Jersey Summer, Part 2

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yesterday I highlighted our day trip to Asbury Park as part of our summer vacation in New Jersey this year. (That post can be found here.) Today I just have some bits and pieces from the rest of our time off – some lovely visits with friends who came to stay for a few days and our wanderings into town, our annual visit to the local fireman’s fair (prior posts on the fair can be read here and here) and of course my adventures in gardening.

I am afraid I must report that gardening this year didn’t pan out especially well on the vegetable front – my sweet peppers have consistently been sneakily consumed, hollowed out by the likes, I believe, of a particular chipmunk who I spy daily (or a rotating cast of chipmunk characters), who teases me hopping around the deck every morning. Only my hot peppers (two varieties of jalapenos and one banana pepper) have performed admirably – the critters having tested them and realized that they were indeed too spicey. A few measly cherry tomatoes and a single full sized one round out the produce. Sigh.

*My favorite dahlia – red, pink and white.*

Meanwhile half the dahlias have had the good grace to bloom while I am here, the other half have buds but are holding out. I especially adore this red, pink and white one and the hummingbirds share my enthusiasm – they and the butterflies stop for long drinks of nectar there and I find bees drunk with the pollen as they roll around in them.

I commuted longer than usual before vacation on this trip and Kim and I discovered Senor Peppers restaurant and take out across from the train station. A little careful planning and I could place our dinner order when the train hit the station before mine and by the time we got to Red Bank our order was just about ready.

Ice cream ran a close second to Mexican food this summer and I discovered that Nicholas Creamery does a powerful peach ice cream which rivals Ryan’s, my go to until now. The Creamery has the great advantage however of being within walking distance of the house. We further explored blackberry and lemon pie flavors (thank you Deva for pushing us out of our comfort zone) which were wonderful, but peach is still my go to.

*Old tin mugs I purchased. I have a very fond memory of one at my grandmother’s house and I sort of can’t resist them.*

The weather ran to rain (after some extreme heat) which meant I had fewer beloved evenings out on the deck although we did sneak a few in at the end.

*The rather jolly interior of one of the Mexican restaurants we went to in Red Bank.*

A trip to Red Bank with our friend Bill resulted in several purchases. He and Kim did some buying at the comic book store, but I had my go at the Antique Annex. Among my purchases were: a cat picture (future post), a copy of Peggy Parker, Girl Inventor, some silverware (yes, I bought Bakelite silverware in Asbury and some silver flatware in Red Bank – we’ve been suffering a loss of silverware in the NYC apartment), and a rather extraordinary pink glass with images of stars on it.

*Just love this and would like to research it a bit.*

A later trip to Red Bank (taking Bill to the train) resulted in a real discovery – a new independent bookstore opened there in the last few months. Tucked on a side street called Monmouth it is called Crazy Story Books. It is large and well stocked and I look forward to many happy hours of shopping there.

A few select other dahlias.

Last night we hit the first night of the Fireman’s Fair. Kim and I took our favorite ride on a firetruck around the neighborhood and threw caution to the wind and went on a rather nutty, jarring ride in some flying saucer cars. We bought raffle tickets and of course lost and ended the evening with veggie burgers at our local diner. If I haven’t mentioned it before, the fireman’s fair which runs about a week, is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country and raises almost all of the annual funding for our (largely volunteer) fire and first aid. (A prior post about this fireman’s fair and its history can be found here.)

A ride on a fire engine!

Fireman’s Fair fun.

Kim’s distance walking has improved over our vacation and just today we walked into town and back – yay! So it is time to pack the New York kitties up and head back to Manhattan. I suspect this won’t get posted until after we are back there tomorrow. We need to gather up our dress duds and get ready for our trip to Washington on September 10 and Kim’s talk there so more to come about that soon too.

****

Posting this shortly after arriving back in New York. Cats are recuperating under and on the bed. Unpacking (and lunch) up next!

Vacation in the Air

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today is the first day of vacation. First thing this moring I wandered outside in my pj’s, admired the dahlias and some just emerging zinnias and popped a few ripe strawberries in my mouth while the coffee finished perking in the kitchen. I have fortified myself with one of my friend’s popover, provided earlier this week, and now I sit with my second cup of coffee (coffee so good this morning I texted a friend that I felt like I was swilling it) and share this new favorite card with you.

*Strawberry plants offer a few nibbles every morning.*

I purchased this postcard just before we left New York and it has just made its way here from Britain. I haven’t acquired one of these big kitty chair photos in a very long time. This cat chair is a bit smaller than some and sitting sidesaddle on him seems quite easy. My very favorite part is the way she is holding onto his (her?) little round cat ears!

