Snip, Snip, Snip.

4-27-14 SHORT HILLS: I’m still at it—pruning, snipping, cutting and sawing of winter kill and damage from the snow. It is worse under the eaves of the house because of the falling snow that came off the roof. Every shrub has had damage when you get a close up look, some of it just minor. It gets easier to spot the damage as the season progresses because the dead branches turn brown and the live parts turn green. I have another load of debris for the dump on Monday.

It’s April weather, windy, sometimes warm and sometimes rainy. Sprinkler zone 3 is under-powered and Wilpat will come back to replace waterline[s] blocked by roots. We will need fence repairs also.

The lawn is greening up, leaves are appearing. I did the kerria pruning and left the live canes. The Hypericum, St. Johns wort, are re-growing from the ground because last year’s canes are all dead. The roses were all pruned by about fifty percent. The azaleas all had broken branches. I take my favorite shears every time I go outside.

New blooms: bleeding heart, quince, more daffodils.


Similar to the fruit flowers I showed a few days ago, but this is Quince.

Bleeding Heart.

I like these better than the yellow ones.

Spring Chores.

4-23-14 SHORT HILLS: Today was cool and very windy after a couple nice days. The sprinklers seem to be OK now. The past two days I finished the first, and maybe only, fertilizing of all the shrubs, flowers and new trees. I also acidified the acidophiles and alkalinized the basophiles and limed the lawn.

Yesterday I did the pruning around the driveway and street, removing all the plow damage and winterkill. It amounted to two dump loads of cuttings, mostly junipers.

Some shrubs are late opening, and I am fearful they may have major damage. The kerria, for instance, took a big hit and has 75% dead canes. I’ll take out all the dead stuff but am uncertain about whether or not to cut the rest down to a few inches and hope it recovers or to let the scattered canes stay as they are. I need to look at the base and see if there’s any new growth.

New blooms: pear, pulmonaria, dandelion, marsh marigold.


Mourning Dove on her nest.


Cherry tree.

Cherry blossoms.

Similar, but not the same-Pear tree.

Spring Resumes.

4-20-14 SHORT HILLS: We did get snow the night after my last post, only a dusting here, but a few inches in VT. Here the snow was gone by that evening, but the next few days were cold and windy, if sunny. It gradually warmed and yesterday was pretty nice, today too.

The cold froze spring in its tracks, and the season didn’t resume its march until yesterday. I haven’t done much because of the cold and wind. You need still air to scatter fertilizer—my next big job that I started today.

We needed repair work done on the sprinkler system—two control valves were replaced. I hope the system doesn’t need more help.

New blooms: magnolia, trout lily, violet.


Saucer Magnolia.

Trout Lily- the leaf is to the left, mottled green/purple, suggestive, perhaps, of trout markings. This one is about two inches tall.

Violet has a little center tunnel for the pollinators. The flower is the size of a thumb print.

Just When It Seemed Safe To Bloom.

4-15-14 SHORT HILLS: We drove back in the rainstorm, but the traffic was light so we made good time. In the few days we were away the yard has exploded thanks to the warm, sunny days. It seems as if the plants were anxious about being late because of the severe winter and took the first opportunity to open.

The lawn is greening up, shrubs and trees are showing leaves, except for the usual late starters—ash, rose of sharon, cypress, walnut—to name a few.

But winter isn’t over if the forecasts are correct. Tonight will be in the thirties and the rain may turn to @#$%&# snow.

New blooms: clatonia, cherry, forsythia, daffodil, squill, spicebush, pachysandra, vinca minor, bloodroot, Korean boxwood.


Pachysandra.

Daffodil.

Daffodil.

Squill.

PULITZER PRIZE for DAN!

4-14-14 VERMONT: First, a big Congrats to Dan Fagin for winning the Pulitzer for his book, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation.

The weather here remains very spring-like. Today was in the seventies. The snow is melting, but the big piles don’t look much different. Every hollow in the pasture is full of water.

I cleared the last of the ice off the deck and put up the pasture gate. Later I got the chainsaw out, got it started after a struggle and cleared dead fall from the pasture fence. Yesterday was rainy, but we had a nice dinner at Jane and Ken’s. Earlier we visited Bruce and Donna who wanted to see the Morocco pix.

New blooms: a few more snowdrops.


I was trying out the zoom on the new camera and saw a bird, the one on the ridge, about 150 yards away near the other end of the pasture. I took these pictures with full zoom and the bird turned out to be a robin. Do you see something red on the left side of the image?

It's another bird, partly hidden by the ridge, with a brown back, red nape, gray face and big, black beak.

It's a flicker, probably female, and quite an unexpected find.

Melt down continues.

Mud Season.

4-12-14 VERMONT: The opera was great the other night. For Ron and Bebe, it was their first at the Met, and they loved it. For us, it had been several years since we last heard La Bohème, and we liked this production, especially the second and third act sets. This group of young singers is excellent.

We came up to Vermont yesterday with Lily hitching a ride on her way back to school. Spring is a long ways away from here. We have tons of snow around the house and still have huge piles under the eaves. The pasture is almost clear because it gets more sun and faces south. The pond has a couple open spots, but is mostly frozen. Today is sunny, breezy and in the sixties. Some of this snow will last until May.

The road and driveway are muddy bogs. All the streams are bank-full and roaring. There is a flood watch for the area.

We had a lively dinner at Anne and Roger’s last night, also there were Brooke and Jim, Laura-Beth and Denny and Arnie and Phyllis. We worked on the world’s problems.


Plenty of snow here.

The pond is still frozen, and all the gardens are under snow pack.

Gus loves mud.

The pasture gets more sun and faces south and always melts out first. That little pond is ice free.

These snowdrops shelter against the south side of the foundation.

A Night at the Opera.

4-10-14 SHORT HILLS: Sunny and warm, finally. I have been busy outside pruning more of the winter damaged bamboo and took another load to the dump this morning. Forsythia and daffodils are poised to open here, but are already open elsewhere in town. We go to VT tomorrow after La Bohème tonight at the Met with Ron and Bebe.