Yep. Snow.

Couldn't resist it. You can see how happy she was tho.

Christmas Eve...

Toons of Syston

This is the first picture restored from the photos that Sara found in the attic. It's my dad, and his father, Fred Toon.

The first time I saw this picture, I was shocked. I think it was the first time I saw my grandad in the same way as his children had seen him; as a tough, hard man. I remember him as an old man with a walking stick, taking his daily walk across the green to the club, or sitting in the corner of the kitchen. I remember the paints that I wasn't allowed to touch--he was a master painter, decorator and signwriter--and he was always very kind to me.

The photo is slightly out-of-focus, my dad moved as it was taken, but it has life and emotion and it's going on my wall. I wonder what they were working on?

And it's being copied for all the family along with the others. Will take a while but it will happen.

Dublin photos

Horridly cold-and-wet wintry day is a good time to upload photos.

You can now see all the Dublin photos on the photo site in the Dublin album.

Horizontal

Woke this morning before 6 (heck, it's supposed to be a day off) to a howling, rattling wind. It's hitting the house from the east, finding every single mal-fitting window and door, blowing straight through the stoopid "in wall" cheapo air-conditioner that I never use and which must either be removed (and then the wall and siding patched), or covered (it's not the right shape for the covers they sell)... showing me all the windows that at some point really really must be replaced... I swear some of the windows are 60 years older than the house itself, must have been someone's idea of recycling.

Now the wind is carrying sleet and very cold rain, horizontal to the house, straight across the bay and the wetlands. But the streets are clearing of snow and ice,

Just heard of a man being rescued from up-to-his-chest in freezing mud in the marshes near Moriches. I cannot imagine how terrifying that must have been. Someone found him and bravely pulled him out, and the man is being looked after in hospital. Now that is one good Christmas present! (News article)

That was interesting

Haven't driven on snow and ice since France, about nine years ago; last year we didn't have much, and the years in California were pretty-much snow-and-ice-free (you don't count frost that has disappeared by 9 a.m.)

While there was someone ploughing the snow off the street outside about midnight last night, I don't believe there was any salt, not down here, not anywhere south of Sunrise. The streets are packed with snow and ice until you get up to Neighborhood Road, which is clear down the middle. Mastic Beach Road was sorta-clear and it was OK then all the way to William Floyd Parkway. The parking lot by Kohls/Marshalls/Stop'n'Shop was a joke; too many people, too many cars, and too much snow and ice.

The truck had icicles underneath it when I returned with bags of potatos and cheese for cheese-and-potato-pie-tonight. Snow had melted off the roof and cried down the side windows. Went into a gentle slide as I turned left at the ATT store... just a reminder to keep slow and in low.

A security car driver was seeing how deep he could bury his car in the parking lot near Blockbuster. Don't have any idea what he was trying to do. Bizzare sighting of the day.

This is the first time I have ever seen traffic stick to the 45-mph speed limit on William Floyd Parkway.

The sky is grey and heavy again; there may be more tonight. It does look beautiful. Fury and I walked to the wetlands beach earlier; came back thinking I'd left my face and thighs behind in the numbing wind.

"Battleship grey... hardship grey"

(Sound of wheels spinning on ice outside. This is not a day to be in a hurry.)

Yes, snow it did

Made Fury run and jump and play. Made the cat very snippy. Even more so than usual.

It was real snow... but now it's sleeting and there is a dripping from the gutters. The streets have a clear line where a plough has been through, but there are no tracks on my driveway as I have stayed warm and dry, indoors, all day. Though I did throw a couple of snowballs from the deck.

It's going to snow!!!!!!!!

(At least in most of New York state. We may just get a slush-storm on southern Long Island. Right now it's frosty, and Fury slid right across the deck when she ran out to find deer, raccoons, possums, cats, squirrells, fish? Dunno what but she was very excited until she skated)

Sunrise before the snow...

We had snow and then rain already this week. Then this morning, a sharp frost. Snow, sleet, forecast for tomorrow, then a freeze, then more snowy-mushy stuff... and then maybe a white Christmas!

