View from the hill

Coindre Hall, Long Island. Thanksgiving weekend 2011

Peace

Appropriately, on Armistice Day November 11 2010 after days of pounding surf that made Long Island Sound look like the North Sea, the wind dropped and the water became calm again. I escaped from the chaos that was the final day of painting and out at West Neck Beach I took this shot of the sun reflected on the bay. Light against dark; perfect peace.

By Land or By Sea*... with the help of a glass of Pinot Noir

A couple of creative bloggers and their significant others joined The Guy and me on an international voyage with an American twist at CREW Kitchen* in Huntington Harbor (Halesite) last night. An evening of hilarity and great food with a glass or two of wine (and beer) ensued, followed by a quick trip to Holland and the Scottish Isles back at The Cool House. I didn't take my camera with me (bad, bad blogger) so you'll have to rely on the photo essays of the Fabulous Graphic Designer and the Amazing Artist and Author for the fully illustrated version. Did we have a good time? Today I'm making restorative Chicken Soup while my liver has a chance to recover, so yes I think it was simply splendid evening...
*Five course tasting menu - choice of all meat or all fish, or do what the renegades do and mix and match; there's also a wine flight pairing. As always, the staff are super-accommodating - and the crab balls come highly recommended!
*Decor at CREW by the Awesome Designer, Julie Napoleon Brown

Market Sunday

Huntington Farmers' Market on Sunday morning - a gathering place for good food, chatty neighbors and friendly dogs


Lots of samples and a few unexpected items


Cheesecake Souffles - a sweet treat for breakfast


and red wine starter bread - yeast-free but without the sourness of sourdough.

Birds, Jellyfish and Sushi

Thursday wasn't just a successful day in terms of house maintenance, it was also the day I overcame one of my irrational fears.

I'm pretty sure my lunch partner had no idea I'm scared stiff of these things. After all, I managed not to do what I usually do when I find myself in close proximity to flying, flapping, feathered animals: scream loudly and run away as fast as possible.

I was sitting four inches from this scene so it was impossible to ignore mama bird feeding her babies. Every time we tried to take a photo she'd fly off but return a minute later with a tiny worm or caterpillar. It was just so darn cute I was fascinated and, because the nest is in a window box, protected from too close an encounter by the glass.  I have no idea what kind of bird it is but I'm guessing a warbler. Anyone know? Here's a couple of really quick videos of her hopping in and flying off. If you want to see them in person you'll need to go here for sushi.

We were supposed to be snapping shells and sea glass but between spending hours cooing over the baby birds and the earlier thunderous downpour we had to put those plans on hold. Despite the persistent drizzle we stopped at Huntington Harbor for a quick photo shoot.

There's always something to see, boats of course - or pedalos. This time the water was teeming with jellyfish. I'm not worried by sea critters (especially when I'm on land and they aren't) so I wasn't afraid to lean in close.

Of course no photo shoot is complete without a few shots of The Cool House and the yard in the rain. Lousy weather but a pretty successful day.

Snow fun

This is the face of a dog that's spent too much time at home recently, a dog begging to be taken out somewhere interesting.


Somewhere she can run free, follow trails and be distracted by doggie scents


And maybe make a new friend.

Winter beach

Fleets Cove Beach before the snowstorm. Last week's snow has frozen on the sand and more is predicted for tonight. We're not even half-way through winter yet and I'm over it.

American Idle

How young can you be to have lived a life worthy of a memoir? And new memoir? Does that mean he's written one already? Seriously, Sanjaya? Isn't he like twelve?

Sunday in the Park

After a couple of days of grey November weather the sun came out this morning so we took the dogs to Coindre Hall in Huntington for some exercise.
Beautiful isn't it? We're really lucky to have free and unlimited access to the grounds of the Gold Coast mansions that were previously owned by robber barons, but Coindre Hall is one of the best because it's also an off-leash informal dog park. That's the Coindre Hall boat house in the foreground, Huntington lighthouse in the middle of the bay and Connecticut in the background. Amazingly even this late in the year there are still a few boats out on the Sound.


Here's a short video that covers the dogs' behaviour at the park. They run around with their doggy chums for 5 minutes, graze for ten more and when Polly lies down the visit is over.

Hip Hop Message

Guess who will be signing copies of his memoir in Huntington next month?



Grandmaster Flash himself will be at the Book Revue at 7 PM on June 12.
Remind me is "memoir" code for fact or fiction these days?

Up the garden path

We moved the garden path 4" to the right. No, I'm not kidding. You would not believe the work entailed in moving five bluestone slabs 4". The digging, raking and sniping away at old roots so the stones would sit level took a couple of hours. And why, you might ask did we undertake this particular project at 5PM on Saturday? Because I was fed up of walking up the garden path only to have to step off it onto soil to get past the huge holly and open the gate.
Other Saturday projects successfully completed: purchase of a 12" brace to temporarily mend the fence again; fixing of said brace to fence panels and post; a rewarding Martini in Mary Carroll's bar at Huntington, followed by the purchase of a Caesar Salad Pizza from Rosa's Pizzeria next door.

More holiday joy

Totally unexpected email from our wonderful independent film theatre, Cinema Arts Centre on Friday to tell me I'd won the giveaway of the soundtrack to the movie Atonement. How neat is that?

Powered by the sun, even in the fog

It transpires that I'm not the only one whose sleep has been affected by the Huntington foghorn. After proudly announcing on Saturday that it was functioning again after three years of silence, the Coast Guard has had to admit that the foghorn on the lighthouse has been malfunctioning since it was turned back on and they've had numerous complaints from local residents.
Apparently it is now powered by solar energy (a very good thing) but is designed to stay on if it malfunctions, rather than shut down (a not so good thing for us). The last time it malfunctioned it sounded continuously for 41 days. Oh joy!

Season of mists... and foghorns

On Friday evening the temperatures were in the mid-eighties, even at 10 PM, and the humidity was a killer. That set us up for a big blanket of what passes for fog on the North Shore of Long Island. Where I come from it would be described as a little light mist, where Steven comes from it wouldn't even be worth noting. Everyone else seems to have their air conditioners back on but I am too fiscally prudent mean to run the airco in October. So I opened all the windows as wide as they would go. And then it started.
Sometime in the Friday night/Saturday morning hours the foghorn sounded and it's been going off every five seconds since then, even though the fog lifted at around 9 AM on Saturday. How do I know it's every five seconds? Because I spent the last two nights counting One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi... Steven, of course slept through it. In fact he only noticed it on Saturday morning when he walked the dogs on the beach!
It got so annoying on Friday night that I went to another bedroom to try and get some sleep. The other bedroom is over the garage. At the end of the driveway are two large oak trees. This year has been a bumper one for acorns. They make a delightful ping when they hit the ground, Approximately one a second. So my night went something like this: One ping Missi ping ssi ping ppi ping.

The foghorn, I guess, is on Huntington lighthouse. And either it's part of the Long Island Fall Festival or the thing is stuck. If it's the former it should end sometime after the meatball eating contest today. If it's the latter I suppose it will be sounding every five seconds until someone goes and fixes it.

Season of foghorns and falling acorns
Sleepless nights for me.......