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.)

Autumn begins: a time for gathering

Not just for gathering-in the harvest, but also for gathering-together. This week, the sky has been filled with swirling clouds of starlings. They gather on the branches of the berry-bearing tree at the bottom of the garden, stay for a while and feast on the berries, then lift up as one and go somewhere else for a while. Their aeronautic display is impressive; how can so many birds fly so close to each other, and make such manoeuvres, without crashing?

And in King Kullen's parking lot in Shirley, there's another seasonal gathering. About fifty teenagers, skateboarders all, riding the tarmac in droves.

Did you ever notice how schoolyard games are seasonal, too?

Bait and tackle

Visited Dick's Bait and Tackle on Neighborhood Road yesterday; I needed some new wellies ("rain boots" or "galoshes" to those of you who speak American). You can buy multicoloured wellies online, or somewhere like Target, but the best place to buy real, working wellies is at a Bait and Tackle shop.

It's like a treasure trove, full of brightly-coloured things that I know nothing about. Rods and lines are pretty obvious, but all the spinners and lures and hooks and things for sea and beach and dock fishing are very different from tied flies for trout. Foot-long shiny fake fish with huge hooks for catching shark or marlin; flourescent mini-squid; everything a fisherman might need, or want, or think he needs.

I don't fish, but I could spend a happy hour looking at everything that's for sale there. I don't fish but maybe I should give it a try...

I think it was Friday

Deerie, dearie me

I guess they are very hungry. This is a baby, spots almost gone now, one of a family with three little ones. I went downstairs early this morning, to be greeted by Daddy Deer, mouth full of hosta, staring at me through the front door. Right in front of the door. On the doorstep.

I opened the door and asked if he wanted to come in, but he just chewed nonchalantly, then sauntered off across the lawn. Slowly. Mother deer rounded up the babies, and they trotted off under the trees. Dad took his time; he's a young guy, only two points, and seems proud of his family.

When I went to the garden center, I bought a different "deer keep off" spray, and treated the hostas. Again. Supposed to make them taste nasty. Next year, I think I will replace the hostas with more salvia and other plants that they seem to avoid.

This afternoon, the family was back again--this time in my neighbour's garden. When I asked them to stop eating her flowers, they just went to the back of the garden and nibbled a tree, instead. While the children were playing, mum and dad deer were nuzzling gently in the shade; very affectionate, very "this is my home and I will eat as much as I like here".

It's only September. How hungry will they be by November?

Tis "mum" season

Chrysanthe-mum that is. The garden centers are full of them, so is Home Depot and just about anywhere else that might have an excuse for selling flowers or plants or gifts or food... the ones I bought and planted last year have just started flowering. I think I lost a couple through planting them in the wrong place (feet in brackish mud?), but most are doing very well. Despite a nibble here and there by the deer, before they realise they are not as tasty as the hostas.

However. Try as I might, I cannot find "real" chrysanthemums. And no-one knows what I mean.

These all have tiny flowers. The biggest flower is two inches in diameter. And that may be exaggerating. Mostly they are about an inch wide. Pretty... but "containered". Despite growing in the garden, they still look like they are growing in a pot. A pot that is too small for the roots, and which is miniaturising the entire plant, flowers and all.

But it's not something I have done to them. All the chrysanthemums, apparently, in New York state are these midgets. Yes they are pretty. But where are their relatives????

I mean the chrysanthemums that can compete with dahlias.
I mean the ones with incurve petals. And heavy heads.
The ones on long stems that you strip the leaves off to put into vases, leaving your hands with that unique chrysanthemum scent.
I mean the ones that you put by graves in France on November 1st. I mean the 'mums that I grew up with, those hardy garden plants with their oak-like leaves.

Why the heck do they not exist in New York???? Surely it's not a climate thing--'mums will survive well-below zero, and they enjoy the warm sun too.

Guess what I need to bring back from England next time :-)

Oh. I have found them. In New York. In the botanical gardens... http://www.nybg.org/kiku/ well if they can grow there, if they can grow in England, if they can grow in Japan, then I'm pretty certain they can grow in my garden in Mastic Beach too. And shame on the garden centers that haven't a clue.

And then the sun came up

More and more sky

Last night started like this...

... and then later...



Hard to capture. The sky was a mosaic of light, in negative, the moon dodging behind small jigsaw-puzzle, swift-moving clouds; a rainbow in the lining.

