Looking Just Like Winter.

12-27-12 VERMONT: We arrived long before the storm did. The snow didn’t start until late at night. When we arrived, I shoveled the deck and steps, filled the feeders and watched Diana, Eliza and Clara clear the pond for skating. The pond had about three inches of old snow, as did the deck, and after about an hour, both were clear.

This morning everything has about six inches of new snow with more every second. It’s in the thirties and there’s almost no wind, so we’ll snowshoe around the pasture to get the dogs aired out later.

The chickadees and nuthatches are working the feeders. Yesterday when I went to fill the feeders, I found that a red squirrel had eaten through the plastic cover of the feed bucket and eaten the top two inches of the sunflower seeds, of course leaving all the empty husks. The squirrel was still in the garage jumping around up above the rafters and complaining about the invasion of his [her?] space. All the fussing attracted the dogs who ran around the garage floor barking and chasing the squirrel up above. None of them got anything out of the exercise, except exercise.


Eliza and Clara moving snow.

The pond is hockey rink sized, and almost clear.

Oops, not clear. The great thing about shoveling snow is that you get to have all that fun all over again almost every day.

Xmasopalooza

12-25-12 SHORT HILLS: Judy did it again, another Xmasopalooza, last night. The crowd was delighted and thrilled as usual with the hors d’oeuvres, entrees and sweets. They were mostly oiled up to start which helped with the successful reception of the offerings. Much Prosecco was imbibed. In attendance—Bette, Lonnie, Bill, Lynn, Robbie, Chrissie, Alison, Dan and later Alan and part of his family dropped in. There was a bit of snow during the evening.

We all got a late start this morning, but rallied in time to get out for ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ which everybody liked. Vermont tomorrow before the next storm.

Morning After.

Santa and the Mayans.

12-21-12 SHORT HILLS: There’s been a lot of rain this week, with more last night as a fast moving storm soaked us. The wind tore our aged flag into tatters. We bought a new one from Annin today after our visit to the travel doc who punched us full of holes for the upcoming trip to the Amazon. Short Hills is still struggling with the clean up from Sandy, piles of branches are still all over the streets.

Santa has been delivering bags of presents, donated by families in NJ and VT, to the kids in Newark that she regularly visits at Beth Israel Hospital and Lincoln School. I’ve noticed that, in NJ, a Subaru substitutes for a sleigh.

Today brings the Mayan Apocalypse, it’s hard to believe that, centuries ago, the Mayans were able to predict the Republican behavior so perfectly.


Santa has been delivering stuffed animals, books and games to kids at Newark Beth Israel and Lincoln School in Newark.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

12-16-12 SHORT HILLS: Hectic Holiday Happenings Highlighted by HJF. Where to start? We went to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart for their annual carol sing. It’s a great venue with great music and, if you like carols, the CD is available on their website, www.cathedralbasicilia.org. That was Wednesday, I think.

Thursday we were off to Brooklyn for the Packer Middle School performance of ‘The Little Mermaid’. It was opening night and the audience was agog with excitement. The taut and compelling dramatic and emotional content of this theatrical offering was almost too much to bear for some of the younger attendees. Granddaughter Lucy was dominating as Queen Triton.

BTW granddaughter Maggie’s and her friend, Hope’s, music video has become a You Tube hit that has had over 120,000 views in a week. It can be seen, heard and downloaded at: http://wesinghappysongs.bandcamp.com/track/gangnam-style-cover You could also Google ‘wesinghappysongs’.

Saturday was back to the city for ‘A Prairie Home Companion’, Garrison and the gang were good as ever. Itzhak Perlman played a subway violinist on Guy Noir. After the show we dined at BXL with Leesa and Roger, our theater companions.


Cathedral Basilica Carol Sing, lit up and candlelit.

Queen Triton.

'A Prairie Home Companion' warms up.

Times Square with lots of Santa's.

Birthday Boys.

12-12-12 SHORT HILLS: This is the last triple number date until the next century, unless they add a month to the calendar this before the end of 2013.

We came back from California on the red eye, arriving Monday AM, and were home before daybreak. We picked up the dogs after 9 AM and were pretty much done for the rest of the day after that.

The warm spell over the weekend, now gone, encouraged the forsythia to pop open a few flowers, probably the last blooms of the year.

Last night we had dinner with Bill and Lynn at Taste of Asia in Chatham, excellent as usual. They are off to Cancún for the weekend.


Lurking in the yard.

Birthday boys: Nick, 10, and Gus, 5, both have birthdays tomorrow.

California Dreamin'

12-9-12 SAN JOSÉ: We have been here for the weekend visiting the left coasters. As is always the case when coming to California from the east in the cold seasons, the flowers are such a nice surprise. It’s in the sixties in the afternoon and forties at night and sunny this weekend.

We saw the new house today and were very impressed by the views from high up the mountain. The house needs a bit of work, but has enormous potential. The views of mountains and of the bay including San José and Oakland are spectacular. The surrounding property is forest and meadow and there is a nearby open-spaces preserve. We look forward with anticipation to see what they do with it all.


It's always nice to find a rose.

The house and driveway.

Views of the bay.

Even the nearby junk piles seem classier than usual.

More Climate Change.

12-6-12 SHORT HILLS: Today we’re cooler again, but it’s supposed to be warmer and rainy for the next few days. We will be in San José for a weekend visit.

The weather report on TV this morning, NBC I think, showed a map of snow cover for the US, lower 48 states, with almost no snow. I found a couple maps on line that also showed that same thing. I also found a map that shows the expected amount of snow cover for 12/25, admittedly later in the season, but similar to the map that they showed for today’s date that I couldn’t find.

The above map of the US shows the usual extent of snow cover for Xmas. The southern extent of snow cover usually follows a line along the southern borders of NY, MI, WI, MN, SD and most of the Rockies and Cascades. Follow the purple swath.

Here is the present snow cover showing almost none in the lower 48 except for a bit in the northern Rockies.

Here's another showing the dearth of snow. The morning weather news on NBC said this lack of snow was a new record for this date. New weather records seem to be set frequently, but mostly for warmer conditions not cooler.