Pumpkin, on ice

There’s wood stacked up for the boathouse fireplace and a sheet of ice on Verona Park Lake. It’s enough to support the water bottles, branches and stray bits of Halloween pumpkin that have blown onto the lake, but not enough for skaters–just yet. Sunday’s expected weather could mess things up, but sooner or later, there will be a good long cold spell. So while we wait for Dan Salvante, head of Essex County’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs (and a Verona lake skater when he was a kid) to OK this year’s skating in Verona, we thought it might help to review your other options.

The Pond–a flooded field at the corner of Fells Road and Forest Way in Essex Fells–will be the first to freeze. The folks who look after it raise an American flag when it is open, but if you don’t want to drive that far, go to the center of Verona and look for the green “Skating Today” sign in the window of Verona Sports Center. Skate The Pond early in the day if if you’ve got little kids because the hockey crowd will be out later. The warm-up hut is small, but a respite nonetheless.

The Canfield-Morgan House pond in Cedar Grove near the intersection of Fairview and Pompton avenues will be next to freeze. The entrance is off Commerce Road., and while there’s no boathouse, there is an outdoor fireplace. The pond in Grover Cleveland Park often freezes at the same time and it has a lovely boathouse that usually has a roaring fire. Try to park as close to the corner of Brookside Avenue and Runnymeade Road as you can.

We had several fabulous weeks of skating last winter, and we have high hopes for this year. We’ll put a box on the homepage right under the weather to let you know what’s open.

Who is 14 Manor Road for then?

• Someone who loves Verona Park: The land for the park belonged to the original owner of this house and the park is still the front yard of its half-acre property.
• Someone who loves Verona history: This house was built by the preeminent builder of Victorian Verona.
• Someone who lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes old houses: This one could be the grandest of them all, in Verona and maybe in all of Essex County.

The house at 14 Manor Road was built by and for Hiram Cook, a Yankee captain in the Civil War who arrived in Verona, improbably enough, as a land speculator in the late 1860s. A railroad line was in the offing and Cook bought land from what is now Wayland Drive clear through to the eastern shore of Verona Lake to capitalize on it. An engineer and carpenter, Cook built a series of houses across the tract, several of which survive to this day. “Captain Cook’s houses are very distinctive and they were very clearly his handiwork,” says Bob Williams, a Verona native and old house buff who is a descendant of one of Verona’s founding families. “Idlewood”, he adds, using Cook’s name for 14 Manor Road, “is one of the greatest houses in Verona.” (Williams’ book on our town’s history, “Old Verona”, has an extensive history of Cook and his house and is available through the Verona Historical Society.)

Time hasn’t always been kind to 14 Manor Road. The Cook family owned it until Prohibition, Williams says, when it became a rum-runner’s hideaway. It later served as a convalescent home. The original front porch, which you can see in the slide show below of photos from Williams’ collection, is long gone, as is its summer kitchen. The $475,000 listing, which belongs to Patricia Bishop of Prudential New Jersey Properties, notes that the house now needs a total renovation.

But the bones of this house are as grand as they are old. The double parlor at the front of the house rivals a McMansion living room in size and still has its original molding. The doors and woodwork are original, as are most of its gingerbread windows, and they have character you’d never get in a big-box store. The kitchen is a good size for any era, as are the four bedrooms upstairs.

And as its owner, you could sit on the front lawn and watch the picnics in Verona Park, just as Captain Cook once did.

NewJerseyNewsroom.com has a story about many of them, from Lake Marcia up at High Point to Lake Nummy in Cape May County. But the author missed the lake that has become the favorite for my kids: Sunrise Lake in Lewis Morris County Park, just south of Morristown. And it’s all because of the Wibit.

The Wibit is an inflated obstacle course that floats in the middle of the lake. The kids can climb over and around it and when they fall off–as they inevitably will–they have to haul themselves out of the water to start again. Staying on the Wibit and out of the water is much harder than it looks, as my two kids will testify.

Swimming at Sunrise Lake costs $5 for adults and $4 for kids, although kids under four are free. There’s an extra charge of $3 per person to go on the Wibit, which gives you 30 minutes of play time. You also have to pass a swim test to go on the Wibit, but any kid who can swim the width of the Verona Pool will have no problem with it. You should know that at some times of the day, the Wibit is fully booked with summer camp kids from Morris County. Call 973-267-4351 to get an idea of the busy times before you go. There’s a small snack bar at Sunrise Lake, but you can also bring a picnic lunch to eat under the shade trees.

There’s a bit of a Verona connection to Sunrise Lake, by the way: The lake is located in Morris Township, whose mayor is 1974 Verona High School graduate H. Scott Rosenbush.

Sometimes, even bad weather can be beautiful.

