The swans

... are reunited.

... and it starts draining away already

For a while this morning, Park Drive was completely covered in water, about SUV-wheel-high (based on visual measurement of a passing vehicle bravely driving straight through). An hour later, the flood on the road has subsided, and the wetlands are starting to re-emerge.

I have only seen one of the swans this morning, swimming slowly in the flood of the creek, then in the distance in the wetlands and now towards the beach. They cry when their partner is missing.

And then the tide came up and the water came down

High tide isn't for a couple of hours, but already the wetlands are... wet. Water flowing down from the island meeting water coming up from the bay and the ocean.

I don't think we'll be walking on the beach this morning: there isn't one. We might even have to swim to get there.

This is going to be interesting....

First day of spring, and it's sodden

A lot of rain overnight, and the marshes are full. The weatherman warned of being woken between 2 and 4am when a warm front passed over Long Island, and sure enough, at ten to four, the rain and wind hit hard. Only lasted a few minutes, but left a lot of water.

Doesn't stop the red-winged blackbird from singing, though. He is the Rod Stewart of birds, slightly croaky but still tuneful.

All photos and a bug

All the photos are on the site now: http://www.alisontoon.com/jpserver/web/default/

There is a bug in the photo album software: if you look at many of the photos, they will start to appear black. You can fix it by closing the browser and starting again, or by going to the thumbnail view rather than the slideshow. (The smaller your memory, the sooner it happens.) (Your PC's memory, not your own.) (I think.)

Yep, spring is on its way

The deer are frolicking on the wetlands beach.

Almost, almost spring

Even with the clock change, the sun is up really early. Beautiful sunrise this morning. Now the bay is silver and brilliant, dazzling... waiting for the arriving clouds to soften the sky. It will rain tonight and tomorrow, and maybe fog will follow, hiding the deer and quietening the blackbirds.

I need to work in the garden.

Offender list

Once again today, there's a list of local sex offenders in the mail. While I do appreciate being warned, value the access to information through Megan's Law, I wonder why we are given so much information about offenders who move into the area, and no information about those who leave.

We must receive one of these notifications every two or three weeks. I am sure that of all the people we've been notified about in the past few months, some must have moved away again.

This should be about information, not fear.

I am trusting in the justice system that the only people on this list are people that are truly a possible danger to others--and not young men who have fallen foul of the age-of-consent with their girlfriends (it's 18 here, versus 16 or lower in European countries).

More info here: http://www.parentsformeganslaw.org

Sunny day

'Tis beautiful today.

Blue and blue and sandy. Sky huge. Wind ruffling the stone reeds. A hint, just a hint, of buds on the trees, like they know something is coming, soon.

Several miniature iris have pushed up and are blooming, purple, in the front garden. They really are miniature--no more than three inches tall. Elsewhere, daffodils are a few inches tall now, still green.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a big black garbage bag and extracted some of the paper, plastic, beer cans, bottles, packaging and other stuff that had blown into the reeds and the undergrowth. Looks much better now. I hope everyone else will do the same with their bit of Mastic Beach... there's a lot of litter around right now, and it won't all fade or wash away.

China thoughts

Anyone who thinks the reason for offshoring to China is to cut costs has a very short-sighted view. You can be pretty certain that costs will remain competitive, because competitive prices make good business sense--but prices will not remain incredibly low. Better reasons for having work done in China are the large number of technical graduates, the large, available workforce, and the enthusiasm for learning and growing. China is producing twice the number of technical graduates per year as India, and many times that of the USA.

English is being taught from kindergarten onwards.
People are making business from anything and everything. If you want it, need it, think you might need it, perhaps may need it somehow somewhen somewhere.... you will be able to find it in China.

(Except for CNN news stories about trouble in Tibet. Those get censored out within a couple of seconds, leaving just a tantalising headline before the screen goes silent grey... "More protests against Chinese occupation in Tibet today" then the censor pushes the button.)

The business skills being displayed in China today are nothing new. Suppressed but never banished during the Cultural Revolution, they have reemerged and are evident everywhere, from the new, Western-facing businesses that have developed in just a few years from small offshore manufacturing and assembly operations for western companies to NASDAQ-listed software manufacturers. They are evident in the young girls selling in the Silk Street market, whose sales, marketing and negotiation skills will have you laughing as you walk away having paid twice as much as you would in San Francisco's Chinatown for something you didn't really need anyway. They are evident in the awe-inspiring architecture of the Beijing Olympic stadium, the opera house, and Shanghai's business district. Don't think of China as a cheap location for business, because it is anything but cheap--it's just lower-cost. For now.

Think this: Hong Kong was not Hong Kong because it was a British Colony. Hong Kong was Hong Kong because it was China with a free-market economy.

And then realise how big China is in comparison to the Hong Kong territories.

Think big.

China photos

I'm uploading the photos to the photoserver:

http://www.alisontoon.com/jpserver/web/default/

There will be several albums, as there are too many pictures to put into one. I've started with the people, more will follow tomorrow, after a few hours (or more) sleep... zzzzzzzzzzz.....

