Thursday already!

Two really big events coming up (or so I'm told). Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, when loads of people trek through wind, snow, rain or whatever to see if a groundhog, cruelly disturbed from its winter sleep, can see its shadow or not. If said groundhog can see shadow, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow, winter will soon be over. I.e., if the sun shines tomorrow then expect more wind, snow, rain and whatever.

The other big event this weekend is Superbowl Sunday. This is the final game of the season's football (i.e., American football) ... and when you get to see all the coolest adverts (which cost their producers more than Britney's mansion). However, the fate of this game has already been decided by Princess the Camel. I saw her on TV. She is a two-humped Bactrian camel and, by choosing a cookie with the name of one team or another from her owner's hands, she has decided the result of the superbowl eight out of the past ten times (or seven out of nine, or something like that). This year she has cast her winning spell on the New York Giants.

Who knew America was ruled by a zoo????

Week on speed

The days are hurtling by in a mad rush of work, meetings, remodelling going on, storms blowing by (rain, wind, sunshine, warmth then freeze all within twelve hours)... it's all going so fast... no time to breathe or blink or even think sometimes.

Muffin the cat just walked in with fur ruffled by the wind, jumped onto the sofa and immediately became serene, smooth, and asleep. I think I can learn something from that.

Sunday project

The house needs cleaning--there's dust everywhere from the new drywall that the guys have put up downstairs. They've ripped out and replaced the rotten drywall in the downstairs kitchen. It's now a mini-kitchen with a sink, a kettle, a small microwave, a small 'fridge and a few cabinets. Replaced dangling lamps with four recessed lights. I'll be able to paint it all when they've finished and it will actually become usable. Vistors welcome!

This weekend though I'm ignoring the housework unless I suddenly feel inspired to grab the vacuum cleaner. Have started a mosaic. It's big--can't be bothered working with little tiddly bits-and-pieces--and it's mostly made with sea glass (I cheated and bought it, there's not much washes up round here, not like that beach in Fort Bragg in northern California, entire beach of sea glass).

Don't know if this will work. Have an ingenious method for applying thin-set mortar but won't brag about it until I know that the pieces don't all fall off...

Ice

There are lumps of ice scudding across the bay... it was about 13 degrees farenheit early this morning. The wind is bitter but it's supposed to "warm up" to above freezing this afternoon... and then rain... and then freeze again.

Anyone have any spare ice skates???

Work in progress--bathroom vanity

With the tiles in place, but no grout yet. The blues are glass, the rest is tumbled stone.

Oh and it's cold

Very, very cold. Brain-freezing cold.

But the sun shone all day, and the day was beautiful.

The big heron glided, half an inch above the water, all the way up the creek before finding a good spot to huddle out of the cold air.

Tomorrow will be even colder. This is winter!

More remodelling starts this week!

The guys will be here Tuesday to begin work on what will be the master bathroom (AKA the bathroom that has been unusable since the previous owners bought the house from the owner before that). Was hoping to reuse the (supposedly new) whirlpool bathtub but found a big crack in it last week, so that has to go. Good thing: allowed me to rethink the overall design and layout of the room, and make better use of the space... and now I'll be able to have that amazing view of the wetlands from in the shower without anyone except a low-flying heron looking in.

We are going to open up a door from the bedroom, seal up the door to the living room, move the sink, reduce the interior wall (where the nasty tacky gold-plated non-working shower cube was, install bathtub at ninety degrees to the exterior wall with the shower above it. Close up the entry to the attic and remove the stairs (can still get in from the bedroom) which should provide more storage space. Tile the floor and the walls. I have fifty square feet of black pebble tiles (i.e., flat, black, smooth pebbles stuck to mesh, like mosaic. Will do something inventive with it...

The picture above is the basis for the new vanity in the second bathroom. The frame/legs is part of a buy from ReStore: it came with an ugly, heavy sink, I'm just using the chrome frame and making a counter top (plywood, backerboard and stone tiles), with a "vessel" sink. That is, as long as I can persuade the guys that it really will work...

