Quilt #31

This isn't a great picture.  The quilt really is square, honest.

Another Great Bike Ride

We did another 13 miles roundtrip on the D&R Canal Towpath this morning.  We planned to park in the small lot on route 518 where it crosses the path, but it was full.  We parked instead in the large lot just south of 518.  We rode north to Blackwells Mills Road and then turned around.  There is also a large parking lot there, just west of the trail, complete with port-a-john.  The southern portion of the route was wetter than it was the last time we were there, due to yesterday's rain.  The northern portion was dryer with a better surface, but had large ruts that were hard to see and to avoid.  Not sure which was worse.  But it was still a very enjoyable ride.

Seward Johnson - continued

I am quoting here from a couple of the posters in the Seward Johnson exhibit.
"In 1982, Seward Johnson completed work on what would become one of his most renowned sculptures.  Double Check is the life-size bronze of a businessman sitting on a bench as he sifts through his briefcase, seeming to make final preparations for an upcoming business meeting in a nearby office building.  Shortly after it was completed, the work was installed in Liberty Plaza Park, in lower Manhattan.  The sculpture soon became a fixture in the downtown landscape and, for nearly twenty years, a symbol in honor of the thousands of people who worked every day in New York City's financial district."
"On September 11, 2001, the associations that millions of people made with Double Check day after day changed dramatically.  As the New York Times wrote about Double Check in the aftermath of the catastrophe:  With everything in ruins, one figure remained in Liberty Plaza Park across the street from the World Trade Center.  He was sitting hunched over, staring in his briefcase, a businessman who seemed to be in shock and despair.  Rescue workers, it was reported, approached him in the chaos to offer assistance, only to discover that he was not a man at all, but a sculpture.  Afterward, this sculpture became an icon, as newspaper and magazine photos showed it covered in ash and, later, by flowers, notes, and candles left there by mourners and rescue workers.   Double Check was a memorial to all those who perished --  The New York Times, January 16, 2004."

This is how the statue is represented in the exhibit at Grounds for Sculpture.

And now there is another sculpture, called Makeshift Memorial.  Seward photographed the items that had been placed by Double Check after 9/11 and reproduced them in bronze and welded them onto a casting of the original sculpture.  The new work is installed on New Jersey's Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, which overlooks lower Manhattan and the former site of the World Trade Center.

Seward Johnson and Grounds for Sculpture

We had a wonderful time at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton Township today.  A special exhibit of the sculptures of Seward Johnson is showing there into September.  Here are a few that show off his more whimsical side.

More Biking

We just rode 8.7 miles round trip on the Henry Hudson Trail.  We parked off Dutch Lane Road in Freehold and headed north.  We turned around south of Rt 520 where the trail heads off into a meadow before stopping.  Since it is a beautiful Sunday morning, with temperatures forecasted for the high 80's this afternoon, there was a fair amount of bike traffic and walkers.  I imagine there are many fewer people on a weekday.
Yesterday we biked 7 miles just within our neighborhood.  And W swam in the pool for the first time.  Plus we walked in the neighborhood in the evening.  So we are finally getting some exercise.
While we were walking yesterday we took a tally of houses under construction - we counted 33 and that does not count another section where there are at least a few.

Great Bike Ride

We had a great day today.  It was a beautiful day for a bike ride.  We were somewhat constrained by the fact that W had a lunch engagement, so we started out for Princeton early this morning.  We parked the car on the east side of the Delaware and Raritan Canal just north of Route 27 in Kingston and rode up the Kingston Loop Trail to its end on Route 518.  That trail was ok though narrow in spots.  It obviously is not very well traveled.  At Route 518 we switched over to the D&R Canal trail that goes between the canal and the Millstone River and continued north.  The trail was a bit muddy in spots due to yesterday's rain but in general it was in very good condition and we didn't have trouble making way with our hybrid bikes.

We met this turtle on the path and later saw a couple in the canal.

There were pretty forget-me-nots along the canal at one point.

And remnants of a lock as well.

We finally turned around at the Griggstown Causeway, which shows on the map as Route 632.  When we got back to Route 518 we continued down the D&R trail and it was a mess.  It was not in nearly as good condition as the more northern section.  We are so glad we did not start there or we may have given up.  So next time we will drive to Route 518 and park in the small lot there and head north.  Our total travel distance was about 10 miles.  We should be able to go farther next time if we don't have any time constraints.
Then after W's lunch we went bike shopping.  We both ordered Trek bikes which we should get next week.  They will stay in NJ and we will leave our older bikes at camp.  Then we can ride wherever we are.

Back to NJ

We drove back to New Jersey today in time for W to go to his new all-male book group.  While we are here we will take care of lots of things we didn't have a chance to do before we left for camp - like buy a grill for the patio - and W has a couple of doctor's appointments.  We'll be here for a couple of weeks then head back to camp for the rest of the summer.

Spider

As we were unloading from today's paddle I saw this neat spider on the garage.

Paddling Long Pond

Fourteen of us paddled Long Pond today.  We thought we might make it into Slang and Turtle Ponds as well, but ended up paddling nearly 9 miles just around Long Pond.  Since the water is fairly high, we paddled into Pink and Little Pink ponds and up the stream towards Mountain Pond.

It was a beautiful day though quite warm in the mid-80's by the time we stopped.  We didn't have much bug trouble except initially in the parking lot and the carry where there were huge numbers of mosquitos.

I found some new plants.  Wild Calla or Water Arum (Calla palustris in the Araceae)

and a beautiful member of the gentian family - common name buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata in the Gentianaceae).