New Year's Eve in NJ.

12-31-19 SHORT HILLS: We came back on Saturday, along with everyone else trying to avoid traveling on an icy, sleety Sunday. The traffic was heavy in CT, fortunately for me, Judy was driving. Twice we got off I-84 to skirt severe congestion, using Google Maps to pick our way around the mess using local roads.

We’ve been busy catching up with two weeks worth of mail, etc. We did get to NYC to have Sunday brunch with Dan and Alison at Shun Lee Cafe on W 65th St near Lincoln Center. Many dim sum dumplings were consumed, actually more than many.

Fearing traffic on that Sunday morning, we went into the city early, had no delays, and arrived an hour before the rez. We stopped in at the American Folk Art Museum, a block away from the restaurant. They had an ‘outsider’ art show—some of it was just bizarro, but there were some Traylor works and a sort of tapestry by Madge Gill that I liked.

The rain that started Sunday as we were leaving the city, ended last night, and today I got outside and cut down a dozen or so broken bamboo stalks, tied them to the top of the Subaru and hauled them to the town dump. When I got back to the house, I cleaned up several broken ash tree branches, some large enough for me to need a power saw. I guess that damage was from the big storm two weeks ago. There is no snow here, in fact there was almost no snow in southern VT, MA or CT on the trip down.

We will do New Year’s Eve here, just the two of us, with our traditional meal—king crab, baked potato, creamed spinach and peach melba, also Prosecco and Riesling.


'Outside' artist Bill Traylor from the show at the American Folk Art Museum in Lincoln Square.

Cat and Dog above and below also by Traylor.

Below, part of a long, narrow fabric of female faces by Madge Gill.

Xmas in VT.

12-27-19 VERMONT: The party on the 25th was the usual success for super-party thrower Judy. In addition to us, there were Diana, Steve, Eliza and Clara, Dave and Shari, and Andy, Katie and Sarah.

The evening before, we went to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at the United Church of Strafford for some traditional carols, a few readings including the prayer for the lighting of the Hanukkah candles, Pastor Tom Kinder presiding.

Today is a rainy, sleety, foggy with thirties temps. Yesterday was clear, and we saw a hot-air balloon drift by, it looked like a runaway tree ornament. Tomorrow we head back to NJ.


Yesterday morning, when I looked outside, I thought one of the ornaments from the tree had somehow floated away.

But with a better look, I realized it was a hot-air balloon, on a very cold-air day. It doesn't look like much fun.

The pasture grass is almost the same color as the goldens.

Xmas eve services at United Church of Strafford, ecumenical and liberal with traditional carols.

Solstice Snow Flowers.

12-24-19 VERMONT: Yesterday it was in the forties with little wind—a pleasure to be out and walking around. Today is cooler and windier, but still better than the deep-freeze.

We ran errands yesterday, I started a clock repair for the clock in our bedroom, I made special brownies with the special butter that Val had fixed.

On our walk I found some odd ice formations on the edge of the new pond, clusters of pointy, round vertical crystals. They have mud layers mixed in and almost look like daffodil shoots—ice flowers.

Today Judy is prepping for tomorrow’s Xmas party. I have been helping with clean up and staying out of the way.


Those are the 'ice flowers' that just bloomed by the edge of the new pond.

About six 'flower' clusters near the pond. There may be a spring under this area, partly freezing and pushing upwards.

Gus in the long, blue winter shadows.

Brrry Cold.

12-22-19 VERMONT: Since the last post it has been bitterly cold with night time temps below zero and day temps in the single digits. Last night it started to warm up. Today was in the low thirties, and I got outside and cleared the terrace so I could cover the picnic table and rockers with a tarp. Usually I do that before snow, but this year I was late.

The Winter Solstice was last night as was Steve and Diana’s annual Solstice Party. We saw several folks that we hadn’t seen for a while. The food was potluck and the outdoor pizza oven was in use. They are getting much better at pizza making. There was a bonfire and sledding for the younger and hardier. The solstice began with a nice sunrise.

The waterfall was almost frozen, but did keep flowing through the freeze and today was more active.


Before sunrise on a sub-zero Solstice morning, about 7 AM.

A few minutes before the above picture, color in a black and white world.

The waterfall is almost frozen after two very cold nights.

