Bella has a new coat

As you can see, she was so excited she couldn't keep still! It's two pieces--a coat and a snood -- and they will keep her really warm next winter. Great Danes are like greyhounds--they have little fat or fur to keep them protected in the cold. So a coat is good!

I found it on ebay--a lady makes them custom-size and custom-colour for your dog! We could never find a good-sized coat for Fury... now I know where. See warmwags.com for more info.

Be careful what you wish for....

I had just been talking to my neighbour about the decision to drain the pond and find a new home for Moby and the other fish, and was sitting on the deck with a book and a cup of tea, when a strange crackling cry told me that the fish might very soon find a new home--inside an egret.

He was standing in the shallow end of the pool, but when Bella and I stood up he hopped up into a tree. And yelled at us in his strange crackly voice. (I don't think I have heard an egret disturbed from his dinner before.) But he did politely wait until I went inside and grabbed the camera, then flew, still yelling, across the street to the creek.

(To hear what he sounded like, go to WhatBird.com.)

I checked the pond. Moby was still there, and all the other easily-recognisable fish but I can't be sure about all the goldfish. Next time I guess the egret will be quiet.

Turned the hosepipe on, giving the fish a few more inches of water to hide in.

Misty but spring

Weatherman said, 80 degrees and sunny.

9 a.m., and it hasn't arrived yet. It's mild and misty. The air is scented, even by the water, maybe magnolias.

A man drove past with a ginger cat perched on his shoulder.

A scythe-shaped bird, swallow, swift or marten? flew over the house, unmistakeable, not a starling or grackle or blackbird. They are back, and spring is officially here.

Really spring, really

The new magnolia has settled in and is already blooming--and the flowers smell amazing!

I wonder if deer like magnolia flowers? I guess I'll soon find out.

One day I will take an egret's picture properly in focus and correctly exposed. That may be the day when this meeting repeats itself but when I have SLR with me not little camera, and dog is not trying to help set up the shot ;-)

Evening walk

Long legs

In the garden of an abandoned house.

Citizen Me! :-)

I am now American!!!! And I have a certificate to prove it!!! :-) And look what my lovely colleagues from HP sent to celebrate--some beautiful flowers!

This morning, about 150 people took part in the oath ceremony at Central Islip courthouse. We each had to surrender our green cards and any US-issued travel documents and/or work permits. And then we repeated the Oath, and the Pledge of Allegiance. The judge talked to us about his family's history--his grandparents had all come to the USA from Italy, through Ellis Island. There was a troop of Cub Scouts there to watch democracy in action. The judge encouraged everyone to participate in the democratic life--to vote and to speak up about issues. He gave out gifts to all the children in the room (a pencil shaped like a judge's gavel). And one of the immigration officers explained what citizenship means to any of the parents of children 17 and under--their children are now citizens too, as long as they can prove their birth, their residence with their parents, and they already have a green card (and even if they don't have a green card, there is a process to allow this to happen). (And for me, whose daughter is over 17, over 21 when we first arrived here, citizenship means that I inform the national visa center so that my petition for her green card is placed much higher in the waiting-line than it was when I was a permanent resident... about five years higher.)

It was quite an emotional morning. I thought I was going to be late, and miss my ceremony, because traffic was nasty, all the lights were red, and Miles, our GPS guy, didn't know that Federal Plaza existed. Luckily I had paper instructions and a sense of direction. Wasn't early, wasn't late. Sitting in the room with all the other people, wondering about their histories, I wondered about being American and was I abandoning my roots??? No... that will never happen! There were 149 other people, all from different backgrounds, all with the same aim of becoming a full citizen in the country we have chosen to live in--regardless of our reasons for being here. There were 48 countries represented in that room this morning! There was a little sadness as I handed over my green card--it's the thing that has allowed me to live and work here for nearly nine years and it's something that you really protect because without it, you're in trouble. So for an hour or so, I had no green card and no proof of citizenship--limbo! Scary! :-)

At the end of the ceremony, we were each issued our certificates of citizenship. With strict instructions not to lose them... because they cost around 600$ to replace.

I wonder... do I now have to fix Miles so that he gives bad turn-by-turn directions in an American accent instead of British?

