Lincoln School Xmas.

12-19-11 SHORT HILLS: Today Judy did, what is becoming, her annual Xmas visit to Lincoln School second grade, Ms. Catalano’s class, to bring the dogs, Nick and Gus, and presents for the kids. I tagged along to help with the second dog and to help with the heavy lifting. I was pleased because Ms. Catalano served rigatoni in tomato sauce with meatballs, sweet sausage and garlic bread to the class and visitors. All the other teachers in the school seemed to find a reason to drop by her classroom today.

Judy goes there twice a month to help with reading lessons, the kids read to the visiting dog, which makes the lesson more fun. Presents from us were little framed pictures of the dogs and bookmarks of golden retrievers to help with the reading work. Each kid also got a stuffed animal, mostly from families in Thetford and Norwich, VT that had out grown the toys. Fuzzy creatures also went to the other second grade, pre-K, K and first graders.


Second Grade at Lincoln Elementary School, Newark, NJ with Ms. Catalano, Nick and Gus.

Hard Choices.

Everyone seems happy with their new friend.

APHC and BXL-2011.

12-18-11 SHORT HILLS: We heard the DiGiallonardo Sisters do some great carol, modern revisionary, renditions in three part harmony. I especially liked “five onion rings”. We loved them and everyone else on “A Prairie Home Companion” on Saturday night with Bill and Lynn and Roger and Leeza. The evening has become an annual event for the six of us, followed by dinner at BXL, next door to The Town Hall on W 43rd.

We are all pleased that Garrison Keillor is not retiring at the end of the year. The other guests included Joel Grey, Klezmer Conservatory Band with Itzhak Perlman, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and all the cast regulars, including Richard Dworsky and the Guy’s Shoe Band. The two-hour show flies by.

Carol Sing.

12-15-11 SHORT HILLS: We have visited cathedrals, churches, temples, mosques, synagogues from Quito to Tbilisi over the years, including St. Peters, St. Isaacs, St. Pauls, Chartres, St. Marks, Notre Dame but just as impressive as all of those is The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ. Newark? Yes, Newark, beset with a variety of problems, and working through them, it, nevertheless, can boast of a world-class cathedral.

We were there for their Choir’s carol sing yesterday, accompanied by their Chamber Orchestra and Organ. Judy and I both love the music, if indifferent to the expressed sentiments, and the show they put on. They do all the old favorites, as well as some less familiar songs from Spain, Italy, Poland, and well known French and German carols. The soloists were magnificent. I must say, sometimes, for a moment of two, the organ sounds like cats fighting it out.

It’s open to the public, obviously, and they’re doing it again tonight. We recommend it.


Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ.

Nave.

View from our seats in the west transcept.

Choir at work.

Concert and Play.

12-11-11 SHORT HILLS: It’s turned a bit cooler, seasonal really, but we are not yet adapted. Today is sunny, in the low thirties and no wind.

Friday we heard the London Philharmonic at NJPAC do the ‘Emperor’ Concerto with Emanuel Ax and then Brahms Symphony 4 [E minor] conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, a great program beautifully done. But there’s more…

Saturday we saw ‘Cinderella’ , the Rodgers and Hammerstein version, presented by the Packer Collegiate Institute Middle School. The evil stepmother was portrayed by Lucy Rosenberg.

In the yard, I found some more storm-related pruning to do yesterday.



Theatrical Faces.

Don't Slouch, Tree.

12-8-11 SHORT HILLS: The sycamore tree, damaged by TS Irene, that I wrote about in September was never removed by the power line people. Even though damaged by the storm, pushed about 20° to the north, it kept its leaves through the rest of the season and shed them in normal fashion in October. The tree seemed to be healthy even if tilted. I decided to see if it could be saved.

I used a ‘come-along’ to pull it back to vertical, anchoring the lines to a sturdy beech that was in the plane of the tilt. The tool is a crank with a big mechanical advantage to pull heavy stuff, like trees. After I straightened it up, I set three anchors in the ground on the south side of the tree and tied lines to them from about ten feet up the trunk. It is once again upright.

The big question is whether or not the root system was too damaged by the manipulation to function. I’ll try to remember to mention it in the spring.


Lazy Tree.

Now standing at attention.

Pool Clean-up.

12-6-11 SHORT HILLS: We’ve been back in NJ for a couple of days, it’s warm again, in the sixties, but raining today, so I’m in the house.

Yesterday I got to look at the pool cover after the tree limbs that filled the pool were removed by the tree people. They didn’t get to the pruning of the broken and hanging branches in many of the trees, and will need to come back for another day. With the big debris out of the pool, I was able to get the accumulated leaves and small debris off the cover and onto the pool deck. The yardmen showed up for the last clean up at that time, and they removed all that debris from the pool enclosure, and spread the leaves on bare spots in the yard. The branches went to the dump this morning, another carload.

Unlike our neighbors, I don’t see the fallen leaves as a clean up problem, but as an opportunity to build up the organic layer at the top of our soil column. Our soil is a mixture of glacial till and weathered basalt and needs the organic contribution of the leaves. By mid-spring they will all have disappeared.

We saw “Hugo” last night, and both of us loved it as a touching tribute to the early film maker Georges Méliès and story of Hugo Cabret, the orphaned boy clock winder of a Paris railway station. It is done in 3D which seems unnecessary. On the way home, through the fog and rain, we admired the seasonal decorating on a house in town enough to take a picture.


Pool cover resembles a sieve. About half of the 28 panels have been punctured.

Nicely done trimming.

Decorated Trees.

12-3-11 VERMONT: It has gotten colder, down in the twenties at night, and the pond was frozen over the last two mornings. Coming home from the tree lighting last night there was a brief snow squall. Before that we had dinner at Yama with Denny and Laura-Beth. I have re-discovered the secret of surviving in the cold—dress with many warm layers.

The Glee Club caroled at the tree lighting, singing all the usual suspects. Hanover is decked out for the Holidays with lights and more carolers on Main St. All the stores in town were open late last night to take advantage of the tree lighting crowds. The Hanover Inn has a huge model train display that was packed with kids.


Tree lighting in Hanover plus carols from the Glee Club.

And another tree....

self decorated.