The woman is wearing a white dress and sandals and she is dressed a bit differently than the general sort of togs we see in these holiday photos. (Early examples from my collection can be found in posts here, here and here for comparison.) The woman is smiling sort of placidly – a good sport but not embracing it quite as much as I think I might have given the opportunity. (I would have been bouncing with excitement!)

Meanwhile, Kitty is a bit bowlegged which gives him an especially cheerful look. He has a ribbon around his neck and a Steiff-y sewn on nose and mouth. We can barely see it, but kitty has a big fluffy tail up behind her. There is some vegetation in the background and what appears to be ivy climbing up a stone wall. This doesn’t have the seashore feel that some of these have and as I said before, this appears to be a somewhat smaller cat so likely a different location although obviously it is a resort area of sorts. This card was never mailed so we don’t have any sense of date or precise location. Oddly it has a narrow fold at the very top like maybe it was kept in a book and sticking out just the slightest bit.

*The dahlias in the garden have either gone plumb wild or not come up. It’s an odd year.*

I am savoring the delicious moment of my entire vacation stretching ahead of me. All things are possible at the beginning, and it is a cool morning here in New Jersey which beckons us outside. My dahlias are blooming and the red ones in particular are attracting my favorites, the hummingbirds. (I have not captured them in a photo and am unlikely to as they are so mercurial.) Evenings under the fairy lights are ahead as well as good food and friends visiting, cats to be fed and petted. More to come but enjoy this grand kitty chair for now.

Jersey Girl Garden

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: We are nicely installed here at the Jersey shore. Cats, both the Jersey Five and the NYC kits, are getting used to a new routine. My friend Winsome who cares for the Jersey cats is in Jamaica on vacation and so these kitties are stuck with me and my commuting hours. Feeding and litter box cleaning for seven cats is plenty twice a day. Kim has been doing the evening feeding shift so everyone doesn’t need to wait for me to get home.

*Strawberries which are prolific and yummy but always tiny.*

The weather has been too balmy to sit outside or do much in the garden yet, however my spring efforts are paying off and my dahlias are already providing a stream of early blooms. We had rain last night so everything is quite content. Finding time to water before or after work has been hard as well, but necessary many of these hot and very sunny days. The sudden hard rains and winds can be hard on them too though and I have lost a few dahlias to it.

*Some nascent tomatoes – all except the poor cherry tomato.*

My tomato plants have been slow starters this year. I planted them in the garden instead of containers and it may have been a mistake. The chipmunks and squirrels (which are aplenty here) delight in digging them up, not eating them, but digging them out, despite cages around them. The cherry tomato seems to be their favorite game. (I will say while planting something else recently I found a bunch of peanuts in the hole I dug! Maybe that is what the squirrels are looking for?

Unlike the tomatoes the three different kinds of peppers I planted in containers have done quite well. We already have some peppers ready for the picking and the promise of many more. We have sweet peppers, jalapenos and banana peppers – I believe it is the banana peppers that are ready for the picking – might be the jalapenos though – I will pluck some and let you know.

*The banana peppers (or are they jalapenos?) are coming along nicely. May trim one for the fish stew!*

*Look carefully for a couple of small green peppers.*

The hydrangea is doing its thing and the purply blue in the backyard is stunning. The honeysuckle is blooming (I taught Winsome’s grandkids about sucking the sweet bit out of the bottom of a blossom.) I don’t cut them often though as they don’t seem to last in a vase – the pink variety is so pretty though I will sometimes. The cut flowers are a great joy to have in the kitchen where they are seen day and evening and always cheer me. Unfortunately, Beauregard does like to have a nibble on them.

*My favorite hydrangea in the backyard. I like to clip a occasional choice bloom.*

*The pink honeysuckle – a favorite of mom’s.*

The herb garden, shown at the top, is a bit feral – the sage and the oregano seeking to crowd out everyone else. The basil is making a valiant effort, and the rosemary has the good fortune to be outside the purview of the sage and is perking along, smelling glorious.

Although in spring the garden is all about the peonies, the centerpiece of the summer garden is the dahlias. This year I have planted some in the garden and others are in containers. The ones in the garden are growing quite huge and some of those are having their first bloom. Some of the old timers are in containers and a favorite orange-red and yellow is already bursting out much to my delight. In the garden is an enormous purple one which I leave in the ground over the winter and seems to be very happy. I planted it for my mom, like many of the peonies, for Mother’s Day or her birthday. That is the origin of the cherry tree and the magnolia too.

*This orange and yellow is a favorite returning this year.*

The rest of the dahlias are dug up annually in the fall and tucked into the garage for the winter where I hope to find tiny green buds on them in the early spring for planting. I had some new ones purchased this year that haven’t worked out so well for me so I have to think about where I buy from in the future. It could be them or it could be me. Hard to really say. I have an experienced gardening friend who advises me in these matters and she too suffered some losses this year on the dahlia front.

