To go along with the second snowfall and snow day by default for R-FH area schools on MLK Day … A snowy reprise and musing about snow days at RFH …
Well, they’re calling it a snow day. It seems like these days it doesn’t take much of the fluffy white stuff to blow the snow day whistle — broadcast it on social media is more like it nowadays.
Continue reading Retro RFH Snow Day Drive Someone walked away from the bench. The sun hid behind the clouds. The river’s tide went out. Yet, it never left. Never does.
Continue reading Reflection: Benched in Riverfront Sunset Solitude
With the New Year on the horizon, sometimes it takes some moon glow to light the way.
The murky skies may mask the stars, but the moon tells us they’re there and always within a dreamer’s reach. And what’s not to reach for when the fuzzy picture becomes perfect with a moon waxing full standing in for the hidden star atop the evergreen.
Evergreen. It’s not just the live tree’s forever color that has a bright meaning. It’s what the murky sky masks — that evergreen riverfront scene. Always there. Always lit by the moon and stars behind the sky’s dank weather veil. Always attainable as we reach for the light, dazed into the New Year.
** Thanks to Fair Havenite Susan Culbert for the misty weather pics! She spotted the spectacular moon-topped tree on a trek down River Road before Christmas and the rest by the river. **
Here’s the weather forecast for the days ahead, courtesy of the National Weather Service …
There’s nothing like a crisp, bright fall day down by the river. It’s nothing to throw shade on, unless, of course, an umbrella or several are involved at an iconic spot along the Navesink.
That spot would be Barnacle Bill’s in Rumson. The shade? Well, when the fiery sunshine sears that fuzzy warmth into your soul, the umbrella that shades takes the glare away, calling the view into vivid focus. Call it falling for the same old, yet always new, scene. The river time scene.
River time. It’s time forever well-spent — sunny side always up under the umbrella of a day completed down by the river.
Take a look and feel the fall riverside sunshine in your soul. (Click on one pic to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)
The sun is set to shine bright for the rest of the week, bringing another little waft of locals’ summer. Here’s the Rumson-Fair Haven area forecast through the weekend from the National Weather Service …
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You could call these sunny fall days the dog days of river time. Really.
Continue reading Focus: Sun-Sopped River Dog Days
It doesn’t have to be the longest day of the year to get the most out of the warmth of river time before the sun sets, calling it a day — a first summer day.
The day may be over, but the river time feeling is forever docked in the mind. The fair haven on the Navesink always calls. Rain never drowns the call. The lap. The lull. The gentle tide reaches out and tugs at our hearts to stay. And we do.
Any day is the longest day down by the river, because it’s an endless river walk in our Fair Haven.
Rain never washes away the footprint of time wrapped in home’s swaddling river tide.
— Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro exclusively
And there will be lots of rain this week, drenching the area, according to the National Weather Service. It continues through the weekend and into next week …
The skies have been quite ominous and it’s code red for the air quality alert in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, as the smoke from the Canada wildfires continues to permeate.
Continue reading Alert: Rumson-Fair Haven Area Air Quality & Weather
Sometimes it’s just time to ride into the spring sun with the tide — down by the river, of course.
Now’s the time. When isn’t the time right, though? The bright light shows the way to the clarity of it all, though. The sun comes out, the water glistens and calls. The ride has begun. The ride into a tsunami of the simplest best of time-honored times at the Fair Haven Dock.
The dock may have changed over the years since Fair Haven’s existence, but the Navesink River it juts out to still plays the same part, ebbing and flowing with each ride down by its shores. Holding each ride with the times close. A piece of the dock etched indelibly.
The anchor is never lifted on the ride to river times. The moments stay. They will never leave. The sun is always there somewhere, casting its light on them. Always.
Take a look (click one photo to enlarge and scroll) and remember your time that stayed.
— Photos/Elaine Van Develde
There are some rainy days ahead, but the sun will return. Here’s the weather forecast from the National Weather Service …
As the sun sets over the Navesink River, a walk on the Fair Haven Dock sheds light on river time that saw its season, its sunshine — river time that stays within and keeps us warm with a vivid picture of where we were, where we are.
And when you’re lucky enough to go back in river time with a first childhood friend, the winter walk gets warmer with each step. Each step forward brings you back to the same place, together, half a century later, where the sun shines bright, searing the power of one place into your forever inner child’s mind. The sear is an intricate lightning caress. A tidy, stinging storm of light.
It hits hard, bloated with love, and courses through all that you are, all that you were. It knows the two are the same deep inside. The searing light pens the picture pristine, the detail intricate, embeds it in each smile line on your face. It etches, never turning the picture to ash, only refining it.
You can see it all … in that river walk back with that childhood friend. It’s clear — so clear that you can hear it. You can hear the splash as you turn to the girl who dared to jump with the cool kids all those years ago. She smiles at the girl who stood and watched, still anchored, never wanting loose her footing on that piece of home. She’s docked there, forever reminding her friend that she is, too.
They pluck oyster shells from the shore to mark the splash made, the picture emblazoned. The sun sinks into the horizon. Its light stays within. The shells once held a pearl. The river remembers it all. It holds on tight as the friends walk away … clasping their pearly shells.
— Elaine Van Develde
Any time is river walk time. The sun is another story for the rest of this week and through the weekend. Here’s the forecast from the National Weather Service …
Whatever anchors your heart and floats your boat — like a crisp, sun-kissed fall day down by the river in Fair Haven.
Doesn’t matter if the boat floats. The heart fits. And it’s always anchored at the river for the soul of a Rumson-Fair Haven area kid. No matter what, when the sun’s rays warm the chill in the fall air, it’s always a reminder of what berths and soothes while cradling the heart in the warm embrace of a lapping tide down by the river.
It’s a toasty harbor, whether or not the sails are set. The boat, the heart, knows where home is — and it snuggles in, as the cold disappears with a memory and a dream of what there is “no place like.”
The sun is due to cast its rays this week, shining on the best of pre-winter moments …
Here’s the weather forecast for this week, courtesy of the National Weather Service:
Sunny days and Mondays are a great way to start the week — especially in the fall with some river time in Rumson tossed in.
With river time, along the Navesink River, it’s all about warmth. Soaking up the sun while getting a soothing embrace from the river is the coziest it gets. Always a homecoming.
There’s nothing like the soul taking a dip in the sun-drenched riverfront. Falling for it all on a fall day. Never shaking off an ounce of its healing power. Taking it in, holding it for a lifetime.
There are more sunny fall river days to come this week. Take a look at the forecast from the National Weather Service …
Sometimes you just have to take a walk on the dock side — or top. And so you do …
Call it a locals’ summer stride. Any time of the year, a stroll on, below or beside the Fair Haven Dock is the most soothing way to go. Ahhhhh …
All steps lead to serendipity at the dock. Somehow, it’s there that the sun always seems to shine, casting tall dream-fetcher shadows that lead the way to goodness in every niche — from crusty little washed-up crustaceans to river rocks, oyster shells and the end of the fishing line.
It’s always in with a high tide of happiness nestled in the smallest of things at the dock — even some seaweed and a dead crab.
Then there are the footprints left behind. Kids’ feet, gulls’ claws, parents’ prints. All signs that all came together, each in his own walk and way, in search of the same sunshine and chase of what’s at the end of the good shadows — the stark peace, a piece of home.
Remember your dock walk and exhale with a smile. Get a glimpse of ours in the photo gallery above (Click on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!).
When you’re done with your dock walk, take a look at what’s in store with this week’s locals’ summer weather, according to the National Weather Service. There’s still some sun left to soak up …
— Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro exclusively
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