Darn that pond... (but darning isn't watertight either)

So I was away just over a week. I made sure there was plenty of water in the pond before I left, in case there was a severe freeze, so that the fish had a good depth to hide in.

Went and checked an hour ago... and there was only a couple of feet left. If that. Either the fish were extremely thirsty, or we had many days of very strong, drying winds, or a big freeze and thaw have re-split the cracks that I thought I'd fixed.

It is becoming a really expensive pain-in-the-neck. It would cost a fortune to have it lined properly. It's already cost a fortune in new pumps/filters/cleaning/fixing/etc. etc. etc.

Maybe I should find the fish new homes and cover it all with a deck. But then I'd need to do something to make sure it doesn't fill up with rainwater and mosquitos and more mosquitos.

Am in need of some inspiration here...

Back home, again

Will post some pics from Ireland/Dublin tomorrow...

... soundtrack for the return journey:

ABBA: Winner takes it all (guess what movie??????) (and that one started a theme....)
Phil Collins: Against all odds
Style Council: You're the best thing
Steve Winwood: Dust
Thin Lizzy: Still in love with you
Simply Red: Stars
Alison Moyet: This house
Peter Hammill: Just good friends
Pat Metheny: It's for you

See what happens when you take one song and then play with the iPod and make a playlist-on-the-go? Smoooooooooth... even managed to doze through the little Swedish kid who kept elbowing me all the way from Munich to New York. Though I discovered that I can understand Swedish for "I think I'm going to throw up" (he didn't but he did go very white as we danced a couple of circles over Long Island before coming in to land at JFK).

Another nice sunrise

The entry hall today

I'm very happy with the way the tiles turned out! Now all I have to finish is the woodwork/trim. Left this until after the tiles 'cos I knew there would be some damage (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it... but yes, there was some damage and I still have to add some skirting/baseboards).

Anyone remember what it looked like when the stairs went the other way, there was no way up from the main entry, and there was a dancer's pole just inside the front door???

(BTW, the sideboard is for sale, see craigslist)

One day I will go and see these trees close-up

There's something very scenic about them and how they appear to be talking to each other.

It opened under the Thanksgiving lights!

Here he is!

He was back on the feeder again this morning. Hanging out with a bluejay.

Anyone identify him?

Woodpecker, woodpecker

Little guy has visited yesterday and again today. Yesterday he alighted on the end of the deck railing, peeped through the sliding door into the house, then hopped off to the feeder and ate for a while. Today he was back again. Looks very much a baby still.

Either a Downy or a Hairy Woodpecker (most likely one of these two), or a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (but probably not as he should be further south by now), according to http://www.whatbird.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

I guess his wife sent him out to catch the dinner.... hunter, his boat, and his "hide" on the little island in the bay. Um... it's pretty darn obvious that this is a hide... don't the deer/duck/geese notice it????

(Sound of dawn on thanksgiving... gunshots. The hide was gone by quarter to ten. Saw this several times last year. If they are hunting deer, do they expect them to be swimming? If ducks, how do they pick them up before they sink? Or maybe I have completely misunderstood the scene and it's something totally unrelated to hunting? If it's hunting, are they allowed to shoot "my" deer on the William Floyd Estate? I guess there's a lot I don't know ;-)

Turkey is in the oven. Ours is named Herbert the Huge. We did not pardon him. He is wrapped in bacon and foil right now, and the giblets are cooking, for gravy, and for a treat for Fury (just the boneless bits). She always wonder why there is just one set of giblets...

Real tile in hall!

At last, I was able to just-about save enough money to replace the peel-and-stick tiles in the downstairs hall, and the kitchen, with real porcelain tiles--and to carpet the bedroom and sitting room (which will then become my official home office).

It's almost a year (I am finding that very hard to believe, but it is--it was just before Thanksgiving) since we put the peel-and-stick tiles down: the colour was perfect, but they definitely looked peel-and-stick due to some unevenness (i.e., holes, bumps, dips and spikes) in the underlying floor.