Lesson learned today: when you buy a set of circle cutters for your drill (I have absolutely no idea what you call them: they are devices that you fit to drill in order to cut holes of one or two inches in diameter), you absolutely get what you pay for. I threw my set away after having to remove second half of the hole for the tap with a chisel. Was especially annoying because I had to spend about an hour trying to find the darn things in the first place...

Saturday in the city

Spent yesterday--Saturday--in the city with Jade. Brunch, West Village, Lower East Side, tea at the Cake Shop, dinner at Orchard on Orchard, really nice day. I promise to do this more often.

Nearly missed the stop on the way home. The train is smooth and there's very little warning when you're reaching your station... easy to fall into an I've-walked-a-lot-in-the-cold-and-ate-big-steak-and-now-I'm-tired sleep at 10.30. Could have ended up in Montauk...

Morning arrives earlier and earlier

I thought I'd overslept today: woke when it was almost light. But no, it is just the day dawning a few minutes earlier each morning. How quickly the earth spins moves in its annual path. More noticeable too, here in New York, as we are further north than we were in California. But not so far north: despite harsher winters, this is 40 45' 40 north, the equivalent of Naples in Italy, or a few miles north of Madrid in Spain.

The birds are hungry. I have to refill the feeder. It is attracting not only all the American equivalents of bluetits, plus several pairs of bluejays and a gang of starlings, but also several bright-red cardinals . (These are the birds that had Jade jumping up-and-down saying, "I saw a red bird, I saw a red bird!" like it was Long John Silver's long-lost parrot or something. They are very special the first time you see one--bigger than an English robin, and very cheeky.) You can hear one singing on Whatbird: http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/692/_/Northern_Cardinal.aspx

Can't wait to do more work in garden

Can't wait can't wait can't wait.
Clear more undergrowth/briars but leave sheltered spots for the deer to hide in case that's where they have their babies. Make wooden pathways from old-deck-wood around the raised garden and winding through the woods. See if bluebells come up OK in next-door undeveloped woodland plot (really must mark out what is "mine" and not "theirs" and be satisfied with it) and plant more for next year once the back wood has fewer brambles/briar. Add some places to sit. Get help really fixing the pool as soon as winter is over. It needs a liner as there is obviously a real leak somewhere. Make a wetland for the laundry water as in a real planned wetland that filters the water and doesn't just pour detergent where it shouldn't go. Put up a shed and maybe a greenhouse too. Keep the nasty spiky green vine out. Encourage the wild roses. Hope the poppies come up. Plant more poppy seeds. Wonder if deer eat poppies...

P.S. on my eye

In case you were concerned, don't be. The eye is fine. I just had what is called a "separation", and it didn't damage the retina at all. That I am very pleased about. Apparently it happens to most people at some time--usually later, much later--in their life, but my myopic astigmatism put me more at risk. Anyway, no lasting damage, just a few annoying floaty things that will eventually go away.

Now if I could just recognise immediately that an uncomfortable contact lens might just be an inside-out contact lens instead of suffering it and being irritable for several hours thinking it was an after-effect of the nasty pupil-dilation potion that was stung into both eyes yeseterday during the tests, I might be getting somewhere...

Dancing, singing maggot. Believe it.

It sings, "Born to be Alive". And it wriggles forward. And scares the cat...

Thank you Mother.

A flurry

Just in case you blinked, and missed it.

Crying wolf

Guess what?

No snow. Yes, it rained. Yes, the wind blew. Yes, Fury barked like mad at 3.15 this morning because of a strange noise (freezing rain? sleet? just big raindrops? hitting the house from the north). But snow??? Not a trace.

"The ground temperature is too high."

I don't know if the American media was like this before 911, but this is pretty typical. Get really, really, REALLY worked up about something dangerous/risky/problematic... and then see nothing happen.

Remember what happened to the little boy who cried, "Wolf!"?

My snow shovel is going to stay in the garage today.