So sets the stage for summer here. I am eyeing my fairy lights on the deck and hoping for an evening cool enough to enjoy them. I generally take my time off in August when, even if it rains a bit more, temperatures tend to go down a bit already and the evenings are more enticing. I have a plan to make fish stew today (post with that recipe can be read here) so we have dinner for the week – easier with the commute. More tales of the Jersey shore to come for those who care to follow me.

In the Yard with Cats

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am heading to New Jersey tomorrow for a few days and this card has me in a pleasant mind of backyard time I hope to enjoy. My roses are in bloom and the gorgeous purple-blue hydrangea, both front yard and back, is starting its ascension into its first flowers of the season. The herbs are well on their way and I understand my grapes have finally come back with a will. Strawberries have already made an appearance and the dahlias are shooting up en force!

I will, of course, be greeted to varying degrees by the resident cats there. Beauregard will claim as much lap time as possible while Milty and Gus will shove in where they can. Stormy and Peaches, my girl cats, are my scaredy cats and although they may (or may not – thinking of you Peaches!) be glad to see me.

*The grapevine has returned with a vengeance I am glad to see. All the garden photos are via my friend Winsome.*

If you pay attention to all things cats on the internet, you know that catios are all the rage and you can purchase them pre-made (think screened tent for your cats) and less expensive, or you can build a more elaborate version. Ideally the cats have free passage from house to safe outdoor harbor in the catio, but there are an increasing number where the expectation is that you will plop them in and take them back out yourself. Of course, I have considered these but I am not carrying my precious pusses outside to put them in a flimsy screened enclosure. No, I would have to be one of those folks who built something solid and give them cat door access to it.

Although I grew up with cats that roamed free in the yard and divided their time in and out of the house as a matter of course, this is no longer the way in the area where I grew up and where we now have a house. At some point, keeping your cat inside, or with a collar for brief outside turns, became the way of things. Cats are chipped now in case they are lost, although something about putting that in her cats always made my mother nervous. Although all these cats came from living on the streets, none of them has set a paw outside since.

There is something wonderful however about my childhood memories of cats wandering in and out, more or less at will, without thinking about it. They enjoyed it so much and all the better if we were outside with them. As I kid I would sit outside and play with them for hours. I actually haven’t thought about it for years.

Like this photo we might have had a light indoor chair outside, although it would likely be alongside a bunch of lawn chairs. (My father eventually bought heavy outdoor chairs and tables at garage sales, but I was older by then.) If we were outside at least a few of the cats and the dog would be out with us although, maybe someone was sleepy inside too. There were no particular rules. We just never thought about it. Everyone pretty much came in at night unless for some reason they had a mysterious kitty rendezvous and were off on a toot for the evening. Noted but not a cause for alarm.

*The dahlias are showing early promise.*

Looking at these folks and their cats in their backyard in the dabbled sunlight it makes me think about it. The women are in their long dresses of the day but summer versions and the man, seated behind them, is in a suit with a tie. (One could say he is sort of not quite fully participating.) Those summer cottons which while beautiful must have required difficult laundry and endless patient ironing. Hard to see but the woman in white is leaning on a bit of a chicken wire enclosure behind her. When we look closely there are beds of plants, something leafy and green climbing up an arbor to the viewers left and behind them.

It was clearly a bit of an occasion. Girl kitty (my assumption) is wearing a big bow and looks a tad unhappy about it although not in full on revolt. She perches in a timid way on the chair with a cushion. She is a light-colored tabby-ish kitty, orange most likely? The other looks like a tom and he is in a loving if tightly gripped hold for the photo. Look at the stripes on his legs! Those black bands! Both have white faces and front paws. Handsome fellow!

The yard has a high fence around it as far as we can see, although technically not one that would keep an interested (let alone determined) cat in or out. My backyard is also fenced, but given small spaces as entry points near the ground I have found all sorts of animals back there including a fox who got in and admittedly didn’t seem to know how to get out. (I opened the gate and invited him to take his time leaving.) Cats do come by occasionally – that is how Stormy and Gus came to live with mom. Some of you might remember the stray tom I christened Hobo who we fed on and off for several years.

This photo was never sent and nothing was written on the back. On the back there is a very faded company logo for Central Studio, and an address, 103 College Street, Burlington, VT. It is easy to imagine that this was taken in Vermont, a singular photo postcard and the cats were clearly rallied for the photo opp. It is a wonderfully distilled moment from a long ago summer.

Meanwhile, on my way to the Jersey shore so a Jersey summer specific card to come tomorrow!