I managed to find almost exactly the same colour and pattern tiles in porcelain! For both the hall and the downstairs kitchen! Home Depot must do this on purpose--why else would they stock the same designs in both versions?

Remember the hall had that really, really nasty vinyl tile that I managed to scrape up from the kitchen floor, but which wouldn't budge in the hall? Well... the guys from Eastern Carpet in Shirley did it. They scraped it all up. It took them hours and hours and hours, but now the real tile will be laid correctly and will hopefully last for many, many years. I'm glad I did decide to have them lay the tiles; if I'd done it myself, I would probably have cheated and laid it over the old tiles, and then suffered problems within a month. (Now all I have to deal with is a lot of dust.)

Now once again I'm able to see the nice amount of space in the entry hall.

Does anyone want to buy a genuine, nicely-carved, really-from-Holland-I-know-'cos-I-imported-it Dutch dresser????

I saw a snowflake! I did! I did!

Chilly day, brilliant sunshine, cold breeze rustling the dry reeds. Sunset, and the sky turns pink and purple,,, and I saw a few flakes of snow. Just a very few but... there they were.

Beautiful colours.

Drying gourd

This one is drying out faster than the rest. Some of the patterns are a fine dusting of mould, but it looks very pretty!

If the sun gets up early every day, so can I, even on a day off!

No excuses! Can't miss this!

Osprey park

I only "discovered" Osprey Park a few weeks ago when driving around and just seeing how far I could go down various streets before reaching water. This morning, windy and cool, we took coffee and breakfast out there.

At this point, Forge River is really wide; the houses along the waterside have amazing, curved-earth views; giant irridescent fish-scales on the water-worn boards evidence to the Ospreys after whom the park is named, or more human fishers.

After over a year of living here, I know there are still a million other beautiful places to find. They are hidden around the next corner.

Mastic Beach Village Exploratory Committee

Been working on the Mastic Beach Village Exploratory Committee website. Take a look and let me know what you think!

November sounds

Woke up sometime in the very-early morning to an inhuman screaming. I hope it was non-human. It sounded hurt and angry and wild. I have no idea where the sound was coming from; there is a dog down the street that barks, often, and it always sound like he's out in the middle of the marshes when he's away up Park Drive to the north. So I really cannot say where this noise was coming from. But it seemed really loud, and it was repeated over several minutes.

I'm hoping it was raccoons partying, Hallowe'en a little late.

Other than that, it is really, really quiet now. Stillness, calm air, reeds dry but not moving. The pond pump and waterfall have been turned off, just the occasional splish when a fish swims close to the surface.

There are a lot of big smiles around this morning

And a lot of baggy eyes from the late night!

Sunday, sunday

Fall back and spring forwards.

Last night, the clocks went back, and we had another hour of sleep. Sort-of. No-one told the sun about this, so it got up and shone through the window at a few minutes later than the same space-time moment yesterday. The birds and the cat got up with the sun, and I wasn't long after them.

Two hours in the gym. Then more weight-training moving a load of floor tiles from the truck to the house. Then an afternoon in the garden. Decided to save a lot of money by "winterizing" the pond myself. Removed all the water hyacinth and water lettuce before they died; scooped out some leaves; cut back some of the leaf-shedding plants and frantic roses that were overhanging the water; disconnected and drained the filter. Then spent half-an-hour fighting a stupid net before giving up and thrusting it into a bin-bag. The idea was to spread the net over the pond, to collect falling leaves. However, it was so fine that I couldn't spread it out. Couldn't find the edges, couldn't disentangle it. Stoooopid stuff.

Guess I'll be out there every day with the leaf net. Oh well...

Now night is here early, and I need an early night.

Mastoids?

I hear that people from this area--Mastic, Mastic Beach and Shirley--are sometimes called "Mastoids" by people who don't know us very well.

However... today I went to Home Depot, and to King Kullen, and a few other places.