We got this image the other day from Fred Goode, and today seemed the perfect day to use it. Weather.com says the skies will clear later today and we’ll have some sun tomorrow before a blast of rain on Friday. But the temperatures are going up and the weekend might actually feel like spring!

You can see more of Fred’s photography here.

The first fishing derby will be Saturday, May 1 at Grover Cleveland Park Pond. Registration opens at 8 a.m., the derby begins at 9 and awards will be given out at 11. Subsequent derbies will be May 8 at Branch Brook Park, May 15 at Weequahic Park, June 12 at Monte Irvin Orange Park Pond, and June 19 at Irvington Park Pond.

This year’s derby at Verona Park will take place on Thursday, May 13. Registration begins at 5 p.m., the derby begins at 6 p.m. and awards will be presented at 8 p.m.

To participate, your child must be accompanied by an adult and bring his or her own fishing pole, bait, bucket and chair. Prizes are awarded in various age categories for catching the first and most fish. For more information, call 973-268-3500, ext. 254. The fishing derbies will be held rain or shine.

Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Verona Parks Conservancy volunteers were joined by Essex County Parks Department workers this morning in a two-hour cleanup of Verona Park.

Despite the chilly weather, the helpers cleared away downed branches, bagged garbage, and raked out the playground areas. VPC members fanned out across the park, while Verona Pack 32 Cub Scouts tackled the playgrounds and the Troop 2 Boy Scouts cleared the northern field near Bloomfield Avenue. Eagle Scout Bryan Williams and his father Bruce Williams even brought their own canoe to help the VPC make a visual inspection of the lake edge and clear away debris in the lake. “The Boy Scouts saved the day,” said Deborah Jacobsen, horticultural chair of the Conservancy.

The photos in the gallery above are courtesy of VPC member Marv Friedman. Click on any picture to view it in a larger format.

The large windows of the sunken living room look out on Verona Park Lake.

In Provence, it’s not uncommon to find houses tucked into hillsides that have as much outdoor living space as indoor.

Now no one would mistake Verona for the south of France–there are no olive groves and wineries here (well, commercial ones at least). But a charming house has come on the market just across from Verona Park that could make you believe that you are there.

Like the south of France, you begin on a winding path, in this case a sloped, twisting driveway that could fit two standard-sized cars, though maybe not an SUV. You could sip a glass of wine from a comfortable chair on the terraced front lawn while you take in the boaters on Verona Park Lake. And even though the house fronts on busy Lakeside Avenue, its construction and windows are substantial enough that you hear none of the traffic.

Plenty of entertaining space on the patio.

The current owners have embraced French provincial style in the sunken living room and remodeled, eat-in kitchen. But the house’s biggest surprise lies outside the French doors that open from the kitchen: an enormous patio with three separate seating and dining areas that could hold quite a lovely wine-tasting party. Though two of the house’s three bedrooms clearly belong to children (and one is just right for a French princess), the patio makes the living space feel quite grown up. I could easily imagine a sophisticated couple here, or maybe empty nesters if they were comfortable with stairs. The house is on the market for $579,000.

Quibbles? Yes, because I’m always going to try to see the house through a potential buyer’s eyes. The stone walkway in front may need some work, as will the roof over the small garage that is wedged into the front of the property. The listing belongs to the Fallivene Agency in West Caldwell, though the best place to see the house online is here.

The hike is free, but you have to register in advance and space is limited.
Contact Kelly Wenzel at 973-226-6082. The hike meets at the south side of the Boathouse.

The VPC offers its popular note cards depicting scenes of Verona Park by four Verona artists: “Sunday with Dad - Spring” by Allen Taylor; “Northern Visitors - Summer” by Patricia Buchanan; “North Lake - Autumn”, by Ann C. Taylor; and “Winter Comes to the Wetlands”, by Hamilton Carson.

With Verona Park’s flowers, shrubs and trees about to explode with color, it’s a good time to think about supporting the group that supports the park.

The Verona Park Conservancy sells note cards that feature images created by four Verona artists. (Two of the artists, Allen and Ann C. Taylor, are currently being featured in an exhibit in Livingston.) All of the proceeds are used to keep Verona Park beautiful and this year will be especially helpful as the VPC carries out a large-scale replanting of trees, including the successor to Verona’s Climbing Tree.

The card sets include two copies of each painting for a total of eight cards, with envelopes, at $10. They are available at Terry’s Drugs, PIP Printing and Main Street Cottage or by calling (973) 239-6074.

The Verona Park Conservancy is a non-profit organization of volunteers working with Essex County to maintain and improve the condition and facilities of Verona Park, part of the Essex County Park System. The Conservancy invites all interested parties to its regular meetings held at 7:30 p.m. on the third Thursday, each month at the Park Boathouse. The next VPC meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 18. For information call (973) 239-2568.