Dahlia Days and Jersey Delights

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: These are not only the dog days of summer but International Dog Day as I sit down to start this. No dogs here in the House of Seven Cats and I think the Jersey Five find the addition of the two New Yorkers two too many more let alone pups.

Blackie has wiled most of his days away in our bedroom when not hunting up Cookie (who resides in Kim’s studio upstairs) and eating her food. He’s also gotten into numerous tussles with Beau, the head of cats here and fluffed himself up into a righteously puffy Halloween-esque fellow. I am trying to resolve the problem with an extra can of food in the late afternoon. It might be working.

*The view from the back deck one glorious afternoon.*

I am on the back deck as I write, where I have spent many happy hours this vacation. Stormy, the gray tabby who seems to be perpetually surprised and terrified by the world, is at the back door looking out – hoping against hope that a fat fly will land on the screen door for her to chase.

Labor Day comes early this year but having said that the light in the afternoon already has a fall look and I have seen large v’s of birds starting to make their trek south. The evenings are chilly enough to warrant a jacket and I am starting to eye the little used fire pit. However, the earlier part of the day in full sun can be roiling hot so we are not there yet.

With heavy spring rain and subsequent dry spells the dahlias are slow to bloom this year but their show now that it has started is worthy. A few new entries are small in bloom stature but bursting with bright colors, red and white and an orange red and yellow. My beloved hummingbirds come to feast on them and they go from one to another and back to a favorite – like a bird buffet. ( Does anyone know what I mean when I say hummingbirds, hanging in the air, look like they are somehow stopping time?)

I can almost always find bees tucked in the centers of the dahlias, drowsily, drunkenly and dizzily covered in pollen. The strawberry plants are also enjoyed by the hummingbirds and are overflowing with flowers right now. I think I’ve mentioned before that they oddly produce only the tiniest, almost doll sized fruit – delicious but bizarrely small.

The tomato plants promise produce, hanging green on the vine but ripening SO slowly. Another producing tiny tasty yellow cherry tomatoes is doing a great business – unusually small but tasty bits being the order of the day here I guess. We pop small handfuls in our mouth, still warm from the sun. The jalapeno peppers are bountiful (and perversely huge) and of course are the hardest to use up quickly without killing my diners with devilishly spicy treats.

This year has felt like a real vacation. Kim and I have taken long daily walks to the neighboring towns, shopped in the antique stores and scored some items. We brought piles of books from New York (and admittedly added to them) and we have worked our way through almost all of them. Kim has been catching up on some of my Rosa Mulholland recommendations including one I brought with me that arrived shortly before our departure. In addition he has made occasional trips to the comic book store in Red Bank (Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash of Kevin Smith fame) where he has amassed books reproducing the Superman saga.

*From my favorite perch at the comic book store, reading work email while Kim looks.*

Kim and I both worked for the first two weeks here after arriving in early August and we’ll put in a few days from here after Labor Day. Last week I wrote about our pending visit with Bill which kicked off our vacation and below are some photos memorializing his visit. (Bill, if you’re reading this, we found both the Reed Crandall book AND the Pinocchio book after you left! They were on an overlooked shelf together.)

Tonight is our first visit this year to the local Fireman’s Fair. (I wrote about it last summer in a post here.) Although I have reserved the right to go again when another friend visits from Manhattan this weekend.

I recently told Kim if he wants to sound like a native New Jersey-er he weigh in on the state of the summer’s corn and tomatoes – peaches for the bonus round. We take these things very seriously and the quality of Garden State produce is of great local importance. This year corn is small but good corn can be found with some work – it is perhaps just late as it has improved as the month has gone on. The tomatoes are somewhat underwhelming unless you hit one of the El Dorados of good ones (or can convince the ones on your deck to ripen) and eat them quickly before they go from ripe to bad. All but one purchase of peaches failed the test – however last night had some that had been purchased at the peach of ripeness before going bad, ate them with ice cream and felt like we really hit it at last.

In this spirit I began to make tomato pie. After looking at numerous recipes I settled on a simple one which I share below. The tomatoes need to be bled of water briefly before starting and I used a pre-made crust. (For all my apparent cooking talents there’s something about pie crust which I have never gotten into the rhythm of properly.)

Fifteen minutes to throw together and this is in the oven cooking away for 45 minutes or more and it is without question best if consumed immediately – it is inferior when reheated. My only other word of advice is that you should pack it as full of tomato layers as possible because they shrink in the cooking and my first effort looked a bit woebegone as a result. Dan and Cathy Theodore were the first to try my pie and liked it enough to ask for the recipe, but more about their visit and the gift they brought in another post.

