Pine Pile Pick Up.

4-17-09 VERMONT: We came up yesterday, yesterday and today were warm and sunny with a steady breeze. Things here are dry. Usually at this point in the spring, the fields are wet, the yard is wet, there are standing pools and mud everywhere. The snow is gone except for the piles under the eaves and plow piles. The remaining snow piles are almost visible shrinking except when they’re in shade. The pond is ice free and the fish are active. I think I heard one frog this afternoon. If it was a frog there should soon be a whole opera’s worth.

I repaired a plow damaged wall and started the clean up of the debris from the damaged pine trees. In December, there was an ice storm that caused severe damage to pine trees, almost exclusively pine trees, see my entry of 12-20-08. Now that the snow is gone I started picking up pine branch piles. In fact I spent all day pushing the carts full of pine trash to composting sites. There is more for tomorrow if I recover from today.

The dogs are pleased to be here. The Goldens are wearing out the pond and Chloe was chasing airplanes all day.

In bloom: snowdrops, maple trees.


Snowdrops, that thing that looks like an albino seal is a snow pile.

Calendar Cruelty.

4-12-09 SHORT HILLS: We have had warm and cold, wind and calm, sun and clouds, rain and even a short snow flurry—in other words, New Jersey spring. TSE was certainly right about April. In a few weeks, it’ll be in the eighties every day. Spring seems to be unfolding slowly, but the plants give us a slight bit more leaf every morning. They know what their doing, it’s not prime time yet.

I have continued to do pruning and clean up. I also replaced a rotted door sill on the patio.

At the feeders, the goldfinches are starting to live up to their names.

New blooms: claytonia.


Pachysandra and Squill.

Claytonia.

Feeding Frenzy.

4-6-09 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday I finished clean up in the pool area and did more pruning the day before. Today we are getting heavy rain which we need. I can tell it’s heavy because the sump pump started working shortly after the rain started.

The bird feeder has been busy. The Red Wing Blackbirds came through a few days ago. They stop by for a few days each spring and fall on their way to the summer and winter hangouts. The Red Bellied Woodpeckers and Purple Finches are full time here.

New blooms: spice bush, anemone, squill.


Red Wing Blackbird.

Red Bellied Woodpecker and Purple Finch.

Busy Season.

4-2-09 SHORT HILLS: I worked outside today in a T-shirt, I guess it is spring. I pruned and snipped today mostly dead canes from shrubs and dead branches from trees, cleaned debris from shrubs, re-buried an outside electric wire that the dogs had dug up. Yesterday before the rain, I oiled and adjusted the garden and pool gates and did more pruning and clean-up.

Most of the deciduous shrubs are showing leaves or flower buds. Most of the evergreens are being shy yet.

New blooms: marsh marigold, pachysandra.

The Promise

3-30-09 SHORT HILLS: We have had some nice days, and I have started the season’s work. I pruned dead wood and winter kill, that means snow plow damage, from the junipers on Westview Rd. It took about two days and created a good pile for the dump. I fertilized all the evergreen shrubs that need an acidifying fertilizer and most of the other shrubs and bulbs. I took down the wisteria by the back door, another non-boomer, to about six inches. It had grown far up into the sweet gum tree on the back patio and made another nice pile. Most of last spring's plantings look fine. You do remember all of them, don’t you? The southern magnolia and the scotch brooms might be dead.

That magnolia was girdled by the deer, not by eating it, but by the bucks scraping their antlers on the tree, scratching off the bark all the way around the one inch in diameter tree. Other small trees were scraped but not girdled. Speaking of the little deers, they did eat all the ivy beds, hopefully they will re-grow.

The grass is starting to green up. The weeds that make up most of our ‘lawn’ are awakening. The thing about this earliest part of the season is the promise of the flowering to come.

New blooms: daffodil and forsythia.

No Lamb in Sight.

3-25-09 SHORT HILLS: Sorry about the dearth of posts. We ended up spending more time in San José than anticipated. It was sunny every day, but chilly and breezy with an occasional shower. Flowers are everywhere. Besides all the semi-tropicals; daffodil, iris, magnolia and pear were in bloom.

Back in NJ it has been cool and sunny with rain expected tomorrow. We have crocus, snowdrop, vinca minor, andromeda and maple in bloom. Forsythia are threatening.

Reports from VT indicate persisting snow cover with maple syrup happening.



Crocuses? Croci?

March Lion.

3-2-09 SHORT HILLS: Surprise! It’s not summer yet. We got about 5 inches of snow, not the foot that was predicted but enough to cover the yard and require a shoveling of the driveway. I think it’s over, but the wind is getting brisker, and it’s in the twenties so no luncheon on the patio.

We are off to California on Wednesday for the spring visit to Eoin and Joe and their parents. Later this month we take Maggie and Lucy to Vermont for their school vacation.