Snowstorm Winter 2012/2013

Pretty, no?

Fencing

Ready to install

Again. The front fence was a casualty of Superstorm Sandy. Thank goodness the east fence and the back fence made it through.

Capped

Next job is to stain the fences to match the house but that will be done next year in one mammoth house painting session. Looking forward to it.

Fall Snow

Nine days after Sandy, while a lot of neighbors were still without power, a nor'easter rolled around and dumped a pack of snow on Long Island. Freaking crazy weather...

Sandy

How fortuitous was it that we had the trees trimmed earlier this month? Hurricane, or by the time it hit us, superstorm Sandy blew in yesterday and when I opened the blinds this morning I was amazed and pleased that we had escaped relatively unscathed; no trees down, not even limbs. The property was full of leaves and twigs, on the steps lay the corpse of a woodpecker that had probably been blown into the siding and the front fence was down, but apart from being without power it looked as though we had suffered no real damage.

Going out to explore the neighborhood it soon became clear others were not so fortunate. The Incorporated Village was actually cut off for a few hours, tress blocked every road to town, one tree had taken out a neighbor's kitchen, another had ripped the electricity panel from a house, everywhere power lines were hanging loose or lying across the roads.

The moon had been full, the tide high when the storm stuck and the water rose up and over the seawall.

Tons of sand washed onto the beach huts, flooding the parking lot

and twisting the pier of its piles. A monster storm, a Frankenstorm that will takes weeks if it months to clear up but we were prudent to get the trees trimmed and lucky that we hadn't waited until next Spring to get it done. We will have a lot to be thankful for this November 22nd.

Late Summer Storms

We got ourselves a lake...

April to April

The last twelve months have flown by, hardly time to post to the blog what with all the twitter twaddle and facebook folies to constantly update. I knew this would happen, I'm basically lazy so if I can say it in 140 characters or less that's the option I'll take, thank you very much. But on the warmest day of a warm April that succeeded the hottest March ever, preceded by a no-Winter that meant no snow and no photos of 2" icicles hanging from the garage roof (and therefore no threat of decapitation when dragging the trash cans down the drive), I've had time to reflect on the past year. 
Firstly, that Spring-like Winter has meant everything in the garden is blooming a good three weeks ahead of normal. This was last April 16 - in past Aprils we've still been salting the back drive this time of year.

The same view today, the forsythia is over, the hostas are up and the azaleas out. It's also 87F and not raining so big bonus, there!

I even pruned the forsythia the was obscuring the pink azalea but not without a minor oops moment.

What was the tenet about bringing the outdoors in... or making lemonade out of lemons?

The early blossoming Spring holds true for the magnolias, too.

Last year May 5.

This year April 8

Secondly the house is looking more put together, even if all the major renovations finished way back in 2010. A lot has to do with the new placement of art and the way we are using the space. The eat-in section of the kitchen is a spot where we spend a lot of time now we are free to laptop/iphone/tablet roam with wifi, often it seems we don't even bother visiting our offices, we just sit at the breakfast table and do our respective things. Sometimes, though I clear up and it's quite serene

Thirdly, I am still nuts. On one of the hottest August days last summer I swapped the rugs in the den and dining room. On my own because The Guy flatly refused to indulge my crazy one more time.

The orange rug headed back to the den

and the cream rug was dragged into the great room. It felt so good I bought it a couple of new cushions in a mid-century inspired pattern in the sale at Crate&Barrel. It's so much lighter in there that I'm sitting there typing. The newly fixed sliding doors are open and I'm listening to what sounds like a duck in the yard. I'm expecting the fox will appear again tonight. April to April... plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

After Irene

Hurricane Irene blew through bringing floods


and high winds.


The beach disappeared under a high tide


that washed the kayaks into the playground.


The storm had other consequences, not least the debris and getting dressed in the dark.


But we ended the day as we usually do, watching the sunset over the bay.

Guaranteed washout

Severe thunderstorms, scattered thunderstorms and isolated thunderstorms until Sunday. After that it'll probably just rain until Labor Day.


Bonus: it's pouring so hard I can't even see the pool!