Recipe:

1 pie crust
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly into rounds
1/4 cup mayonnaise
6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
3-4 ripe tomatoes, sliced about 1/4-1/2 inch thin
4 tablespoons fresh basil, sliced into ribbons (chiffonade)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F.
Line a 9″ tart pan with prepared pie dough. Poke a few holes in the dough with a fork, then cover with parchment paper and pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes, until crust is starting to turn golden.
While the crust bakes, slice the tomatoes on several sheets of paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Flip and salt the other side as well. Let the tomatoes sit for 10 minutes, then blot off moisture with dry towels.
Mix together the mayonnaise and the shredded cheese, and spread the mixture in the parbaked pie crust. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of the basil on top.
Top with one layer of the sliced tomatoes, the onions, followed by a second layer of tomatoes. Add a third layer if space permits. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. (If like me you are worried that the tomatoes are salty from the bleeding the wiping them down wipes off most of the salt.)
Bake for 30 minutes, until crust is golden and some juices along the edge of the pie crust are bubbling. Remove from the oven and set aside for 20 minutes to cool before slicing. Tip with the remaining basil and serve warm or room temperature.

Note: Tomato pie is best served on the day it is made, but leftovers can be store in the refrigerator and reheated in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-20 minutes.

PS – At top, Beauregard, top cat of the Jersey Five, in a pout before we left today!

Vacation: Jersey Days, Part One

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I realize I am late getting to this today, but my cat care called in sick and I had chores for the maintenance of the Jersey Five plus the NY pair, so there was a lot of cat stuff that needed to go on. Then I started the gardening, but decided that I would give you all a turn first.

When I say I started the gardening, in reality I tackled the pruning of two huge flowering trees, Crape Myrtle, in our front yard. I am not an experienced pruner at all but when in bloom these trees get heavily weighted down with water and branches snap off. With a heavy rain some were sort of hanging half off and a friend lent me heavy clippers. I, who evidently don’t own a step ladder (I will look in the basement to be sure but none in the garage/mud room), took a step stool out and did my best to reach the necessary branches. I did my best, got covered in showers of tiny pink flowers.

*Beauregard, a very fine guy. Has tried to make friends but NYC kits not having it.*

For the cat update. The good news is that Cookie and Blackie did not stand on ceremony and refuse to eat for the first 24-48 hours and instead got right to it. Cookie is at home and enjoying her private aerie in Kim’s studio upstairs. She is not pleased with cat visitors although our enormous black male, Beau, persists in visiting and attempting to make friends. I find him sitting calmly like a loaf of cat on the day bed and her being hissy, pissy.

Blackie and Beau have had a few set to’s and I need to keep an eye on that. Beau really has tried to make friends but now is hissy himself – it is after all his full time house. Blackie is not having it but also he has a gamey leg that we had seen at work before leaving. Because he refused to walk for the vet wasn’t much they could do but pain killers. He’s better but his jumping is off and I think he knows it and is more defensive.

*Some beautiful sunrises during my commute but just as happy to not do it for a few weeks!*

Aside from that, much rain has made the garden explode with green but I feel like the flowers and the veggies are slower coming to fruition. I waited forever for the cosmos seeds to come up. The heavy rains moved them around and some probably actually rotted. However, we have a nice clutch for cutting flowers. The dahlias are just getting started and I am anxious for them as they and the Rose a Sharon tree attract the hummingbirds I love.

*Chopped one of these into my fish stew and my guest’s head about blew off! Forgot I like it really spicey!*

Tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are promising this year with the cherry tomatoes already kicking out produce regularly. The jalapeno peppers are doing a grand business, but as above the tomatoes are dragging their feet and so are some beans I put in which are just getting down to business. There’s a fig tree bursting with figs for the first time and some excellent, if mysteriously doll-sized strawberries. Huh.

A nice addition to New Jersey life are the farmer’s markets. It is a discovery for us, they’ve been here. The really good Garden State produce I love can be found at these – juicy Jersey tomatoes (my own are still green!), corn, peaches and nectarines. There is one in Red Bank and one in Fair Haven. Red Bank is about a three mile walk and the Fair Haven one is about that round trip. Kim and I like a good walk and an Uber and always be employed if we don’t want the six mile round trip to and from Red Bank or if we have heavy bags.

Today we welcome our first house guest in a long time. Our friend Bill is making the trip. He’ll be followed by some folks for lunch Monday and then another friend for three days at the end of the month. (Deva, we’re practicing and working up to your stay!) Of course I always cook a lot when I am here so it is just a question of laying in supplies for some marathon Jersey meals and deck time. I figure guests should be treated to the best of our Jersey fare and as part of that project I am making (my first!) tomato pie. So more to come on that and the relative success.

*Early, new dahlia with a pollen covered bee!*

So, lots more to come but I have to get outside and water the plants before it gets any later.