Dog yoga: the doughnut (aka donut)

Nice article about Mastic Beach

See the article here: http://www.masticbeach.org/pdf/lia-article-31.pdf

Nishiki willow, planted

I planted another "Nishiki" willow, Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki', this time in the middle of the front garden, where it gets really wet. Put it in a raised bed but where the roots can dive down into the murkiness. (The smaller one that I bought in September 2007 is doing OK in its wet corner and is just budding.)

It will have salmon-pink branches and varigated green-and-white foliage, turning pink again in autumn. According to the label. It also says "generally deer resistant". As this one will be more accessible to the deer, we will definitely put that to the test.

Cleanup day!

... and dawn was very pretty.

Susan Boyle and true beauty

Never, ever give up on your dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

First day at school

Bella and I went to her first training class at a local chain pet store last night.

She was totally distracted for the first half hour (which is exactly why I took her to the class--not because she doesn't understand commands, but because she needs exposure to other people, other dogs, strange noises, etc. etc. etc.) But by the end of the class, she was (exhaustedly) doing as she was told, and was extremely well behaved sitting-and-staying next to the doggy-treat display as I loaded up a bagful of burger-shaped and cat-shaped dog cookies to buy and take home. And by itself, that achieved my objective of taking her to the class; she had a lesson in stress-management and came out of it smiling.

But.

The trainer wants me to put a muzzle on her, and introduce her to other dogs face-to-face, rather than walking them side-by-side and allowing another dog to sniff her.

That doesn't match with my expectations... and it doesn't feel right. She needs to learn to walk with other dogs, not be forced into a confrontation. Maybe I misunderstood?

Will see what I feel like next week. I may just call up our local professionals, instead: http://www.argentine-dogo.com/About_Us.html

Brookhaven cleanup! April 18th!

This coming weekend is the annual Brookhaven cleanup! Get your (welly) boots, your gloves and your garbage bags, and help!

More information here:

http://www.brookhaven.org/DesktopModules/Bring2mind/DMX/Download.aspx?TabId=134&DMXModule=1576&Command=Core_Download&EntryId=1819&PortalId=0

Green... at last!

Definitely some green about today.

Bella has mastered the wooden stairs--both here, and at the beach. She ran straight up the beach steps this afternoon, without any hesitation. She is still a little wary, or careful, going down the "bridge" to the back yard, but that's because it's a little slippy. But she comes back up the steps at the bottom very fast, unless, of course, Muffin is sitting waiting for her at the top entrance to the deck.

Washed away

Sometime between Monday and Tuesday afternoon, the rowboat that had been stuck in the reeds across from the house, waiting for me and several helpers and very, very low water to go and rescue it, carry it to my front garden, and fill it with potting soil and plants, decided of its own accord to move. It's now over the far side of the first "field" of marshes.

It probably looks better there than full of pansies.

Dog yoga: the sphinx

Planted

One Climbing Joseph's Coat rose ("continual" flowering, pink/yellow/orange, scented)
One Climbing Coral Dawn (scented, coral)
One Belle de Crecy Old Rose, pinky-purplish, should smell wonderful.

One Magnolia x loebneri Dr. Merrill, to replace the magnolia I killed twice last year: once by planting it somewhere far too wet, and once by moving it. Either of those would have done the trick. Hopefully this one will settle in nicely where I moved the first one to after realising it was already suffering...

I saw my first flowering flowering dogwood the other day, in Bellport village, on the main street just east of the village centre. Had been there to fetch new contact lenses from my new optician, who seems to have found the right lenses at first attempt.

My own dogwood has buds, but no flowers yet.

The wild roses are putting out tiny, lime-green leaves, Forsythia is yellow. And I cut the grass for the first time this year, just the back raised grass-weed lawn, the rest can wait a few days but it is all green and growing now.

I think an ice cream is due.

Into the garden

After several weeks of self-induced funk, fuelled by reading several utterly-depressing (to me) biographies of alcohol-drug-and-mental-illness-induced real-life horror stories, I (at last) picked up Monty Don's "Around the World in 80 Gardens" this morning, as the eastern sun flooded the room and Easter awoke. It had been on the pile of "to-be-read" books for far too long; I had been distracted by dumb reviews by people who wanted the TV persona, not the gardener and author I adore. ("About time", he nods from the cover.)

