Springtime Miscellany

Woods and Sky over the Brierley House

 
8 April 2012

Winter Larry led a super ride today.  I didn't stop for any pictures, though, so instead I uploaded a bunch of photos that have been living on my cell phone.

This is Princeton University's cogeneration plant, as seen from the roof of the adjacent parking garage.  I wanted to see how well my cell phone's camera could shoot into the sun.  I couldn't see what I was doing when I took the picture.

Here, Burnaby got himself comfortable on the sofa and behind a curtain.  The pictures only work if you don't look at them from too close in.

Some mornings I bike into work with my own caffeine.

Heidi Mass, a Master Gardener (married to PFW ride leader Andy Chen) is giving our yard a serious makeover.  The back became too shaded for grass, so we're putting in ground cover and perennials.  Right now she's halfway through, so the space just looks like a bad hair day.  But one of the little rhododendrons that she planted last year is blooming like gangbusters. 

 In front, we kept the grass.  As a surprise to me and Jack, she planted crocuses, daffodils, and grape hyacinths all over the front yard.  They came up beautifully.

I like how Heidi planted the hyacinths around the daffodils.  In all the years I planted bulbs, I never thought of doing that.

I don't know if these tulips are holdouts from previous seasons or whether Heidi planted them.  Either way, they got passed the squirrels this year.

Chris and I planted andromeda against the house a few years ago.  This season it's taking off.

 On Princeton's campus, just outside the door to the building I work in, a dandelion had already gone to seed.  It was the first day of spring when I took this picture.

That evening, the lighting was perfect for a night shot of two cherry trees in the parking lot outside of the Robert Wood Johnson fitness center in Hamilton.

This afternoon, Jack and I went for a walk along the D&R canal.  We started at the Brierley House, where a trail passes through a large wetland before reaching the canal.

We walked north, almost to Province Line Road.  That's the white bridge in the background.

Speaking of Province Line, you've got to take a close look at this map of New Jersey from 1777. If you look on the right side, just over the N in "Burlington," you'll see "Keith's Line," one of two lines drawn to separate East from West Jersey. Keith's line survives, in part, as Province Line Road, pictures of which are in yesterday's blog post.