Seaside Park and Greenwich Village.

9-29-19 SHORT HILLS: The dogs were very excited to have their pack re-united when I came back from VT with Gus and Maizie, who had traveled with me. Things are very dry here, and I adjusted the sprinklers to deliver more water.

We visited friends Bob and Chris in Seaside Park, a sleepy shore town just south of honky-tonk Seaside Heights, put on the map by that famous author, Snookie. It was a warm and sunny day, probably one of the last beach weekends of the season and the beach was pretty busy. Bob and Chris treated us to a great lobster, clam, salmon and oyster dinner with Chris’s blueberry pie for dessert. Thanks again guys.

Today we were in the Village for brunch with two of our grandD’s and their SO’s at Minetta Tavern on Macdougal St. We were early so we walked through Washington Square Park and then down Bleeker St and Minetta Lane. The food and drinks were great.


Brunch with two of our GrandD's and their partners. Can you guess which two are us?

Seaside Heights seen from Seaside Park, only a couple miles to the north.

Seaside Park sleepy beach with a sleepy seagull in the middle.

Judy has been back at Lincoln School in Newark teaching in the reading program with Kaley the dog, who is getting her teeth brushed.

One of Chris and Bob's cats on spider patrol.

We were early for brunch. so we walked through Washington Sq. Park.

Minetta Tavern on Macdougall St. in the Village.

Excavators at Both Ends of the Yard.

9-25-19 VERMONT: I didn’t mention in the last post that I weeded a large section of the upper terrace bed, which was overgrown with ferns and other stuff. I dug up one section and pulled all the roots out of it to create a weed-free planter in the bed. I used seeds from hollyhocks, some that Val gave me, and some from a hollyhock that I planted this year.

This year’s hollyhock, like those of other recent years make seeds but not seedlings. It used to be that hollyhocks, which are biennials, would flower in the summer, make new seeds after the flowers were pollinated, and drop those seeds at their roots. New little seedlings would grow from those seeds during the summer and fall, which then became next year’s tall, flowering plants. None of the hollyhocks that I’ve bought from nurseries in the past few years have reproduced. Are they too hybridized?

While cleaning up the pile of weedings, I got stung by a wasp and buzzed by another one. That usually means a nest is nearby. I looked all through the apple tree by the deck, under which I was stung, without getting too close. I found a huge nest hidden in the tree. It was positioned over the old steps by the deck. The next night I sprayed it. I’m OK with wasps living here, but NIMBY. No one was stung during the summer so I wonder if the nest is new this fall.

The work on the new pond has started with clearing the site. The barn repairs are progressing well.

We finally had some rain over a couple days, some of it was hail, the size of rice grains. There was a total of almost an inch.

New blooms: red asters, purple asters.


Red asters in the garden are just starting.

Wild purple asters grow in the pasture. They stand out vividly at this time of the season. The gray stuff is golden rod after the blooms are finished.

Monarch caterpillar. It looks big enough to form a chrysalis soon, but will its hatch time, two weeks or so, be too late to join the party?

The paper wasp nest is in the apple tree by the corner of the deck above the old stairs. I got stung while cleaning up a pile of stuff I weeded from the terrace beds. I sprayed the nest the next night. I am fine with live-and-let-live as long as they aren't a threat to us in the house or garden. The nest is the size of a volleyball, I wonder how long it has been there? All summer?

Maple color is developing.

Barn work continues.

The work on the new pond site has started.

Monarchs in Vermont.

9-23-19 VERMONT: I arrived yesterday on a hot afternoon. Checking out the pasture and barn repair work, the dogs and I saw a ton of monarch butterflies. [It takes a lot of butterflies to make a ton, BTW.] I put a short video on FB and some pix on this site. I would guess that there are at least a hundred monarchs in the pasture, most of them on the mint flowers, along with lots of bees and other pollinators.

Everything looked very dry, but tonight it's raining with some thunder rumbles.

The barn work is progressing well, most of the floor and floor supports and some siding are out of the barn. Some of it to be re-used, and some on a big burn pile. Excavators have removed a lot of the dirt under the floor and a lot of the foundation. Drainage work and re-building to follow.

New blooms: toad lily, hardy hibiscus, ligularia dentata, pink turtlehead, bottle gentian, tree hydrangea.


Many, many monarchs on different patches of mint.

The mint is very popular for pollinators at this time of year.

More monarchs, I would guess that there are a hundred in the pasture. There's a video on FB.

From the game cams-one of several pix of a fox, but all at night.

Foliage is on its way. I would guess peak here will be about two weeks.

The barn partly undressed.

Gettysburg II.

9-20-19 SHORT HILLS: We’re back in NJ, and I’ve had a chance to edit the pix of the battlefield. The Gettysburg National Military Park is huge and looks today a lot like it looked then, farmland, pasture, orchards, fences and stonewalls. Many of the original houses and buildings have been preserved or restored. It is very beautiful.

The Park surrounds the town of Gettysburg, and it’s dotted with stone monuments and bronze statues to all the combatants—states, military forces, generals, other officers, individuals. Cannons are everywhere and in the positions that they would have been in. Our guide, John Archer, took us to the different sites in the park in chronological order from July 1-3, 1863. He showed us the positions of the armies as they arrived on site and and maneuvered for advantageous positions.

We saw Seminary Ridge, the Peach Orchard, Little Roundtop and Cemetery Hill. We stood where the Army of the Potomac was on Cemetery Hill and looked across the fields, fences and walls to the woods about a mile away from which Lee’s men under the command of Longstreet and Pickett began their attack on July 3 known as Pickett’s Charge. A few of the Confederate 12,500 men reached the Union lines, but were driven back. Lee’s forces suffered losses of 50% dead, wounded or captured. They were cut down by cannon barrage and rifle fire. The bodies littered the fields.

