Benazir Bhutto assassinated

We just heard the news. This is horrendous.

I have so much respect for this woman. I had the fortune of seeing and hearing her speak at a small conference in Boston a couple of years ago. While the other speakers were (with the exception of one) successful and interesting women, Benazir for me stole the show. She was honest, approachable, human--and real.

When asked about Islam and terrorism, she said that Islam is a peaceful religion.

"These people have hijacked my religion."

NOTHING justifies this assassination. NOTHING.

Christmas bear?

Here is my first contribution to Long Island's Christmas Light Spectacular. I think I will call him Billy.

I can see that I rapidly have to collect inflatable santas/snowmen riding aeroplanes/motorbikes/cars or sitting in snow globes, and surround them with lit-up sugar canes, Christmas trees, decorated trees (deciduous and evergreen, just put lights all over them), flashing lights, floodlit nativity scenes, flourescent deer, window lights, roof lights, garage lights: white, green, blue, red, yellow--any type, any colour.

Some of the displays are amazingly graceful and are wonderful to see in these dark winter nights.

Some of the displays are just plain tacky...

Another winter sunrise

The sun has moved further and further to the south. Soon it willl start to bounce back... the longest night of the year is with us, after that, the future just gets brighter.

It's so cold even my thoughts are frozen

Arrived back from San Francisco, after a couple days in Sacramento, via Los Angeles, on the red-eye. Concerned because we were flying into a storm, the second to hit New York in the past week. But the flight was uneventful, the landing no more bumpy than others... and the snow was being washed away by pelting, torrential rain.

It rained and blew and blew and rained all day yesterday. And then the temperature dropped.

This morning, the wind is still blowing. But all of the water on the streets is frozen.

The bay is still liquid, I can see waves tossed up by the wind.

Ever-changing

The view, the weather, the sunrises and the sunsets, the bird population, the animal sightings, the things on peoples' houses and lawns (this week it is Christmas lights and decorations, including a huge cut-out crib scene just up the street... I wonder what the raccoons think to that).

The other evening I was walking by number one beach as the sun was setting. Walking the stray dog, trying to find his home, instead finding the most beautiful sunset, gold and pink on the flat steel water.

Every day is different.

I wonder if I will get used to the differences? I hope not.

Dog visitor

This is the dog who came to visit this week. We don't know his name, but he was a real gentleman (if a little down on his luck--nothing that a nice hot bath wouldn't have solved). I was taking Fury for a walk when he came trotting out from the wetlands beach. I did an about-turn with Fury, but she'd noticed him and, of course, wanted to show who was boss. I spent the next ten minutes dragging her eighty-plus pounds all the way back home. Each time we turned a corner, I thought we were safe, but each time, he followed. He followed us right into the front garden and sat there on the grass.

And... once she was inside the house, Fury decided that he was a Nice Guy. And let him in, where he drank a large bowl of water, ate a big bowl of her food, and snoozed. He would not climb the stairs though--either couldn't, wouldn't, or didn't think it was allowed.

We posted him as Found Dog on craigslist and on fidofinder.com, called the local vets, called the Animal Shelter (where they took all the details), put up a sign and walked him through the neighbourhood, looking for his home... but no-one called. A couple came to see him, who had lost a labrador a while ago, but it wasn't their dog.

Poor guy... we were sure his family were looking for him. So Friday we took him to the animal shelter where they told us that the family had been calling all morning (but they hadn't passed on the information that we'd given them and which was pinned to their "found dogs" noticeboard in the lobby. Anyway... happily, he was reunited with his family.

The animal shelter takes in strays and dogs and cats that are given up for adoption. It is a sad place full of barking, hopeful dogs looking for someone to love them, feed them or even just tolerate them. Most of the dogs were pit bulls or pit-cross-somethings. Some old and grey-whiskered, some young pups, and some without ages. All were sad and I cried to see them. Not enough to take another one home: but because they needed homes of their own.

If you want a dog, go to the shelters and find him there. He's waiting, your dog. You'll know him when you meet him.

Muffin's First Snow!

It is snowing!!! Muffin has never seen snow before. She went out and tested it. For five minutes she wandered around the deck, her back twitching each time a snowflake landed. She sat and waited for birds. She came in again, washed herself, then went out the front door, did a tour of the house, came back up onto the deck, and is now comfortably warm on the chaise longue where she has a good view of snowflakes.

Fury went for a run on the wetlands beach. There is something weird, and yet beautiful, about snow on soft sand.