Back from China...

... and the roof has been leaking, again. The flat roof that I had FIXED just after moving in, because it had been leaking to fill a bucket. This time it hasn't leaked through one spot, but seems to have seeped through all over and made blisters and stains in the drywall seams. That means all the insulation must be soaked. Just spent a few minutes blindly sweeping water off the roof (too high to see from stepladder, can just reach the broom up there). This is what comes of not having enough cash at the time to replace flat with a slope and fix it properly. I guess. Though (in my humble opinion) a fixed flat roof should stay fixed for more than six months and four storms.

Animal count

Seven really-big deer, two swans (who followed us around towards the marina), many seagulls and one quiet fisherman, floating a boat on the bay.

And there are flower buds on a tree down the street--look like a type of willow. The small, clumping willow that I planted in the corner of the front garden may be struggling a little, but it has some definitely-still-alive, and very red, branches, so hopefully it will recover and acclimatise this springtime.

The wind is rising. 50 mph is forecast for tonight. And lots, and lots, of rain.

Google earthed

Just on the news, Google will no longer be able to show detailed photographs/maps of the military installation in my back yard, because protestors will use them to climb onto the Houses of Parliament.

At least, that's what it sounded like.

One man (or woman?) and a plane

He (or she) is at it again. The girls say it's Tom Cruise and his Christmas present... a new plane. It's a small propellor plane and it sounds like something out of Snoopy and the Red Baron. Doing aerobics over our house and the bay. Buzzing the seagulls. But it's a peaceful noise, like the summer drone of bees.

At night, we see a million stars, and the twinkling of still-high jumbos as they make their way to JFK or La Guardia.

The guest kitchen :-)

Can I go sleep now, please?

(Yes I know the skirting board isn't finished, and the door still needs painting, and the radiator needs a new cover... but I need a long nap....)

Unfrozen fishes!!!! And they have multiplied!!!

The pond is thawed! And the fish are... many. Bigger and I swear more of them. **And** some are definitely "preggie" (gravid?) with tummies full of eggs. The little black ones that hatched last year are now fairground-goldfish size. The small goldfish who survived the raccoon attack are now about half the size of the ones that didn't survive.

They were enjoying the sun and swimming near the surface of the water. I gave them a little food, and first the black fish ate, and then the bigger goldfish.

The one with the lacy tail is still there, and the white-and-spotty one, but I have yet to see "my" big guy, the koi. I hope he is lurking in the depths, waiting for a few more degrees of heat. It's too murky to see right now, as the filter and pump have been switched off for the duration of the ice age. If I haven't ruined them by letting them freeze, this summer will see a silent water run, not a noisy waterfall. Will hopefully keep the water loss down, too.

Wake up! Wake up!

... at 5 a.m. Dog was barking. She was barking at the thunder. The thunder was following the lightning, as thunder does. We had to check the whole house to find out where the thunder was.

It was a fierce storm: lots of electricity, much rain, high winds. The rocking chair, as usual, rocked itself over. The window screens that were neatly stacked on the deck (why hadn't I put them downstairs?) are scattered. There is a huge puddle or ten in the street. The water is high, the ocean sounds like an express train.... and the sun is shining.

Amazing.

Now I have to go out and collect all the debris that blew off the dumpster/skip. Soggy.

It really feels like spring

The sun is shining. The sky is a pale, translucent blue. High clouds hazing the sun. Water a deeper reflection, small wavelets on the bay. Redwinged blackbirds singing and rattling, a mockingbird going through his phonecall repertoire, bluejays scolding the cat. There are daffodils coming up: both the ones I planted (which were impatient and now are scorched by frost), and the ones that have been here for a while. I wonder if they are yellow daffodils, or white narcissi? I wonder if the bluebells will come up safely? (Thinks... Swithland Woods when we were kids, miles and miles of blue carpet that wilted if you tried to pick them for mother or aunt, so we left them where they were... thinks... miles of wild garlic in Sassenage, all along the below-mountain stream, pleasantly stinking in the warm air... thinks... spring is a good season and Easter will be early this year...)

Guest/game room?

I don't know what to call it! It's the room-between-the-hallway-and-the-"summer"-kitchen... or maybe the "guest suite living room". Now has a distinctly Mid-East flavour. Just need to bring in a few plants and a camel and we'll be fine.

The curtains... put up the curtain pole over the window after carefully measuring the length of one of the curtains. Hung the first curtain and went to unpackage the rest (each one in its individual plastic zippered-up bag, and the window needed four. Was feeling pleased with self since, armed with the laser level, hadn't made dumb mistakes like the first ten times hanging curtain poles. Second curtain looked a little different. Was different. It was a different colour and it was fake suede. Realised that the curtain used for measuring was in fact the odd one that was going to be converted into cushion covers. Ok... still have four, all the same... only... half the length. Oh, heck. These were the ones that came from the shop in the outlets that was closing down (and were subsequently a terrific bargain), but ooooops. They wouldn't work. Not at all.

Had to make a detour to Medford... Target saved the day :-)