Gourd-gous

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: The season is suddenly tipping hard in the direction of the holidays and winter. Last night I ordered a new long down jacket online – at the end of last winter the zipper finally broke one I had been wearing happily for decades. (My mother gave it to me so many years ago – it might predate my meeting Kim!) While perhaps not the most stylish of long down coats it was thick and toasty warm. I have tried new zippers on down coats before and for some reason they are especially recalcitrant however.

My office these days, and the hospital, are along the East River, overlooking the FDR highway. The wind and water are always worse there than anywhere else, even our apartment building which is only one block west. While walking a half hour to and from work is lovely in some ways, come the middle of the winter it will be less charming. I was a bit ill prepared last year when I started in January and am tackling the impending winter pro-actively this year – boots and coats.

*An earlier leaf incarnation I snapped a pic of.*

Thanksgiving is late this year and in my mind I kept pushing it forward until now suddenly it is upon us. I am using the few days to go to New Jersey (and visit the Jersey kitties) and plant some spring bulbs. We are experiencing a well publicized drought right now so I am concerned that the ground will be as hard as a rock when I try however. Nonetheless, the thought of tulips and other flowers blooming in the spring will drive me forward. Time to take the dahlias in and wrap them up in the chilly garage for the duration of the winter. The hibiscus and a small olive tree (seen below still out on the deck here) are already living their winter life in the kitchen there although I understand that the cats are too interested in them and I think they need to relocate to the bedroom.

*Late summer and fall dahlias are more than worth the effort to store them over the winter.*

Work and other commitments have kept me from trips I had hoped to make there in November so this week will be the first time I am there in quite a while. I am looking forward to the very last of the tomatoes and a solitary cucumber that is being saved for me.

Back in October I decorated the front stoop with some warty pumpkins – I love them! They are appropriate through November and until it is time to add a wreath to the door and some swags of greens to the railings.

While I am missing access to the Jersey late autumn, Kim has supplied me with a mini-fall here in the apartment. These gourds came from the local grocery and are as charmingly wart filled and interesting as you could ask for. Like mini-pumpkins, they perch (and are occasionally buried by paper) on my desk, little happy harbingers of the season.

Kim has followed that up with an assortment of fall leaves which have started appearing. Not surprisingly, the man has a great eye for leaves. Their passing extraordinary colors attract him and he has collected and attempted to save them (largely unsuccessfully) for years. We tried pressing, the microwave and just letting them sit. He has put them under the plexi on top of his desk. This year he has delivered them to my desk and I have been enjoying the somewhat fragile random harvest of them and they are the season to me this year.

Late Bloomer

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: A particularly prized photo is winging its way to me, but has not yet arrived and we are at the very tip of the holiday season and related posts. So today I devote a bit of space to an odd post, my fondness for amaryllis bulbs, the seasonal floral herald of the holidays.

For those of you who have not dabbled in them, these bulbs are a very hardy and easily grown indoor variety which appear this time of the year. Among the bulbs that can be “forced” and potted inside, the amaryllis appears for the holidays. It shares a bit of shelf space with a small selection perhaps of paperwhites maybe some daffodils, but largely this time of the year it dominates. I say, race to the store and buy one now.

The charm of them is that not only are they easy to grow, but they shoot up so fast you can almost imagine you can see it grow daily. Then, out of a huge green shoot emerges usually several large blooms which unfold with similar drama. They continue to bloom and hold their flower for a long time. In a small way, I think it is hard to be unhappy in the face of an amaryllis on a sunny window sill. I guess there must be duds, but I can’t really think of a time one didn’t perform for me.

It seems our bulbs are a hybrid of a species that grows native in South and Central America and the Caribbean. I guess folks grow them outside here, but that is not how I think of them, nor do I even know what time of the year they would reveal themselves outside.

*Left to their own devices they will bloom in spring and have to be encouraged to a December bloom instead.*

The name comes from a Greek legend. A young maiden named Amaryllis was trying to catch the eye of a handsome shepherd, Alteo, who only had eyes for flowers. After conferring with the gods, she pierced her heart with a golden arrow for 30 nights and finally on the last, the drops of blood that fell turned to blooms and lead him to her. She doesn’t die so all seems like a happy ending, at least as good as you get in Greek myths. It would seem that, like tulips, the it is the industriousness of the bulb growers in the Netherlands which is responsible for most of our holiday amaryllis today.

As we meander into the late winter and toward Easter tulips and daffodils will beckon to cheer us through the last of the winter stint. However the amaryllis kicks off not just the holidays, but gives us one last flower hurrah before the long dark winter ahead. This is the earliest I remember buying them. A Home Depot has just opened near my office (I love stores like Home Depot and especially Lowe’s in New Jersey, although there the fascination is buying garden supplies and plants) and I went in to have a look at lunch the other day and several different varieties were stacked all around.

