Daylight Time

Patty visited her brother last week. She gave him some plants from our gardens.

He gave her a time piece that had been their father's.

A sundial. Jim, her brother, thought I might like it.

He was right. Patty thought it would look nice out in the garden. I think she meant just set on the ground. As it had a mounting screw hole I was thinking on a post, and told her so.

"Like on a stump?" she asked. Hmmm ...

Perfect.

Back When the Trees Still Had Leaves

We, as is our custom, had Jack-O-Lanterns in the garden.

(Although the leaves had already begun to fall.)

And I took some pictures. (Surprise!) With my iPhone. And they sat on my phone until this week.

And I don't remember what I was doing. But this one looks a bit like a painting to me.

Clearly, I kicked the tripod. Except, there was no tripod.

I have no idea how I did this. Attempts to recreate were not successful.

Light Painting

Another shot from the recent outing.

A bit of an accident, as I was trying to get calm water for the reflection.

Something that would not have happened back in the film days, as I would have waited and waited and likely never clicked the shutter.

Weekend Wanderings ... The Spy House

Once upon time there was a house, the Spy House, in which drinks were served and Redcoats with loose lips sunk ships. Or so the story went. And that was the tall tale told to me, and many others, by one Mrs. Gertrude Neidlinger.

The actual story, while to the history buff is just as interesting, is much less fanciful.

But to a twelve year old boy tales of spies and Revolutionary War battles fired the imagination. And I ate this stuff up.

I remember going there with my boy scout troop and hearing these stories. Apparently Ms. Neidlinger told some ghost stories as well, but I do not recall those (I had no interest in ghosts).

As the tale went, this was a tavern (it was, but not during Revolutionary War times; tavern days would come much later) and the British had many ships in the Sandy Hook and Raritan Bay at New York City (maybe so?). The British sailors would come ashore to eat and drink. And the proprietor would pass info about the ships to Colonial troops. And while the owner of the house was on the side of the victors in this war, it was a house and home at the time, not a tavern.

Today the house is part of Bayshore Waterfront Park, in the Monmouth park system. Back then, it was a private museum struggling to stay afloat. And I was quite surprised when I visited this past weekend to see no mention of spying. It wasn't until I got home and went wandering on the web that I found the real story.

The New York City skyline in the distance. Much different looking than in Colonial days.

And today it is US Navy ships, like the distant one center left in the image above, that ply these waters, visiting the Earle Naval Weapons Depot.

⚓️  ⚓️  ⚓️

I grew up surrounded by military bases. Army bases at Hartshorne Woods and on Sandy Hook, which also houses an active Coast Guard base. The first house my parent's bought in New Jersey was on a road that ended with a fence across it. On the other side of that fence, which we kids would sometimes sneak under, was the Earle Naval Base. And Hartshorne Woods was immediately adjacent to my high school.

During the Korean War my Dad was in the army. And he was stationed on Sandy Hook and Cape Cod. Defending the east coast from the North Korean navy. History shows that he, and his fellow soldiers, were quite successful at this.

🎼   🎼  🎼  🎼

My Mom was a member of St.Agnes Senior Choir. And that choir made an album of Christmas music. In the late 1960's. On vinyl. Hipsters before it was hip.

If you look closely (bigafy!) you'll discover that Gertrude Neidlinger was the conductor of the choir.

And that my Mom was one of the Sopranos. Who knew?

🖼  🖼  🖼

Clown by Amalie Day

This masterpiece was painted by my sister, in 1971. And is currently hanging in my parent's garage. No doubt because it is too heavy to tape to the refrigerator.

My sister took painting lessons from a local artist. Travers Neidlinger, Gertrude's husband.

(This painting is available, let me know if you're interested. But act fast, it will be gone by the first week of May.)

Yard Critter of the Day

A bit of yard art acquired at the Philadelphia Flower Show in 2018.

It survived the winter with just a bit of rust and a recently (thanks Patty) re-straightened tail.

All ready for spring.

Weekend Wanderings ... Deep Cut Gardens

I mentioned Deep Cut Gardens in the Vesuvius post a couple of days back.

I knew nothing of the 'volcano' when I decided to go. My destination was chosen solely based on proximity to my parent's place, as I'm still hanging with Mom and Dad as Dad recovers from his broken hip. He's doing very well.

