Bandit.

6-9-26 SHORT HILLS: We had a little rain, 0.45 inches, with a lot of wind that brought down some branches. We are both finishing up with medical visits, and Judy is doing lots of dog therapy sessions at mostly schools in the area.

I’m going to need help with the yard, every thing is getting over grown, and it’s too much for me now to keep up with pruning and trimming. We are packing and organizing for the summer in VT.

We had a visit from what Alison calls a ‘trash bandit’. He was furry and masked and up a tree on garbage night. I didn’t put the cans out because I was sure he/she would get into the bags. In the morning she/he was gone, and Judy put the garbage out very early.

Can you find him/her? I saw the bandit as soon as I went out on Garbage Night.

Here's a closer look.

And a close up. Rita or Randy is pretty cute.

Catalpa tree bloom.

Another look at the Southern Magnolia flower.

"June Is Bustin' Out All Over"

6-3-26 SHORT HILLS: June is one of my favorite months. It has the longest day, Juneteenth, and it’s Pride month. Judy was at Covenant House today with Blanca, and they have displays celebrating both Juneteenth and Pride. 

It’s a gorgeous day, warm and sunny. I’m already starting to worry about drought, there’s not a cloud east of the Mississippi. I finished cleaning the pool cover and re-potted the veggies and herbs, fertilized the house plants and the veggies.

We still have grackles around, and they’re draining the feeders every time I fill them. It seems to me that they should be off to Canada for breeding season by now. 

We have dinner with Lynn and Bill tomorrow, doctor visits, and at the end of next week—Vermont for the summer!

New blooms: white clover, chives, southern magnolia, hydrangea.  

Chives. A volunteer, blooms at the same time as its cousin allium all over town.

Southern Magnolia, our last magnolia to bloom. It will put out a flower almost daily for a month. The flowers is only open for one day, turns brown, and leaves the center cone to make red seeds.

White clover growing in the lawn. Being a legume, clover takes nitrogen from the air for itself, called 'fixing', and also leaves nitrogen in the soil, hence 'Where clover grows grass will follow.'

Rose made to to the window sill. The vases were made by Alison and Dan for the wedding.

Judy caught a deer on one of her walks.

Blanca helping celebrate Pride Month at Covenant House.

I was scolded for not posting any wedding pix, so here's Lily and Danna.

By Any Other name...

5-28-26 SHORT HILLS: The wedding was a blast. Judy and I spent a lot of time on the dance floor—some of it dancing. The Californians are gone back west, the house is back to normal. We needed a new dryer, which is now installed. We are in our last week or so here before VT for the summer. There was two inches of rain over the weekend, but now its dry. 

New blooms: rose, holly, St. Johns wort, red spirea.

Roses really are remarkable, color, aroma, I almost like them better as buds, offering the promise of flowers to come.

And here are the buds.

St. johns wort is a pretty nice flower also.

Holly. The bee is at work on these female flowers. That's right--hollies are either male or female. These flowers have a large green ball in the center, which becomes the red berry if it gets fertilized.

Holly. These are the male flowers, no green ball. The pollinators transfer the pollen from male to female.

Red spirea. Spirea is a reliable shrub with a tolerance for wet or dry conditions.

Peony is a pretty nice flower also.

Memorial Day Wedding.

5-22-26 SHORT HILLS: Jon, Siobhan, Morgan, Eoin, and Joe are here for the weekend and are exploring NYC today. Sunday is Lily and Danna’ s wedding. An exciting weekend to come. 

All the house plants are now on summer holiday in the yard. We needed help from the lawn guys to get the big ones outside. We had 0.35 inches of rain. 

While in VT, we went to Hinesburg to see Ken and Jane. They have done an extraordinary job of renovating their house, with more to come. We also worked in another superb dinner at Cloudland Farm before coming back to NJ.

Our hot spell is over and temps are back in the sixties.

New blooms: peony, tree peony, Japanese snowball, winter berry holly.  

Tree Peony. This one opened first, before the true peony and before several other ones opened.

Peony opened this morning. It is a single peony. most people are more familiar with the double form.

Japanese snowball tree has thousands of these delicate, hanging flowers on all its branches.

Return to NJ.

5-16-26 SHORT HILLS: The trip home was slow, every driver In New England, New York and New Jersey was out on the road and the traffic was heavy. It was nice to see the sun again and to feel it. 

There was less rain here, 0.45 inches. I don’t know how much fell in VT, but it must have been a couple inches.  

I saw a couple unusual birds in VT a spotted sandpiper, who’s at home on the edge of brooks and ponds, and a small bird in the apple tree with large yellow and black markings on its head and face.

New blooms: chokecherry, lilac. 

Chokecherry is a ncie shrub with good orange color in the fall. wildlife eat the berries, humans make jam.

Spotted sandpiper next to the pond.

Lilac. What smells nicer?

Sunrise-Vermont.

5-13-26 VERMONT: “Wake up, wake up.” Judy was hitting me on the shoulder. I opened an eye and everything was red. “Take pictures.” she said. The 5:29 sky was brilliant red, just before sunrise. I did take some pix with the phone, and then it was gone, and it was all gray.

Now it’s raining, skies are dark gray, and it’s cold. More rain is predicted for the next three days. 

More leaves are out. The hummingbirds are using the feeders.

New blooms: bleeding heart, forget-me-not. 

Brilliant sky.

Reflected in the pond, but starting to fade.

Serviceberry grows on the edge of the woods.

Now it's raining.

Vermont in May.

5-11-26 VERMONT: We’re here. We arrived yesterday in the new hybrid Subaru, getting 33 MPH, actually I was hoping for better than that. It was cool and threatening to rain, but I took pix in spite of the black flies.

The metal barn roof has been partly cleared of rust and painted. The ponds  are pretty clear, full and draining. Trees are beginning to leaf out, maples ahead of oaks and ashes. The elm trees look good. The horses still have winter coats on, but they got new summer shoes today.

Scott was here today, and we got all the benches out, and all the storms replaced with screens, and the rockers put out on the porch, the hammock is out, Judy’s little cart is out, the deck chairs, benches and gates are out. Judy picked up her latest auction acquisition, a tub painted with flowers. 

I saw a hummingbird on the Virginia blue bell and will put out their feeders. The regular seed feeders for the other birds have been put away because of the bears. 

New blooms: trillium-red and white, Virginia blue bells, epimedium, purple lamium, violet, marsh marigold, primrose, hepatica, service berry, star magnolia, wild ginger, pulmonaria, vinca minor, bluet, dandelion.

A painted turtle admiring her reflection.

Another spring ephemeral, hepatica, apparently so named because someone thought the leaves resembled a liver. They do not look like human livers, kidneys, spleens, stomachs, etc. In long ago times, an apothecary would pick a plant and use it to treat a supposedly diseased otgan that he thought the plant resembled. The idea was that God gave us a hint for a cure by the plants shape. A heavy burden for little hepatica standing two inches high.

Trillium, one of my favorites, in white. They have three leaves, three sepals, and three petals.

Another trillium, in red, also called 'Wake robin'. Your guess is as good as mine.

Marsh marigold a large ephemeral. it's getting a lot of attention from pollinators.

Bluet, a one inch beauty, is another ephemeral.

Primroses with good color.

And a tree, star magnolia. this was the only magnolia that survived here in the past but others now make it, stay turned.