Archive for the ‘Autumn’ Category
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
I know, I know, I complain about the same thing every year.
I kept forgetting to spray my three new crabapple trees with the Liquid Fence deer repellent spray. I sprayed them before, but it seems like every time I do, there are heavy rain showers. Even though the spray claims to stay on in the rain, everyone knows that is just a dream. By the way, if you are going to buy this spray, purchase the concentrated bottle. It goes a much longer way than the other pre-mixed stuff.
So, the deer have been nibbling on the end tree. I thought the other two trees were a different breed that the deer weren’t interested in, because they weren’t touched. Well, this morning, I noticed that the trees were bare. When I say bare, I mean the wood was eaten too. The damn deer even broke a few branches to get to the leaves at top.
I love animals, but at this point and want to strangle these deer. Today I am going to the Depot to get some of that see-through black deer fencing. I will take a picture for you.
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Monday, October 29th, 2007
Well, there may have been frost already in New York somewhere. This was our first frost, anyway.
I was looking at the weather forecast yesterday on Weather.com and there was a “Severe Weather Alert” for our town. I was wondering what it was…a hurricane, a tornado…a flood? No, it was a freezing alert telling people to bring their plants in. How nice of them. I wouldn’t say that the first frost is severe, but perhaps for gardeners it is.
I kind of like it. Around this time every year, I think of moving up to the middle of nowhere in Vermont. Poor Laura has to hear about my dreams of being a mountian man or a yuppie couple out of a L.L. Bean catalog. I don’t quite know why I would want to move where it’s colder than it is here. Maybe it’s because there is sort of a tranquility with the cold. People move slower and are less rude. When there is a snow storm, it seems like we are all on the same side. To me, that’s nice. It certainly is better than giving each other the finger as we drive around in the warm weather. Well, now that I think about it, I could probably give someone the finger in a snowstorm.
In other news, we are now almost at the end of Clergy Appreciation Month. I didn’t even know it was Clergy Appreciation Month. I had to hear it on the radio this morning. It would be nice if someone told me something once in a while.
You may have noticed in the past few years that there are holidays sprouting up all over the place. You can search your country’s holidays here. Basically, every day is a holiday. If you don’t see one on the previous website link, they just missed it, that’s all. I am thinking that some of these holidays are people and organizations just trying to promote themselves. If it sticks, it sticks. If not, then oh well.
I am declaring this decade dedicated to Jay.
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Friday, October 26th, 2007
Last night, Laura and I had the good fortune of visiting “The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor.” I have seen this around and have always wanted to go, but never did.
I got some free tickets that allowed us in on either Thursday or Sunday nights. We chose Thursday because we thought things would be a little slower then. As it turned out, every half hour time slot was sold out, except for the 9PM one. You have to remember, they are marketing this event all the way down into Manhattan. With the tickets we had, it didn’t matter if the event was sold out, we were still able to go at any time.
We decided to try for the 7:30PM sliver. We drove down Rt.9 into Croton-on-Hudson. I have really only been in this area about six times in my life. It is all so foreign to me. Anyway, we made it to the event and parked in the Shoprite parking lot next door. We walked across the parking lot and entered the event. Things were busy, but not too much yet, which was nice.
So there we were, walking through the gates into about a million blazing pumpkins. I have to say, the setup was pretty nice. There were quite a few people, so the walking was kind of slow, but that gave us time to see what things were about. My nature is to bust through, take pictures and drive home. I was forced to relax. Also, I am not sure how Laura feels about her nights being rushed. She does know me well enough now to know what to expect. One word of warning to those people who want a less crowded evening…go to the later shows. The kids are probably in bed by that point.
I am just going to list the best pictures of the evening below. It was dark, so my camera didn’t do the best job, but Photoshop helped quite a bit.
This is the arch of pumpkins you walk through on your way up to the ticket people.
A pretty neat carving hanging from one of the trees.
These are both of the stone manor house at Van Cortlandt Manor. As you can see, the lights change color.
The rest of the photos are of what we saw during the walk through the grounds.
The whole walk probably takes between a half hour and forty five minutes. We had fun…just be careful, they funnel you through the gift shop at the end. So, if you have kids and you think they may want little trinkets that you aren’t interested in, be sure to shield their view.
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Wow, what a day.
Laura and I had to get new sneakers, so we headed up to the “Prime Outlets at Lee.” I will tell you, I thought the place was much bigger. It was refreshing to visit something so cozy and nice. People were just walking around enjoying the day. There didn’t seem to be any attitude that usually comes alond with these places…well, the ones in New York anyway. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.
We found a good shoe store. Laura bought two pairs of sneakers and I bought one. It has taken such a long time to do this, it feels good to have it done. After that chore was finished, it was time to have some fun. We took Pleasant Street, or Rt. 102 West into Stockbridge. I think everyone else had the same idea for today. After all, the leaves are almost in full effect and the weather was perfect. Stockbridge was a little crowded, but not too bad. We parked our car on the side of the road and headed down towards the Red Lion Inn for some lunch. Right across the street from the car, there was a little park that I never noticed. It’s pretty cool, so I grabbed a photo.
We made it down the road…almost to the Inn, when I remembered that I left the gift certificate Laura got me for my birthday in the car. We had to walk all the way back to get it. Upon our return to the place we were standing ten minutes earlier, I decided to take another photo.
This is the ally that leads to the back of the Red Lion Inn. I wanted to eat lunch in the courtyard. Well, I guess they aren’t serving lunch there anymore, because there were no tables set up. Instead, we went downstairs to “The Lion’s Den.” It’s more of a tavern type deal.
We had a great lunch. We did get a little tipsy because we decided to have a little drink before we sat down.
That was fun too.
