Charleston II.

5-12-23 SHORT HILLS: I promised pix of Charleston after we were there, but I just remembered that I never posted anything. Here, at long last, are some pix from the old parts of Charleston, which are filled with gorgeous houses and parks. There are government buildings made of stone in Greek revival style.  The area around College of Charleston has lovely houses converted to dorms and lots of old live oaks dripping Spanish moss. One unusual style point has the main entrance to the house from the street, not in the center of the building, but on one end, and it opens onto the porch. The porches are often two stories with elaborate moldings and railings. The porch ceilings are painted blue. Why? So ghosts will think that the blue ceiling is open sky and will not hang around that house. If you want to know why that scares ghosts away, you'll have to ask one.

Beautiful old tree at CofC.

Horse drawn carriage tours are a frequent site, and they're frequently passed by cars.

A stately house [they're all stately] with the porch on front. The entrance door is still on the side of the front.

Door on the side of the front opening onto the porch.

Another one.

Here's a variation with a lot of porch--a good idea in a hot climate, especially before AC.

Street number. 

Blue Makes Herself at Home.

5-9-23 SHORT HILLS: Blue is rapidly learning the routine and has been accepted by the older dogs. Judy is walking her in town now to teach her lead walking. She is happy with our fenced yard, and we are happy to let her roam.

I did some pruning here this morning. There’s a lot to do, the result of last year’s drought. Rhododendrons did badly. Most of the deciduous trees and shrubs did well.

New blooms: burning bush, honeysuckle, double file viburnum, chestnut, bridal wreath spirea, Carolina allspice, Siebold viburnum.  

The first butterfly of the season, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Somebody took a bite out of the left hind wing.

The Dog Whisperer with three friends-Maizie, Blue and Blanca.

Maizie.

Bridal wreath spirea.

Double-file viburnum.

First rhododendron.

Leucothoe, more white bells.

Blue's First and Second Days.

5-6-23 VERMONT: The trip back to VT with Blue was mostly uneventful. She was a little car sick, probably nervous about leaving her home for her whole life so far. The meeting with the pack of three went pretty well, but she did run away twice. She came back the first time, and came to the car the second time. She ate and drank nothing the first day.

The second day was better, she ate some breakfast and then all her dinner. She drank water. She was OK with the others on several walks around the yard. She is much less anxious today than yesterday. Judy thinks she will be a good therapy dog.

I did a bunch of stuff today, I finished the pruning and hauled the branches away, I skimmed the pond and treated the two ponds, I put the lattice back up that was removed to get the heat pumps in place, it was damaged and will need to be replaced, we did a dump run this morning. 

Tomorrow it’s back to NJ, another new place for Blue.

New blooms: pachysandra, trillium.

Here she is--the nervous Miss Blue.

Blanca relaxed now, was even more anxious than Blue on the her first few days.

We woke up to this sky in Bangor as the rainy weather system was breaking up.

Later that morning, I saw a raptor on a dead tree from the hotel room window. It's an osprey.

Trillium, the leaves, sepals and flowers are all in sets of three, all equilateral triangles.

Star magnolias finally opened.

Two of the four painted turtles I saw today, all sunning on the banks of the big pond.

Bangor, ME.

5-4-23 BANGOR, MAINE: It was another trek, from VT to NH to Maine. We’re here to pick up our new retriever, Blue, from her kennel, Goldenridge, in Hampden. She was a breeding dog, now retired at age five, who we are adopting, and whom Judy hopes to convert to a therapy dog. We get her at noon and then drive back to VT, hopefully in time to pick up the other three who are boarding in Orford for a big meet and greet.

We did about 320 miles from VT to Concord, NH to Portsmouth, NH to Portland, ME to Bangor, all on highways with only one stop in Kittery, ME at Bob’s Clam Hut and the Mobil station. We usually stop at Bob’s during the summer when it’s jammed to the rafters, but today  it was easy to order and the food came out fast! 

In the last month we have driven from South Carolina to NJ and on to VT and now ME. Throw in a few days driving in FL and we drove the whole east coast except for Georgia. 

It’s still raining here, I think that makes a week.

This is the bird that Merlin and I think is an American tree sparrow. It's an iPhone pic which explains the quality.

Rain Every Day.

5-3-23 VERMONT: A low pressure system is sitting on top of New England and raining on and off, mostly on, all week. Yesterday I got  out during a dry afternoon and pruned the honeysuckle by the steps and started on the lilacs in front of the old house. There’s a cart load to be dumped and several branches on the grass to be hauled away.

Today the heat pump installation was finished, and Hillary was here for a walk around in the rain. 

We had a visit from a pair of mallards yesterday and a pair of black ducks today. They all leave as soon as they spot the dogs. There was an American tree sparrow at the feeders yesterday—a first for me.

We had dinner at Katie and Andy’s house yesterday. Tomorrow Judy and I drive to Bangor, ME to pick up another English Cream Retriever from the same breeder from whom we got Blanca. She is also a retired breeding dog who has had a least two litters. Judy wants another therapy dog. She will be named ‘Blue’—Judy’s choice.  

New blooms: alkanet, trout lily.

A female Mallard on the upper pond.

A pair of Black ducks on the lower pond.

Vermont Spring.

4-29-23 VERMONT: Yesterday when we arrived, it was in the sixties and sunny. We walked around and found—no snow. Some of the early flowers are out. Snowdrops and crocus are almost done. The ponds are full and draining, the waterfall is splashing and babbling. Frog eggs are abundant in both ponds, and the frog opera is playing nightly. Today is rainy and in the fifties.

I put away the reflectors that guide the driveway snow plowers and the snow shoveling gear. I repaired a small section of collapsed stone wall in the middle terrace bed. If you don’t do it now, it doesn’t get done because everything starts to grow. The lawn guys did the yard clean up, but not the beds. There is a lot of pruning to do around the house, shrubs damaged by snow falling off the roof. 

We walked around the pasture with the dogs. There’s standing water in all the hollows. We can walk anywhere because it was mowed in the fall, and nothing has grown more than an inch of so.

The usual customers swarmed the feeders after I filled them, including a very golden goldfinch. I thought I saw a hummingbird, so I made the sugar-water and put their feeders out. Robins are busy on the lawn.

New blooms: daffodil, wild ginger, vinca, blood root, forsythia, pulmonaria, hellebore, primrose.

The waterfall in action.

Foxy friend is still around.

Forsythia has finished in NJ, but is at peak here.

Hellebore is a reliable early bloomer and thrives in the shade.

A mid-April pic of the pond with no ice and two turtles sunning on a flat rock.

Spring Again.

4-26-23 SHORT HILLS: Spring is in full swing, except that it’s cool. The heat is off, and we’re in AC mode because of the hot days about two weeks ago. I know if I switch back to heat, the temps will soar into the nineties.

I have been doing yard work, a little bit at a time. With Judy’s help, I  pulled a huge clematis off from shrubs that were getting overwhelmed by the vines. The clematis will be back, but much smaller. I have been pruning shrubs that were damaged by the drought last summer, but cautiously to give anything that might recover a full chance.

New blooms: azalea, horse chestnut, Korean spice viburnum, nannyberry viburnum, sweet woodruff, wood hyacinth, clatonia, wild strawberry, yellow lamium, ajuga.

It's hard to find anything more vivid than azaleas.

Maybe redbud?

Or Kwansan cherry?

Or even dogwood?

Or a viburnum like this Korean spice viburnum, very sweet aroma.