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First Frost Finally.

11-13-07 SHORT HILLS: We finally had our first frost, minimal to be sure, but the tenderest plants have shut down. Today we had a bit of rain. Maybe next year we will get to Thanksgiving without a frost. Sam knows how to deal with a rainy day, actually not much different than how she deals with most days.

Sam.

Berry Red.

11-7-07 SHORT HILLS: The weather is finally cooling off a bit, but there has yet to be a frost in this part of NJ. The leaves are turning and falling in the usual sequence—ash first and oak last. The trees must respond to the amount of daylight, photo period, more than to temperature. In addition to the leaves, there is color from fruit and berries. Here is some red. Can you match the pictures with the names?






Barberry, Burning Bush, Crab Apple, English Holly, Viburnum.

Halloween on Garden Place.

HALLOWEEN, GARDEN PLACE, BROOKLYN: Usually we go to Val and Steve’s for the Halloween scene in Brooklyn Heights. Their street, Garden Place, is closed to traffic and is the busiest T&T street in the hood. It is packed from 5 to 7:30 and then deserted except for the parties. On her stoop we gave out about 4,000 pieces of candy in that two and a half hours. The costumes included the usual witches, fairies, pixies, pirates plus crusaders, Marie Antoinette, a gas pump, an ATM, Darth Vader[s], cats, dogs, a chocolate chip cookie, Bush[s], Elvis and Super mom, a Hershey’s kiss and a pink dragon, and Britney. The stoops and houses are all ghoulish and the crowds enormous.

Congrats to the Sawx.

10-29-07 SHORT HILLS: The Sawx did it. Everything Terry Francona tried worked out fine because the Boston pitching was nearly perfect. Even Manny didn’t hurt them in the outfield too much and Ortiz was fine at first.

Clint Hurdle, the Rockies Manager, was one of the most popular player-coaches the year I was at Mets Dream Week in ’88 [gasp, twenty years ago]. The first night at dinner, he made a point of going around the room and greeting all 100 or so Dreamers. He gave a couple funny talks and toward the end of the week, while we were doing morning calisthenics, which he was leading, he said to a guy on his team with a big schnooz, “They offered me a lot of money to come back here next year, but I said I just wanted your nose full of nickels.” Nobody could do any more crunches for laughing.

We saw this guy, an 8 or 10 pointer, while walking the dogs.

Stag Party.

Where's the frost?

10-26-07 SHORT HILLS: We have been back here for a few days, and it has been raining, on and off, the whole time. The plan to not pick up leaves is underway. The gardeners just mow which chops up the fallen leaves. It is the end of October, and the ash trees still have a few leaves. The lowest minimum temperature for the month so far was 43° and the average temperature is 58°.

The Red Sox, or ‘Sawx’ as they say in Vermont, look pretty strong. They certainly do not need my support, but I can’t help pulling for them because it seems to irritate the Yankee fans so much when the Sawx win.

I will post some pix that couldn’t get up-loaded at the last posting. The Google operation of these Blogs is almost as good and competent as the TSA or FEMA are under the Bush administration. Half the things the blogs are supposed to be able to do don’t work and the other half work occasionally. The Google folks must be too busy watching their stock options go up to take care of the blogspot operation.

If you get up early to let the dogs out, you might catch the pink.

Speaking of pink, these leaves are for you, Lucy.

Leaving leaves lay.

DHMC-ER

10-23-07 VERMONT: I got all the clean up done that can be done now. The unusually warm weather has kept has kept several flowers green and blooming past the expected time for dormancy. There has been no frost in this part of Zone 4 in Vermont to date. What could possibly be causing that?

Today we are getting a chilly rain, but the thermometer says 68°. Today for the second day in a row, I saw two grouse feeding behind the pond but they are too cautious to pose for a picture.

Yesterday I blew the leaves off the north half of the yard which took about four hours. The day was warm. I didn’t take a break in order to get it done. Well, we went out to dinner. I was getting a lot of muscle cramping during dinner. After dinner, I got up from the table to walk off the cramps and had a syncopal episode and ended up in the Hitchcock ER. The two Hanover Fire Dept. EMT’s, Brian and Larry, were great, both sympathetic and competent. The IV saline I got in the ambulance pretty much did the trick. The ER staff is always competent, but also friendly, helpful, sympathetic and caring. I have been in a lot of ER’s as a doc, as a patient and as a concerned family member or friend and can say that it’s not always that way. Plenty of places the ER staff can be hostile and antagonistic and look upon the patients as the enemy. Of course, there are no short or quick ER visits. Ultimately we got home and crashed. Judy was great in the emergency, as always. Today I’m fine, and the rain gives me an excuse to take the day off.