Vermont Spring

3-28-06 VERMONT: March in Vermont can be very snowy. This year we have almost no snow left and less mud than usual because of the dry winter. The color of early spring is brown, brown snow, brown mud, brown grass, and brown leaves. Sugaring is in progress, and our trees are being tapped by the neighbors. We await brown maple syrup.

Val, Steve, Maggie, Lucy and I went skiing at Loon Mt. Resort yesterday. Maggie and Lucy and Steve took lessons while Val and I explored the top of the mountain. Everyone had a good time and looks forward to more skiing, even Steve, whose fun was a bit tempered by a fall and a broken arm followed by an evening in the ER at DHMC.

Travel Time

3-24-06 SHORT HILLS: It remains dry, windy and cold. Yesterday I helped Val and Steve finish a deck shed or almost finish it and got dinner at Pete’s and dessert at B&J’s in return. Who knew B&J was in Brooklyn. Today was class in Newark, and tomorrow we go to Vermont.

3-20-06 SHORT HILLS: New blooms: andromeda and vinca minor. We have no daffodils yet, only some buds. I understand daffodils are out in West Orange. The weather is the same-cold, windy and mostly sunny. We have had no rain for about 10 days, probably an omen for the rest of the summer. Another dry summer will kill a lot of our shrubs. We have had mostly dry summers for the last several years.
I hauled the leaves that were still around from the fall to the dump-three subaru loads. Time to attempt once again to grow some grass, difficult with four big dogs.
Sorry if this is boring, but it is about gardening. I know, I'll add a picture.

Creeping Forward

3-16-06 SHORT HILLS: Sunny but brisk today. More forsythia and crocus are open and the andromeda has ventured out. I cut out a bunch of dead bamboos. Its almost time for the big clean up and spring pruning and feeding.

FORSYTHIA

3-14-06 SHORT HILLS: Today we had a weather sampler, warm rain this morning then sun followed by windy and cold. In spite of what became an uncomfortable day to be outside, the forsythia, undaunted, popped open about six buds.

Spin Cycle

3-11-06 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday was the first warm day of the season. When I was walking around outside, without a jacket, it was warm, and when the wind gusted, it wasn’t a cold blast. Viburnum and hydrangea have little leaves out, and forsythia buds have yellow tips.

I get a sense of the inevitability of the seasons moving ahead, of the momentum of the greenery beginning its show and spring at hand, summer is waiting in the wings, and even fall only six months away. All of it, of course, due to the tilt of the earth’s axis and the regular daily revolution and yearly orbit adding another season to the previous five billion or so. This spin cycle is slowing changing as it does in its own longer cycle.

Ta-Daah

In spite of nasty weather the flowers know the date and open for business on time. I do admire punctuality, especially in others.

BON TEMPS

3-7-06 SHORT HILLS: Well all right, here it is. Let the season begin. Let the good times roll. [that works better in French, yes?] Let me throw out the first snowdrop and crocus. It’ll just be one flower after another until next December. Start looking for your Tivas, well next week.

Red Alert

3-2-06 SHORT HILLS: Another winter storm last yesterday with a grand total of 1” of snow plus some ice and frozen rain, perhaps those last two are the same thing. Today is windy, cold and sunny, but, in the sun, if you look up at the ends of the branches of the maples and elms the icicled buds are orange and red. I first noticed it about noon driving up the east side of the second Orange Mt. and then driving south on the GSP to visit a hospitalized friend. The willows, not to be left behind, have all taken on that yellow color they get before leafing. Nineteen days until the Vernal Equinox, time to think about skiing. Today’s pix shows the fat, red maple flower buds.