*The sign for the new Home Depot near work, delivered back in September and waiting for installation here.*

In the past it had been my practice to purchase them as holiday gifts. I would load up on them and hand them to elderly people I visited for my work at the Met and I would bring a few to New Jersey for my mom and friends there. Whole Foods used to sell them just dipped in a bit of red wax. They were inexpensive and easy to transport. Oddly my memory is that lot had great growing and lasting power and that some even had a second bloom in them. Somehow though, by the time I was shopping for them in mid-to-late December they were hard to find. Occasionally I would order a pile from Amazon (because really, what can’t you get from Amazon?), but even there I was generally picking up the last of them.

In the past few years I have bought fewer. I had always made sure mom had a one or two, there is a large sunny window in the kitchen in New Jersey that is great for them. That was where she spent her days and I would get reports on the progress of the bulb and they brought her great joy, but after she died I drifted away from buying them. I no longer had encounters at work it was welcomed, many of those elderly friends are gone now as well.

*Breck’s has a wide variety to choose from but start at about $30 a piece!*

However, due to my new interest in gardening, the sites I buy bulbs from started sending me ads for them a couple of weeks ago already. (Spring bulbs from Brecks await my Thanksgiving arrival in New Jersey for planting – largely tulips. Spoiler alert for spring – and I also purchased some dahlias on sale that won’t arrive until early spring planting time.) I was tempted by their sturdy large varieties but they were very expensive, upwards of $35 a piece. For me part of the point is that they are inexpensive enough to be a nice small something for someone, a little nothing with a big pay off over several weeks of enjoyment.

Home Depot was the right price point, although the bulbs are in bulky boxes and some in nice but heavy glass containers. (Warning however, online their amaryllis wares are much pricier – in the store I was able to pick them up for about $16.) Despite being a bit weighty, I bought several and have already started handing them out, kicking off with a visit to a board member’s home yesterday. There is a pile waiting to go to New Jersey for Thanksgiving this year here in the apartment. One left at the office is earmarked for a holiday party in a few weeks.

*Another pricey pretty beauty from Brecks!*

Your timing has to be right as the bulbs are so anxious to get blooming that they will start even in their packaging. It is an ambitious flower!

Kim has just wandered through on his way out the door to make copies of something and informed me that Frank King, the artist behind Gasoline Alley, ultimately retired and raised amaryllis bulbs. Isn’t it sort of fascinating that a man who wrote what is essentially a real time comic strip would be so devoted to a flower that almost grows before your very eyes? Amazing!

Ode to October

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: October is a favorite month for weather here on the East coast of the US. It is when we start to pull our sweaters on and jackets, but we have not yet moved to burrowing in our warm coats and many woolen layers. The holidays and the end of the year still seem pleasantly far in the future. (This year with an anxiety fraught election in the offing, we are staving off thoughts of November.)

When I was a kid it meant you were weeks into a new school year and while the shine was still on the year and the slogging had not started, it wasn’t so new that you were adjusting to it all as you had been in September. All those back to school clothes that were a little warm in September were working better come October and by now your stiff new shoes were getting better worn in.

*Late strawberries and the olive tree, residing in the blue pot, which has much bright green new growth.* *Am hoping it is willing to be coaxed through the winter inside.*

Having spent my whole professional career in fundraising, it is the signal to the tumult of year end which is always very busy. (If it isn’t something else is entirely wrong as it was my first year at Jazz.) The summer has been spent laying plans for these last months of the year and we execute them at breakneck speed. My new gig combines the end of the calendar year with the finish of the fiscal year and tops it off with a Gala at the beginning of December – dizzying. (Driven by the close of the tax year for donors, many not for profits will bring in 25 to as much as 50% of their annual income in the last quarter of the year.)

Given my choice (although I rarely have been), it is the time of year I would travel and sometimes I have booked my business travel in the fall when I had an option. (I often did not – fundraisers tend to do things like go to Florida in the winter, or in my case formerly, follow the orchestra somewhere in February and March.) I had the good fortune to travel to Germany on a trip with the Met in the fall once. Lovely!

*A friend suggested cutting some of these and drying them to keep inside which was a nice suggestion. These hydrangea have turned this lovely pink late in the game.*

But New York is hard to give up in October as it is the time the leaves on the trees start to change which never fails to enchant. The City has whipped itself up for the fall, exhibitions opening, concerts scheduled and more, and is in full tilt. All of the dates with people I had deferred far into the future are appearing on my calendar.

