Just playing

Reflections, Southaven Park

Mushrooms

Lots of interesting fungi in the woods.

'ey up, me Duck!

I went to the beach. Decided to try a new area--to the western side, over the dunes. Never been there in summer before. Settled down for a good read and some sun. Biting flies decided to join in the fun. Ouch. Ouch again. Decided to relocate a little further along the beach--there seemed to be lots of people there, so maybe no flies.

Right. No flies. No pants. No nothing. Nudists. Ooops.

Came home. Sat on the deck and read for a while. Heck, it's Sunday, and it's a long weekend. Should be doing something...

Went to Southaven Park. Never been there either. North-west quadrant of the Sunrise Highway/Willam Floyd cross. And it is quite beautiful. Pine and oak woods. Big lake. Ducks and geese and swans. Trails through the woodland. Rowboats to rent. Picnic areas in the shade. Happy children. No crowds.

And the only bare bottoms were those on the ducks. Phew.

(I risk being very politically-incorrect about the link between physical beauty and nudism. Or not.)

Love/hate

This is how he was when I first noticed what was happening. I had been cutting the grass and being noisy (at last! the electric mower is back). Took a break to clean up what-Fury-had-left-behind on the raised lawn. Kept hearing a loud chirping noise, like a strange bird... then Fury started making her "I'm interested in something but I don't know what it is" noise... and there was Rocky the Baby Raccoon, hanging upside-down from the crossbar between the pillars supporting my "office", and crying to his mother, who was looking out from the four-inch gap between the top of the pillar and the bottom of the house. (I have never understood why the house doesn't rest on the entire top of the pillar, but it doesn't, and there are four of these little nooks at the back of the house.)

Raccoons seem to have a wide-ranging vocabulary, from this chirping noise to the springtime mating-season screams. This was the first time I'd heard the raccoon parent-child conversation, and it sounded like they were talking; "Help mom! I'm stuck", "Baby boy, what are you doing down there???", "I don't know, help pleeeeeeease!!!!", "Don't panic, you're a big brave boy, I'll be there in a minute, just hold on tight!"

So I fetched the camera... started taking pictures, then realised that the poor little guy really was in danger of falling. He tried and tried and tried, but could not pull himself back up. (Of course, if no-one had been home, Mother Raccoon would probably have been down to fetch him in a flash.) So a large flowerpot saucer came in handy to give him just a little extra support, and he was able to clamber back on to the crossbar, where he waited bravely and patiently for me to leave and for his mother to fetch him. She carried him back up to what must-be-their-nest in her mouth, just like a cat carries kittens, but carrying this not-small guy up a vertical wood-and-concrete pillar. Those claws are strong.

As part of the love-hate relationship with raccoons, yesterday was definitely a love day.

They have not been into the garbage recently; I have learned to think of them like bears, and to take the same precautions as if I were living in bear country. Don't leave food around. Make sure the garbage can is sealed with a heavy weight on its lid. Don't put pond fish into a container that they can reach into.

So for now we have a peaceful, tolerant relationship. Until the nest starts smelling badly, or some other happening or incident puts us on opposite sides of the fence. Or, of course, if I find them happily sitting inside the house, eating my dinner, watching TV and scaring the cat.

Rocky Raccoon Falls Out Of Bed

HELP!!!

Mummmmmeeeeee!!!!

What's all the noise in the middle of the day?

Where's Rocky??

Phew. I was stuck. Upside-down. But some human helped me back up.

Think I'd better take a nap. Am in Big Trouble.

Rocky!!!! I will be down to sort you out... just as soon as that human is gone.

Mummy's got you!!! Safely back to bed now Rocky!

Gourds

The gourds have grown up the deck/bridge support, and are now proudly bearing two large "birdhouse" gourds, plus one snake gourd. The vines are growing really fast now; maybe they see the calendar in the shortening days, and know they must produce, quickly.

I love the way the tendrils work.

Work in progress: a walk in the woods

This is what is left of a large willow tree, from the other end of the street, that came down during the major storm a couple of weeks ago. I have been rethinking my plan of how to use the old deck to make pathways, at least on the drier side of the property, and am now using the deck wood to border the paths of wood chips, rather than making a deck path all the way through the woods. That can come later. The wood chips allow me to make useable pathways very quickly. Hint: if you need woodchips, look for tree guys working close to home. They are usually very happy to give you the woodchips free, as it saves them a trip to the local composting centre. Just don't use it immediately as mulch on the garden, as it will "burn" the plants. Great for soft-underfoot pathways though!

I added an extra layer to the path made last year, and bordered it with wood from the old deck.
And extended it into the "woods". The smilax has started to grow back, but nowhere near as fast as I thought it would. Maybe the deer really do like the young smilax shoots?
Looking back from under the biggest trees, towards the house.

Humming bird!!!!

I just saw my first New York humming bird!!!! I was (at last) working on the pathways-to-be at the back of the property, and (what I thought was) a gigantic bumble-bee buzzed by. I ducked and looked for it, rather warily, because it sounded so big. Was not expecting a humming bird, but there it was, feeding from the red hot pokers.

They visited us all summer in California. Somehow I did not expect them here. Nice surprise.

New house

So I have begun my investment in real estate by buying a second house. Well I am on a limited budget here!

This is a nice dolls' house ("dollhouse" in American), and I bought it at the Mastic Beach village incorporation fund-raising yard sale on Saturday. It is about three feet wide and three feet high to the ridge of the roof. It is made of wood, and needs a little TLC and some new paint and deck repairs, and some small roof repairs and new flooring.

