Today's flowers

The sunflowers are coming out... and the two tiny clumps of purplish daylilies I planted last year have turned into huge clumps that will need dividing before the summer is out. Lavender is in bloom, so are the later allium; the coneflowers are just starting (both the purple and the two unusual ones found late last year, a buttery-cream and a russet).

The hydrangeas are out all over Long Island; lots of blue in the wetlands-and-sandy soils, but purple too, and some with huge globes of moonlike white. I think I need more hydrangeas.

Nature's fireworks

July 4th, and the sky is filled with fireworks. The pets don't like it much, but I'm practising Dog Whisperer techniques and having Fury associate dog massage with exploding skies. So far, so good--she has managed to ignore 80% of the noise so far.

From the deck, I can see fireflies.

They are like sparks discarded from a cigarette: they flash a bright spark, less than a second, then go back to dark. You can think you are imagining things: flashes of light in peripheral vision. But they are there... nature's sparklers.

Magic.

Deer don't count the days

I spotted him from an upstairs window. Day was almost ready to start turning to night: not quite dusk, but thinking about it. By the time I was downstairs and out the front door, he'd crossed Park Drive and was heading for my neighbour's garden, looking for a tasty snack.

He stood and posed for a while, then trotted off back around the corner, where he met up with a young female,., and both headed through the reeds into my little woods. Probably on their way to sort through the compost heap.

He's a young guy... look at the velvet on his small antlers.

Fourth July at Smith Point

Today was warm but not too warm, hazy but not foggy, humid but with a nice breeze... not the perfect 4th July holiday weather, but not a spoiler either.

Went out on the bike and ended up at Smith Point, along with many other people. A band was playing cover versions of old songs, and the snack bar was doing fair business. The lifeguards had just finished their days work and were showering off the sand.

People were starting to pack up their towels and beach umbrellas, and heading back home for barbeque and fireworks. Some were already rather merry.

Duck!!!!!

Earlier this week, after a trip to almost-but-not-quite Montauk, we stopped by Flanders so I could say Hello to the Duck.

Before you ask... I have No Idea. But he is there, by the side of the road, and you can walk inside through a door under his bill. And inside you can buy souvenirs. Such as rubber ducks to float in your bathtub.

Here's some more info about the Duck: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2173

There are also duck farms on Long Island... and a baseball team called the Ducks.

Evening sun

The evening colours were beautiful...

X-pointer

This is the closest I've been to the big male deer--the short end of a long zoom lens. He's the one on the right, and has at least six points (on his antlers).

Of course, he may have visited during the night. He and/or his harem have eaten well this week. Hostas, lilies, sunflowers, sedum as well as all the tender shoots in the woods. When it's misty and warm like this, the young females come into the garden during the day too, or look out, innocent and brown-eyed, from the woods next to the house. They are so pretty you can't be mad at them for eating the flowers: rather, I'm learning what they prefer (the hostas, tulips, lilies) and what they have not touched (daffodils, the allium, the rhododendrons, the bee balm).

Misty muggy morning

This is summer on Long Island. This is warm, humid air and lots of moisture in the earth. This is the aftermath, and the preparation for, summer thunderstorms.

It will burn off later, and we will have a day or so of dry air and sunshine. Then the cycle will start again.

William Floyd Estate

Yesterday, we visited the William Floyd Estate. See here for more details:

http://www.nps.gov/fiis/planyourvisit/williamfloydestate.htm

It is only a couple of minutes bike ride away from the house, and I wake up each morning looking out across the southernmost part of the estate. William Floyd was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence: however, his family owned the estate, and the house, for many generations, until it was donated to the National Parks a few years ago.

The house is a "preservation", rather than a restoration. That means it is being maintained in the same style as when it was donated. It's a very interesting mix of both architecture and furnishings: some of the rooms date from the 1700's, but there's also a diswasher from the 1970's (or maybe a little later). And it's not all about William Floyd, but the whole family, several generations who lived there, farmed there, or who used the house and estate as a summer and holiday haven. The house has 25 rooms of various shapes, sizes, and heights. We were even able to visit the attic, which has proven to be a treasure-trove of items for the house and museum. (The wire bustles hanging from the rafters just one example.)

Yes, there are places in the USA that date from the 17th century--it still surprises me, and I think this is one of the big differences between east and west coasts.

Now I have to visit the Manor of St George, just off the William Floyd Parkway, south of Neighborhood Road.

http://brookhavensouthhaven.org/st_george_manor.htm

Wow.... weather

I was sitting at my desk, writing, and I didn't notice the storm sneak up until Fury woke from her day-long slumber and came and nudged her head under my elbow. The sky had gone from all-day grey to a narrow bright horizon under roiling pewter clouds.

