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.

And the North wind doth blow...

... and the swan doth hide his head under his wing, poor thing.

(We are going to forget the bit about the snow for a few months yet, OK???)

Shirley beach, silver sunset

Cooler evening; equinox, sunset same as sunrise today, 5.51. Watching the sun sink from Shirley beach... a few adults waiting for day to end, and a few noisy young teens cursing on the playground. Didn't they feel the peaceful silver ending to the day?

September mornings are beautiful

Just beautiful. Sunrise over the bay, birds on the beach, ripples on the water.

Bella and Sandy

Bella is friends with Sandy, though Sandy lets her know who is the boss. A couple of months ago, Sandy was unrecognisable... she was a stray that my neighbours rescued and then was adopted by another neighbour. She was bald!!! And now she is beautifully hairy and healthy.

Autumn projects and Bella update

I have a plan! And the laundry room will be finished very soon... and the garage. Those are the two rooms that are left in the remodelling of the interior that need some help from contractors (or for me to take time off work to do them, and that is not happening).

The washer/dryer will hide behind folding doors, and will have a storage cabinet above them. The door to the garage will be fixed and made pretty, and we'll tidy up the walls between the garage and the laundry room and hall. And then I will see to the floor and the baseboards/skirting boards, put up racks and pegboards, and the garage will be a good workshop.

Bella is having a very good week. It seems that the secret is to totally ignore her. Much as I love a dog who greets me enthusiastically when I return home, I have to understand that she is not ready to do that yet, and that even saying "hello" to her on opening the front door can scare her to the point of peeing. So I don't even look at her, and a few minutes later she approaches me all happy. AND she peed in the street this morning--not on the back lawn! (I'm sure dog pee is not a very interesting subject for most people, but anyone who has an ultra-submissive Great Dane will know why it is such a big deal.)

Early September morning

Sunrise was magnificent...

... the deer were out-and-about, and this young buck was watching from the wetlands.

The swans dozed on the mirror-flat bay while a small egret daintily picked its way along the shore.

Forgotten, misplaced, and just-never-got-around-to-it projects

Changed the nasty old unclear-plastic tap/faucet handles for shiny metal ones, and made a stone-tile backsplash. Grout will be done in a couple of days.

Finished the edge tiling on the upstairs bathroom vanity!!! Again, will be grouted in a couple of days. And how long did these take? Less than an hour... but many many months to "get around to it". Why is procrastination so darn easy?

I have made a list of all the little things that still need to be done, and will be ticking them off one-by-one. One step/day/project at a time.

I do enjoy tiling!

Sunflowers at last!

The first batch of sunflowers never "hatched": probably devoured by slugs during the long, wet, winter/summer. But now some of the second batch are flowering; not many, but they are very, very cheerful and welcome.

And some of the hydrangeas are still going strong!

Sunday Sunday

I have really quite enjoyed two weeks without having to cut the grass... but having sent the lawn guys away on Saturday (they were planning on mowing the still-sodden sod, which was really not a good idea) it was time to get the mower out today, but it needed to wait until the afternoon, so that it could dry a little more.

Decided to do a little more of the laundry/mud room. Put the metal shelves together to go in the space next to the washer/dryer. Realised there is enough room on the bottom two shelves for all the cans of paint. Decided not to stack them until after touching-up all the gashes made when the tile/carpet was installed and the guys ripped off and stuck back the baseboards (skirting boards). Also realised I couldn't do much with the floor until the lawnmower was out of there.

Back to the shed problem, again. No money to buy a shed. And those plastic pseudo-sheds are tacky and flimsy. Though there is one for $350 that would do the trick. But wouldn't $350 pay for the materials to close-in the space under the den and make a really-nice shed?

Remembered that I had cleared the "loft" a couple of months ago. Moved the stack of spare wood/old door trim/spare hardwood flooring pieces/etc. out of the laundry room and out from under the stairs, up to the loft. Checked out the power point in the ceiling with a lamp. It works! And the switch to operate it is the furthest into the house of the three switches next to the back door... another electric mystery solved. (Also found another double power outlet covered by the plastic bag stuck over the inside of the garage door... I wonder if it works/is safe?) While moving the wood from under the stairs, found four still-wrapped wooden things that you use to cover the join between two types of flooring. Don't know why I bought them; didn't need them, didn't use them, and they've been hiding under the stairs for at least a year. Decided to return them to Home Depot and see if they'll take them back.

Home Depot gave me a 51$ credit!

Bought some new light bulbs, a can of heat-proof paint (8$ redo of a light fixture rather than $80 replacement... once I get around to actually doing it), a gadget for easily staining the deck (again, once I get around to doing it), two drywall repair kits (one for the hole in the office, one for a spare), and a shed for the lawnmower, and all I had to hand over was 4$. Well the shed for the lawnmower is a 9$ tarp-with-a-drawstring!

Started to mow the lawn. Did the front lawn. Started on the strip by the street. Mower died, again. Tried with a different power cable. Still didn't work. Cursed many times. Pulled human-powered mower out of the furnace room and had a good work out. (Why did I start with the easiest-to-cut lawn?) Now it's all cut and looking OK... just need to strim the edges.

Now here is the dilemma. Do I take the electric mower to be repaired again? If it's the same as last year, it will cost at least 80$ to fix, and will take four or more weeks--so may not be fixed for this year at all. And that is if they can fix it. Or I could buy a new gas-powered mower and alternate that and the human-powered mower (and believe me, sometimes it needs more than Alison-power to cut). That would cost perhaps 350$ plus the gas/petrol. That is the equivalent to paying the lawn guys for about ten weeks--most of the summer.

Now isn't there some enterprising young person around who would like to mow the lawns for me using my human-powered mower every week? Green lawn service? It's like a free gym :-)

Quiet Sunday...

... all the visitors have gone home, all the offspring are in California or on their way there today... am at home with the pets and the gardening and the amazingly-beautiful day. Sunshine and clouds. Brilliant turquoise, luminescent grass, and grey shadows that pass.

We found a yellow-and-brown tortoise (you might call it a turtle, it's definitely a tortoise to me cos it has feet and not flippers) crossing the street. It moved remarkably fast when Bella sniffed it. I carried it across the road to the wetlands side. Don't want to find a tortoise pancake.

Sunday birds

Early on Sunday morning, a congregation of wading birds. Blue herons, large and small egrets, and several glossy ibis.

Happy week

I'm very happy to have a houseful of people: friends and family. Trips to the city and to the beach, barbeque dinners, good conversation. Good times :-)