Sounds a little like the house I live in, before work began!

Now for a trip to eBay to track down some furniture...

Perfect beach day

Maybe the best beach day of the summer so far. Perfect blue sky; sea turquoise shading to an indigo horizon; small waves, warm water, children so happy to be at the beach, sandcastles and holes and digging and sand between your toes and in your hair and ears and under your fingernails and in the sandwiches and gotten inside the top of the water bottle when you go to put it back on, and a breeze that gently takes away any sensation of sunburn so I hope you put on the lotion...

Beautiful beautiful day.

Mooning

A few minutes ago...

Proposal for New Olympic Sport

Dear Olympic Committee,

Please plan to include Lawn Mowing in the next Olympic games. This should be a big success, as we British like our lawns.

Note that I mean Lawn Mowing with push mowers, not petrol/gas or electric. The real push mowers, that you walk or run behind and push with human power. You might also know them as "reel mowers", and they do not have engines.

We could have the 1/4 acre 3" cut, both individual and relay. We could have synchronised striping. Yes, I said striping, not stripping (you can only make lawns stripy with reel mowers). We could have long grass and short grass events. Penalties would be incurred for any cursing, tufts of dandelions left behind, and putting twigs onto the other competitors' track.

This sport would be extremely useful in that:

• it would be of interest to many countries (unlike softball, which unfortunately has a following only in the USA, and makes me wonder why Rounders is not an Olympic sport too?)
• it would generate innovation in design of human-powered lawnmowers, creating versions that are incredibly efficient, light-weight, and which cut all lengths of grass including all the springy weeds that the current Home Depot version misses, and which don't jam on the tiniest bit of twig, throwing the operator over the handlebars
• it would allow young athletes to train each weekend in their local suburbs at no cost, creating a large pool of athletes from each country when it comes to selection time, and thereby recreating those old Saturday mornings when the air was filled with the scent of cut grass and the gentle whirr of mower blades, rather than petrol/gas fumes and very-noisy engines, and so the planet would be saved.

The proposed uniform would be sneakers, cargo pants, singlets, and a large dose of mosquito repellent. This is open to discussion, but itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny bikinis are not an option. This is not beach volleyball!

Due to my interest in this sport, I am offering to train any local athletes who are ready to get started. Please bring your own mower and meet on my front drive next Saturday at 10 a.m. I will supply the grass and the instructions.

(Yes, my electric mower is still in the 'shop' receiving a power-supply-and-switch transplant. Thank you to everyone for your sympathy and for offering me the loan of a gas mower, but I am sticking to the push mower as I need the workout and I'm stubborn and there's no way I can carry one of those heavy smelly noisy things up the stairs to the back lawn. Thank you anyway.)

(Anyone have a spare goat?????)

Quote of the day: about Michael Phelps

"If he were a country, he'd be in fourth position in the medal table right now"

(Friday morning news, after Michael Phelps won his sixth Olympic gold medal at this year's games, also breaking the world record six times.)

Another week...

... and it seems to have zipped by. Long working hours, early mornings and late evenings, plus two trips to Montauk-and-back, didn't see the monster, didn't look for it. Poor thing. Did see its photo in a shop window.

It keeps raining. The sun shines, too, but I seem to mistime my outings away from the computer. Either that or the mosquitos. I refuse to wear Deet every day, but the darn things don't seem bothered by anything milder, or they find that one spot that you missed. One got me on the eyelid yesterday. Can't really thump yourself in the eye and splat it like when they land on your arm or leg. Darn things. Bought some mosquito fish from the pond, and I'm sure they are doing their very best, but there were only five of them and they are very very small.

But the martens are looking very well-fed and smug. They are lined up on the wires every evening, waiting for dinner.

A new visitor

He's eating the plaintains and dandelions. He can stay as long as he wants.

These thunderstorms make for fantastic sunsets

The clouds piled up, huge, sun filtering through, reflected from water below, around, within the sky. Pink and turquoise; shadow, distant sunlight, sinking to the west.

I don't remember August being like this last year. I think we spent more time in the sun, at the beach. The past few weeks seem to have been one thunderstorm after another, with a day or so's break every now and then, just enough time to cut the grass before the next downpour.

But the sunsets are amazing.

And tonight, tomorrow; if the sky clears, we should see the meteor storm.

Montauk Rainbow

... as seen from Mastic Beach.

Yet another (yet another) thunderstorm...

Yes, it really did look like that! See the blue sky and the huge black angry clouds? The clouds won (for a few minutes), threw thunderbolts, lit up their own darkness, dumped a load of rain... and then hustled off towards the east. Again.

Can't we capture the power and use it instead of oil???? Maybe attach a lightning conductor to each house on Long Island and route the power to some huge battery somewhere???

Now wouldn't that be something...

Pool party

Clean house

At last. House has had a spring-clean (pressure-wash all over).

Now that the algae is gone from the siding, I had to repaint the front door. The muddy-green no longer had anything to match! Now it's all red.

Now I have to decide what to do with the driveway... and check what's allowed so close to the wetlands. I think I will probably have to keep it gravel.

Summer and storms

We have had some beautiful, sunny days; days that should have been spent at the beach, but which had to be worked instead. But Sunday was really nice, and we were there late in the afternoon, paddling, finding shells at low tide.

Today we have another storm, more rain. There is no need to water the garden.