Oh.... an "Arctic Express" will arrive this weekend. Based on the reliability of the forecasts for the non-existant snowstorm, I'm going to prepare to go sunbathing on the beach. :-)

Waiting for the snow

9 a.m., sky was blue, sun was shining, beautiful. 11 a.m., beautiful sunshine, dazzling the water. The swans (after an early-morning trip up the creek and back) were at the beach and Fury wanted to chase them (not a good idea when she's attached to me by her lead, I was emphatically not going into the water). 2 p.m. still sunny, breeze coming up.

4 p.m. I saw seven--yes, seven--adult deer running and jumping and leaping across the creek into the wetlands and away. Also heard gunshots. Hopefully the hunting was going on over on Smith Point and not 'our' wetlands. But seven adults is a good sign. Can't wait to see the babies in spring. Still haven't seen the "Ten Pointer" that's supposed to be around.

5 p.m. The sky is grey, heavy, sinking, and the wind has risen. It's getting in around the windows and doors. I turned the heating up. The trees are sillouettes against the brooding sky. No sunset tonight: just anticipation of the snowstorm that is expected to deliver overnight.

I found some sprouting hyacinths and tulips still in bags in the bulb box, forgotten after the rest had been planted in November. What was I thinking???? Dashed to HomeDepot for compost and pots. Hyacinths will come indoors. Tulips outside. Some are white, some are white-with-green-stripes (what?) and I call those, believe-it-when-I-see-it. Planted some mini-tulips lazy style in the bed behind the mail box: set them on the soil, covered them with lots of compost and then a layer of mulch. The bed was sunken anyway and needed building up. Again, we'll see.

One snowdrop has sent up leaves. Snowdrop for the snow?

Nearly 6 p.m. The wind is gusting, out of the east. Wind chimes going mad... no rain or snow. Yet.

9 p.m. Really windy but still no rain, no snow--and still relatively warm. Latest forecast was for rain to begin about now, turning to snow by midnight, with up to three inches out here by morning, up to eight inches in the city BUT as always, just the educated guess of the weatherman.

My bet is that the sun will be shining and the daffodils flowering in the morning.

Tree house?

... there were also several books about tree houses. Now that's an idea...

Flashing lights

Went to ReStore--Habitat for Humanity's shop--in Ronkonkoma. This is like a big warehouse, where they sell donated building and home decor materials. Rather like a thrift shop for do-it-yourselfers. And the proceeds go to funding projects such as restoriing homes in New Orleans, building homes for low-income families, and restoring run-down homes to make affordable housing. See http://habitatforhumanity.org

I found a chrome wash-stand for the bathroom. It came with a sink: I'm going to first try to convert it to take a flat countertop, which I can tile (or find a granite remnant for), (because I'd really like to use the white "vessel" sink in the non-master bathroom), or, if that doesn't work, I'll use the whole thing in the downstairs/apartment bathroom. Good opportunity to learn more plumbing than replacing taps (faucets).

I need to measure the front door and the windows that have to be replaced. Most of ReStore was stocked with brand new windows and doors, still in original packaging. People mis-measure their homes, order windows/doors made for them, and then can't use them. So it may be possible to find replacements at a lower cost. If, of course, any of the sizes fit. Now I think I know where the mis-matched windows in this house came from...

After driving from Ronkonkomo to Lake Grove (Trader Joe's shopping-and-flowers trip), back home, then to Patchogue hospital to deliver Karli some lunch and say hi to Kevin-minus-his-appendix, intended to go to the thrift and furniture shops to look for replacement dining table (the old one just doesn't fit this house)... but was distracted by the "all 60% or more off" bookstore. Darn. Miles of home improvement and gardening books. Only went ten feet into the shop and spent 50$. One of them "Moroccan Interiors". Now I know exactly where the Egyptian chandelier is going and how the apartment living room is going to look....