The flakes are getting larger, but it is forecast to turn to sleet, and then rain, later today. I forgot to empty the hosepipe to the pond, and it is frozen solid. I bet it will leak when the temperature goes above freezing again.

Winter sunset

The skies are pink, orange and purple now, and it gets dark very early. It's like the day is over at 5 p.m. I have to remind myself that there are many hours to fill between dark and bedtime, and plenty that can be done without daylight.

House fire! So sad...

This is really sad. The house just up the street, backing onto the wetlands, just caught fire. We noticed when the dog started barking... huge plume of black smoke and a fire truck arriving. A neighbour said that the homeowner was out of the house and is safe. Horrible how quickly a home can be destroyed.

And the reeds surrounding are dry, dead and like tinder.

House update

Nook at the bottom of the stairs, back of the hallway.

Thanksgiving, lots of visitors from near and far... a few days off work... managed to get some things finished (thank you for the help!!! you know who you are)

The kitchen went through its first big test--Thanksgiving dinner--and managed it very well. Not only all the cooking, but having several people in the kitchen area at one time. The breakfast bar is really really useful!

The entry hall has a nice new floor. It's peel-and-stick vinyl, compartively inexpensive, and it looks really good. Maybe one day I'll replace it with something more permanent, stone or ceramic, but I'm happy with it for a while. Now all that needs to be done in the hall is to paint the woodwork (all the walls are finished), hang some pictures and find the right furniture.

It's coming together! :-)

(Not all simple or costless though--yesterday we had a leak in the pipe that drains water from the kitchen sink. It was dripping through the ceiling/sofit in the room below, coming out at the lowest point: a light fixture. Another 400$ for the plumber, plus two large holes in the sofit and another burned-out electric circuit later, I'm glad that room has had nothing done to it yet!)

First real frost, heron is patient

The forecast was for 22 degrees farenheit last night (about -4C?). There is thin ice on the water that flows to the bay. The heron is sitting patiently waiting... or maybe his foot is frozen into the mud?

Thanksgiving and testing the sofas

It works. Eight people can relax/sleep/hang out on the sofas.

The Scratch Rat

After three years, Muffin has finally discovered the Scratch Rat. Not for scratching or sharpening her claws on, but for cuddling up to.

And the work goes on

I am making this radiator cover, at the back of the hall/bottom of the stairs. It's to cover the radiator that we found hidden inside the box inside the closet inside the closet under the old stairs--it wasn't very pretty.

The cover is made from a few pieces of wood, and a set of metal heating vent covers. I made the gap between the top and side wooden pieces such that the vent covers would just slot in. As you can see, I need to go back to Home Depot for a couple more. Three more to be exact: they are 12" wide and the wood strips are 8 foot.

The black-rubber-mat-like thing is in the hole at the bottom of the stairs. I have to mix some concrete and fill the hole one of these days... probably not until springtime when it's warmer again.

Tomorrow the plan is to clean out the hall, put the saw away, paint the walls at least once, scrub the floors and put the rug down. Make it at least livable for Thanksgiving.

Every day is a new day

Wind

Last night, when walking Fury in the dark between the street lights, I could hear a distant roaring noise, like a freeway somewhere across the ocean. The night was still, not cold, humid, a touch of mist.

This morning the freeway is upon us. It is a roaring wind: whitecaps scudding across the bay.

Was it a sound preview? Or an aural premonition?

He's back!

I have to place a "No Giant Herons Here" sign in my fish pond.

Winter sunrise

See they can get along!

They tolerate each other's differences -- which can be big -- and still manage to live harmoniously in the same space. I can learn from this.

Music to paint/clean up after painting to

Five doors each with fifteen panes of glass: all painted, one coat of primer, two top coats semi-gloss, one with three coats because it had been stained a very dark brown... all painted, all the blue painter's tape removed... now all that's left is to get one of those single-sided razor blades and scrape off the bits of paint that escaped the painter's tape. And paint the radiators. I think that's it--for the big room! Still the rest of the house to go.

Soundtrack: Bruce Springsteen's "Greatest Hits", Amy Winehouse "Back to Black", Rachmaninov "Symphony no. 2 in B minor", BBC Symphonic... Elvis "Love Songs" volume one (why didn't they include Kentucky Rain???), Radio Caroline Calling 70's flashback with such gems as Radar Love, Silver Machine, Pinball (that one takes me back to making toasted cheese sandwiches in the union at Melton Tech...)