Looks like the sort of sky a tornado comes out of.

Now whoever-lives-upstairs is throwing the furniture around and playing with fire. Raindrops the size of half-crowns and gusts of wind fit to take a tree or three away.

I think the cat is outside. I hope she has found somewhere dry to sit it out.

A peach of a rose

The first roses are flowering. These smell wonderful...

Oh-so-blue

I found these at the farm stand where I buy honey (real honey, from bees, in a glass jar not that sticky sugary tasteless stuff in a squidgy plastic bottle shaped like a bear). The flowers are pure blue, with sepals that are very nearly black.

I have planted three in the front garden, near the delphiniums. They smell sage-like. I hope the deer don't like them.

Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'. (There was no label on the plants... googled them, and they can grow up to six feet tall, but I don't think the season is long enough here.)

Summer storms, new green

Another major storm last night; this morning, new washed green; trees, marshes, plants, everything. And the honesuckle is flowering, scent heavy in the air. It is a welcome visitor from the wild... I tried and tried to grow some in Sacramento, but the summer was too hot and the soil too heavy.

The giant hosta has giant flowers, though its leaves are looking a little worn. The poppies did not last long, but the seedheads are almost as attractive... and next year there will be more.

Egret gathering

Earlier in the week, the egrets made a line along one of the wetlands creeks. I wonder why?

To-may-toe horror

America is now running scared of ... The Tomato (rhymes with potato... and which I and the rest of the English-speaking world call a To-mah-toe).

Apparently some of them are carrying Salmonella.

Apparently if you choose tomatoes that come from California, they are OK.

Apparently if you choose tomatoes that are still attached to some vine, they are OK (these are the ones in the supermarket that actually smell and taste like tomatoes rather than mushy bags of red water)

Apparently if you choose the little, tiny tomatoes, they are OK.

Apparently if you choose tomatoes from your local grower, they are OK, or if you pick them from your own garden.

Apparently if you eat canned tomatoes, tomato juice, or even tomato ketchup, you will get all of the nutrition from the tomato and none of the salmonella. (And little of the flavour, and an awful lot more chemicals.)

Apparently McDonalds and others are no longer serving slices of tomatoes on their burgers. (Probably giving double ketchup with the fries to make up.)

Good grief...

I am not making light of salmonella. It is a nasty infection. But as someone who shared a home with a five-foot iguana for several years, I find this reaction crazy.

Learn from it. Buy local. Grow your own. I have a few spare heritage tomato plants if you are desperate.

'Shrooms

These are growing in what-remains-of-the-huge-pile-of-woodchip mulch.

I looked for the caterpillar with the hookah, but he'd sloped off down a rabbit hole.

Poland, peonies.... where are you????

The peonies along the wall of the raised garden have started to open. They are beautiful: white with the tiniest hint of pink. Heavy, fruitlike buds that make you wonder how the plant is strong enough to lift them up. But...

I grew up in England, and we had peonies, mostly red ones, and beautiful too. I remember being really proud of some that grew in my garden in Manton when the girls were tiny: emerging each spring from a small bed beneath the bay window, coming out of nowhere and bringing joy. But...

I went to Poland. Spent several weeks in a tiny, tiny village in the north of the country, where most of the farmers still relied on horses for heavy duties, where storks nested on a flagpole behind the village school, and where a nightingale sang his heart out all night.

And where the peonies smelled like heaven.

The peonies in England did not smell like that.

The white ones in this garden were already over by the time I moved in last year. I watched them sprout up this spring, waiting, waiting to plunge my nose into their petals, hoping somehow they had arrived here from Eastern Europe, along with a stork or two maybe.

But no... they have no scent. Nothing. Like the rosebuds on sale in the supermarket. No perfume.

Why??????

Allium

They have been amazing. Several weeks of stunning bloom, and now the colour is fading but the structure remains. Will definitely be more planted for next year (and the deer haven't so much as nibbled).

Heatwave

Go and sit in the shade...

... Fury says it's already too hot, and it's only seven in the morning.

Well that was one heck of a storm...

... it seemed to go on for hours. It *did* go on for hours. Lightening every couple of seconds. Thunder. Downpour.

One flash of lightening and clap of thunder was simultaneous. Must have been right above us. The sleeping cat jumped three feet into the air, all her fur on end. Fury alternately barked, growled, and tried to hide.

Within minutes, the street was one huge puddle, and so was the garden (it did drain away quickly, though: just unable to cope with the volume all in one go). Moriches, a couple of miles further to the east, had some of the worst damage, many trees down.

This mornng it is all calm and innocent and green. Just the heat, haze and humidity...