In Home Depot, I was asked if I needed help by a woman with red horns growing out of her head.

A bearded woman checked me out, at the same time as she was shouting for the witch to come and help her.

I found the witch; she was over the road, working the register in Rite-Aid, while outside Rite-Aid and King Kullen, a horde of teenage mutants were hanging out.

Neighborhood Road was full of giant butterflies, fairies, witches and a horse with two heads: its own, and a pretty little girl's.

Mastoids?

No... it's just Hallowe'en.

Have fun everyone!

Mute swans are not silent

"Mute" means silent, voiceless, but mute swans can and do make noise. They squeak but in a deep tone when flying. And when they water-walk on a calm, still, quiet morning at dawn, they sound like a tractor starting up...

Sunday

Very high water Sunday morning, high tide and the runoff from Saturday night's late storm. Water across the road at about 9 a.m., but it soon drained away.

Fishy

Moby is so much bigger than the other fish!

No baby fish this year, but the babies that survived last year's Raccoon Fish Festival are big and healthy. There are several new, small koi this year: one is orange with a lot of white, one is white with black and grey speckles, and one is almost all black-grey but with beautiful scales. They are "domestic" koi, hatched here. I'm hoping they will grow to Moby's size to keep him company.

They are basking in the sunlight, making the most of the days before winter arrives.

Wild, wild west

Another week, another trip, and now back home again on a beautiful sunny autumn Friday.

Was in Boise, Idaho, and for the first time really saw Boise in all her beauty. The fall colours are magnificent, the surrounding country so big and wild.

(In Boise you don't have roadsigns warning "wildlife crossing", or red triangles with pictures of running deer... you have signs saying "Game Crossing"...)

Was able to secure a window seat with no neighbours for the daylight flight back through Denver, and again on the second leg from Denver to La Guardia, New York.

Within moments of takeoff from Boise airport, you are flying over hills and land with nothing, and no-one, in sight. No roads, no towns, no villages, no visible signs of human interference. Across the bare salt-flats of Utah; nothing and no-one. Then the wrinkly, crinkly Western foothills of the Rockies... somehow I always expect the Rockies to loom huge and tall and spiky, but from the air they are like the wrinkles around an elephant's eye, and you are over them before you know it. Looking back West from Denver, with your back to the flatness that stretches over the curve of the earth, the Rockies are tall and pointy and imposing like mountains should be, but from the air they are somehow tamed.

Around Denver everything is square. Many-acre squares containing curving new suburbs or farmland with one barn, off center. One square had a flattened pyramid of earth, excavated from the square-next-door. A little further east, the squares contained irrigated circles, the square-outside-the-circle uncultivated and barren.

And then we crossed a weather front; on the left, to the West, clear skies and sun on the earth. To the East, a thin, constant layer of low cotton-wool cloud. Like someone had pulled a lace blanket between the earth and the sky. And the earth below the blanket glistened with frost.

And soon it was dark.

We passed the cloudy sky and the air was crystal clear. Outside my window, the Plough was bright and resting correctly on its base, like a saucepan.

The closer to the east coast, the more lights appeared. More squares, but smaller. Then villages and towns and almost no areas bare of light, apart from the Lakes.

We came into La Guardia over New Jersey. Lady Liberty was small and shining bright, Manhattan beautiful and picture-perfect in the late night.

And then I had to wait two hours in the airport for the shuttle home... watching CNN with the homeless and shuttle-less, waiting for morning.

First frost

Parts of the raised lawn were gently frosted this morning; just a touch, but frost all the same. It was gone within minutes of the sun moving higher than the reeds.

Sunday, cool and breezy and beautiful

Spent the morning at the gym, then the afternoon doing the housework; cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, iPod on shuffle (still haven't worked out how it chooses just the right song to follow the one before...) and by the time I'd finished it was 6 p.m.

Looked out of the window... and had "one of those moments".

Sky fading from turquoise through mauve to dark. Wetlands sandy-tan. Pools reflecting the sky. Everything calm after the brisk autumn breeze of earlier in the day. I hadn't noticed the wind drop.