The brook is frozen.

Judy has been outside with the dogs in spite of 1° temps. Gus is scratching his back in the snow.

Waterfall.

12-18-19 VERMONT: The Lincoln School Xmas Party was a big success. It was moved up to Monday morning because of the imminent winter storm. Every child in pre-school, kindergarten, and the first and second grades got a stuffed animal donated by folks in Vermont and New Hampshire and delivered by us. It was a whole sleigh full, and there were some books and games for the classrooms also.

On the way home from the school, the weather forecast changed so that the storm wasn’t going to start until much later. We were originally scheduled to go to Vermont on Tuesday but were apprehensive about the weather until the new forecast. We decided to go up Monday night after Judy’s dental appointment in the afternoon, rather than wait until Wednesday.

The trip was a slow one, contending with rush-hour traffic. We got here a little before 10 PM. There was almost no snow, except for remnant, plowed piles and icy patches.

Tuesday morning the snow started, and we got outside to explore and discovered the new pond was full and frozen on top, but water was flowing down the falls and down the brook to the old pond.

The barn was enclosed and the floor finished and new windows were in place. The repair of the side shed is pending spring weather.

Today we ran errands and bought and cut down a spruce from the tree farm and set it up in the living room. Saint Chelsea stands proudly on top.


The pond project this fall was to add a new pond and let it drain as a waterfall and brook leading to the old pond. We were worried about its filling up and how the drainage would function. Here it is!

Judy and the dogs at the pond. The dog on the left, Gus, is standing on the dam. The ice level is a foot  lower than the dam. The other side of the pond has soft, broken ice where water is flowing into the pond.

The new brook running between the redwood and willow trees. That piece of 2x4 is part of the bridge, under construction, that will allow garden equipment to cross the brook.

Apple tree still covered with fruit that the early birds in the spring will eat.

The barn work is almost finished and suspended for the winter. The interior is done.

After the Tuesday storm, but before the Wednesday night storm and freeze.

Holiday tree with Saint Chelsea on top.

Four of the second-graders are teaching Judy to read.

The whole class with stuffies and the volunteers with therapy dogs.

Lincoln Center Brunch.

12-15-19 SHORT HILLS: We have had lots of weather this past week, as we approach the Winter Solstice. We got home from KC in the rain that washed away almost all the snow that we had had. Then it snowed again, but only a couple inches. After one day of sun it rained again and got up into the fifties, melting all the new snow. Tomorrow we are supposed to get more rain turning to more snow.

Today we met Jon and Sara at Bar Boulud for brunch on a sunny, but windy afternoon. In the city, the wind is funneled between buildings and gains intensity in the open spaces like the plaza at Lincoln Center.

We had dinner at Taste of Asia with Lynn and Bill a couple night ago on one of those rainy nights.

Tomorrow is the Xmas Party at Lincoln School, we will bring a bunch of stuffed animals for the lowers grades and kindergarteners. The toys were donated by folks from Vermont, where we are headed later this week.


Josie Robertson Plaza and the Met at Lincoln Center.

Dante Park, you can barely see the Xmas tree and Dante's statue.

Big Apple Circus tent.

A very windy day.

KC Visit.

12-8-19 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: We are here for a few days for my brother Hank’s memorial service, a Celebration of Life, organized by his wife Paula and daughters Johanna and Nora. He died recently and unexpectedly after surgery. He taught Philosophy at U Missouri Kansas City, UMKC, and had recently retired. His book, The Continental Drift Controversy, was widely respected and honored.

The service was great, more than a hundred people showed up, colleagues, friends from college, local friends, ex-students of his, friends of his daughters. Several people spoke and told funny stories, stories of his helping them, stories of his accomplishments and stories that showed how much they loved him. Stories of his competitiveness and need for intellectual accuracy and honesty. Stories of his joyfulness. There were a lot of damp eyes.

Hank and I were several years apart in age, my being older by seven years. We lived far apart, worked in different fields and didn’t see each other often. We spoke on the phone from time to time and saw one another when he would visit our parents in NJ. I never, ever thought I would out-live him and am still coping with the loss.

Four of us made the trip from the east, me, Judy, Alison and John Reese, and we were blown away by the affection that everyone had for Hank. For me, it was like meeting someone that I hadn’t really known.