For that reason I am especially pleased Kim and I got married in October. It was an event I got to schedule and choose and October was a lovely day and is a lovely moment for our anniversary. Although our level of celebration is low-key (watch for a maybe post next week) fall is a nice time to be out and traipsing around a bit together.

*A friend staking these in my absence. The apricot one is the first I have seen from that plant!*

I head to New Jersey tomorrow (the heating system needs to be serviced and turned on), where I get reports that the dahlias are full tilt. One I had never seen bloom before has turned out to be a favorite apricot color. Zinnias which took their own time about flowering are finally hard at it. I will plant more (and perhaps earlier) next year though as they are very jolly.

Some errant cabbages have taken hold and I am not sure what to do with them – will they become more like heads? How do I cook these? Also, something is eating them. Sadly the cucumbers may come to much fuss about nothing and not produce that much in the end. Maybe I will even get to sit out with the fire pit tomorrow night. I never seem to be there for the right weather.

My vulnerable young fig tree needs wrapping in burlap soon and the hibiscus and olive tree, in pots, will need to move inside for the winter. The dahlias will need to be dug out and stored too once they are done, but that is more like a trip in November.

*Saved this hibiscus from a damaged half-price shelf at Lowes and it is lovely.*

However, I find this fall haunts and chases me a bit with hints of sadness for the waning year. Perhaps just too much change with mom passing, job shift and the like – I don’t respond to change well in general. The fall is not filling me with optimism and energy the way it usually does. However, a day in the garden tomorrow, cuddles with kitties and a anniversary day with Kim next weekend should do much to set me right again.

Ducks, Geese and Chickens

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: This photo postcard makes me think about my mother who loved ducks, geese and swans. Frankly she was less romantic about chickens which she grew up around although she bore them no ill will and being a vegan did not eat them nor their eggs. Mom did tell stories about her childhood and how they roosted in the neighbors trees and would occasionally torment her on her way to or from school.

It’s a pity this photo was poorly made, overexposed and with an odd sloppy line of poor printing at the bottom. (I have improved it some before sharing with you.) However my mom would have liked this card.

Those things notwithstanding, it is a compelling image and caught my eye online a week or so back and I purchased it for the house here in New Jersey. It is a photo postcard and was never used.

*Photo of a photo of the house I grew up in.*

As some readers know, I grew up in a house on an inlet of a river here, the Shrewsbury River. It was within walking distance of the ocean and as a result my childhood was full of time on the water – swimming in the ocean and walking the beach or crabbing off our dock or taking a rowboat out in the backyard. Mom’s nascent passion for animals first took the form of cats and dogs, strays and kittens that needed home.

However, later in life mom started feeding a flock of swans inhabiting the secluded inlet near our house. Then, slowly, she started helping out with an injured swan, goose or duck. Before long she was traveling to fetch a stranded pinioned one here or one that swallowed fishing line there. Betty became the go to for injured waterfowl for not just the surrounding counties but even in the surrounding states. Swans and geese that could not be released back into the wild were placed in areas in New York and New Jersey with appropriately large water bodies where food would be available and people would care for them.

*A dahlia also on the hummingbird path of nectar.*

Betty fought for these birds as well as other animals – helping to shut down puppy mills, purveyors of sick dogs. So many rescued bunnies found a home in our backyard that they were all so tame they would come right up to you if you sat out in the yard. I would come to New Jersey for a visit and the guest bathroom would be commandeered by a swan. Even at the same time, a rescued cat might be healing in an upstairs room. Somehow it all seemed quite natural at the time. Or at least it was our normal.

*Strawberry plant currently on the deck which seems to be a happy stop for hummingbirds.*

In her last years mom had a commanding view of the deck and the yard from the chair she spent virtually all her time in. It was planted for the explicit pleasure of birds, bees and butterflies. However, it wasn’t until after her death that I started spending time outside here and on the deck and began to realize how successful she was. Furry bees buzz busily everywhere, but especially early in the morning and evening. Hawks fly overhead, but sparrows, robins and a host of other birds amass. Bunnies of the more shy variety nibble greens in the yard – I think they and the chipmunks eat more heartily when unobserved, or so it seems from the consumption of my berries and veg.

*Front of the NJ house earlier this week.*

Most notably I never knew about the hummingbirds. I have loved the idea of them from the first I learned about them in sixth grade, but it was years before I saw one in person. I used to try to temp them to feeders with syrup water concoctions. It turns out that they love this yard! They appear to have a path from my dahlias, to a strawberry plant with bright red flowers and then to two Rose of Sharon trees (one white and one purple) that technically belong to my neighbor but hang heavily over my side of the fence. and amazingly enough, if I sit quietly on the porch long enough, one will pause en route, pausing, suspended in front of me in greeting.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30