Yep. Snow.

Couldn't resist it. You can see how happy she was tho.

Christmas Eve...

Toons of Syston

This is the first picture restored from the photos that Sara found in the attic. It's my dad, and his father, Fred Toon.

The first time I saw this picture, I was shocked. I think it was the first time I saw my grandad in the same way as his children had seen him; as a tough, hard man. I remember him as an old man with a walking stick, taking his daily walk across the green to the club, or sitting in the corner of the kitchen. I remember the paints that I wasn't allowed to touch--he was a master painter, decorator and signwriter--and he was always very kind to me.

The photo is slightly out-of-focus, my dad moved as it was taken, but it has life and emotion and it's going on my wall. I wonder what they were working on?

And it's being copied for all the family along with the others. Will take a while but it will happen.

Dublin photos

Horridly cold-and-wet wintry day is a good time to upload photos.

You can now see all the Dublin photos on the photo site in the Dublin album.

Horizontal

Woke this morning before 6 (heck, it's supposed to be a day off) to a howling, rattling wind. It's hitting the house from the east, finding every single mal-fitting window and door, blowing straight through the stoopid "in wall" cheapo air-conditioner that I never use and which must either be removed (and then the wall and siding patched), or covered (it's not the right shape for the covers they sell)... showing me all the windows that at some point really really must be replaced... I swear some of the windows are 60 years older than the house itself, must have been someone's idea of recycling.

Now the wind is carrying sleet and very cold rain, horizontal to the house, straight across the bay and the wetlands. But the streets are clearing of snow and ice,

Just heard of a man being rescued from up-to-his-chest in freezing mud in the marshes near Moriches. I cannot imagine how terrifying that must have been. Someone found him and bravely pulled him out, and the man is being looked after in hospital. Now that is one good Christmas present! (News article)

That was interesting

Haven't driven on snow and ice since France, about nine years ago; last year we didn't have much, and the years in California were pretty-much snow-and-ice-free (you don't count frost that has disappeared by 9 a.m.)

While there was someone ploughing the snow off the street outside about midnight last night, I don't believe there was any salt, not down here, not anywhere south of Sunrise. The streets are packed with snow and ice until you get up to Neighborhood Road, which is clear down the middle. Mastic Beach Road was sorta-clear and it was OK then all the way to William Floyd Parkway. The parking lot by Kohls/Marshalls/Stop'n'Shop was a joke; too many people, too many cars, and too much snow and ice.

The truck had icicles underneath it when I returned with bags of potatos and cheese for cheese-and-potato-pie-tonight. Snow had melted off the roof and cried down the side windows. Went into a gentle slide as I turned left at the ATT store... just a reminder to keep slow and in low.

A security car driver was seeing how deep he could bury his car in the parking lot near Blockbuster. Don't have any idea what he was trying to do. Bizzare sighting of the day.

This is the first time I have ever seen traffic stick to the 45-mph speed limit on William Floyd Parkway.

The sky is grey and heavy again; there may be more tonight. It does look beautiful. Fury and I walked to the wetlands beach earlier; came back thinking I'd left my face and thighs behind in the numbing wind.

"Battleship grey... hardship grey"

(Sound of wheels spinning on ice outside. This is not a day to be in a hurry.)

Yes, snow it did

Made Fury run and jump and play. Made the cat very snippy. Even more so than usual.

It was real snow... but now it's sleeting and there is a dripping from the gutters. The streets have a clear line where a plough has been through, but there are no tracks on my driveway as I have stayed warm and dry, indoors, all day. Though I did throw a couple of snowballs from the deck.

It's going to snow!!!!!!!!

(At least in most of New York state. We may just get a slush-storm on southern Long Island. Right now it's frosty, and Fury slid right across the deck when she ran out to find deer, raccoons, possums, cats, squirrells, fish? Dunno what but she was very excited until she skated)

Sunrise before the snow...

We had snow and then rain already this week. Then this morning, a sharp frost. Snow, sleet, forecast for tomorrow, then a freeze, then more snowy-mushy stuff... and then maybe a white Christmas!

Darn that pond... (but darning isn't watertight either)

So I was away just over a week. I made sure there was plenty of water in the pond before I left, in case there was a severe freeze, so that the fish had a good depth to hide in.

Went and checked an hour ago... and there was only a couple of feet left. If that. Either the fish were extremely thirsty, or we had many days of very strong, drying winds, or a big freeze and thaw have re-split the cracks that I thought I'd fixed.

