Beautiful autumn day

Leaves are golden and falling in a warm breeze. Sun shone most of the day, only now, near five in the afternoon, fading to grey. Children came to gather candy and chocolate from my doorstep, and stayed to chat and see the bulbs that, confused, are already pushing their thin green noses through the soil. I'd better find some mulch to protect them.

I saw a pink gorilla on Neighborhood road.

October 24th mini road trip!

Lunch at Tony's in Moriches, then through Westhampton Beach to Cupsogue Beach, wild waves, warm salty air, one guy fishing amidst a cloud of seagulls.

Open Houses on Dune Road. They are beautiful; the water views lovely; but are they really worth five or six times a similar-quality home just a few miles away?

Leaves turning, falling... time again

Today is beautifully orange, red, yellow, gold... a lot of green still, but overnight it seems so many of the trees have changed clothes, and some already gone naked.

Shades of sunrise

Every day is different. Don't tell me that this colour and that colour don't "go" together: they do in nature, any which-way you like.

(Doesn't mean I'll be painting the kitchen pink and purple any time soon though!)

I thought Thursdays were for funerals

But today is Wednesday. And today says a formal goodbye to two more good people: my auntie Muriel, and my son's stepmother Fiona.

Auntie Muriel was my dad's older sister (he was the youngest of eleven children). She was born in May, 1909, second child to Fred and Sarah Elizabeth (nee riley) Toon of Syston, Leicestershire. Like her older sister Marjorie, she was one of the women pioneers in the world of business, supporting one of the most recognised businessmen in the city of Leicester. She waited for the man she loved, Uncle Rex, our "magic man", and they were married when I was still a child (a teenager?) Auntie Muriel took me to the opera--I didn't enjoy the show much, couldn't understand what was going on, but I loved going with her. She and Auntie Marjorie would feed me one evening a week, after school and before orchestra practise, and I so much enjoyed being in the Toon family house on the Green in Syston, with its servants staircase to Aunty Dora's bedroom, Kim the dog in his fiercely-guarded corner bed, and grandad's strops for sharpening cut-throat razors hanging from the kitchen mantle.

Last time I saw Auntie Muriel, she was physically frail, but still with a robust song and the Toon sense of humour where you have to blink and think, "did she really just say that?"... or maybe it is just that magic moment when someone who has always been there for you transforms before your eyes from "Aunt" or "Uncle" or "Doctor" or "Teacher" into the real live human being with a thousand dimensions that you have been blinded to through being years younger.

I will miss you Auntie Muriel. Thank you for being part of my life. Please give a kiss to my dad, I still miss him and always will.

The second funeral today is a memorial for Fiona Popowicz, my son's stepmother, who fought a brave battle and who is now gone from this world, far too soon. She was an artist, she was spiritual, and she cared very much for Dylan.

I am sorry I did not know her better.

Mirek, Dylan, I am thinking of you and all of the family. I know you have been through a lot. Just remember the love... it is what matters.

And I always thought Thursdays were for funerals...

And then it was gone

Monday. Sun is shining, air is crisp, sky a beautifully-calm blue. The bay is still and reflecting the sky. Not a ripple except for when a cormorant dives. The water is back where it belongs, apart from one or two roadside puddles.

It's like nature has put her innocent face on, and is saying, "What? Me? No, I didn't do that, it wasn't me!"

High tides, high seas

Saturday: high water, no rain

Saturday

Sunday: wind from the north-east, driving rain, water still rising. People drive to the end of my street, see the water, then turn back. You can't see how deep the water is on the street.

A wetlands garden... the japanese lilies are loving this.

... and more and more and more

A blue heron enjoys the water...

... and we can see the ocean.

It's not everyday that we have an ocean view, but when it happens, it leaves you in awe of nature's power.

Water, water, everywhere

An early-in-the-season "nor' easter", an early-morning high tide, and the streets are awash. The water is still rising across Park Drive, looking south towards the bay.

... and looking north along Park Drive. The William Floyd estate wetlands are to the right... and the water is running right-to-left, the "wrong" way.

A little later, south along Park Drive, and water covers the street.

The wetlands are. Very.

Very large puddle, north on Park Drive.

The water keeps to the streets and the wetlands. Bella and I enjoyed a paddle-walk this morning.

The beauty of grey (gray)

Never before have I seen so many shades and tones of grey as I have since living here, near the water. Blue-grey, purple-grey, silver-grey, thundrous grey, ominous grey, light-grey, pewter, dove, oyster, mirror...

This morning the bay was bright light, and the sky dark, promising.

At the rising of the sun...

... just a couple from this week. This morning's is the second one.

Smith Point, surfers, sunset: beautiful October

Dog yoga: Knitted Feet

Dog yoga: relaxation

Beautiful Beautyberry

While looking for pansies to plant in the windowboxes--(why does everyone sell stinky "ornamental" cabbages, and this year no pansies???)--we came across an "Early Amethyst Beautyberry", Callicarpa dichotoma 'Early Amethyst'.

