Visit - potential difficulties

Forecasts for Thursday up here range from a chance of snow to more than a foot. If the latter becomes more probable I'll have to cancel my visit to Ridge. Please keep checking this spot for updates.

Visit to Basking Ridge

Hope to be in Basking Ridge on 1/2/14. Any takers for an early lunch?  Let me know by 12/30 by a comment with your email address or phone number so I can get back to you.

Best Wishes

If you are celebrating a special holiday or simply enjoying the season of good cheer, have a Merry Christmas.

Winter is here [calendar notwithstanding]

Yesterday the day began at -2 F which was followed by a pretty good snow fall ( topping for the weekend's 10") and temperatures soaring to about 11 F. Last night we had to drive through heavy snowfall to pick up Daniel ( our younger son), who is visiting from Colorado. It was 7 degrees when we reached home.

This morning we got our reward. I took a short walk and  recorded these sights at our house and near a neighbor's place. As you can tell, I am particularly fond of the big maple in front of our house.

 Around our home

 From Hawley Road 

  From the Smyth's

Back Home

Two Wishes

I wish more of you could be up here to see how the snow covered trees and houses look in the moonlight. The big maple in the front of our house looks especially enchanted. Some magic is real.

Some of you have had great year, some so so, and some a really tough one. Whatever kind of year you had I hope it was much worse than your next year.

More of the White Season

Another ten inches fell last night. That combined with single digit low temperatures makes it pretty clear what season we are in.

 I just shoveled the cars out so that our neighbor can finish plowing our upper parking space. We are fortunate to have a space to the west of the house to place the cars before a snow storm so he can plow out the drive to the east of the house. Then we move the cars and he plows the upper space. Now if only I can keep a walkable path from the large basement doors to the barn. I will be a happy camper.

Not having to drive anywhere makes it possible to truly savor winter. Don't know if we'll do a snow shoe or just a road walk but we will be out there soon.

The start of "White"

We are entering the white season. I have concluded that we have six seasons here and that they are best identified by color. White begins around or shortly after Thanksgiving and its obvious as to how it earned its name.  Brown begins in late April and has to do with bare trees and lots of mud. Light green begins towards the end of May when the leaves start appearing. Dark green begins toward the end of June when those leaves have matured and the strawberries are getting ripe. Gold is the season of  those days when the leaves have turned to red, orange and yellow and the sun casts more of soft glow then a bright glare. It starts sometime between mid September and early October. And then there is gray from early November til the first lasting snowfall. Gray is  when the forests, fields, and the weather take a somewhat dismal turn waiting for the white blanketing beginning the next cycle.

Thanksgiving and Hannukah

The holidays were great. On Thursday we had friends from the western Mass area; friends (made through Daniel, our younger son) from the Boston area including their two young boys; my sister and her husband and her son and his wife and two little girls, my older son and his wife and three children. All told 12 adults and 7 kids. Everyone got on really well including the children. The only sore spot was when my nephew's two year old panicked at the sight of the dimunitive and bedraggled  Natalie, our nineteen year old cat ( again via Daniel). I guess there was one more sore spot: Too much to eat.

Friday we traveled to southern Connecticut to spend an evening visiting and celebrating Hannukah with my sisters family. We took Henry, our youngest grandchild ( he's 8). Another fine time and again amazing good will and behavior amongst children ranging from 2 to 17.
We did miss having the rest of the family, my two other sisters and their clans, and especially Daniel, at this time.  However the additional leftovers for me help mollify my grief.