It is becoming a really expensive pain-in-the-neck. It would cost a fortune to have it lined properly. It's already cost a fortune in new pumps/filters/cleaning/fixing/etc. etc. etc.

Maybe I should find the fish new homes and cover it all with a deck. But then I'd need to do something to make sure it doesn't fill up with rainwater and mosquitos and more mosquitos.

Am in need of some inspiration here...

Back home, again

Will post some pics from Ireland/Dublin tomorrow...

... soundtrack for the return journey:

ABBA: Winner takes it all (guess what movie??????) (and that one started a theme....)
Phil Collins: Against all odds
Style Council: You're the best thing
Steve Winwood: Dust
Thin Lizzy: Still in love with you
Simply Red: Stars
Alison Moyet: This house
Peter Hammill: Just good friends
Pat Metheny: It's for you

See what happens when you take one song and then play with the iPod and make a playlist-on-the-go? Smoooooooooth... even managed to doze through the little Swedish kid who kept elbowing me all the way from Munich to New York. Though I discovered that I can understand Swedish for "I think I'm going to throw up" (he didn't but he did go very white as we danced a couple of circles over Long Island before coming in to land at JFK).

Another nice sunrise

The entry hall today

I'm very happy with the way the tiles turned out! Now all I have to finish is the woodwork/trim. Left this until after the tiles 'cos I knew there would be some damage (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it... but yes, there was some damage and I still have to add some skirting/baseboards).

Anyone remember what it looked like when the stairs went the other way, there was no way up from the main entry, and there was a dancer's pole just inside the front door???

(BTW, the sideboard is for sale, see craigslist)

One day I will go and see these trees close-up

There's something very scenic about them and how they appear to be talking to each other.

It opened under the Thanksgiving lights!

Here he is!

He was back on the feeder again this morning. Hanging out with a bluejay.

Anyone identify him?

Woodpecker, woodpecker

Little guy has visited yesterday and again today. Yesterday he alighted on the end of the deck railing, peeped through the sliding door into the house, then hopped off to the feeder and ate for a while. Today he was back again. Looks very much a baby still.

Either a Downy or a Hairy Woodpecker (most likely one of these two), or a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (but probably not as he should be further south by now), according to http://www.whatbird.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

I guess his wife sent him out to catch the dinner.... hunter, his boat, and his "hide" on the little island in the bay. Um... it's pretty darn obvious that this is a hide... don't the deer/duck/geese notice it????

(Sound of dawn on thanksgiving... gunshots. The hide was gone by quarter to ten. Saw this several times last year. If they are hunting deer, do they expect them to be swimming? If ducks, how do they pick them up before they sink? Or maybe I have completely misunderstood the scene and it's something totally unrelated to hunting? If it's hunting, are they allowed to shoot "my" deer on the William Floyd Estate? I guess there's a lot I don't know ;-)

Turkey is in the oven. Ours is named Herbert the Huge. We did not pardon him. He is wrapped in bacon and foil right now, and the giblets are cooking, for gravy, and for a treat for Fury (just the boneless bits). She always wonder why there is just one set of giblets...

Real tile in hall!

At last, I was able to just-about save enough money to replace the peel-and-stick tiles in the downstairs hall, and the kitchen, with real porcelain tiles--and to carpet the bedroom and sitting room (which will then become my official home office).

It's almost a year (I am finding that very hard to believe, but it is--it was just before Thanksgiving) since we put the peel-and-stick tiles down: the colour was perfect, but they definitely looked peel-and-stick due to some unevenness (i.e., holes, bumps, dips and spikes) in the underlying floor.

I managed to find almost exactly the same colour and pattern tiles in porcelain! For both the hall and the downstairs kitchen! Home Depot must do this on purpose--why else would they stock the same designs in both versions?

Remember the hall had that really, really nasty vinyl tile that I managed to scrape up from the kitchen floor, but which wouldn't budge in the hall? Well... the guys from Eastern Carpet in Shirley did it. They scraped it all up. It took them hours and hours and hours, but now the real tile will be laid correctly and will hopefully last for many, many years. I'm glad I did decide to have them lay the tiles; if I'd done it myself, I would probably have cheated and laid it over the old tiles, and then suffered problems within a month. (Now all I have to deal with is a lot of dust.)

Now once again I'm able to see the nice amount of space in the entry hall.

Does anyone want to buy a genuine, nicely-carved, really-from-Holland-I-know-'cos-I-imported-it Dutch dresser????