Night Life.

4-29-22 VERMONT: Today is sunny, but still cold and very windy. I did get to check the game cams, did the wall repair and spent time with Addie, who will plant the peonies when conditions permit. 

I looked at the game cams today, and the one by the pond showed lots of animals.  

Deer are everywhere. the pix in B & W are night shots. The date, time, temperature and moon phase are shown on the bottom of the image.

The fox is active at night and is often photographed.

The fox again looks bigger, probably just positional, but this could be a coyote.

That's a bear who caused a lot of trouble on the road that night.

Here's the bear going the other way.

Peony Problem Predicament.

4-28-22 VERMONT: Just before coming up this trip, we bought four Itoh peonies from the Farm in NJ. They are two feet tall with leaves and flower buds and look beautiful. I want to plant them on the pond bank, but I’m very worried about frost damage. The one I planted last year is only showing red buds. They are hardy to Zone 3, we are Zone 4 here, but that applies to plants surviving the winter, not plants already at the level where local plants would be in June.  

Yesterday was cold, rainy and windy and in the forties. This morning it was 30°, windy with a few snow flakes dancing in the air. Yesterday the peonies sat out in the driveway, one blew over, but I put them in the garage last night, clustered around a bucket of pond water to keep them slightly warmer and out of the wind. 

The ten-day forecast, for what it’s worth, shows over-night lows in the forties after this weekend. What to do? BTW, Itoh peonies are hybrids of regular peonies and tree peonies and have magnificat flowers. They are very expensive. Itoh is the name of the man who bred the plants.

Otherwise, I’d like to do some outside chores, but it’s too cold and nasty. There’s a washout next to the spillway of the new pond that will need some prompt attention. Part of the split rail fence needs some new posts and rails. A small section of the terrace wall has collapsed. Same Sun solar company was here yesterday to evaluate the feasibility of roof-top solar panels on the house and/or barn. The neighbors have lots of lambs. There are large broken branches to be composted. And the list goes on.

New blooms: daffodil, forsythia, hellebore, hepatica, primrose.

Our neighbors sheep have produced lambs. What's cuter?

More lambs.

Here they are, the Itoh peonies, all clustered around a bucket of water for the little warmth it provides. A primrose has snuck in to keep warm.

The big pond shivering in the wind. Yesterday the dogs scared away a black and white duck before I could get a pic, perhaps a male merganser.

Forsythia. The ones in NJ are almost finished.

Maizie thinks the new cushion is just fine--thank you, Judy.

Back in NJ.

4-23-22 SHORT HILLS: The trip home was the kind of trip you dream about—smooth flight, took off on time, arrived early, ground connections all easy. Today started with overcast sky and patchy, gray sunshine, but cleared up by late afternoon.

I got a lot of chores done. I pruned, picked up broken branches and yesterday watered all the new plantings and started the sprinklers. There was 1.35 inches in the rain gauge, but things seemed dry none-the-less. 

Lots of plants have bloomed. The saucer magnolias have only a few flowers and some of those are deformed. The developing flowers were frozen by that cold spell and ‘nipped in the bud’.

New blooms: apple trees, dogwood, barberries, Kwansan cherry, redbud, Chinese snowball viburnum, blueberry, bleeding heart, yellow lamium, ajuga.

Kwansan cherry blossoms open later than the white Yoshino flowers. The native cherry trees have very modest flowers by comparison and aren't open yet.

Chinese snowball viburnium is the first viburnum to flower and has a very sweet aroma. It never makes seeds. Some of the other viburnums spread aggressively, but not the ones we really want.

Saucer magnolia has a few decent flowers, usually they're covered in blooms. You can see a couple dead, brown, frost killed remnants.

Redbud flowers open directly off the branches with almost no stem. Open, they look like tiny orchids.

Yellow lamium is bigger and taller than the hybrid white, purple and pink varieties. The flower has the pollen under that little umbrella over the landing spot for the pollinator, who gets pollen all over its back when it is looking for the nectar in that well. The landing zone and well are marked with directionals.