Writing about pain and hardship can be part of the healing process; it can be a study of something we don't understand; it can be a way of saying, "I did the best I could but I feel guilty that I didn't do more, even though I couldn't". But it takes someone special to instead to be hurt, love, build a garden, see it destroyed, hurt some more, make more garden, share the love with others, embrace the garden as a natural and physical and mental medicine, use it to work with some of the people who might later write the books that have so depressed me lately... and at the same time to continue sharing this love and joy and one-ness with the earth despite challenges that would stop most people in their tracks. (Google Monty Don if you want more info.)

He makes me laugh, too:

" The story goes that Weize's teacher rode a lion to the site of the garden, where it lay down and refused to move. When it shook its mane, hairs flew out and where they touched the ground, each one of them turned into a lion cub. The monk, understandably astonished at this manifestation of the lion as a kind of dandelion, regarded this as a sign. As one might."

:-) You'll find me in the garden. Or making my long-planned secret bench.

Routinely Saturday

Bella has been here two weeks, tomorrow, and we have established something of a routine. Get up early, quick trip to the backyard, Bella still half-asleep, but waking up because it is time for Breakfast. She eats her first meal of the day and I wipe the drool from the tile floor (she is really good, sits and waits patiently until I tell her to eat, but her mouth leaks ). Then she has a rest and I get ready for the day.

Then a walk. If we are are early enough, and the weather is OK, and I don't have a 7 a.m. meeting, we sometimes go to Smith Point, to the big beach. Or we just walk around to the marina and by the bay. Then back home. if it is raining--like today, all soft and mild and gently but very very wet--she lets me dry her, head to tail, just inside the front door. She is very patient.

While I work, she sleeps. If it's sunny, she sleeps on the deck. If not, inside. Occasional visits to the backyard, where she runs like a greyhound or a puppydog or both. Then more napping until the second meal of the day, late afternoon.

About five, or six, we'll go for another walk. Last night, just around the corner from the house, we met ten deer. We stopped. They stood and stared. Like statues. And then, one by one, they leaped across the road and hurried off into the reeds.

Bella wanted to follow. She jumped higher than my shoulder and wriggled in mid-air; she really, really wanted to go with them. That was interesting. The rest of the walk was just a walk, but Bella remained very alert, ears up, watching, all the way back home.

Then more work, dinner, a book or a little TV... and the day is over.

She is doing fine. Her coat is shiny and she has put on a little weight. Still shy, but gaining confidence.

Now all I have to do is find some gym time again...

Much more relaxed!

Bella is doing lots and lots of sleeping. Very relaxed today.

The pond

I have had it with the pond. It won't stop leaking. I have cleaned it, paid to clean it, fixed the leaks, refixed the leaks, cursed it and kicked it too many times. The (second) expensive filter is still in the furnace room: I tried to carry it out the other day, but realized that it was still as stupidly heavy as it was just before winter, when it took me an hour to carry/roll/kick/curse out of its hole, across the lawn, down the steps, and into the said furnace room. The stoopid net I tried to lay over it to keep the leaves and debris out, didn't, because it became impossibly tangled and blew away into a heap and eventually ended up inside a garbage bag and on the truck (another $50 or so), and so what's-left of the water is full of fish, leaves, and bits of pampas grass.

I have some ideas:

- Empty the darn thing and cover it with a deck. This would be fantastic, as it would add to the usable outdoor space, give a nice view into the "woods", and give me somewhere for a barbeque. However, the price I've been quoted for building the deck is close to $4000, and I my piggy-bank isn't that fat.
- Empty the darn thing, build a deck, and drop in a smaller pond. My neighbour's idea. Would be really, really nice but would cost more than just a deck and would give the raccoons easy access to the fish. Have been through raccoon-fish trauma once and that was enough.
- Empty the darn thing, knock a hole or ten in the wall to drain rainwater, and make a sunken garden. I quite like this idea because I'd be able to work on it bit-by-bit, and it doesn't involve $4000. But if I make a hole in the wall, will the whole raised garden, and my septic system, collapse? (Thinks: Tom and Jerry cartoon where you remove one brick and the whole house falls into dust...)
- Lug the darn filter out from the furnace room, plug it in with the scary electric, reconnect the pumps, jump in the pond, scrape out all the debris, tickle the fish, and spend all summer (again) filling it from a hosepipe and complaining about the pond leaking (again).

