The old and the new

While we all wait for winter to leave and spring to arrive, work in the vineyards out back continues. In this case, another old parcel is being dug out. I figured that this parcel was doomed when the owners pulled out the guide wires and stakes last fall. Once the vine trunks are pulled up (with the help of this digger), they'll likely get piled up and burned. Then the land will probably lie fallow for a year or three before being replanted with new vines. You can see, to the right of the dirt road, part of the parcel that was replanted last year. The parcel being dug out is on the left.

The digger stays out overnight. Nobody's going to mess with it.

Freezing temperatures were predicted for this morning, but our thermometer registers two degrees above. Of course, the temperature near the house is slightly warmer than the temperature out among the vines. But I don't see any smudge pots out there, so the growers are either taking a chance or they know something we don't. 

New York State of Mind

This is the World Financial Center, seen from the World Trade Center observation deck in 1994. I'm not certain which buildings survived the September 11 attacks in 2001, but many of them did. Much has been built and re-built since then.

Battery Park City in lower Manhattan, May 1994.

 

 

 

The weather has turned. We're enjoying gusty winds and showers once again.

Here's another shot taken from the top of the World Trade Center in New York back in 1994.

No reply

It's been twenty-four hours since I texted the landscape guy. No answer. I think his number works; we texted each other last summer when he came over to do the estimate for some additional work beyond the annual hedge trimming. It's like Roseanne Roseannadanna's father used to say: It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Tulips in Albany, NY, May (I think) 1994.

 

Le pliage

The folding. That's what they call this step in preparing the grape vines for spring and summer. They've been pruned to one strong cane and each cane will be "folded" to the horizontal and attached to a guide wire. New shoots will grow up from that cane and produce leaves and, eventually, grapes.

You can, hopefully, see the canes (with buds) attached to the horizontal wires.

We're still waiting for the landscape guy to show up for the annual hedge trimming (and other work). I sent him a text message this morning, hoping that he'll reply. It was a hard, wet, winter and I imagine he's backed up with work. But still, too long without a word. Fingers crossed. 

Grape buds

This is what's being protected on cold mornings with fans and smudge pots. There are no fans in the vineyards we live next to, but they have used smudge pots a few times since we've lived here. I haven't seen any this season, yet. There's still about two months of frost danger to go. If the buds freeze, they are likely to die and fall off the vine. Fewer buds equals fewer leaves and, subsequently, fewer grapes.

Buds on the grape vines are growing and new leaves will soon form.

Friday was pizza day

Yesterday, I made a rather simple pizza topped with tomato sauce, mushrooms (sliced and lightly sautéed with oregano from the garden), and grated cheese (comté from eastern France). This time I was more attentive to the process and avoided a repeat of last month's pizza-mageddon. Papa's got his grove back!

We each ate one of these. Tasty!

I'm itchin' to get the mower running and to start cutting sections of the yard. I can't mow before lunch because we get really heavy dew. Mowing wet grass is no fun. By mid-afternoon (after lunch), my motivation wanes, just having had lunch (and maybe some wine). Meanwhile the grass is growing. I go though this every year and somehow it all works out.