LOOOOOONG-time fans of the City of Nouns might just remember Grill Hobstein. Yesterday, just after I’d returned from walking Gregory to school, he called my cell. “Mommy,” he said with remorse in his voice, “I forgot my lunch.” So, off I went, lunchbag in hand and camera around my neck. The picture above shows downtown Metuchen in the distance. You can tell where “downtown” is by the puff of white trees. That puff of white trees is better-known in MY house as “Grill Hobstein.”

You see, way back in ancient times when Gregory was 3, he would mumble things, and one time he mumbled “Grill Hobstein” over and over and over until we finally figured out that he was trying to tell us that something smelled yucky.

What was it that smelled so bad it needed its own name?

A-HA! Blossoming pear trees! Ew! Grill Hobstein, dude!

Been to downtown Metuchen this week? The pear trees are beautiful, no? At the same time, you might be wondering, “What is that smell? Did somebody leave rotten fish out somewhere?”

No rotten fish. It’s just Grill Hobstein. Bradford pears, aristocrat pears, ornamental flowering pears in blossom smell yucky. Yet another reason to plant anything else.

NOTE TO EVERYBODY! PLEASE READ ON…
Above, that’s my front yard.



MY E-MAIL IS DOWN AGAIN.
That’s a leaf on my October Glory red maple.



So I thought I’d post a few pictures of my trees, all taken yesterday. Something pretty to look at while we wait for e-mail to return.
Isn’t this one of my Red Sunset red maple cute?



But if you need to reach me, you can either call, or E-MAIL ME AT jwsphoto@gmail.com.
Above, deep inside my Red Sunset Red Maple the leaves are much less red.



He’s bright red on the outside though.
See?



Full-length pictures of three trees: Top, Bradford pear is just beginning to show a little orange on the leaf tips. Left, an Armstrong maple glimmers in the morning sun. Right, October Glory red maple is not yet at peak color.



The October Glory may be red on the outside, but inside, she’s decidedly yellow.



That’s the October Glory on the left, growing into one of the Bradford pears.



And this is the other Bradford pear on the left, and my sugar maple on the right. LOTS of color this year! Lots of leaves too. Anybody want to organize a raking party?





From underneath the October Glory, an arborvitae is bright green in front of the red sunset.



The Greenspire Linden usually turns soft yellow, but not this year. So far, pale green.



That’s one of the Armstrong maples in the background. So pretty!



A leaf on my October Glory.
I love fall

*sigh*
I hate when my e-mail is down.

Happy honey-baked ham day!

There is a tiny bit of yellow showing in the Bradford pears today, a rainy morning. You can see it only on the leaves that have fallen to the ground though.



This is the view from my window. Foreground: My Japanese red maple. Background: one of the Armstrong maples, a street tree planted by the borough the year Gregory was born. These trees have really taken off this year, much like Gregory has! Those Armstrong maples are a perfect example of a red maple tree that does not turn red in fall.



Jeff from Linden will be interested to see my October Glory red maple today. Just a touch of color, Jeff, though one leaf in the center is bright red! Do you see it?



This picture shows how the Bradford pear and October Glory are growing together now, a perfect screen of trees blocking the neighbor’s windows eight months of the year. (But we have very little grass left and lots of leaves to rake.)



And finally, the sugar maple is a nice soft yellow today. I’m hoping it will still be pretty when my mom arrives from South Carolina on Sunday!

Can’t wait to see you, Mom!

For the best Halloween photographs, here are some easy do-it-yourself ideas.

PHOTO TIP #1 — First, you need an almost-13-year-old boy willing to do all the decorating on a budget. I gave Bradley $40 and one rule: “No burning down the house.”

He pocketed most of the money, and spent a good part of Sunday digging things out of the basement making his own decorations. In case you can’t read the tombstone he made out of plywood and Sharpies, it reads:

R.I.P

Rosalind Rigby

She left shamefully.

But she did save
a bunch of money
by switching
to Geico.



(That kid cracks me up.)



He hung white flowy ghosts from the linden tree. He got those from the basement, originally made out of white kitchen trash bags by me the year he turned 7. (For those of you who don’t know, Bradley will turn 13 this year — my little monster, Halloween baby born in Room 13 — is now, as of tomorrow, officially a teenage werewolf.) Those flood-resistant trash-bag ghosts have lasted quite a while, don’t you think?