Did get to the huge furniture shop on 112 (who the heck calls a road, "112"???). Really nice, huge furniture showroom. It's a warren of little bedrooms/living rooms/dining rooms. They have done a really good job of showcasing the furniture in the type of room size that is typical of New York housing. It's also really really easy to get lost in there. But don't worry, there's a salesperson following you like a shadow...

All this driving around and I was noticing a problem with my right eye. A flashing light. Not a migraine. I hope it is just a contact lens problem (they have been driving me insane lately, won't stay in place)... but I need to have this checked.

Today's new discovery: opticians in New York state are like those in France. They will measure your eyes for contacts and for glasses, but they don't examine your eyes for problems (in California they do everything, from putting those horrid drops in so they can see your retinas to selling lenses to make your eyes look like cats'). So Monday I have to find an opthamologist (sp?) and make an appointment ASAP...

Friday Friday

Woke up several times to strange lights (lightning) and noises (thunder and the plastic box AKA Stray Cat Condo, which by-the-way no cat has ever used, blowing around on the deck. Now it's light, the sky is grey, no sunrise today--rain coming in short, sharp bursts like stones against the roof.

I hope to go for a walk on the beach later (the ocean beach). The waves will be impressive. I can hear them from hear, like a distant express train, across about two miles of wetland, water, and dunes.

Swans

The couple of resident mute swans are becoming more friendly and throwing fewer hissy-fits. Either they are more used to us, or the cold weather slows their reactions down, or it's the wrong time of the year for them to be bossy. They mate for life... hopefully there will be a set of cygnets for them to be hissy about in the spring!

They seem to spend most of their time on the bay, with an occasional trip up the creek further inland.

Fang has gone home!

Fang (whose real name we now know to be "Pumpkin") has gone back to his home! He has been hanging out around here for the past few months, and I started feeding him when the weather became colder... and then brought him inside after he sat at the door, wet-through and snow-covered, crying for shelter... since then he has not wanted to leave, despite Muffin being very unimpressed about having another cat on her territory. He is a sleek, gentle black cat, very stretchy (pick him up in the middle and his legs stick to the floor and stretch forever, like a cartoon cat.) He really needed a home without a Muffin spitting and hissing at him, and I needed to be able to work without a cats' chorus singing in the background--so I posted him on Craigslist.

And amazing luck--his owner just happened to see the ad. Pumpkin aka Fang had been missing from home, about a mile from here, since August--and was feared gone forever. Not so! He was sitting on my chaise-longue, sleeping a lot, eating more than a lot, and generally chilling out. And trying to ignore Muffin.

So he has gone back to his own home and apparently ran straight to his own bed as if he'd never been away. And Muffin can stick to aggressing the toy iguana, not another cat.

Glad he's back where he belongs! Happy story!

How to get a black eye all by yourself

1) Decide it's time to take the Christmas Tree down.

2) Remove and store all of the ornaments, tinsel, lights and dispose of uneaten sugar canes.

3) Start wondering how to take one large, very dry Christmas tree downstairs and out of the house.

4) Consider dragging tree down main stairs but discard this idea due to amount of damage that may be caused.

5) Consider dragging tree through office, out onto deck and dropping it over the railing but discard this idea too due to risky position of HD TV and the amount of damage that may be caused.

6) Decide to dismember tree in situ.

7) Cut off all branches with secateurs and put them into town-sanctioned-for-green-materials paper bags

8) Wonder what to do with bare Christmas Tree trunk as it is over six feet tall and town rules say that it must be cut into two.

9) Retrieve reciprocating saw and pruner blade from garage. Cut tree trunk into two and place in another town-OK paper bag.

10) With reciprocating saw in hand, look out of window and see the oak saplings that are going to block the view of the water. Decide to do something about them immediately. Don't consider how many people you need: you have the saw!

11) Put on wellies and go out behind the raised garden and start cutting down the saplings.

12) Have a moment of panic after fourth sapling is cut because of using a vicious powered saw in an inaccessible area with no-one else home and what will happen if you cut off your leg because the saw slips?

