Correction to earlier contortion

Dunno why I always confuse them, but I do. The "contorted" tree is a hazel, not a willow: Corylus avellana 'Contorta'. AKA Corkscrew Hazel or Filbert. AKA Harry Lauder's Walking Stick.

Still priced at $99 ;-)

A little more planting, a lot more mulching

More weedblock installed, more wheelbarrowsful of woodchip wheeled and barrowed into place. I'm sure the weedblock won't last its advertised thirty years, due to the water levels, but it should help some, especially with several inches of mulch on top.

Planted a Bailey red-twig dogwood (Cornus seicea "Baileyi") in the front garden. These make nice green shrubs during the summer, but it's in the winter that they really shine. The branches and stems are a bright red. Should be stunning in the snow.

And two new clematis: a white one, Miss Bateman (Clematis x "Miss Bateman") in the bottom-left corner at the back of the house, left of the steps up to the garden, where it should mingle with the new climbing rose. And a "mystery" clematis--labelled "Mixed Clematis", Clematis hybrid, at the front left of the house, against the trellis to the left of the footpath to the downstairs kitchen door. The label shows a pink flower with a pinker stripe, a mauve flower with a very-rose stripe, a purple flower with a yellow centre, and a purple flower with a pink, hairy centre. As my blue hyacinths came up pink, maybe this clematis will be blue.

Reminding me of Egypt...

Early this morning, the lawn grass was suddenly, surprisingly green. It will need cutting soon. There were starlings pecking at the new grass and clustered on the bird feeder. Another bird--it may be another type of starling or jackdaw, with a yellow stripe on a wing, and a blue-black shiny bird too, with white eyes.

And then.

Two ibises were there. Eating the grass.

I didn't see them fly in, had gone to make tea. Was struck, dumbfounded, halfway across room with a cup of scalding tea and wanting not to move and startle them, but to get to the camera as quickly as possible...

These pictures were taken through the window and through the deck railing. Eventually, they did startle and fly away.

I am very happy that they visited. There are many species of ibis, and these are probably long-removed from any relation to Thoth, but they are special birds all the same.

See more about glossy ibises here: http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/957/_/Glossy_Ibis.aspx

Forsythia

The forsythia is blooming bright-yellow everywhere. Many homes have it growing as hedges, alone or mixed with other plantings, trimmed to shape like you would privet.

I would never have thought of that.

On the beach: sun versus mist

We went for a long, long walk on the beach first thing this morning (which wasn't really "first thing" because it's a Saturday, and Saturdays are entitled to start later than usual).

There had been a big thunderstorm in the night. About two o'clock. I know, because even if I'd slept through the lightning and thunder (I didn't), Fury started telling it to go away. Loudly. (It didn't change anything, the storm hung around for about an hour and then went its way, as storms do.)

The morning was damp, not raining, and surprisingly warm. The sun trying to break through, and by the time we'd driven to Smith Point, it had succeeded. We walked a long, long way eastwards along the beach, way past where the four-wheel-drives are allowed on the beach, but still didn't reach the end. The beach was narrowing, the tide approaching, and the mist descending, so we turned westwards again.

There was a tree buried in the beach. Not a big tree; a small pine, a large Christmas tree: it's bark stripped in places down to a smooth suntan. Maybe washed out of the dunes further east?

Some erosion near the fence, but the sand had built up there, too.

We saw parts of a very-large spider crab; one horseshoe crab's helmet; many large, white, scoured clam shells; some sad balloons advertising them against the fence; many small scallop shells; and a golf bag. Yep.

By the time we returned to end of the dogs-allowed part of the beach, the fog had settled in.

What's in the front garden now

I have planted:

- three Mugho Pines (Pinus mugo mughus) at the edge of the lawn/drive
- a Japanese Andromeda (Pieris japonica 'Mountain Fire')

The Mugho Pines should grow to about 4' tall by 5' wide... in a few centuries. The Pieris will need to be kept under control size-wise eventually. The label for the Pieris has a picture of an adult deer with a stop sign superimposed, like a traffic sign. If I see the deer waiting in the garden for the lights to change, the Pieris will come out.

Foggy morning dew

Early morning, foggy: reeds rustling gently, a million birds singing. The trees are ghosts.

The coastguard are fishing?

They came from the east, reached this spot, turned around, and look as if they have settled in for a good fishing session. Earlier this morning, a pair of deer were out on this narrow finger of land, looking at the water. I wonder what is going on?

YouTubing

Spent some time on YouTube this evening: was looking for some old favourites, but found that after a while I was following a theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-thc-sWNcGU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGWsGyNsw00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl08n8_b3Sw

But this has to be one of the best, ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtU-9EMSYu0&feature=related

Work-in-progress: front garden

June 2007...

... and today. Don't worry folks, I have only removed all the (several truckloads of) dead stuff; insanely-wild rose, grape vine, long-fallen reeds and various creepy-crawly equally dry-and-brittle creepers. And far too much poison ivy. And no, I'm not immune to it; I have a small blister, evidence of this weekend.

Oh and multitudes of beer bottles, milk bottles, coke cans, several light bulbs (?) and three deflated balls of assorted sizes.

I have pruned the wild roses right back. They will return and flourish now they are not swamped by the other stuff. In fact they are already budding. There are at least three small trees that can now breath, plus a few privets (someone must have tried to plant a hedge, because they line the driveway, but they had no chance of pushing out more than a few leaves a year).

Now the race is on to finish the mulching before everything really starts growing again...

Today's visitors: Mr. Some-sort-of-sparrow

When I have a few minutes I'll search for him on http://whatbird.com/. He is not at all shy, and despite being rather smaller than the cardinal, often hops right inside the bowl to get to the seeds that the cardinal is eating.