Hank.

December Whiteout.

12-2-19 SHORT HILLS: We had Thanksgiving here with Alison, Dan, Lily, Val and Steve. Those five and I drank four bottles of Prosecco and two of Malbec, Judy had half a glass of Riesling. After the bird, we went to see Knives Out, I slept through the first half hour, which left me a little clueless. Judy did her usual extraordinary job with the feast—we have almost finished the leftovers.

The weekend storm started yesterday with an icy, drizzle and a dusting of snow, but today we are getting wet snow, a few inches as of now, but it may continue until tomorrow.

The first snowfall is always beautiful, but later, say in January, it loses the charm.


Yesterday, in the icy rain, the robins were eating all the little, black berries on this holly tree.

There are a bunch of robins who should be headed south.

The cardinals are here for the winter.

Hairy woodpecker, female, was on the suet feeder except when the squirrel chased her off.

Today, we are getting wet snow. about three inches so far.

Snow is sticking to everything.

'O say can you see...'

Gus is about to start his thirteenth year. He has retired from therapy work.

Lincoln School Thanksgiving.

11-26-19 SHORT HILLS: Today is a blue sky, warm, 60° day, and we did a nice dog walk in shirt sleeves. I did a bit more clean up outside before the walk.

Yesterday was the annual Thanksgiving luncheon offered by Ms. Jo-Ann Catalano, the second grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Newark. Judy and her pet partners, Maizie, Kaley and Gus, have gone there for years to coach reading skills twice a month along with other pet therapy teams. I go to the parties, mostly for the food, but also to take pix.

Jo-Ann makes the food herself and brings it in and feeds the class and several of the other teachers and anyone else who drops in the classroom. The kids were very well behaved, for seven year olds, and a lot of them were dressed up for the party. They made the placemats. The dogs were well behaved also and content with their treats. A little reading practice actually got done after the feast.

I’m already looking forward to the Xmas party next month.


Second graders mobbing Maizie, who loves the attention, almost as much as the kids do.

The desks are turned into a banquet table, and, as you might be able to see, there's fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens and cornbread. Does it look like a Pepsi commercial?

The feast is a yearly event prepared by Ms. Jo-Ann Catalano. The placemats on display were made by the kids.

Dressed for a banquet.

The class, pets and reading instructors all in there. Parker, the black dog, is near the center in front.

Smiling faces.

Dark Days of November.

11-24-19 SHORT HILLS: I‘ve been back here for a while as the holidays creep up on us. There’s less than a month until the Winter Solstice, after which the sun slowly begins to come back to the north.

The leaves are mostly down, with beech, oaks, Japan and Norway maples, burning bush all holding on to a few. It’s a cold, dreary, dark rainy day, but not as cold as Vermont was two weeks ago. We have had a few mornings when the temps were in the upper twenties, so we have had a frost or two, but no real freeze, and it’s almost December.

I have done yard clean up of fallen branches a few times. Every stormy day brings a new branch fall. I pruned the junipers, removing a lot of dead branches. They grow so thick that a wet snow weighs them down and breaks branches, so I try to thin them out as much as possible.

We saw Parasite last night, it should be a contender for Best Picture. Bong Joon-ho shows us a dystopian, Dickensian society. I’m not at all sure to whom the title refers.


Mourning Dove foraging under the feeders.

Female Cardinal, is she feeding or just using the umbrella.

We think of her as Claudia, and her mate, usually around the feeders, as José.

Cold Clean Up.

11-16-19 VERMONT: It has been hard to get work done because of the cold. Yesterday was actually OK for the first time in three days, and I did the beds in back of the houses. Because of the frozen snow cover, many of the dead shoots that I would have cut down were buried and other were stuck in the snow. I cut down whatever I could see and raked it all out of the beds. It’s not the job I wanted to do, but I guess it will have to suffice, we will see in the spring.

Today was cold again, but I got out in the afternoon and did the beds around the pond, then I put out the shovels and choppers for clearing the the deck, and the reflectors to guide the driveway plowing. I needed several warm-up breaks, but I’m done with fall clean up. This week has felt more like January than November. NJ tomorrow.


Does it look cold? It is.

New game cam location. This buck is browsing at almost 11 PM.

Looking red with thousands of apples. Birds will get most of them.