Decisions, decisions, decisions.
I am enjoying the quiet without the sound of the pump/waterfall.

Almost-American

So yesterday was the big day--my USA citizenship interview! After nearly nine years here, it was the right thing to do. I don't ever want to sit through another election and not be able to vote! And I do want Jade not to have to go through the visa process and worry every year just to be able to stay in the same country as the rest of her family!

The day started by going through the metal detector at the immigration offices in Garden City. I'd stayed overnight so as not to have to battle the traffic early in the morning, and it helped just to get up and walk down the street to the interview. The officials were all very friendly. Either things at INS/USCIS have changed a lot since we arrived in the USA and went through the first visa process, or it just becomes easier the closer you are to being a citizen, but there was a definite difference. I like to think that the system, and the attitudes, have changed.

In the waiting room, lots of people, all ages, all backgrounds; many languages, faces, races. Half the room was still studying the civics questions; half just sitting and waiting. For the first hour or so, I people-watched, trying to guess where everyone came from, then realising I had sometimes badly misjudged when their names were called. I heard a lot of Chinese and Russian; some Japanese, some Polish and Spanish, and other languages I didn't recognise. Most people were dressed as if for a job interview; neat and tidy, not overdressed. One lady could have been a bag lady from a big-city street. A black gentleman walked in, totally immaculate in suit, tie, polished shoes, carrying a stetson with a feather. He looked amazing.

The immigration officers struggled a little with the Chinese names. On the applications, the names were transcribed as Roman characters, so the officers pronounced them as written, and the applicants struggled to guess if they were hearing their own name, or not. If no-one jumped up and claimed the name, the officer called it again, and then spelled out the letters... but of course, these letters mean nothing to someone who has not yet fully grasped the English language. I felt for both the immigration officers and the applicants. Chinese is a tonal language, very difficult to write phonetically with Roman characters and then have someone pronounce correctly. But despite this, all the applicants seemed to eventually be matched with their name, and go off, often with an immigration lawyer to their interview (the same lawyer was helping several people and was very busy yesterday!)

After a while the waiting became tedious. Have they already called my name, and I missed it? No... that lady with the painted fingernails is still here, and she was already seated when I arrived. How much longer will it be? What time is it? There is no clock on the wall, and no cell phones are allowed inside, and I really must buy a new watch...

But eventually it was time for my interview. The officer asked me questions about my application. He had obviously studied it before the interview, because he knew pertinent details about my travels for work. Then I had to answer a list of questions such as, "Have you committed any crimes for which you were not arrested?"

And then came the dreaded civics test. The "new" test involves a set of 100 questions. Helpfully, all applicants for citizenship are provided with these questions, and the answers too, so that you can study them for the interview. On the day, you are asked a set of 10 from the possible 100 questions (so you must be ready to answer all 100 as you do not know which you will be asked). From those 10, you must answer six correctly. And there is an English reading, and writing test too--mine were both sentences about Abraham Lincoln. (Abraham Lincoln was president during the civil war, that's an answer to one of the 100 questions.)

If you'd like to test your own answers to the 100, you can find the questions here: http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf

And... I passed :-) and was recommended for approval for naturalization.

Then I had to wait in a different room for an hour or so, for a letter giving the date and time of my oath ceremony. That is when I'll really become a citizen. It's in a couple of weeks.

The atmosphere in the second waiting room was so different! All the applicants were smiling and hugging each other. One young Russian woman had tears in her eyes when an older man (her father?) came into the room, waving his letter and grinning from ear to ear. And it made me realise what a huge achievement, and what a dream realised, it is for so many people when they achieve citizenship. For me, the interview was definitely stressful, but it was in my own language, and I was not threatened with persecution or worse should I have to return to the country of my birth. But others are not so lucky--and they were so happy to have succeeded. (I'm happy too!)

Now I am going to be very, very good, and will not sink into a life of crime or debauchery between now and the oath ceremony. I am ready to swear.

Even cloudy mornings are beautiful!

This morning, it's cool and breezy. We met one of the deer families on our early walk: they took a good look at us, then hopped off into the reeds--all except for the smallest, very-furry one, who took off in the opposite direction!