OK. Search done. There are only about twenty types of sparrow that might be found in this part of the country. I **think** he is a Vesper Sparrow, but am not certain. Can anyone confirm?

See here: http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/642/_/Vesper_Sparrow.aspx

Today's visitors: Mr. BlueJay

You lookin' at me????

Today's visitors: Mr. Cardinal

See how he cracks the seed, drops the seed case without letting go of the tender kernal, and then looks very proud of himself?

Handbags and laptops!

www.hp.com.sg/beyondthebag

I'm a green drawstring bag. What are you?

Lilac is planted

It's in the middle of the front garden. I don't know how well it will do there, as the water table is very high and the groundwater is probably brackish (a mix of salt and fresh). If it starts to look poorly, I'll move it somewhere else.

It's a congo lilac, Syringa vulgaris "Congo", should have nice purple flowers and a great scent. Good for butterflies too!

Sunday colour

Today's colour is grey... windy, layers of cloud, not cold, just grey, grey, grey.

Images seem to be working again. I guess they were just a little tired/

Image upload is broken

Looks like there are Blogger problems. Cannot upload images any more. Have logged the problem with Blogger support--as have other users--but no response/no fix yet.

Darn...

Return of the native :-)

The egrets are back!

At least one... he just glided across the sky from the south-west, legs trailing, and landed in the centre of the wetlands. After a few moments, he fluttered across a channel and settled in the grass.

This is my first spring here. I do not know if this year's egret absense has been long, short, or the usual thing. But I'm happy to see them return.

In the garden :-)

Couldn't resist a trip to Home Depot in Shirley to see what they had in the garden center. It is now full of things to plant.

I am greedy and want them all.

Managed to ignore the Old Man's Walking Stick (Salix matsudana Tortuosa) because it had a label on it saying 99$. Nice specimen though. I'm sure if somehow a cutting made its way home, it would root in some water...

Brought home a Royal Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata Royal Star) with its sandy rootball wrapped in sacking/burlap and twine. It was heavy, healthy, and much larger than the little twig I planted at the top of the hill in the Fair Oaks garden. This one is beginning to bud. It's now planted towards the front of the front garden, and a lot more of the (now dead) brush has been cleared away (two more bins full this afternoon). Deer are supposed to dislike Magnolias. We will see.

A few others--including a Lilac "Congo"--are going to have to wait until tomorrow in their pots. After clearing the sticks/wild rose canes/dead wood/hopefully-dead poison ivy vines, energy ran out. Needed a cuppa tea. (Always remember to save a little energy for cleaning up and putting things away. Note to self.)

More plants and bulbs are nosing their way through the warming earth. It all smells good.

The Great Brookhaven Cleanup--today!

There are several hours to go. Put your boots on, grab some bags, don't forget your gloves--and GET OUT THERE AND DO YOUR BIT! Every little helps. You look after your small corner of the world, and it becomes a better world for everyone.

(Taking a coffee break. We--neighbours and I, each taking various patches (and yet another example of Flavio's "organic organization", with no-one giving orders, it's just obvious who does what), we've tidied the south part of Park Drive, around no. 1 beach, and the streets in this segment. Still more to do.)

Amazing what you find.

A beer-bottle stash (all empty of beer but some containing swamp water and algae in various stages of growth), must have been either a major party dumping-ground or someone's place to hide the evidence of their intake from the spouse. (Cool idea: nip into the undergrowth, drink a beer, leave the glass bottle behind and No One Will Know I've had a beer.)

To whoever left the glass bottles (single or in a heap): when a deer appears in the middle of the road when you turn the corner and won't get out of the way and you end up with your nice shiny car all smashed up and sunk into one of the mosquito ditches, understand that it was the deer's revenge for the cut foot he suffered from your broken bottles. You're lucky he doesn't bring the herd to poop on your doorstep. Every night.

I have discovered this morning that there are more brands of condoms than I knew existed.

People: the wrappers that you put into the open-lidded bin by number one beach blow out and away into the undergrowth and onto the beach, because that's what wind does with light little things like condom wrappers. As for their used contents, I heard a rumour that they are setting up DNA testing as part of a new anti-litter program. You may want to change your disposal habits.

And for those of you who think number one beach is a nice, private place to have a bit of nooky away from the prying eyes of Mom/Dad/his or her spouse/your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend, you might want to read the posting on this blog from September 3rd last year, before one of the neighbourhood dogs or raccoons bites you on the behind. Hard.

Mother!! Fathers!!! Those "disposable" diapers? "Disposable" doesn't mean "dispose anywhere", it just means throw them away in the garbage and don't wash/dry/use again and again. "Disposable" doesn't mean "biodegradable". Haven't you noticed? They have plastic all over them. To keep the pee in. That's why you put them on your kiddies. And that's why, when you toss them all nicely packaged out of the car window into the reeds, they remain little swollen packages that fester in the undergrowth. Yummy.

Beer cans. Soda/pop cans. They look cool when the weather and sand has shined off all the paint. They look even better in a recycling bin ready to be made into something more useful instead.

Did you know that cigarette butts take 51 years to disintegrate? Birds mistake them for food, or they get blown into the water (rather easy round here) and end up in the stomachs of fish and even whales. If your own cancer doesn't worry you, maybe a dead whale in your backyard will. They tend to be a little smelly and quite difficult to move.

OK enough of the rant. Cleaning up our town, and keeping it clean, isn't a one-day thing. We need to look after it every day. So you didn't drop that bit of litter blowing down the street? Not important. You can still pick it up. Maybe your neighbour is doing the same for the Dunkin' Donuts Styrofoam Cup that blew down the street from your house when the raccoons ripped open your garbage bag last week.

Every little helps.

Just take it home, or seal it up and put it in one of the garbage bins. There's a whole set of them beside the marina.

Thank you :-)