Threepeat, Another Nor'easter.

3-13-17 SHORT HILLS: Today was the third Nor’easter in the past few weeks, but this one wasn’t so bad. There was only about three inches of wet, slushy white stuff that half melted by afternoon when I used a pond scrapper to clear it from the driveway.

The previous storm left so much snow that we still have to ‘thread the needle’ around the plow piles to get the cars out of the garage. The tree people were here yesterday to chip and take away the brush piles that Judy and I had made in the driveway. These branches were from small trees and shrubs, magnolias, redbuds, apples, pears, burning bush, which I could reach to prune.

The maples, elms, pines, spruce, sweet gum, ash, walnut have broken branches hanging from the trees and large branches on the ground that are too big and/or too high in the trees for me to get. The tree company will be back when the snow is gone to prune and remove that big stuff. The utility company was here to remove a big ash tree branch that was leaning on the wires. The firemen were here to remove a small branch from the wires and cut down another pine that was blocking the street, and then the town crews could clear the snow and open the road.

I put in about four days pruning, dragging, trimming, clearing the things that I could handle. It’s hard work in the deep snow. There are, however, still many shrubs covered in snow and bent over with an unknown amount of damage that will need work when the snow is gone. I went to Home Depot and bought a cordless pole saw, a small chain saw on the end of a nine-foot pole. It lets me reach things I couldn’t get to before. I use any excuse to buy a new tool.

I also got a big bag of bird seed. The birds have repeatedly drained the feeders. We have the winter birds and a lot of spring migrants caught by the storms.

New blooms: red maple.


That big pile of broken branches was from shrubs and small trees that Judy and I dragged out to the driveway. The trunk of the pine tree is pointing at the camera.

Another pile in the driveway is mostly the pine tree branches. On the left, I used a piece of the tree trunk as a crutch for a cracked juniper bush. The tree guys were here yesterday and chipped and removed the two piles.

The cardinals stand out so well against the white snow, I can't resist more pix. There have been four or five males at the feeders.

Today's Nor'easter, only about three inches of slushy snow.

Driveway with new snow, but no brush/branch piles at the moment.

Another photogenic cardinal.

Goldfinches at the nyjer seed feeder.

Soggy Maizie slogging through the snow.

There are several large broken branches like this one in a maple still hanging. Some have broken off and fallen, but these make it dangerous to walk around the yard. The tree people will cut them down when the snow has melted. If you look closely, the orange tinge on the left is from the elm flowers, and the reddish tinge on the right is from maple flowers.