How the heck did I manage to live in such a beautiful place?

Oh gourd!

The gourd vines are still flowering, still starting baby fruit, but it's getting a little late. I had to cut this gourd down today because it was weighing very heavy over a waste pipe and it didn't seem like a good idea. That's a 10" diameter plant pot it's standing next to: about a foot tall, and this is not the biggest on the vine. There is one that is huge! And another the same size as this one.

Autumn colour

The wetlands are red, sandy, and white, the far trees russet and orange and yellow and some still green and here-and-there, bare grey bark and branches.

Today a brisk northerly breeze scuds the cumulus across the sky, but the sun is still bright and working in the garden, it's not cold, but if you stop moving the wind is inside your pullover and cooling your toes. Low fifties today.

Some new ducks have arrived; black, with white bottoms. And the geese are singing all night.

Today was the Mastic Beach harvest festival and games at the pavilion on Neighborhood Road. Great to see all the children having fun. Lots of things to see and do. Good job everyone!

The sun was in funny shape this morning

Like it was trying to fit through a gap too small.

Recovered a few minutes later. Round as ever.

From now until the spring equinox, sunrise views from here will be amazing. Sunsets go behind the trees too early; have to go sit by the pond to appreciate them, but the sunrises, wow...

Shade to red...

After a week away in San Francisco, I return to a redder view; the trees bordering the William Floyd Estate wetlands are a deep red, several in my own garden have transformed to the colour of copper beech. A few odd leaves have fallen, not many.

The weekend was beautiful; clear blue skies, temperatures around 70 degrees. The ocean a calm baby. The beach is back; washed, shined and cleaned by the storms, it is big again.

Monday morning at the wetlands beach

Six great blue herons; one standing sedately, unflustered, hunched over the water, ignoring the other five that were jumping and flapping and wheeling overhead.

Four adult swans, and four cygnets, adult-sized now, but still with their grey feathers.

A few seagulls, very very low water, and such a calm, beautiful view.

Turquoise

Today's colours are turquoise, beige, fading green, and a hint of red. The sky has been huge; clean, clear after a few clouds passed this morning. October, but in a T-shirt, at least until 5-30.

This house loves the daylight at this time of year. It enters through the high windows and spotlights the begonia on the dining table, paints pictures on the high, sloping ceilings, and plays with my coloured glass.

The non-pampas-grass has suddenly sprouted reddish plumes. The gourd vine is covered in tiny gourds, and one giant that was revealed to me today when the breeze moved the leaves that had been hiding it. (The two that were on the east side of the deck/bridge are now standing on a trivet in the kitchen. That's as far as I have made it with genius ideas for drying them in a wetlands climate. The garage is not such a good idea... maybe they'll be staying where they are for the winter. If they dry properly, they'll be made into bird-houses next year.)

The sound of October

Reeds rustling in a strong breeze. Leaves, not dry yet, not falling, but moving in the air.

Geese honking overhead.

No powerboats.

Just nature making sound. And last night the owl was back.

Look who came to visit

He (or she?) slowly appeared from behind the external hard drive. About five inches long and perfect.

Managed to give him (her?) a ride outside on a soft piece of cloth, before Muffin became too interested. Flew away across the garden.

What a unique visitor for a drab Saturday morning.

Remember this day

Man flies across the English channel, and makes it to safety. Crazy, brave, inventive, well-planned risk for one person and his family, adventurous, safe, Rocket Man.

After all the crashes and take-overs and proposed bail-outs of the past weeks, now WaMu crashes and is bought out by JP Morgan Chase. Biggest ever banking failure in the USA. Economy in crisis, fueled by all those sub-prime mortgages sold off to people and institutions who could not care less about real people. Stupid, cowardly, greedy, insecure risk-taking with everyone's homes, families and livelihoods.

A day of contrasts.

Surf's up

Where did the beach go???? (At least this was high tide... it (hopefully) couldn't get much higher.)