Last day of the year, 2010

Still ice on the bay, but less than yesterday, and there is a drip-drip-dripping sound as the sun melts away the snow... but the bay ice seemed to radiate a chill into the sun-warmed air.

Another grackle invasion

They came in a crowd-cloud and scooped up all the bread, tipped the birdseed all over the deck, and then had a group pooping-session all over the deck railings. There are many brown (juvenile?) grackles in the crowd this year, disguised as something other than their beleathered counterparts.

I do like grackles.

Frozen bay, sunshine on the snow

 It looks like the Arctic came to Long Island. The Great South Bay is covered with ice; static in the shallows, flowing with the current in the boating channel. This was low tide: the ocean beach was huge, the tide way, way out, frozen seafoam on the sand, drifts of snow on the dunes, and the tunnel from the parking lot a sheer drop down a wall of snow drift.

Smith Point bridge from the new fishing pier, Smith Point

Smith Point condos from the new fishing pier, Smith Point

I went to the beach

It was pretty. Snow, sand, shadows. 

Sunrise, December 30th 2010

Looks-colder-than-it-is today

Ice is floating on the bay, chunks and slices, plates and slivers. The bay is a giant, grey slushy today; it's less cold and the air is still. The ice must be lifting from the beaches in the salt-fresh water.

I am watching out for the playful seal in case he comes back this year.

Watching the birds watching us

I am very very hungry. I think I can eat it all.

How dare he?

Well I guess there is enough to share...

What's all the fuss about?

After the blizzard

There was a lot of shovelling to be done: the driveway, the deck, the bridge/slope from the deck down to the lawn, the lawn steps, my neighbour's driveway... Tomorrow I have to do the area in front of the mailbox or, once the street has been ploughed and the mailman can get through, he'll leave an officious note letting me know it's my responsibility to clear the snow so that he doesn't have to get out of mail van to put the letters in the box. But today, there was no mail because no-one was driving much down here... only a couple of big trucks, and the kids on their ATVs.

I hope this is the last blizzard of the year.

Boxing day 2010

We didn't have snow for Christmas, but it's here today, Boxing Day (they day-after-Christmas to those who don't know what Boxing Day is!) (Which should also be a holiday-day. Really.)

Just after midday, and the snow is fine and settling. Blizzard warning for later today, with the worst to arrive early evening in the city--possibly, hopefully less here.

I have learned from last year's digging-out experience to leave my truck at the end of the drive, close to the street. It might be more sheltered closer to the house, but it's a lot of digging once the snow stops! I bought pet-friendly snow-and-ice melt for the deck so that Bella (and I) can get outside without slipping. It may be pet-friendly but judging by the grass beneath the bridge to the back yard, it's not grass-friendly. Oops.

Hope you are having a warm snug and safe day wherever you are spending it!

Bella on a cold morning

The wind was blowing her ears! Doesn't she look well! She is big and strong and kind. She is still scared by silly things--like the reeds rustling in the wind, or going through the front door--but so much better than she was a year or so ago.

Recently, someone on Long Island was arrested for starving a Great Dane to death. How can you do that? They are the size of a woman or a teenage boy. Bella now weighs about 145 pounds... and she weighed only 105 lbs when she arrived here. This is Bella, a couple of days after she came to live here in March 2009. It made me cry when I saw this picture of her again. How could anyone have not noticed how hungry she was???

She still sometimes sleeps all folded-up or wrapped into a tiny ball, like a kitten, and with her paws folded right back against her dog-wrists. But mostly she sprawls. All over her favourite sofa. All over me.

Bird visitors in December

This weekend's bird visitors included grackles (just a few, not a gang), various titmice, all sorts of sparrows, grey-bluejays (they are a much greyer-blue than California bluejays and they make nowhere near as much noise), lots of cardinals both male and female, looking like mini-parrots and squabbling over the food. The great blue heron has been frozen in place next to the creek in his favourite fishing spot, only occasionally rising to fly, creaking loudly, across the wetlands.

And one beautiful flicker. Red-headed, spotty-chested, long-beaked. He sat on the deck rail and ate a lot of the seed. I've only seen him on the bird feeder before, never so close to the house. He darted away anytime there was a movement behind the glass, but returned again and again for food.

Grackle invasion

They are back: arriving behind the storm, swarming the roof and the telegraph wires, finding the seed left out for the bluejays and titmice and cardinals, squabbling and feasting and fighting, and then suddenly they are gone again.

Grackle season.

At the dawning of the day

Cold, but beautiful. There are ice stalagmites in the yard, where water has slowly dripped down and frozen.

New house? Really?

I was trying to take a photo of the Great Blue Heron who was fishing in the wetlands, but he stalked off through the reeds, so I took a pic of my favourite pair of wetlands trees. After uploading it, I noticed the building on Smith Point. Was it there before? I don't remember seeing it. Is it a temporary hunting lodge--like the ones we see on the backs of little boats during wildfowl season, but bigger? Or is it the remains of a long-ago house, revealed by winter stripping away the vegetation?

... or is it public bathrooms for campers?  Anyone know?

Golden afternoon

The school bus drops off bescarved and bemittened children who look like mini-Michelin-men in all their layers. It's very cold, the wind is biting, but it is still beautiful.