The Last, Last Post of the Decade.

Today is rather brisk. The thermometer has been in the single digits all day. The north winds are gusting to the thirties and forties. It's snowing but the wind is moving so much of the snow around, it's hard to tell what's falling from what's drifting. While well swaddled, I walked the dogs to the end of the pasture, we were all glad to come back inside.

Blowing, drifting, swirling, falling snow.

Last Post of the Decade.

12-28-09 VERMONT: Christmas has slipped by with less than the usual number of bruised egos and hurt feelings and disappointed gift recipients. We were all in Short Hills except the West Coasters.

The Wednesday before Xmas Eve, we saw ‘Tales of Hoffmann’ with Anna at the Met. Anna Netrebko was brilliant, the production was very Fellini-esque and ran for almost four hours. We three all loved it.

We been doing our own film festival seeing ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘It’s Complicated’, and ‘Up in the Air’. Why is it that the only movies we want to see come out in December? Actually I know the answer—award campaigning.

Judy and I came to VT yesterday on a warm and misty and foggy afternoon. Today it is cooler, and we had about four inches of snow. Tomorrow is predicted to be windy and very cold. There's a dead, frozen fox carcass frozen to the ground under the barn lean-to side.


There's a foxsicle under there.

Dog's best friend.

After the storm.

S is for Saturday, Sunday and Snow.

12-20-09 SHORT HILLS: Frank Rich’s column today really has it right about this country. Think of all the scams, cheats, scammers, scandals, scoundrels, spammers and bubbles of the new century, so far: Enron, Blogojevich, steroid-users in baseball, Bonds, McGuire, A Rod, Clemons and other sports stars, Madoff, AIG, balloon boy, Spitzer, the entire Bush administration, Kerik, Edwards, CDO’s and bankers, pick a Senator, realtor or used car dealer. Is it this country, something in our ethos, or is it just all of them? Should the national mascot be the eagle of the card shark?

We have snow. We got eight inches last night. We had tickets for A Prairie Home Companion last night. Bill and I went to NYC on the train, Judy and Lynn were afraid of being stuck in the city or stuck on the trip home and not able to take care of the dogs. As it turned out the trip back had only minor delays, and the show was great. Dinner was frites, moules and Danish beer with Roger and Leeza.

Before the show Bill and I went up to Rock Center to see the tree. It was packed with others who had the same idea on a snowy and windy night. In fact, people were out all over mid-town enjoying the slush, the subway was packed, Penn Station was full.

Today we shoveled enough to get a car out and spent yard time with the dogs.


Times Square Pedestrian Mall that used to be Broadway.

Rockefeller Center Xmas Tree and Rink in snow and wind.

New Jersey after the storm.

Ice Invasion.

12-17-09 SHORT HILLS: It’s cold and windy, who would have expected that in December. Saturday is our annual visit to 'Prairie Home Companion' at Town Hall in NYC, and next Wednesday we take Anna to 'Tales of Hoffmann' at the Met. We saw the Orson Welles movie which was charming, funny and gave a good bit of ‘Julius Caesar’ . I saw 'The Road' by myself, it is done well, but a bit noirish.

The Brandenburg Six.

12-12-09 SHORT HILLS: We finally got that hard frost with a bit of snow that disappeared in the following rain. We have had a lot of rain. The flood plains of the Passaic River are under water, at least in spots. Today is sunny, warmer and less windy than yesterday.

We saw Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, all six, at NJPAC done by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center last night. I loved it. While they have a certain similar sound, you don’t appreciated the differences unless you see the performances and see the different instrumentation of each one. For instance, Five has a harpsichord solo, One has oboes, horns, and a bassoon, Two has a piccolo trumpet, bassoon and oboes, Four has two flutes, Six has no violins, only the other strings. Let’s see, that leaves Three, Three has all strings, no wind instruments.

Weather Potpourri.

12-5-09 VERMONT: We’ve been here for a few days. We arrived to sunny and cold, switched to warm with heavy rain, then back to sunny and cool, and today, snow. There are puddles everywhere and mud from the rain. All the brooks are white and foamy torrents. The pond was covered with a layer of ice, quite thin, when we arrived that rapidly vanished.

The turkeys were in the pasture yesterday afternoon but trotted off when we turned the lights on. This morning they were around the pond, but left when the camera shutter clicked.

I did some pick-up-sticks, residua of the wind storm at the beginning of the week, and put out the reflectors in the driveway to guide the snow plowers. [as if] I cut down a small pine to bring to NJ for Xmas.


Survived November.