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....