No lipstick on this blog

So... it is done. I have filed my Citizenship application. I have scraped together the nearly-700$ application and biometrics fee. I have spent many, many hours working out when during the time since I obtained my green card I have left the USA, when I came back, how many days I was away, and where I went to. (My job means that this was not just two weekends in the Bahamas.) I have re-obtained copies of vital birth/marriage/death/divorce certificates that went missing during the move, and which I now suspect are cleverly and safely filed away inside the chest that I use as a coffee table (promised myself not to look until after mailing the application, I can waste time on bemoaning wasted money after that is done).

I am ready to study hard and learn the answers to all the questions.

Do you know them? http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M-685.pdf

But... I should have done this a year ago. Well if I had, I might have been able to vote in November. Too late now I'm sure.

So... America please forgive me if my one, missing vote means that you elect us a leader or leaders who will hope that our children will abstain from sex, rather than teaching them that abstention is a good choice, but also equipping them with the knowledge that they need today, no matter how long or short a time they abstain.

Please forgive my missing vote if you elect someone that knows and cares so much about the rest of the world, and America's role in our global community, that they don't bother to apply for a passport until they are over 40 (maybe there wasn't enough room in the handbag, too full of makeup?)

And please forgive that missing vote if you elect someone who then uses their position to dictate what we can (or cannot) read, (don't care if the question was "rhetorical", it was still asked).

I've lived in countries with right-wing politicians in the past. But nowhere has the "right" been as far-out, way-out, gun-toting right as this. America: do you realise how far you are leaning???

Now tell me. What's the difference between George Bush and Sarah Palin?

Oops. There's that lipstick word again.

Soundtrack: The Tourists, "Strange Sky"

Pretty amazing, no?

Weather or not

I can't resist watching the sunrise... this was today's.

Sunday was beautiful; the beach had changed shape slightly, but it was still there, Hanna had not carried it all away. Monday too was a nice, late-summer day. I had to sit inside and watch it through the window. Not complaining, because working from home is a bonus.

Today, weather is on its way. A band of storms. Already the windchimes are announcing the change, the air is heavy, the sky is one cloud.

Hanna ran away very fast

That was really it, over before midnight. I was waiting for the storm to get worse, but it didn't. Lucky for us. And better to be safe, than sorry.

More Hanna

Lots of wind, lots of rain. No thunder or lightning. Tornado watch a way north of us.

The wind is warm. Tropical storm. Somehow I associate storm with cold. Still learning.

Hanna's hemline

.... and it's like being inside a goldfish bowl. Water just pouring down the windows. And then it stops and breathes for a moment or two; then begins again.

And this is not the storm. Yet.

6.20 p.m.

Waiting for Hanna, part 4

The rain and wind comes in bands. Just a couple so far.

Waiting for Hanna, part 3

At 2.30 p.m., thought it would be "fun" to see the beach. Still just breezy, clammy, grey. But Smith Point was closed, two police cars across the entrance to the bridge, not letting anyone over to the beach.

And then just before 3 p.m. the rain and wind started. Now it is pouring.

Waiting for Hanna, part 2

We're living in a sauna. Condensation runs down the outside of windows, not the inside. Everything is damp. The pets are being weird: inside, outside, outside, inside, can't settle. White sky, sun through cloud. All the weekend homes are occupied. I saw a black squirrel.

Waiting for Hanna, part 1

8.30 a.m. Misty and wet underfoot. Very light breeze. I can hear the ocean, on the other side of the barrier island.

It rained in the night; the first bands of weather from Tropical Storm Hanna. We're expecting wind to increase around lunchtime, with the worst to hit after 8 p.m. this evening.

View from the deck this morning; shades of white. The sun is trying to break through.

Sunrise earlier in the week

It's fuzzy, but I liked it.
The sun is doing its usual late-summer thing: getting up later and later each day.

Where did the world go?

Woke up this morning, and the world had disappeared.

Everything grey-white. Clammy. Warm. Soggy.

Weatherman says it's going to be a beautiful beach day. What beach? What day? Where?

(It's the Attack of the Hot Fog.)

Maggie Palin???

I spent all weekend (well, moments of the weekend) wondering what it was about Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice-president, that I did not like. It had nothing to do with her politics--I have no idea what they really are (and that wasn't the problem either). It had nothing to do with her family situation--that has nothing to do with anything. It has nothing really to do with it appearing to be a dumb idea to pull Hilary supporters from the Democrats (if they are voting on gender not policy, they don't deserve to be voting).

Couldn't work it out. Just an instant dislike.
This morning, it clicked.

SHE STANDS JUST LIKE MARGARET THATCHER. That little hunch, head forward.

For me, that is enough to trigger "I don't like you" thoughts about a conservative politician who just happens to be female.