It is now planted in what-was-left-of-the-topsoil pile, to the right of the driveway. I don't know if this will be its permanent home, but it was so pot-bound I had to cut the pot away, and it needed water and something to spread roots in.

The berries are really beautiful, and it should have pink flowers next summer too.

I must mulch it well, and remember to cut it back in spring.

East Setauket, the harbour (or harbor)

The boats are smaller now, for pleasure rather than work. It seems impossible that this harbour was deep enough for schooners... but this is where they were built. (They were floated out to deeper-water docks, such as nearby Port Jefferson, before ballast was added.)

East Setauket: houses

I loved the houses along the waterfront. Mostly built by the ship-builders for their families; some greatly added-onto, some still modest. All beautifully-kept, with places to sit and watch the water.

Road trip: boat bones and fishbones

Jade and I made a road trip to East Setauket, on the north shore of Long Island: a quiet, harbour village very close to Port Jefferson. This is where wooden boats were made, many to carry cordwood to Manhattan; some big schooners, many smaller boats. Boats with history like The Wanderer.

We were attracted to the walking tour on Saturday morning because it spoke of "boat bones". We saw the bones--two schooner's ribs--uncovered by low tide. But first we saw the fish bones.

Our guide was a saltwater gentleman called Bev. He does tours around East Setauket and told us all about the shipbuilder families who had lived there, built the houses, built the village, and how their lives turned from shipbuilding to tourism as their livelihoods were made to change by progress... such as the Erie Canal, steamboats, railway. He also runs historical tours for schoolteachers, taking them all over central Long Island, helping them to help our children understand their heritage. And he recommended a Shirley breakfast place that we have to find.

And who would have believed there was once a rubber manufacturer on Long Island?

Irises for next year

Just planted some more Iris ensata (Japanese Iris): "Freckled Geisha" and "Shogun", in the front garden near to the other Iris ensata. They like their feet to be wet, which makes them perfectly-beautiful for the front, which is soggy year-round.

Also "Dante's Inferno" and "Broken Record" reblooming irises, in dryer parts of the garden.

Still to plant (ran out of daylight), "Lace Handkerchief" iris, and hellebores. Tomorrow afternoon's happy job.

All from SpringHillNursery... forgotten I'd ordered them, was a nice surprise which will be even nicer when they flower next year.

Friday morning

Things are still green, but the colours are changing; already the virginia creeper and poison ivy is red, already the phragmites are waving silvery-white seedheads. Montauk daisies are flowering. I really must find a way to have something beautiful in the front garden at every stage of the year. Somehow the deer like to nibble my Montauk daisy plant, but leave the neighbours' plants alone. Maybe that's karma for laughing at the roadrunner fawn.

Bella and I crossed the creek this morning for the first time. At very-low tide. At first she didn't want to get into the water, but then took a huge jump, half-way across. The exposed sandbank sucked at our feet; we checked out a large log that had washed high-and-dry onto the marsh grass, and then returned back across the creek.

Jade will visit this weekend :-)

Beautiful evening

Really. Beautiful. Sky pink and purple and turquoise. The bay rippling, slowly. A slight chill in the air; yet a few mosquitos still taking a chance at a last meal. On heron, stilt-like, in the water: a cat guarding the pathway.

Bella sat and let the three baby deer walk down the street ahead of us. I laughed out loud when the smallest hopped off: three small steps, and then a HUGE jump, three times higher than his head... the patter repeated all the way around to the corner with Lincoln, where he peeped back at us from the safety of the undergrowth. Step, step, step, JUMP... step, step, step, JUMP. It was like seeing the Roadrunner cartoon, transformed into a real live baby deer.

The birds!

A million of them and his brother, swarming in the phragmites this morning. Arriving or leaving?

Early October in the garden

This weekend, I spent a little time doing some clean-up and planting. And a box of bulbs arrived from Brecks, I hope they all grow to be as beautiful as they were in the brochure!

Emptied the annuals from the window boxes--sad to see them go, but they were really well past their prime. Replaced them with new potting soil, carpet daffodil bulbs, and some rust-coloured chrysanthemums. Now waiting for winter pansies to arrive, and I'll add some of those too.

Planted:

• Mahogany Dutch Iris
• Lion King Dutch Iris
• Cool Shade Dutch Iris
• Rose of May daffodils and Golden Bells Carpet daffodils (in the window boxes)

Sunrises

The sunrises this week have been beautiful. This is my million-dollar view!

Bella gets thirsty

She can drink straight from the bottle! After a long, thirst-making walk on Smith Point Beach last weekend with Jade.

Yesterday I found out that she has gained thirty-one pounds since she came to live with me! She is not at all fat... rather, it shows how underweight she was. She has gained more weight than an entire poodle.