Fall Has Begun.

9-25-22 SHORT HILLS: Well, it’s happened again, I forgot to do a post. Now it’s fall, the Equinox slipped by a few days ago, and it gets dark earlier and earlier. We also had a bit of a cold spell, with nighttime temps in the low fifties. 

As Hurricane Fiona passed us out in the Atlantic on her way to Nova Scotia, we had a gusty, windy two days and a decent rain, and it’s raining again this afternoon.

I dug up the crumbling blacktop around the driveway drain and replaced it with a Sakrete product—macadam in a bag. I also filled in gaps in the blacktop by the garage apron. The hard part is tamping it all down. The last time I did it was about 10 years ago, so the next time will probably be someone else’s problem. 

I had lunch with Bill recently, and tonight we have dinner with Bill and Lynn. Last night we had dinner with Alan and Ellie, and this morning we were in the Village and had brunch at Minetta Tavern with Lily, Anna and Gardner.

Judy and I did a dog walk at Loantaka Brook Reservation. There were lots of Canada geese on the pond and a turtle con on a log.

New blooms: an apple tree put a couple new flowers.

Judy at Washington Square Park before brunch.

Loantaka Pond with Canada geese on the left and turtles on the right.

Here's the geese.

Here's some of the turtles.

Here's another turtle standing on the back of a much, much bigger turtle. In the middle at the top is a blurry dragonfly.

More Rain, At Last.

9-15-22 SHORT HILLS: One week until the autumnal equinox and the slow slide into darkness. It still feels like summer here, I’m still wearing shorts and tees. All our doctor visits are getting checked off, but we both have more to go. 

Outside we’ve had more rain, and I shut the sprinklers down during the rainy spell, but now they’re back on. A lot of the drought damaged shrubs have some new growth, so I’m going to wait until spring to see which of them are alive. I can always cut them down, but I’d rather give them every chance to rebound.

The indoor plants that are outside have largely bounced back from the damage sustained in the drought. I think they will get a few more weeks before their vacation ends.

We have dinner with Bebe and Ronnie tomorrow and a memorial service for old friend Bobbie on Sunday.

New blooms: crape myrtle, white snake root.

Crape myrtle is blooming at the top of the tree.

White Snake Root is either a wildflower or a weed. It's a nice fall surprise when most everything has long since finished.

Drought Is Over.

9-10-22 SHORT HILLS: Wow, almost two weeks without a post. Sorry about that, but some of the readers are probably saying go for three weeks. 

Here in NJ the result of the drought, and it was a drought, for us is several dead shrubs. The ash trees, already stressed by the ash borers, look awful. We will likely have to take down several more. The dead shrubs are mostly spice bushes which are basically weeds. I suspect that they will re-grow from the ground in the spring. We also lost some burning bushes, but they volunteer all over the yard. Some viburnums were also lost. 

Of the bushes that I planted, two rhododendrons look dead and others partially dead. I’ll see what they do in the spring. A small leucothoe looks dead also.

I cut down all the dead stuff in front of the house and hauled a carload of stuff to the town dump. 

The reason things got so bad was that the sprinkler system failed. Mr. Gomez, our gardener, called me in VT in August to tell me that the sprinklers were not working. He told me that the week before things had been OK. I got the garage opened up for him by a neighbor with a key, and it was clear that the sprinklers were dead. 

I called the sprinkler company and got the house opened up and the alarm turned off for the repairman. He was there for almost the whole day. A water-line valve was broken. He thought it would take a plumber to replace it, but he was able to do the repair after he bought the new parts. He really went all out to do the job. He also set the sprinklers to run every day instead or every other. 

When we got back here, I increased the time for each of the seven sprinkler zones. I found and repaired a blocked sprinkler head in one zone. Now we have had rain and a lot of watering, things are stabilized. I still have more stuff to cut down. 

The red oak that I planted in the spring looks fine, but the Itoh peony is leafless with green stalks.

We had dinner with Lynn and Bill a few night ago, and I also had lunch with Bill. Tomorrow we will go to NYC for brunch with Roger. Judy and I have been catching up on all our med appointments and have more to go next week. Judy has started doing her pet therapy visits.

New blooms: rose-of-Sharon, lamium, clematis, St. Johns wort, caryopteris.  

St. Johns wort has been blooming since June. This is one of two varieties we have.

Rose-of-Sharon is a late bloomer that has volunteered all over the yard. It's actually a hibiscus, not a rose.

Another Rose-of-Sharon, different flavor.

Caryopteris is another late bloomer. The blue will keep happening for weeks.

This clematis is thriving. Unfortunately, it's smothering every thing underneath it and will need to be cut way back.