Children throughout the neighborhood anxiously await the annual appearance of Elvira along the railing above our garage. Here’s where Bradley spent his money: $2.99 on a string of purple lights.

PHOTO TIP #2 — This is a cool picture partly because of the COMPOSITION of it. Graphically speaking, it has lots of angles and varying textures, as well as interesting contrast and shallow depth-of-field. I waited all day to get this picture, waiting for the light to give me a bit of an eery darkness and a glow to the trees. Tree fans, note the background of the shot. The tall yellow one is the black cherry tree behind our shed. It’ll be bare soon. Once the leaves start changing on that tree, they don’t hang on very long. The shorter green one is one of the Bradford pears next to the backyard swing. That one will still have leaves in December. Ugh. I hate raking when it’s 30 degrees out.



This happy ghost has been in our family longer than Gregory has!



The “dancing ghosts” have haunted our yard (and basement) for nearly a decade.



This scrapbook photo from 1999 shows the ghosts the first year they magically appeared underneath the linden tree. This year, Bradley banished them to what he called the “family friendly” side yard and underneath the Aristocrat pear.

Happy, dancing ghosts live in the “family friendly” area, he says, making room for his sinister, oozing graves and bleeding storm troopers that haunt the main yard. (There’s almost always a Star Wars reference in Bradley posts, ever noticed that? Wait a minute: aren’t storm troopers robots or something? Blood? I’m SO Star-Wars-challenged.)

PHOTO TIP #3 — It’s supposed to be a nice day here this Halloween. Take pictures in the early morning, when the sun is throwing long dark shadows and casting a deep orange glow, or in the late afternoon. When taking photographs of groups of children, make sure they stand really close together. Make monster faces and snorting noises. (Remember, it’s about the MOMENT. We like natural smiles, not cheese smiles.) Take a look at the background of the picture. Shoot for something pretty, like a clump of colorful mums, or some glowing jack-o-lanterns. Turn the flash OFF, and move the children so that the sun is not directly in their eyes, ideally so that it’s shining on roughly two-thirds of their faces. If half of one cheek is in shadow, your picture will have interesting contrasts. Think of the great artists and how they use light in painting. Click here for an example and a discussion of “Rembrandt Light.”

Ever watch Grey’s Anatomy? Rembrandt light ALL OVER THE PLACE! (I love that show.)

If your point-and-shoot camera has a “portrait” setting, set it on that. If it has any zoom factor at all, stand as far away as you can and zoom all the way in. This just might give your picture that nice shallow depth-of-field that my clients LOVE in my pictures.

Or, as an alternative, you can find me in my neighborhood. I’ll be in my mamarazzi costume (mom with a big camera) following all the neighborhood children and enjoying every minute of the family fun of trick-or-treating in my sweet New Jersey town.

Oh, and if you stop by my house, don’t be afraid of Elvira. She’s perfectly happy in her perch. And that storm trooper by the door? He’ll be your candy man. Probably a good idea to leave something in the bowl. Something milk chocolate. For Elvira.



Till next time,

Peace,
jules

She may be pretty, but it hits you like a wave of ocean spray. Oh wait. That’s not right.

It hits you like rotting fish. Yeah. That’s it.

Bradford pear trees may be gorgeous when they’re blossoming, but in case you were wondering what that fishy smell is in downtown Metuchen these days…



It’s the Bradford pear trees that line the streets.

Bleah.
(Plenty of other reasons to hate Bradford pear trees on my Bradford pear page. Have a look.)

My Bradford Pear trees are annoying.

They smell bad in spring when the blossoms come.

Their branches are too tight.

They scare me on windy days.

There’s mold growing on the ground from the WINTER shade because of those dense branches.

I’ve got too many “bad” trees — Bradford pear, purple leaf plum, black cherry — I’ve got surface roots and girdling roots and not enough space to plant good trees, like my baby gingkoes and Kentucky coffeetrees.

But to take these Bradford pears down would make me a tree murderer. Again.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

If I call the tree guy today, I can probably have them down before the smell starts. Where’s that cheap tree guy’s number?