Maizie.

2-20-24 SHORT HILLS: Maizie died today. 

Two days ago she was frolicking in the snow with Blue looking like a puppy. She was the alpha from the moment she walked into our house eleven years ago. Whenever I came home, she was at the front door to welcome me back, pressing against my leg and howling for joy. Nobody else ever showed a drop of that kind of enthusiasm for me.

For ten years she was a therapy dog working with Judy visiting hospitals and schools. She met hundreds, maybe thousands, of people and left each of them feeling a little happier.  

We have had many dogs and many favorites over the years, but Maizie was at the top of the list.

We are very sad.

White and Cold II.

2-13-24 SHORT HILLS: Just when we thought winter was over, we got a ton of wet snow. They predicted this almost to the last flake, but I discounted the prediction as ‘forecaster-hysteria’. It has stopped by mid-afternoon, and the trees are starting to shed the snow. 

Yesterday I got the pool cover pump going to drain a big load of rain water, and I saw snowdrops about to open and snowflakes coming up, it was in the fifties. Today it’s in the twenties with a load of white stuff. Winter is back.

Judy was outside with the dogs a few times taking pix. There’s eight inches of wet snow and it’s cold, but there very little wind. I don’t see any damage at this point, but the problems may show up later. 

On Sunday we were in Brooklyn to see Lily and Danna’s new apartment in Brooklyn Heights. It’s just beautiful—roomy, bright, light, airy. Valerie’s fam was there along with Alison, Anna, Gardner and Emmett.   

Maizie taking a snow break.

Blue and Maizie checking out the snow depth on the table.

Maizie napping.

All four dogs trying out the snow.

Maizie on a visit to a Seton Hall pap rally.

Snowdrops open early, before the snow.

Anna and Emmett in sweaters that she knitted!

Me and Emmett.

Home Renovation.

2-6-24 SHORT HILLS: Back in NJ just in time for more home work. The painters are here to tidy up the room that had the electrical short and the fire, plus our bedroom, the living room, the kitchen and probably more before Judy lets them leave. Judy is one to never waste a disaster. If the painters [electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc] are here for problem one, they might as well look at problems 2 through X. So our lives are upside-down again for the week.  

I have stopped using the walker and am walking with a cane and a knee brace and sometimes without the cane. PT resumes this afternoon. I have done some walking outside in the driveway and on the grass.

Groundhog day, Feb. 2, was last week on an overcast, dark, rainy day. No groundhog saw its shadow that day anywhere in the Northeast. That means, according to legend, that winter is over. So far the rodent might be right. The last few days have been sunny and the afternoons have been in the forties—almost spring-like. 

I saw a pair of house finches, about a week ago, sitting together in the junipers for a long time. I saw them again yesterday in the yew tree next to the kitchen windows each doing extensive grooming. Pictures of them through the window and window-screen are terrible, but they are a pair and seem to be deciding on a nest site. Another sign of an early spring. 

House finches spending time as a pair perhaps considering a nest site.

Here they are again a few inches from the window and screen doing extensive personal grooming. Sorry about the bad photo.

Another pic through the window.

Snowdrops are always the first to show up.

White and Cold.

2-1-24 VERMONT: We came up last Saturday between bad weather days. It was an easy trip. As soon as we settled in, I started coughing from a cold, which is now starting to clear. Judy didn’t get it, so far. 

Vermont is white and cold. The sky has been overcast since we’ve been here. We have a foot of snow around the house. Judy has put on snowshoes and trekked out into the pasture with the dogs. They use her trail.  

 

Monday we went to Smith’s auction house to pick up Alison’s rug and Judy’s latest acquisition, a trade sign from an old inn. We hung it on the new side of the house, and it looks great. 

Tuesday the solar people came to the house to evaluate that part of the roof where the panels will be deployed and decided we can get a few more panels than previously estimated. 

Wednesday Dave the plumber came to fix a few leaky faucets and a leak under the kitchen sink.

Friday it’s back to NJ. 

Horses and Barns.

The upper pond and the brook.

The lower pond after another snow fall.

Horses doing what horses do best--eating hay.

Bally snuggled into the snow eating something. Probably best not to ask what it is.

The new house living room has become a tavern.