A New Year a New Appreciation

Winter is so much bleaker than the rest of the year. In Spring and Summer, flowers are lovely and make for wonderful photographs. There are new projects outside to write about and photograph. In Winter, the landscape is barren and largely gray. A dear friend of mine, Tim, commented the other day, that it was interesting to look across my yard in Winter and see things he did not notice during Summer. His comment caused me to ponder. Winter doesn’t look as exuberant as Spring and Summer, there is less color, but there are still lovely things in the yard.

The property has some significantly large trees. These really stand out in the Winter. Their monumental sizes are heightened by the bare branches against the sky.

This enormous sycamore tree stands out. I do not know the age. It seems ancient. This afternoon, I measured it. The tree is 15 feet in circumference, at roughly 4 feet above the ground. It is difficult to estimate the height, perhaps more than 110 feet. When I first bought the property, it was covered in thick vines. They were killing the tree. It took several years to remove them. I first cut them at the ground to kill them and then slowly pulled them off. My neighbor, Judge Berry, was impatient about the amount of time I was taking to remove the dead vines and insisted on helping to remove as much as possible. He would not let me climb the ladder. I shudder a little at this photograph and his precarious position. The last vestiges of the vines fell off this past Spring.

This massive tulip tree is 14 feet in circumference at approximately 4 feet above ground level. It has an unusual and distinctive branch curving down to the ground. It makes for an intriguing spot for a photograph. My little neighbor boys have balanced on the lowest part of the branch, and I have a lovely photo of my Goddaughter sitting in the same spot. (For privacy reasons, I am not posting them.) Surely it is one of the oldest tulip trees in the area. I have not seen one larger.

The magnolia tree nearest the house is beyond spectacular. It too is a gigantic tree that bursts in bloom in Spring. This past Spring, it was hit by a late cold spell resulting in fewer blossoms. The photo above is from 2020. The blooming of the tree is something I look forward to each year.

Winter also shows off the “bones” of the landscape.

When I first moved in, my neighbor told me there was a tunnel under the NY State Road, 9W. I found this difficult to believe. In the before photo above, I had already started to clear the overgrown and invasive plants from the area. The snake like bittersweet vine wrapped around the tree shows the extent to which plants were allowed to take over. In the photo from today, the tunnel is clearly visible. It leads onto the Powelton Club golf course – one of the oldest golf courses in the United States. Too many people have a variation about why the tunnel exists. It is funny to listen to each person tell me why it is there. Some of the stories are absurd, but each person punctuates their story, with the fact that they know the real reason. I have planted periwinkle on the steep bank and green giant arborvitae, to eventually screen the view of traffic.

The lack of greenery in Winter also allows me to view my house differently. I often feature the front elevation. However, one of my most favorite perspectives is from the side.

Most modern homes are a variation of a box. There is a rectangular box, capped by peaked roof. There is nothing wrong with this. Even the White House was originally built as a rectangular box with a peaked roof. The reason I like this view of the house, is that it shows the various roof lines of the house. There are peaks, unusual dormers, setbacks and odd angles. It is a complex arrangement that only an architect could imagine. I find it charming.

Vistas take on a different look in Winter. There are no trees to block the view or leaves to hide the landscape.

The entrance gate to the oriental garden stands out more in Winter. The rear elevation shows the vegetable garden unembellished by morning glory vines. The view of the mountains, covered in Summer by the trees at the Powelton Club, features Mount Beacon in the distance. During the American Revolution, George Washington had his headquarters in Newburgh. Directly across the Hudson River is Mount Beacon. Fires were lit on Mount Beacon as warning signals of invading British ships sailing the Hudson River.

This past week we had a significant amount of rain. When this happens the drains in the yard are overwhelmed and can back up.

When the drain was overwhelmed last week, a pond formed. Two deer walked back and forth in the water for quite a long time. Not visible in the post, but visible in the original photograph, was a fox crouched between two trees, watching the deer and me. The pond drained about a half hour later.

Looking back over photographs it is rewarding to look at the yard I purchased, in comparison to the one I enjoy today. The woodland garden before photo shows the garden after the removal of a gargantuan pile of branches and debris piled around this rock, which was barely visible. The photo to the right is the woodland garden entrance to the right of the before photo.

It is a new year, a time for new plans and new challenges. I have made my list of goals for the year – 36 projects and counting, so far. More Winter days are on the horizon. In the meantime, I will look around and think about Tim’s statement and notice the yard anew.