Now It's July.

4-29-24 SHORT HILLS: it was in upper eighties yesterday and today, but gets cooler tomorrow. I put the screens in the doors and put the glass away. We finally has some rain last night. It has been pretty dry, and the sprinklers are running. 

I got two seedling trees from Ronnie, the town was giving them out, and he got them for us. I planted a red oak and a hickory, each one three inches tall. It took only a minute or two for each one, but my streak of planting a tree every year is intact. 

We had dinner with Lynn and Bill for Bill’s BD, and brunch with cousins Kenny and David and their ladies at Kenny and Monica’s apartment near Lincoln Center.

New blooms: azalea, wood hyacinth, ajuga, Siebold viburnum, wild strawberry, wild mustard, yellow lamium, Carolina allspice. 

Azalea are just getting started, the most vivid color so far this spring.

Carolina allspice, an interesting flower in an interesting color.

Dogwood in white.

Tree planter with shovel and cane.

Blue, not the most well-trained, but will not be shot under any circumstances.

More dogwood.

Time Travel.

4-22-24 SHORT HILLS: I’ve had the sensation of time travel before going from VT to NJ during the spring. We left VT on a cold morning with snow in the forecast for next week, and came back to NJ with flowers open, trees with new leaves, bees in the apple blossoms, birds busy in the yard, the grass mowed. It’s morning in early spring and afternoon in mid-May. 

In VT we put away the snow shovels. Uncovered Judy’s florist cart and moved it up to the deck, and put the tarp away, met with the solar people, had dinner at Cloudland Farm with Shari and Dave, also had dinner with Cousin John at a tapas place in Woodstock [not great].  

Here, I took a load of bamboo cuttings to the dump, cleaned the driveway drain, wound the clocks, filled the feeders. There is much yard work to do. 

New blooms: VT forsythia, NJ Kwansan cherry, red bud, sweet woodruff, Korean spice viburnum, nannyberry viburnum.

Noah Kahan gear for sale at Coburn's General Store.

Tees and Sweats both available.

The Cusp of Spring.

4-18-24 VERMONT: There’s been melting here. The ice is gone. The snow is gone except for the piles under the eaves, which will probably last until May. The grass is green in a few spots. Perennials, some of them, are visible and a inch or two tall. Maple trees, hellebores, snowdrops, crocus are in bloom. The rose bushes have buds and a few very small leaves.

I saw two robins working the lawn, and a Phoebe catching some bug over the pond A pair of common mergansers were on the pond when we arrived, but the dogs chased them away. . 

Yesterday was in the fifties, but today we had intermittent, light rain. Next week, it may snow.  

Same Sun people will be here tomorrow AM for some final instructions.

The leading edge of spring has a foot in the door of April and will burst into the yard with warmth, color, aroma and bird song soon.

New blooms: hellebore, crocus. 

One of a pair of robins so it must be spring.

Common mergansers, the male is white with a dark green head, and the female grey with a red-brown head, both wear mullets.

Still snow to go, a good long, warm rain will do the job.

Hellebores just out from under the snow.

I saw this Pro-Choice ad in the New Yorker and was struck that the woman in Jail is also a uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries. Brilliant.

New Grill, New Blooms.

4-15-24 SHORT HILLS: The Weber Grill has been used a few times and has not caught fire, so we are reassured that steaks and chops lie in the future. 

Yesterday we had brunch in the city with Roger and Helaine, Paul was not available, but we spoke this morning. The day before we were in the city and saw Gardner, Anna and Emmett, now almost six months old. 

If yesterday was May, today is June, before these last two, it was March. There has been plenty of rain, and everything is opening and greening on schedule. I spent a little time outside today taking dead fall off shrubs.

The birds have paired up, are in song all day, and are gobbling up everything I put out. Vermont later this week.  

New blooms: apple, barberry, blueberry, Chinese snowball viburnum, dogwood. 

The daffodils keep coming out.

Me and Emmett, each of us curious about the other.

Red bird in the southern magnolia.

Valerie and her friend Nancy were at the Vermont house for the eclipse. Nancy, who is an excellent photographer, took this sunrise. The ice is gone and the snow is going.

Another one of Nancy's the upper pond. [Thanks Nancy and Val.]

Eclipse and Magnolia.

4-9-24 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday was the big solar eclipse, which went by our neighborhood in the afternoon. We were in the 90% range, so we got a toenail paring, but no darkness, no stars, the birds and dogs behaved normally. The dogs slept, the birds were at the feeders. It got dusky and cool, the temp dropped 10°. After a few hours, we were back to normal. 

Valerie went to Vermont for a taste of totally in Burlington. She and Nancy drove up in the morning and went to the airport for viewing, music, food, bathrooms after strolling the city. 

Today was close to 80°, June-like in early April, the flowers seem way ahead of schedule. The Yoshino cherry and saucer magnolia are out. [I just checked and last year they were out at the same time.]   

Today we bought a new outdoor grill, a Weber, to replace the one that replaced the previous one that was burnt up in a fire. Yesterday the new one caught fire, on first use, so it’s going on the garbage heap.

New blooms: saucer magnolia, clatonia, more daffodils. 

About max for us that grin at the bottom of the solar disc slowly moved to the right. It was dark and cool at this point.

A little of the magnolia.

More of the magnolia.

Yoshino cherry tree makes a lot of fruit that the birds eat.

Red Bird visits often, usually with the missus.

Earthquake Shakes Thing Up.

4-6-24 SHORT HILLS: I forgot to mention our earthquake yesterday. It lasted about ten seconds. I was walking upstairs, and the second floor of the house was moving much more than the first. After it settled down, I walked around an found that nothing had so much as fallen off a shelf. At first we weren’t sure that if was an earthquake and not just a heavy truck rumbling by.

An earthquake was confirmed by news media and the local PD. The epicenter was in Whitehouse Station, NJ—magnitude 4.8, 2.9 miles below the surface, 23 miles west of us at 10:23 AM.

The epicenter of the quake in red and our house in blue.

The Ramapo Fault system runs near the epicenter, although that fault system has not been well-connected to earthquakes that have occurred near by. The quake was felt from Baltimore to Boston. An aftershock early this morning at 6 AM was of 2.5 magnitude, but we didn’t feel it. Dozens of minor aftershocks of magnitude 1-2 have occurred. Yesterday evening a larger aftershock, magnitude 3-4, occurred at about 6 PM. Wikipedia has excellent discussions of the Geology of this area.

Otherwise we had a visit from Lily and Danna this morning after they dropped Danna’s family at Newark Airport. Yesterday we had dinner with Alan. And tomorrow we have brunch in NYC with Richard and Elaine. 

NJ-NY showing the Ramapo Fault and sub-faults.

NJ-NY earthquake locations and the Ramapo Fault in green. Both these illustrations are from Wikipedia.

Soggy cold April.

4-5-24 SHORT HILLS: The weather has been rainy and cool, daily highs about 50, but the parade of flowers continues. The yard is littered with branches and gum balls again.

I had an cardiac ablation for the tachycardias a week ago with no recurrences since. I’m off the beta-blocker and back on an ARB for the blood pressure control. Judy is getting a two week cardiac rhythm monitoring because she had an episode of fast heart beats that woke her up a few mornings ago. There have been none since the first episode.

Judy has been filling holes and bald spots in the lawn and seeding them, the birds are interested.

New blooms: Yoshino cherry, pear, pulmonaria, purple lamium, violet, early azalea.

Judy's new bed array. Every night I look forward to a warm, toasty nap.