Asheville II.

4-21-22 ASHEVILLE, NC: Today was supposed to be warmer, but wasn’t. We drove out to the Blue Ridge Parkway, built in FDR’s Admin. It’s a narrow, two lane blacktop that runs from NC to VA on mountain tops. We visited the Folk Art Center, which is a feature of the Parkway in Asheville. The whole road is a National Park.

The Folk Art Center had some beautiful and some inventive stuff. We bought an articulated sheep Xmas tree ornament and admired some wood carving and some blue glass. We did a few more miles on the parkway, along with lots of bikers, and took pix from a couple overlooks.

Back in Asheville, we went to the WNC Nature Center and saw lots of rescued animals and birds. They also have programs for kids, lots of whom were present. 

Pressing forward we hit the Antique Tobacco Barn, a massive collection of antique dealers with stuff to sell, mostly on the flea market level. We trekked through most of the barn, but fortunately limited by carry-on-status we bought nothing. I felt very lucky.

Back to Sweet Biscuit for a nap and then dinner at Bouchon, another great restaurant downtown. This one is French, and possibly the best of the ones we tried. Asheville is for foodies, and it’s cheaper than NYC. We fly back to EWR tomorrow.  

The Sweet Biscuit Inn.

View to the west from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A grey wolf at the animal rescue center.

And a black bear.

Near the restaurant, a basket of stone apples for an iron horse.

After dinner, an out-of-focus shot of a vehicle propelled by eight people pedalling away and yelling a lot. Perhaps intoxicants were involved.

Asheville, NC.

4-20-22 ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: We came down here, partly on the advice of John, Carol and Gardner for a visit and vacay. We escaped the cold and rain of NJ only to find cold weather here, but plenty of sun. We’re staying at a B&B called The Sweet Biscuit Inn in the Kenilworth section of Asheville. It’s a lovely old house. They served a grit soufflé with bacon this morning. 

Yesterday afternoon we poked around the business district and had a nice lunch at Early Girl, I assume named for the tomato variety. After a nap, dinner was at Corner Kitchen in the Biltmore neighborhood. We split the fried green tomatoes and each had trout and then bread pudding—excellent. 

Today we did a tour of the Biltmore Estate. It’s 8000 acres of parkland  that surround the chateau-like house and gardens of G. W. Vanderbilt, located just south of Asheville. The house, monstrously huge and filled with art treasures, is made of stone and has 46 bathrooms, when, 1890’s, most houses had none. In the gardens, the tulips are finishing and the bulbs, acres worth, are being pulled up and thrown away. The daffodil bulbs are replanted in the fall. 

Today the estate is run by the Biltmore Company, owned by descendants of G.W.V. It is the biggest employer in the Asheville area. Personally I was over-whelmed and appalled by the size and scope and concept of Biltmore, and I probably feel about it the same way Bernie Sanders does. 

Dinner tonight was at Tupelo Honey, more fried green tomatoes plus fried chicken and waffles and pecan pie—excellent again. 

Biltmore. I had to walk a long way to get it all in the frame.

Acres of tulips headed for the trash.

Distant views from under the wisteria.

Tropical world in the Conservatory.

 

A gargoyle at biltmore.

Mr. Vanderbilt's library.

The Music room.

A pair of Monets.

Long Island Garden Tour.

4-17-22 SHORT HILLS: Today it’s cold, windy and mostly cloudy, but intrepid old me was out there doing pruning and loading the Subaru with all the debris for the dump tomorrow. Earlier in the week, on nicer days, I did the fertilizing of trees, flowers and shrubs. It took almost two days. I used almost three bags of HollyTone and as much of generic 10-10-10 for the non-acidophiles. There is always stuff to do, but I think I’m caught up for the moment. 

We had a nice time at Alison’s and Dan’s house yesterday catching up with some of the grands and Dan’s family. We put the dogs in daycare for the trip to Long Island. Alison’s gardens look great. She has done a super job creating many beds and lots of surprises. 