On July 4, 1863, Grant took Vicksburg on the Mississippi, cutting the South in two. Those victories for the North marked the beginning of the end for the CSA.


The garden at our B&B where we had breakfast before going to battle.

The Park area surrounds the town and looks like farmland as it did in 1863. There are many of these fences as well as split rail fences.

Cows in the shade on a hot day.

Little round top where Joshua Chamberlain led defenders in a bayonet charge when their ammunition was exhausted. The rocks are volcanic.

Many, many monuments commemorate states, divisions, brigades, generals and individuals. The big one is to honor Pennsylvania.

General Meade was the Union commander at Gettysburg.

Cannons are everywhere. These are in the Union position that opposed Pickett's Charge.

Pickett's and Longstreet's troops came from those woods on Seminary Ridge about a mile away and walked across the fields and climbed over the fences, 12,500 started and a few reached that stone wall in the foreground before being repulsed. More than 6,000 Rebels were killed, wounded or captured. Imagine what those fields looked like littered with the dead and wounded. That monument marks the high-water mark of the Confederacy, literally and figuratively. The next day on the Mississippi, Grant took Vicksburg and cut the South in two.

Gettysburg.

9-17-19 GETTYSBURG, PA: We drove down this morning for a battlefield tour tomorrow. The trip was marred by a nasty road closure on I-78 that delayed us for two hours. We still got here in enough time to explore the town from our B&B, The Brick House Inn. It has two buildings with bullet holes in the exterior brick from the war. The décor is a mix of colonial/Victorian.

The town is full of souvenir shops, war relic shops, T-shirt shops, bars and restaurants, B&B's, hotels, motels and lots of period buildings all of them museums of some sort related to the Civil War and Battle of Gettysburg. The town certainly maximizes its historical background. We did find a Starbucks just in time after walking around on a hot, sunny afternoon. I didn’t realize that the town had been occupied by the Confederate army before the battle.

We are off to dinner at the 1776 Dobbin House Tavern. War update tomorrow.


Cupola of the Adams County Court House.

Central Square and traffic circle. The white building is a hotel.

Gettysburgers sold there.

Street with a woman in a period dress.

Dobbin House Tavern from 1776. It is flying the Union Flag from the Colonial Era.

Wait, Wait...

9-14-19 SHORT HILLS: Thursday night we were at NJPAC in Newark for the recording of this week’s episode of Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me! The hall was packed, and late ticket buyers, like us, were in the second tier, far, far from the action. It took longer than the usual version that’s aired, many lines are repeated for better effect, lots of stuff didn’t make the cut, and Peter Sagal promised no more NJ jokes after tonight.

The panelists, Adam Felber, Helen Hong, and Peter Grosz introduced themselves and spoke about themselves at greater length than on the radio presentation. Bill Kurtis moderated as usual. After the sign off, a lot of the audience stayed while they repeated many of the lines for better emphasis and removed hesitations and delays.

The celebrity guest was Tina Charles, a star for the NY Liberty of the WNBA. She won her quiz game with audience help. She seems lovely.

I listened to the show this morning, and the editing and rehearsing were an improvement. We’ll see about those NJ jokes.


Before the show starts, Peter Sagal warms up the audience. He promised no more Jersey jokes after tonight. The seven people in the back are staff and tech support.

The celebrity guest, WNBA star Tina Charles, playing and winning 'Not My Job'.

Daylight Fades.

9-9-19 SHORT HILLS: I was hoping Dorian the hurricane would give us a good soaking here and in VT, but all we got was a cloudy day. The damage the storm did to the Bahamas was horrifying. Our weather has been dry and cool. The days are shortening rapidly, and we will be at the Equinox soon. After it passes the nights will get longer and longer.

We have had the bird feeders filled and available for a few weeks, and the usual customers are returning. The goldfinches are still in gold, but seem to be going gray. The cardinals, blue jays, doves, nuthatches, grackles and others are back.

I have done some weeding and pruning, and took a load of cuttings to the town dump.

New blooms: white snakeroot.


White star clematis is a big volunteer on the road.

White snakeroot grows all over this yard, but I consider it to be a wildflower rather than a weed.

The feeders are back in action and the usual suspects have turned out. The goldfinches like the nyjer seeds.

Back in NJ and Brooklyn.

9-2-19 SHORT HILLS: We’ve been back in NJ for a few days. There’s a lot of weeding and trimming to be done, but I’m limping around on a cane because of a pulled leg muscle, so I won’t get to it soon.

The weather has been lovely, and today we’re getting some needed rain.

Yesterday we were in Brooklyn Heights for lunch with Val and Steve, Alison and Dan and Anna and Gardner. There are a family of American Kestrels that hang out around Val’s deck and the small green space behind the building that make up her block. The iPhone pix aren’t very good.

Afterwards we walked down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park to see the newly completed Pier Three. There are six unused, commercial piers, I think, converted to recreation areas with gardens, a marina, sports facilities, picnic areas, a beach, biking and running paths and lots of benches to watch the river traffic and harbor.

New blooms: crape myrtle, caryopteris, hydrangea, rose-of-Sharon, roses, lamium, white-star clematis, tree hydrangea.


Rose-of-Sharon is everywhere in the yard.

Another Rose-of-Sharon. It comes in two flavors-strawberry and vanilla.

Caryopteris being molested by a bumble bee. It's a fall bloomer just getting started.

Crape myrtle. This is our only surviving bush in its third season.

In Brooklyn, Val and Steve have a family of American Kestrels that hang around their and their neighbor's decks. It's an iPhone pic, like those below.

Brooklyn Bridge Park with the Statue of Liberty on the left horizon Governors Island in the middle.

Lower Manhattan across the East River. Brooklyn Bridge Park picnic area and marina in the foreground.