The new sofas arrived yesterday. I have to assemble them: put on the stretch covers, fit the supporting frame and legs together and fasten them on. I need ten arms and about five times my strength (how the heck am I supposed to turn the right-hand sofa and left-hand chaise over to fasten them together????) but will get them done, one day at a time. Yesterday, it was the ottoman/footstool (begin with the easy one): today, the right-hand loveseat/sofa. Still left: left-hand chaise longue (will attach to the sofa), and a stand-alone right-hand chaise long. They are low and are a grey that fits with the kitchen floor tiles and the stainless steel.

Giant heron

All by himself in the marsh. Taken with the 300mm zoom at full throttle, no tripod just a shaky hand, so he's a little blurred but man, he was one big bird.

Sunny after a serious frost. The deck and the lawn were white at 7 a.m., but the sun shone and sent it back where it came from.

Orion is sleeping on his left side tonight

All the stars are so bright and and the air is so clear it cuts. It will be cold, but the stars are amazing. Almost like laying on the beach at night in Nuweiba. Minus the hot desert air. And without the warm sand or the beach huts or the bedouin wantint to give foot massages and freaking my sister out. And without the Red Sea or the dolphins to swim with or the girls to play backgammon.

OK. Let's try again.

All the stars are so bright tonight, and the air is so clear it cuts. The sky is amazing: more stars than I thought possible. Maybe someone switched off the lights in the cities and along the roads and allowed the stars to shine through.

Orion is restful, biding his time.

It's The Birds!!!!! In New York!!!

I always thought the movie was filmed at Bodega Bay, California. But I went there and there were no birds lurking on rooftops or swarming like bees through the skies.

Hitchcock fooled us all. The birds were here, in Mastic Beach.

Tuesday it is raining

The wind blew, hard, all night, and it is pouring with rain. The wind chimes, however noisy they were, obviously didn't distract the raccoons from their nightly toil, liberating the contents of the garbage. The remains of the past few days are now scattered in a fast-growing puddle on the street outside the house, minus any scraps of food.

Someone needs to invent raccoon-proof garbage bags. Or maybe, persuade the town to use metal garbage cans--dustbins--with lids. Like we used to have in England. But the local garbage collectors will only pick up plastic bags (weighing less than fifty pounds, please) and throw them into the truck. Plastic bins are allowed, but only as containers for the plastic bags. And no weights or bungee cords holding the lids down. These are no challenge for the raccoons, who will open the lids, make holes in the bags, sort untidily through the garbage, and leave their footprints everywhere.

Metal garbage cans would foil them.

And an added advantage of metal cans is that if you have two of them, you can use their lids like giant cymbals to chase the deer away when they are snacking on the pansies and chrysanthemums and what remains of the hostas.

I think deer are like goats but with taste.

The day after the storm--like it never happened

... and Fury took full advantage, with a run on the wetlands beach.

We went to the beach--what little there is today

We weren't the only mad ones. Going to the beach to see the waves. The sun was just setting. A small child, allowed to run within reach of the grasping, huge waves. People with hoods on, hands thrust in pockets, just watching.

It wasn't quite high tide, but the wind had pushed the water so far up the beach, there wasn't much of it left. Just a few sandy feet...

... and who could believe a parking lot could be so scenic?

Park Drive was half flooded when we left; now it is flooded right across. The marshes are doing a good job of being a sponge for floodwater. Thank you, wetlands.

Waves on Smith Point

I can see waves/spray over Smith Point. From the house. It's about two miles away across water, and I can see the waves. I CAN SEE THE WAVES.

This is scary.

The wind seems to have dropped... 1 p.m. but we can SEE THE WAVES.

And it's low tide right now. I guess that is a good thing...

I lied. The wind started up again. Would like to drive out and see the ocean, but I'm struck down by a bout of cowardice.

Hurricane Noel

Having wreaked a lot of pain and havoc further south, Hurricane Noel has come to visit us, albeit just the trails of his passing.

Last night, the sky was a dull yellow: horizontal strips backlit by a million low-wattage old-fashioned lightbulbs. The streaks of cloud from the edges of the storm at sunset.

The wind rose during the night. At eight, I drove to Home Depot (for more paint brushes and replacement caulk for the countertop, the one I bought the other day was set solid), and to the supermarket (peanut butter, milk and cat food--she was complaining). By the time I left HD, it was pouring with rain. By the time I left the supermarket, the rain was horizontal and the streets covered in wet leaves. The trees will be stripped by the end of the day.

I took Fury out for a quick, wet walk. She was excited to leave. She was even more excited to come back home. Now she is curled up tight in a dog-ball on her bed.

