And the pretty much sums up the weekend, folks!

We went to see the Sound of Music on Saturday at the Paper Mill Playhouse. That stanza of the song “My Favorite Things” keeps running through my mind ..

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes …

That and “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”

The performance was wonderful, the staging so well done! What lucky raffle winners we were!

And, speaking of snowflakes on my nose and eyelashes, I guess our expected snow amount has dwindled to “a coating to an inch” which is not ideal but certainly better than no snow at all. We shall see. Of course, places like Oklahoma are due to have a blizzard. Can you please tell me why it’s cold enough to snow in Oklahoma but not in New Jersey? Weather mystifies me. It truly does.

Yesterday found us up bright and early doing our Christmas grocery shopping. We needed to go to Franklin Lakes (stomping grounds of the Real Housewives of New Jersey) to the Market Basket to get our duck breasts and a few good cheeses. We had breakfast at the Oakland Diner, better known to its patrons as just the O.D. (I know Bigsis, I know!)

After groceries it was off to neighbor Kim’s annual Christmas open house across the street for a few hours of holiday cheer and chatter.

We hadn’t been home for very long when Rick yelled “SANTA, Lynne, get your camera!!” I had already changed into my around-the-house-sweats and slippers but I grabbed the camera and headed out the door. I didn’t have time to change lenses and had my biggest zoom lens on because the last time I used the camera I was aiming it at a woodpecker at the feeder. It worked out okay though. It was a little challenging since our normally empty street was lined with cars at the open house.

A slipped a twenty dollar bill in Santa’s helper’s hands and got a candy cane thumbs up from Santa!

I love living here. I just wish the expected snow counts were reversed and we were getting the blizzard and Oklahoma would get the coating-to-an-inch.

This morning I decided I was going to walk down to the newly opened Jessie’s for a TEC (Taylor, Egg & Cheese) breakfast sandwich that I’ve been craving for months now. Remember Jessie’s that burned down? They have reopened in a a different space: a restaurant that went bust just a few doors down from where their old place used to be. It’s right at the bottom of the hill on the main road that we live off of. We’re glad to have Jessie’s back! I’m not certain if they are going to rebuild in their old spot or not. For now they are renting the building.

This location has been three different restaurants since we’ve lived here. Most of the time it has just sat vacant. Every time we’ve seen a new restaurant open up we get excited since it’s so close to us. We eat there once and think meh. When they put up a sign that says “On Vacation” we know we won’t be seeing them again. It was a grill, then a pancake house (basically diner food) and most recently “Mexican” (I use that term loosely to describe their food) called El Rusty Anchor. The bars associated with the assorted restaurants always did a lively business but the food has never been great.

The last owner even planted a palm tree in the front to go along with his Mexican theme, which as you can see does not like life in northern New Jersey. It thrived the same way his restaurant did.

It’s a nice walk, maybe 3/4 of a mile? And here was my reward. Yum! I don’t indulge in these very often but they sure are tasty.

My walk took me past Green Turtle Pond which was placid and reflective this morning.

Alongside the road the woods are brown brown brown right now. Still pretty. But very brown.

This sign caught my eye and I thought it was funny.

I was hoping that the walk would help to burn off the calories I consumed but probably not! It was a nice walk either way.

Shadows on the wall created by our lighted garland on the stair banister.

We spent a quiet weekend hanging out around the house mostly. It was mostly foggy and drizzly all weekend long. Pretty gray. It’s still foggy out there this morning and in the mid 40’s. Today we’re supposed to get thunderstorms and more rain with temps in the 50’s. Not exactly wintry Christmas weather! It does this to me every year it seems. It taunts us with a few small snowfalls early on, then zip. So far so much for their predictions of a heavier-than-normal snowfall for this coming winter. But … it’s not winter officially yet and to their credit they did say it would mostly occur in January & February. Last year was so disappointing in the snow department that I was hoping it would make up for it this year. Patience, Lynne.

On Saturday we finished decorating the tree. To make up for the lack of snow outside we created our own snowstorm on our tree by decorating solely with the crocheted snowflakes my Mom made for us.

Alex helped with this photo.

Our neighbors (Aileen with the chickens) had their annual company Christmas party at their house yesterday. Every year her husband hitches up his big John Deer tractor to a large flathead trailer and they take their guests on a “hay ride” minus the hay. Last night it was foggy and drizzling when I let the dogs out after dark and happened to see Bruce driving the festively lit trailer up from their barn. I waited a few minutes, then went and stood on my front step. When I saw them coming I flashed our outside house lights three times and as they drove by waved and shouted “Merry Christmas” as the people on the trailer stood up and waved and shouted back. The sound of carols drifted along behind them as they made their way down our street. Sweet.

I am also hoping to catch Fire Truck Santa when he makes the rounds this year. We’ve missed him so many years in a row now it’s sad. The first year we saw him I thought someone’s house in the neighborhood was on fire when I heard the sirens, but it was just our volunteer fire department making the rounds with Santa strapped to the front of the engine. Here is a video of another version of Fire Truck Santa in our town in 2010. Funny, heh? I hope to catch him this year as he drives by our house and get some photos. Here’s hoping!

Small town living—you’ve gotta love it!