Twas a beautiful afternoon

Bella sat in the sun on the lawn, which while growing greener by the day, is looking rather moth-eaten. I tidied up the flower bed below the lawn, taking out old dead stalks and leaves and pulling up some of the invaders that have already started growing and twining round the hibiscus and lilac.

There are buds on the lilac, and the daffodils are almost-ready to open. Iris shoots have pushed through, the big poppies have started to put out leaves, and the foxgloves, too. There are some ill-advised tulips in the front garden. I'm sure the deer will wait until the flowers appear before they neatly remove them. I dug up all the tulips I could find from last year, and replanted them in the raised, fenced garden where the deer can't get them, but obviously missed a few.

The willow trees are shaded green, though you can't see any leaves, or even buds, yet. But they are on their way. And the forsythia--I had forgotten last year's forsythia hedges!--are too, almost ready.

Today's sunshine will give spring a push forwards. It was good to see and feel the sun!

Playing with the waves

Today, at Smith Point beach, Bella AKA "Scooby Doo", met surfer guys and also was brave enough to play a little with the waves. She didn't go into the water, but followed the waves out and then ran back up the beach when they chased her.

She also had her first few minutes off-leash, and she was really good and came straight back when I called her. The pocket full of treats certainly helped!

We were at the beach this morning, before the sad incident with the plane.

Cheesecake please!!!

If you haven't tasted cheesecakes from MommyLou's, you really, really, REALLY! must. Delicious. On Neighborhood Road, next door to the shoe repair shop, opposite the new bakers. Buy your bread and dessert on the same trip!

Check out all the flavours: http://mommylouscheesecake.net

Take some home for the family... and put your order in for next weekend!

Turkey-lurkey

Seen a few turkeys in the neighbourhood this week; one taking-off from within the brambles next to my house, lumbering into the air like a heavily-laden cargo plane. This guy was strutting down Park Drive in his spring finery; red-necked, shiny-feathered, springtime dude.

Wild beach this morning!

West wind blowing the sand; big waves; scudding clouds, grey, low. We walked by the water for a while, then returned along the vehicle track. I hadn't realised there was a little shop/snack bar there! Nice place to go for breakfast one summer is here.

Somebody found the sofa...

Trying to be very small so no-one notices where she is.

White Rabbit

Finished reading "Tweak", by Nic Sheff, this morning... and it left me totally depressed.... something that a walk on the wild beach couldn't quite displace. Not because the story isn't hopeful... because it is, in a way, in parts. And I didn't wish that I had not read it. But it struck too many chords--people I have known, people I knew, with the same kind of struggles, some of whom made it, and some of whom did not.

But I have now ordered his dad's book from Amazon, and have to read that side of the story too.

In black-and-white on the paper of the book, you see Nic's self-torture and the pain inflicted on others, and your stomach twists willing him not to do it again, but you don't know his reality, and his matter-of-fact telling of things that would be horrendous to most people have become so much a part of the years of his life covered by the book, that it's like hearing someone's war stories--you are so far removed from it, and safely so, that the reader becomes part voyeur, part judge.

I have seen reviews that say, "Tweak should be required reading for all teenagers and their parents", as if reading the book will stop anyone else ever going down the same path.

I don't know that I agree.

I remember reading "Go Ask Alice" when I was in my early teens, it being presented to us as a lesson in avoiding drink and drugs. Thinking, 'this is scary, but it's interesting too, in a bad way..."

If you think Tweak should be required reading, then make sure you also require the discussion afterwards. Don't imagine that one book can teach anyone the devastation that addiction can inflict--both on the addict themselves, and their friends and families. Just pray that your loved ones never have to go through it.

Dog yoga: the sleeping cat

How a great dane relaxes

I think she does yoga.

Bella at the beach

We went for a really long walk on Smith Point yesterday evening. Bella was fascinated by the waves... and by the deer that were waiting for us in the parking lot on our return. She really seemed to enjoy watching the waves and exploring some holes that had been dug in the sand. She didn't show any interest in actually going into the water, nor in digging holes herself. That may change as the weather gets warmer!

We walked a long long way and got to look across the Great South Bay to Mastic Beach--a very nice view!