The storm is expected to start worsening at 10 a.m. (in ten minutes), hit a peak around 5 p.m., and then lessen after midnight. We have a high surf warning and a high wind warning. The worst hit is expected to be the far east of the island--Montauk--but it's going to be felt back in the city and in New Jersey too.

So now I plan on staying indoors, painting some more furniture and trim, and maybe curling up with a book too. Until the lights go out....

'Tis the night before Hallow'een...

The cat brought in a giant, spotty slug and left it on the sofa where I would poke it thinking it was some sort of scrap of fabric... only to find it was a giant, spotty slug with its head chewed off.

There were giant things rustling in the reeds as the dog and I nervously walked to the street lamp around the corner. Neither she nor I wanted to linger tonight. Rustle, rustle, rustle. More scary to imagine what it was--nine-foot tall psychopath? zombie deer? baskerville hound??? inflatable Grim Reaper gone walkabout???-- than to see (soft-eyed doe deer??? raccoon???)

Back home, footsteps followed us--heavily--up the stairs.

The cat needs to go on a diet, again.

Patterns in the sand

Sunday evening, at Smith Point beach. Feels like forever and yesterday since I was here. There is a four-foot drop where the storm fought the sand: scoured away or pushed up onto the beach or both. No doubt it will smooth itself back down within a couple of weeks, but this evening it is a shock.

The tide as far out as I have seen it here. Big shells for collection. Few people, distant along the shoreline.

On the dunes, the wind has made patterns in the sand. Ripples like water. Circles where dry seeweed, trapped by one end, has blown round and round. Holes like footprints around each pebble, scrap of wood, or never-disappearing cigarette end. Footprints made monstrous: a small dog's tracks, tiny gap between each, has become a great dane tiptoeing a couple of inches at a time.

The sun setting in a wind-cleared sky. The trees are red.

Autumn sunrises

The sun is getting out of bed further-and-further south. It reflects off the clouds, it reflects off the water. It's still bright, and it's still warm when it's shining. The sky is big above the horizon today, pale turquoise, faded at the edges.

Happy cat

She was asleep like this for hours...

Reeds in autumn

The reeds are flowering--all these heads of shiny silvery seeds, no wonder they spread for miles and miles and miles. There is a small run-down house right next to the beach, with a fenced-in yard. The heads of the reeds stand, inside the fence, higher by about a foot or even two. I suppose that if you open the gate, all you will see is the stems of the reeds.

The marshes are red

There is a plant out there that is turning red as autumn advances. Like trees' leaves turn to red and gold, this whole plant is doing the same.

Poppies, lupins foxgloves and lilies-of-the-valley

They all arrived in a cardboad box, desperately in need of planting. I was not ready. The borders have not been prepared. So I have planted them in little gaps in the raised garden border, hoping I'll remember where they are, hoping they will root and flourish there in the sandy soil--and then I will replant them later when they are stronger.

So:

- Lily-of-the-valley are in front of the pond
- Three foxglove plants at the rear of the left-hand border, near the small box
- Lupins are in the old herb garden mixed in with the purple cone flowers
- Various oriental poppies (Turkulis, Laurens Lilac, Royal Wedding, Queen Alexander, Prince of Orange and Brilliant Red) are mostly in the right-hand border, and in the front right corner, but also one in the right corner near the pond and a couple in front of the pond.

I hope I recognise them when they grow leaves!

Painting painting painting

I have started painting the hall. It's a shade from Behr called Wanderer. I alternate between calling it Duck Poo or Slime. It's really really different. One coat of tinted primer, plus two coats of paint so far, and it's still a little streaky, especially in the corners where the roller can't get (but where it can scrape the previously-painted wall). One more coat should do it (famous last words...) It's the back wall of the entry hall, so what you'll see when walking in is this startling colour plus a bright white pillar at the bottom of the stairs.

I gave in and called a painter to help with the "great room". After looking at the height of the ceiling, and the seven little windows that are impossible to reach from my step ladder, and all the other painting I have to do, and all the furniture and stuff still stuck in bedrooms and bathrooms, I decided that the credit card could handle another 1000$ . And so by tomorrow evening, all the floors, ceiling and window trims will be done. Then all I have left to do is paint the doors, buy the skirting board and door trims and install and paint them, and rearrange the furniture.

It feels good :-)

Stirring up a hornet's nest

They are swarming outside the office. Yuck. I do not like wasps. I do not like hornets. I can admire their "beauty" and the wonder that is nature BUT I feel as much for wasps as some people do for snakes and/or spiders (which I don't mind at all).

Call is in to pest control guy. I hope he's another Spiderman.