APHC, BXL, RC and TLE.

12-20-10 SHORT HILLS: On Saturday night, the 18th, we saw the radio broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” with Bill, Lynn, Roger and Leesa. It has become an annual event, and we follow it with dinner at BXL Cafe, a Belgian restaurant next door to The Town Hall, the venue, and just off Times Square. The show featured Nathan Gunn, Pink Martini, Erica Rhodes, Andra Suchy as well as Garrison Keillor and all the regulars. It was a great evening. The show ended with more Carols, the beer and food, I had frites and moules, was bistro-esque and tastier for eating it with old friends.

The crowds and traffic in the city were both heavy, especially Times Square, near the theatre, and Rockefeller Center. We had run up there to see the tree before the show. The crowds of people, and baby strollers, around the tree were as thick as the needles on the tree. You could see hundreds of cameras popping up above all the heads to capture the images.

Celestially, tomorrow is quite exciting, not only is the winter solstice marked by a full moon, but also by a lunar eclipse. When the sun, earth and moon line up for the eclipse, the sun will be at its southern-most declination, 23.5° of latitude south of the equator so, I assume, the moon, at the moment of fullness, must be at 23.5° of latitude north of the equator, the summer solstice declination of the sun—interesting coincidence.


Rockefeller Center with the tree, crowds and moon peeking over the building on the right and fore-shadowing the eclipse.


Times Square with lights and crowds.


Here's another shot of the red-bellied woodpecker showing the lack of red on his belly.

The Absence of Ducks and Cathedrals.

12-16-10 SHORT HILLS: Last night we went with Bill and Lynn to the Candlelight Carol Sing at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ 07104. www.cathedralbasilica.org It is a huge church, built in the late 19th century, of gray stone with a vast nave. They do an annual carol sing accompanied by a chamber orchestra and organ that is thrilling. Whatever your take on the original, precipitating event, the usual and customary, standard carols are great music.

Consider the survival of “Silent Night” and “Adeste Fideles” as a triumph of the fittest. Probably every year for the last 2,000 or so, a few carols have been presented, but only a couple dozen are regularly heard now. The rest—vanished. I predict that “Alvin and the Chipmunks” will not enjoy a long life span.

Having linked evolution and nativity, I consider my night’s work done, except to mention that we had a pleasant dinner with Hank and Laurel at Locanda Verde on Greenwich St. in Tribeca and rate it as ‘worth a detour’.

As I mentioned the Passaic River in the last post, I stopped to snap an image this afternoon, unfortunately I scared away all the wary ducks.


Passaic River looking winter bleak, but symmetrical, ice along the edges, duckless.


The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ 07104.
Candlelight Carol Sing.
www.cathedralbasilica.org
Picture courtesy of WGBL.

Woodpecker III

12-15-10 SHORT HILLS: With about a week until the solstice, we’re back in the deep freeze as of yesterday. All the puddles left by the rain storm are now frozen patches. Yesterday morning there was a light dusting of snow which evaporated by noon in spite of the cold. This mornings ‘feel like’ temp is 9°. Even parts of the Passaic River, which we frequently cross on our daily outings, were frozen yesterday.

As a teen I remember skating parties on the river, but that doesn’t happen any more. It wasn’t very wide, but you could go a long way up or down stream. There were thin spots over rapids that needed to be avoided.

I haven’t seen any other kinds of woodpeckers here this week, but did find a picture of this Pileated Woodpecker from the Corkscrew Preserve near Naples, FL from our trip there last February. Pileated BTW means ‘capped’. These are crow sized birds. The males have a red moustache, making this one a lady.

Woodpecker II

12-12-10 SHORT HILLS: It’s warm again with almost 60° today, with rain, lots of rain, from the storm that snowed in the mid-west. The cold is due back next week.

I checked some of the blog’s stats. This is the 603rd post since 2-12-2006—two months short of five years. Page visits, counting the old Blogspot format and the current, are almost 75,000.

I seem to be in a woodpecker phase. After the downy woodpeckers were here, the male red-bellied woodpecker came by for some sunflower seeds. Looking at this guy, one wonders why he’s named what he’s named. There is a red-headed woodpecker already in possession of that name, but ‘red-bellied’?


Male Red-Bellied Woodpecker. The female is red only on the back of the neck. These birds are much bigger than the downy woodpeckers.

Symmetrical black and white back pattern.

Brrrr.

12-9-10 SHORT HILLS: It has been cold here, with day-time highs barely above freezing since Monday. Double digit north winds push the ‘feel-like’ temperature down into the teens. The deciduous shrubs that had been holding onto their leaves have given it all up, and the last rose buds have been nipped. I guess the cold snap feels especially cold because it has been fairly mild through the fall until now. Several windy days have produced a shower of branches and twigs which I have been clearing from whoever lives beneath the source trees.

Downy Woodpeckers have been at the feeder.


Downy Woodpecker, female. The male has a dime-sized red spot on the back of the head

Her feathers are plumped up to act like a down coat in the cold. NPI. The Hairy Woodpecker is a larger version of the same bird, but with a longer bill.

Carols and Lights.

12-4-10 VERMONT: It was in the low thirties all day with snow flurries and snow showers, but no accumulation. I put out reflectors to keep the plowers in the driveway and out of the shrubbery, and I set out all the shoveling gear to clear the doorways and deck. We cut a white pine for a holiday tree this afternoon.

Last night we went to the tree lighting on the college green and heard the Glee Club do carols and then had dinner with Andy, Katie and Sara at their house. Tomorrow—back to NJ to face the holidays.


Dartmouth Glee Club caroling for the tree lighting.

Ready for Winter.

12-2-10 VERMONT: We arrived yesterday for a long weekend, driving in the rain for the whole trip. It was warm yesterday until the storm started to pull away and then got cold so the last drop of precip was a dusting of snow. High winds yesterday shook another bunch of branches loose and dropped trees here and there, actually, not here.

Today was sunny with clouds making for high contrast between light and dark. Now lets see—is that schadenfreude or chiaroscuro? Either you expose for light and get a dark blob of shadow or open the lens for shade and get white out. How did Ansel Adams do it?

The pond was frozen over this morning with ice about one-quarter inch thick, but stayed frozen all day. Most of the other ponds in the hood are iceless.

I filled the feeders, and they were immediately mobbed by chickadees, nuthatches and red squirrels waiting for the spillage.


Shady Hills, Sunny Hills.