I arrived and started walking about, it is not obvious where to go. There are some buildings adjacent to the parking lot, but no map kiosk as with other parks in the Monmouth County system.

And thus I stumbled upon this somewhat unkempt fish pond. With both koi, which like this one were expecting handouts, and tiny perhaps native fish, that wanted nothing to do with me.

Eventually I found my way to the visitors center.

The original house mysteriously burnt to the ground after the mob boss of the Vesuvius post hightailed it to Italy in 1937. This house was built by subsequent owners Karl and Marjorie Sperry Wihtol and donated to the park service along with the gardens in 1977. Monmouth County purchased some additional land to add to the park which is now some 54 acres.

The current building was built on the location of the prior house in 1953 and today has a somewhat obscured view of the formal garden down the hill. Seems the trees have grown some over the years.

About the volcano area are these stone pools, the terraced water pools of a traditional Italian garden.

And the rather gnarly trees which have overgrown the paths. I like them.

See the house? Me neither. Just trees. And rocks and steps.

I'm sure this garden looks quite grandiose in bloom.

But now, not so much.

Apparently I missed Hot Cocoa season.

"Floribunda" is actually a rose cultivar, having nothing to do with cocoa, hot or otherwise. Bummer.

The rest of the property was a mix of natural woods and ponds, ruins, and park installations.

Wildlife was scarce. I saw American Robins like the one shown above and Song Sparrows.

And the pond had a variety of calling frogs. Although try as I might I did not see a single one. And they were calling right at my feet.

Not gonna be a problem.

Another of the "ruins" I mentioned. Not sure what this was or was supposed to be.

It was then a nice saunter through the woods.

As will the gardens, very little greenery.

This is a deer fence, it completely enclosed the park. I'm not sure if the vines are load bearing or just the load.

Rabbits are not the issue.

This it a bonsai exhibit. Yep, fooled me too. Until I looked into it.

Bonsai trees. A rather odd installation.

There were flowers.

Albeit not many.

On the hillside around form the rock pools. The so called "Japanese-themed garden" on the map.

There were several greenhouses, but only this one was open to the public. With signs on each door asking visitors not to take anything.

🚶‍♂️  🌷  🚶‍♂️  🌳  🚶‍♂️

An nice little park with an interesting history. And likely the last of my wanderings in the Monmouth County Park System, as Dad is getting better, my siblings will taking over parent sitting, and Mom and Dad will be moving in May, to an assisted living complex not far from where my youngest sister lives. It was nice getting to visit some places that I otherwise would not have. But I'll be glad when Mom and Dad are happily, and safely, ensconced in their new home.

More Flowers

The 2016 Philadelphia Flower Show was the first for Patty and I as a couple. The theme was National Parks, as 2016 was the hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service.

And unlike this year's show, the theme was obvious throughout.

And there seemed to be more flowers. I know right, flowers at a flower show. Go figure.

Much more colorful than this year, but not as much as the 2017 show.

Perhaps the best exhibit was that for Yellowstone.

Although they should have had a working geyser methinks.

Boomtown Bear by Emily White

I forget which park the bear was in (maybe someone's garden now as it was for available for purchase).

National Park was interpreted somewhat liberally, as seen here ...

... in an exhibit of where I live. No, not the house; obviously that's home to the Jersey Devil. Rather the Pinelands National Reserve. Of which our home is at the western edge, just inside the Reserve.

Or here, with this house that was for a National Historic Site, if I recall correctly.

Speaking of taking liberties ...

I've been in several caves, both national and state parks, and I've yet to see flowers in one.

I'm not sure what these next two were going for.

But they did catch my eye.

This was the year of the Death Valley Super-Bloom.

I'm not sure that the folks who put together this exhibit had actually seen it. Nor the judges that gave it gold and blue prize ribbons.

Not our house either.

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I forget what started us thinking about going to the flower show. Probably we wanted a bit of color during winter. And when we looked into it it made sense to become PHS members. So we joined. And then the super bloom happened and we jetted off to Death Valley. So the show was a bit of pale imitation to the real thing.

Not unlike the super-bloom exhibit.