13) Be really, really careful how you angle the saw blade and make sure that any slip will not cause saw blade to embed itself in your leg.

14) Decide to only cut two more because the battery will need recharging after that...

15)... and forget to pay attention to the sapling you are cutting which falls onto a patch of springy brambles and bounces back just like a snooker cue to hit you with the cut end right below your right eye...

(It's the cluster of trees behind the fence in this picture, to the left, the ones with dead leaves still attached. In summer the leaves will block the view of the water. They have obviously been cut down in the past, there are stumps everywhere, but there wasn't much woodlands husbandry done in the past couple of years. Best time to do this is now, before the sap starts rising again.)

Ice on the beach

The wetlands beach is a little chilly this morning. Brilliant sunshine reflecting on ice. The waves are frozen.

This is not ocean, but brackish: a mix of fresh and salt water. The fresh water runs onto this beach from the stream that runs parallel with Park Drive. The salt water comes into the bay through the various inlets, the closest being Moriches.

Everything is frozen. Away from the beach, where the water movement slowed the freezing process, everything is freeze-dried, crisp, fragile. I remember frosts in England where the freeze was slow and the water in the air crystallized everywhere, coating trees, plants, windows, with frost patterns: everything so still that you could almost hear it forming. Not here, not this frost. The wind blew it all away and froze the remains to the bone.

But the sun is shining. I like that.

Captain's log, Stardate January 3rd 2007

Sunny. Temperature 13 degrees farenheit, wind chill -2 degrees farenheit.
That's -10 centigrade and it feels like minus eighteen with the wind chill.

In any language, it's bl***y freezing.

The backsplash

The first picture is work-in-progress, showing one of the seahorse mosaic tiles (bought them from eBay a while ago). The other tiles are "tumbled" stone from Home Depot, either individual 4" tiles, or pieces from 12" by 12" or 12" by 4" mosaic tiles that I cut into pieces. The small thin tiles along the top of the backsplash were all part of 12" x 4" mosaic strips. Had to go back to Home Depot three times before I had enough. Just can't count ;-)

I used ready-mixed stone/marble/tile thinset to mount the tiles. You just buy a bucketful of the stuff, no need to mix it. Worked really well as this was a relatively small area which took a long time (fiddly).

The other pictures show the completed backsplash--grouted and sealed, apart from the join between the tile and the countertop. I can do that this evening as the grout will be dry enough by then.

It is snowing

First day back at work, and snow is falling gently from a heavy grey sky.

I am happy that I do not have to commute!

New Year, new day

It's the first of January, 2008. The beginning of the first full year in this home. This morning the wind is howling straight at us across the bay, from the ocean in the south. It makes a sound in the reeds like someone wobbling a large sheet of steel. A little rain is starting to hurl itself against the windows--there will be more later. The sun rose pink and purple, but has now hidden in grey.

The windchimes are ringing in the new year. I have my beady eye on a juvenile oak tree that is going to be disappeared before its sap starts rising, along with a lot of surrounding brush. Now that all the leaves are gone, the view of the water is clearer, and its indicating what needs to be done.

I am impatient to be started on some new projects: the upstairs/master bathroom, and some bits-and-pieces downstairs that will allow it to become liveable (for example, side doors that don't leak when the wind is blowing the rain at them... which reminds me, I must make some preparations for later today because this wind is going to slide round from the west, and blow water at the laundry door).

I have spent several days working on the kitchen backsplash: my first tiling work. Today, it's time for the grout. Was going to make the backsplash from black pebbles--I bought the tiles which are basically black, flat and smooth pebbles glued to a mesh backing, like any mosaic tile. But after putting the job off for a while, I realised that it needed to be a lighter colour. Several trips to Home Depot later, (even if you buy the boxes of stone tiles which have the right colour label, the tiles inside may be a different colour, have huge holes or bits missing--and I my guess of the number of small mosaic tiles I needed was a little out), the backsplash is in place and the stone is sealed ready for grouting. Will post pictures once that's done.