New blooms: violets, more daffodils. 

Pink daffodil opens with the second round of daffodils.

White threated sparrow's colors are much more bibrant with spring.

Chipping sparrow makes a first appearance this season, probably taking a break on the way north.

This short, spring ephemera is trout lily. In a week or so it will be gone until next April.

All the doggies and doggie-sitters in daycare gave us the once over when we went to pick up our pack.

Planting and a Warbler.

4-12-22 SHORT HILLS: Today was a perfect June day, and I was outside early and planted all the replacement shrubs. I put a spirea, S. japonica ‘Little Princess’, and a Floribunda Rose ‘Gene Boerner’ in the bed below the living room window. A hydrangea, H. paniculata ‘Little Lime’ went in the driveway hydrangea bed. By the A/C in the window well spot, I put a diervilla, D. ‘Kodiak Orange’, and under the kitchen window I planted a dozen sweet woodruff, Galium odoratum ‘Jeepers Creepers’. 

I used fairly small specimens, they grow faster than large plants, don’t have a dormant period of recovery and after a couple years are the same size as the larger ones.

After the planting we went back to the Great Swamp to a big nursery there looking for an early blooming plum tree. They had them, but only gigantic ones, which we passed on. Being out there, we stopped at the birding trails, walked one, talked to some strangers, and saw a warbler and a lot of turtles and heard some peepers. 

New blooms: clatonia, trout lily.

Yellow-rumped warbler, the commonest eastern warbler. Anytime I see a smallish bird with yellow patches, I guess warbler.

There were lots of turtles soaking up the warm sun. The nearer one is a painted turtle with red markings, and the other two are spotted turtles with yellow spots on each plate of the shell.

Another bunch of turtles, the ones with red markings are painted turtles.

Multiple Choice Day.

4-10-22 SHORT HILLS: We have had rain, 2.75 inches in one night, and other rainy days. Today we’ve had wind, sun, rain, wind, hail, sun, wind all with 40° temps. I played another round of pick-up-sticks a few days ago. 

GM Fence was here for a whole day replacing many rails and posts in our split rail fence. The sprinkler service team should be here next week. 

I have list of shrubs to buy to replace some dead plants and to plant the spots where the basement window wells were removed. Also we need to replace a pear tree that was crushed when the big walnut tree dropped a big branch on it. I hoped it might regrow from the stump when it put out a few shoots last year, but no. I think an early blooming plum would work.

New blooms: Yoshino cherry, quince, pear, lamium, pulmonaria, march marigold.

I guess all the fruit trees are related at some level like distant cousins. This is a quince flower.

Yoshino cherry, similar, but different.

Pear, again, different but similar.

Purple lamium is a complicated flower. That awning on top has pollen on the underneath side that coats the pollinator when it crawls in to get the nectar in the bottom.

Pulmonaria leaves are distinctive with the spots. The flowers are small and could be missed.

The grackles are back. They look quite different when the iridencence shows or doesn't.

Resumption of Spring.

4-4-22 SHORT HILLS: We had several cold days with night time temps in the twenties and a lot of wind. Spring was stopped in its tracks. Now we are in ‘normal’ spring weather. It’s brisk and cold at night, but not below freezing. Spring has started to creep forward again. 

Magnolia flowers in the neighborhood, star magnolias, that were in bloom before the freeze were frozen and turned brown. The trees will be fine. Freezing weather in March is expected. The problem was the very warm days before the freeze that stimulated the early flowering. 

The gardeners were here to do the lawn clean up, and GM Fence was here to see how many fence post and rails need replacing—a lot. 

New blooms: spice bush, daffodil.  

Daffodils are open all over town.

Spice bush has these small, yellow flowers just after forsythia. They will turn into red berries that are popular with the birds. The shrubs spread easily, but are short lived. The leaves, if crushed, have a great spice aroma.