Sometimes you just need to sit back and listen in life. When I first moved to New Jersey I realized that people here like to talk. No matter if you are a stranger. Doesn’t bother them. Maybe I just have one of those sympathetic faces. I don’t know. But something I give off, be it in my mannerisms or facial expression, makes people want to tell me their stories. I needed to write this one down before I forgot.

First of all I want to say that the hair salon I go to (which is next to our Shop Rite) is a mecca for elderly ladies. Mostly they take over the salon on Fridays. They come in for their wash and set like they’ve done for their entire lives.

Yesterday when I walked in to the hair salon for my trim an elderly woman was sitting at the front of the salon. I took a chair by her, leaving one seat between us. She commented on how she thought my bag (as in purse or handbag) was handsome. She said she was waiting for her daughter to pick her up. Next thing you know she’s telling me that her daughter is a recent widow with two children ages 10 and 14. She’s only 52, you know, she told me. Had her children late in life she did. Now she’s all alone with those little ones. Her husband lived three days after his heart attack. The didn’t have any insurance on him and now she owes $50,000. He was only 54. Such a shame. She taps her cane a few times on the floor and shakes her head.

I nodded and expressed my regrets.

I’m 89, you know. Back right after the war I gave up a lot so that my husband could attend a government-funded school. He became quite successful. But after 37 years of marriage and all I gave him he left me and married somebody else. It felt wrong that I had given up so much for him and then he left. But I try not to dwell on that. Plenty of good things have happened in my life and like to think more about those. Still, sharing that seems to help me get rid of it. I hope you don’t mind.

I don’t mind at all I replied. Share away!

I’m 89 years old. I told you that, right? I’ve never smoked and didn’t really drink either. Everybody else my age was smoking but I didn’t go along with them. I’m glad of that now. I have my health. You ever smoke? she asks me. No, I reply. Never. Good for you! You got kids? No I said, they never seemed to fit into our life. She has no reply for this and seems to take it in.

As she’s doing so, I study her a bit. She looks very good for 89. Slight of build, with snow white hair and eyes that sparkle. Like many older ladies she has sprouted a pretty good mustache on her upper lip. I long to grab a pair of tweezers and pull out the thick black ones.

She squints up her eyes a bit and seems to be gazing off into the distance, thinking. She soon takes up right where she left off. Well, sort of.

I had a passionate hobby my whole life. I made pots. You know, out of clay. I was very good. My hands won’t let me work the wheel anymore. I miss it. My wheel is under the porch. I signed all my pots “Toni” on the bottom so if you ever turn over a pot and see the name “Toni” there, that’s me!

Toni is not my real name.  My real name was too difficult for people so I just started to call myself Toni. My real name is (and here she spells for me) E-M-M-O-N-D-S. Now I ask you what kind of name is that for a girl? But it’s a family name, some uncle I’m named for. I grew up around Indianapolis, all my family settled there. I’m from English stock. Had a relative in the Civil War and one was a general under Washington.

I’m 89. In great health!

At this point I see Margaret, my stylist, patiently waiting for us to finish our conversation so she can take me back for my trim.

As gently as possible I end our conversation and tell her to keep up whatever she is doing because it’s obviously working. As I head to the back of the salon, she’s still talking, only now she’s almost yelling so I will hear …

I’m 89!

Bless her heart.

Have you ever seen the movie The Station Agent? If not, you should! It’s an independent film that won the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and stars Peter Dinklage (of Game of Thrones) and was filmed not far from my house at the Newfoundland train depot. Matter of fact, Peter is a fellow New Jerseyite from Morristown.

The depot was built in 1872 and helped to bring tourists to the resorts in the area. Today the line is still used infrequently for freight but the passenger trains are long gone.

A few years ago after seeing the movie I stopped to take photos of the depot and the abandoned railway cars, but at that time someone was actually living there and they sort of chased me away. I vowed to go back, and this week I finally went.

Today there are Private Property / No Trespassing signs up here and there but I swear I didn’t see them right away! There is a sign in the window of the depot that states it’s available for parties, filming shoots, etc. so I could always say I was scouting it out. Anyway, no one bothered me on this nippy day.

I think it’s been a long time since the old signal was used.

This little out building stands behind the depot. To me it looked like an outhouse but when I peeked inside there were just a bunch of rusty old railroad spikes.

The two cabooses sit on the side looking very forlorn next to the old cement water fueling tower. At least they have not been covered with graffiti. Their weathered exteriors do make for a few interesting photo ops.

From reading online I found that this caboose is an Erie caboose from 1946.

I loved its weathered color. (and well … maybe just a little bit of graffiti!)

This one is a Pennsylvania caboose from 1914 and the poor thing is really showing its age. The paint is peeling away, allowing the wood to be exposed to the New Jersey elements.

A little further down the tracks sits an old passenger car from 1926.

I took a wide angle approach to the side and in this case I like the slight skew. How about you?

All aboard!!

I was not really in a creative mood and the light was not the best for some angles so I might repeat this photo shoot next year in the spring. Or maybe it would be cool in the winter too! (So to speak.) I am relatively happy with most of the photos.

Please do watch the movie! You can see a trailer here.