After we finished eating, which seemed like a really long time, we headed upstairs to make our Thanksgiving dinner reservations. We have been trying to get in here for a few years, but they are always booked up. This year, they had one table for two open. Yeah!!! We made it. I made the reservation and we are in. That is so cool. After that, we left.
We have been planning to go apple picking for a couple of months now, but have yet to get the chance. Today seemed like a perfect day to head down Rt. 7, a little South of Stockbridge and a little North of Great Barrington, to a place called Windy Hill Farm. We have been here a few times and really love it. They have pumpkins and apples and everything else.
I tell ya, it makes me sooooo happy.
Unfortunately, we showed up at 4:35 and they stop the “you-pick” at 4:30. Good thing our friend Eric let us up to pick a few apples on our own. I climbed a nice sized tree to get two shiny apples way up on top. I handed them off to Laura and we headed back down to the store.
We bought a big bag of mixed apples for $8 and a pumpkin for $8 too. Oh, yeah, we are all set up. Remember last time we got a pumpkin up at this place? Man, I love the Berkshires.
Oh yeah, before I forget, take a look at the picture I took while crossing the Castleton Bridge over the Hudson River.
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Well, what do you think? Laura did this over the weekend. I like to see her all motivated like that.
I was busy installing her new car stereo for her and she was setting up the Halloween lights. It really can’t get any better than that. Like I have said, it’s the little things in life.
I took Monday off and hung around the house with her. I told her that I had a great weekend and meant it. I really can do that every day, especially if it’s sunny and about 62 degrees.
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Laura and I cruised up to Woodstock again this weekend. I told her that I wanted to go hiking up that big mountain everyone climbs. I am not sure the name of it, because we never actually got to it.
We drove into town with the best of intentions. When we got somewhat closer to the action, we noticed a whole bunch of traffic. I guess it was leaf peeper Sunday. I can’t make fun of them because we were there too. One thing it did do was to make us sure that we don’t want to move to Woodstock. I think when you move to a town, you want it all to yourselves. Not you entirely, but you and the people who live there. Woodstock is a town that people visit, that’s for sure.
We parked out of the way a little bit, in the health food store parking lot. Then, we walked up to Joshua’s Cafe. I was really hungry. I love the food at Joshua’s. It’s different and it’s good. The only problem is that the place was packed. Laura and I had to wait upstairs and drink some Guinness while we waited. That was rough. The reason it was rough is because it was out of the bottle and it cost $9. Even the girl behind the counter had a pained look on her face.
We ate and walked around a little bit. Then we left. We have been there so many times before, I am not sure it holds its luster.
Here is a photo of the soon-to-form drum circle. It started at 4PM, but we were gone before then.
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Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
…except the storm never happened.
Yesterday, Laura and I were getting ready to go for a walk. When we exited the house in an orderly fashion, we noticed something very peculiar above us. The sky was completely orange. This was very strange and kind of caught us off guard. I ran back inside to grab the camera. I had to get this on film…or whatever digital cameras catch things on.
Isn’t that weird?
We walked almost to the end of our road and saw a bolt of lightening. I turned around and Laura followed. People have been getting hit by lightening lately and I am trying to not be one of them. I really don’t want Laura to be one of them either.
We made it home with only a few drops of rain, but nothing more. We heard thunder, but apparently the storm traveled to the West of us, over the ridge.
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Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
I have been meaning to do this for some time. Our well is in a semi-middle area of our front lawn. As you surely are aware, wells are not attractive contraptions. In an effort to keep our house aesthetically pleasing, I am trying to hide the well as best I can.
Yesterday, Paul and I made a visit to the Fishkill Home Depot. I knew there would only be a few plants left this late in the season. When we arrived, I was surprised to see how many were actually there. We walked towards the back to the Juniper section. I browsed through a few Junipers and decided upon a nice Youngstown Juniper. Well, that’s what the tag says at least. We weren’t completely convinced that that the correct tags were on these plants. This tag says that this plant grows one foot high by four feet wide. Strange, because it’s already about a foot high, and I just bought it.
I think it will grow out nicely to cover the ugly well.
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Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Although I have been noticing a lot more color in the trees around here, I would have to say that for October 7, it’s still pretty green.
I ran down to Home Depot this morning to return a dying Boxwood and White Pine. Just in case you were curious, I traded them for three nice China Girl Hollys. Since I am planting them late in the season, I hope they don’t have the same fate as last year’s Hollys. Anyway, during the trip to the store, I noticed a lot of leaves falling on this back road that I like to take. I pulled over and took a picture. Then the camera went dead. Good thing I got a pic.
Oh, and just in case you were curious, the winter damaged Holly from last year did grow new leaves this year. Here is a photo…
There isn’t much new growth, but there are leaves. Maybe next season there will be new growth.
Below is a photo of a new China Girl Holly that I just got today. See the new sprouts up on top? That’s what I like to see. Even my Boxwoods are sprouting with new growth. I guess they do that late in the season.
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Saturday, October 6th, 2007
It has been a very dry Autumn. It has rained only once in as long as I can remember. My memory isn’t that great though. The one time it did rain was a heavy downpour for a few minutes. You know, the kind of rain that rolls right off the hard dirt?
I have been out watering each night, trying to keep my young trees from drooping. I like them fresh looking. Now, if I can just keep those annoying hungry deer away from the bottom branches, I will be set.
Anyway, I wanted to show you a nice Red Maple in the front yard. It’s strange…usually, the leaves just change color and drop. This year, because it’s so dry, some leaves actually are getting crunchy right on the branches and then dropping. Weird. It better rain soon. Here is the photo…
The leaves around here are very pretty right now. I would say they are in the first half. I have seen very few trees with all their leaves down.
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