Time Travel.

4-23-09 SHORT HILLS: Back in NJ. In the spring, and fall, I get the sensation of time travel when I go from NJ to VT and back. I just went from Vermont in late winter with snowdrops and crocus open and snow banks slowly melting to NJ in mid-spring with flowers, trees and shrubs in bloom, grass growing, leaves open on trees and shrubs, and some pollinators out. I was jolted a month into the future by driving south. Perhaps, I blundered into a different space-time continuum at a highway rest-stop.

It is still cold and rainy and windy. The shorts are still in the closet, but, maybe, this weekend it’ll be time.

New Blooms: saucer magnolia, pear, kerria, blood root, grape hyacinth, trout lily, dandelion.


Pear Tree Blossom, the flower in the center has not opened as much as the others.

Trout Lily, named, I guess, for the leaf markings.

Grape Hyacinth.

Fish Food.

4-19-09 VERMONT: No clouds today, not one, all day. It was windy, from the NW, and cool in spite of the sunshine. I finished, finally, the removal of the pine tree debris, and I have a huge pile. The usual practice here is to burn brush piles, but I have decided to let it settle and decay on its own—the greener approach. Also it’s too dry to burn safely. After that I repaired a flat tire on the farm cart and fertilized flowers and shrubs.

The pond is now presenting frog songs nightly. There are frog eggs floating every morning to the delight of the fish who now have eggs for breakfast. The small pond is filled with frog eggs and there, no one eats them. Newts are also busy mating, and crayfish are taking up their stations around the edges of the pond. I haven’t seen any turtles. The ducks made their first appearance of the year, but were chased away by Chloe. The pond is full and draining, and the drainage area into the pond
is still a swamp.
There are at least three woodpeckers busy drumming in competition. I can hear them working in different trees, but drumming in sequence. Lets see, same theme, different players in sequence—I guess they’re performing a fugue.

The snow piles are shrinking quickly. Moosilauke and Lafayette still have snow cover.

New blooms: crocus.


Crocus. About one month later than Short Hills.

Lafayette and Moosilauke with snowy peaks.

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.