meal. Laura-Beth and Denny, Roger and Ann, and new neighbors Shari and Dave were here and conversation raged until late in the evening—well sorta late.

NJ tomorrow.

New blooms: a few purple lamium opened up with the unseasonal warmth.


Clouds and fog and Gus on Friday.

The dog whisperer with Bally, Maizie and Gus and sunshine on Saturday.

Blue sky and reflections.

Soggy Vermont.

12-10-15 VERMONT: We came up yesterday, there wasn’t much traffic, but two construction detours slowed us down. It’s in the forties, and unseasonably warm, it rained over night, was foggy this morning and partially cleared in the afternoon. Everything is wet from the rain, actually it was wet before the rain, and will probably stay wet until July, whenever it’s not frozen.

We did chores today and shopping. I filled the feeders and repaired a cabinet door. We saw some hunters in camo, the season lasts for another couple of days, and is now down to muzzle-loaders and archers.

Although the grass is still green, Brady the horse has gone home for the winter. The pond was mostly covered with a thin layer of ice when we arrived, but it is largely gone after the rain. Chickadees and blue jays appeared after there were seeds in the feeders.


Partially iced-over pond, overcast sky, fog, no wind, nothing moving...

but the grass is still green.

Bamboo and Intolerance.

12-8-15 SHORT HILLS: For the past two weeks or so I have been cutting down bamboo. We have stands of bamboo along the property line in a few spots as privacy barriers. The bamboo is graceful, evergreen, beautiful and very invasive. It has spread into the yard from the fence lines.  I cut the over-growth back to the edges of the yard creating several large piles of cut stalks.

Franks Tree was here today, and it took six guys more than an hour to carry all the piles up to the driveway and chip it. It would have taken me at least a week to haul it all to the dump.

On another matter, Judy and I saw Trumbo tonight, a great movie about the blacklisted Hollywood writers of the McCarthy era. [The review in the NYT was inexplicably off base as the film deserves to be seen.]

The parallels with the current wave of intolerance are inescapable. The senseless condemnation of a group of Americans to satisfy a national anxiety is happening again. Somebody should get Donald T. and his fellow travelers tickets to the movie.

A Night at PHC.

12-6-15 SHORT HILLS: December weather remains mild, we walked the dogs today with Ron and Bebe here in town. One of the lakes had a Great Blue Heron wading near the bank as well as a flock of Mallards on the water. It was about fifty degrees under cloudless skies.

Last night Lynn, Bill, Judy and I saw A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor at The Town Hall, a theatre on W. 43rd St. This is the last year for Keillor who retires at the end of this season. All the regulars in the audience were very enthusiastic, loudly applauding everything. The guests were The Coffee Club Orchestra led by Bob Fisher, and Heather Masse.

After the show we ate at Aureole on W. 42nd St. and bumped into Linda and Bob who had also been to PHC. The food was fine, the service was slow.


Blue Heron in the lake on our walk. There were lots of mallards as well.

The stage at Town Hall during A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor is wearing the red shoes.

Times Sq. is as brash and bright, noisy and crowded an eyeful as ever. Can you find the street signs that show the corner in the shot.

Highest Energy level and a big electric bill.