Winter: Scenes from Home

Don't try to seduce us with you beautiful icicle frame, winter


or reward us with blue skies and early morning sunlight reflected on the treetops


The reality is extra foot or so of snow on the terrace


and a giant snow wall... with more forecast for the weekend.

Queen Canute

The weather people are forecasting another dollop of white stuff tonight and tomorrow, this despite someone declaring a Snowatus, a respite from snow for a period of time (I'm thinking decades would be a good length). We haven't fully dug out from the storm last week that landed on top of the remnants of the day-after-xmas Snowpocageddon although the icicles are no longer as spectacular as they were.
My curmudgeonliness may be due to the postponement of a trip to the far coast, where it's apparently unseasonably balmy right now but on the other hand I have shoveller's back and I'm sick of cleaning sand and snowmelt off the animals' paws. Thank you winter, enough already!
So I'm going to sit in my American MCM classic chair and, as the Viking ruler of England did with the waves (or so goes the legend), command the snow not to fall.

Foamy

Refreshing, invigorating, sparkling - almost as good as a glass of champagne but a lot saltier!

Draught free

via Decorexi

I had to ask the help of the twitterverse and facebook so I could write this quick post. Thanks Jenni for the correct answer and Heidi for making me spill my drink.
Yesterday while I was screwing up the last socket plate in the mud room/back hall I noticed a howling draught coming from under the garage door. Since the hardwood was installed and a new bullnose on the garage steps there has been a small gap that we hadn't noticed until now. Apart from the draught I didn't want our energy bills to increase so we needed to find a solution pronto. That's when I realised that "draught excluder" is British English and the locals had no idea what I needed. I was offered weather stripping that goes around windows and even a stuffed dachsund. It was also suggested I roll up a towel and stuff that in front of the door - great for when the door is closed, not so good when I've left in the car and there's no one to put it back in place after me!
Anyhow, after weighing up the options I had a Eureka moment and remembered I'd seen a metal strip with rubber attached in the back of the book closet and I wondered if we could screw it to the underside of the door rather than the bottom as a "draft stop". The answer was we could and, even better, it fitted perfectly. Hey presto, no more draught - in the nick of time for this morning's hail/sleet/snow/howling wind weather extravaganza. I have since learnt this strip is called a door sweep, I call it magic.

Focusing on the positive

This is the side yard we cleared and re-planted a year ago. Everywhere the sprinklers reached survived not only the winter but the summer, too. The Crape Myrtle is enjoying the hot, humid but practically rain-free season we've had. The giant Sum and Substance hostas are amazing and the Kerria has bloomed again.


Unfortunately we have also have this... The sprinkler pipe burst again, leaving a giant hole under the flagstone. Another little job for the weekend.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity

After a morning spent shuttling Sadie the Dog to the vet for what feels like the fifteenth time in the last month and an afternoon at my desk working, I threw myself into the warm pool and sat in the early evening heat to dry off. It was probably the most pleasant hour I've spent in the yard (weather-wise) all summer. After yesterday's oppressive humidity it felt comfortable: hot in a Southern California outdoor living way rather than Florida's sweaty tropical summer that Long Island usually emulates in August.
I thought it would be a great evening to take the camera, go for a walk and see what interesting shots fell my way. And I got maybe 20' from the front door when I noticed that the air was becoming thicker and the lens of the camera had completely steamed up.


This is the shot I took BEFORE I wiped the lens - same angle, same exposure - just taken through a damp curtain of humidity. I swear there must be a 30% difference in humidity from the back of the house to the front. The south-west house elevation is protected by a 45' cedar and the pool area is enclosed by maples and beeches, oaks and conifers, while the front of the property is open to the mid-day sun. This accounts for the difference in temperature and moisture content in the air. We notice this in winter when it will often rain on one side of the house and not on the other (torrential downpours excepted).
Today it fooled me again into thinking that maybe we could do without air-conditioning and open the windows wide. But only for an instant.

So far not summer

You may have heard that it's been a tad wet in New York. In fact it's rained most days for the past month or more.


It's been so humid the past week that I have moss growing everywhere - the Irish moss I planted is doing very well


some moss appeared on the path


and on my patio umbrella.



The visitors who came to hang out by the pool will leave disappointed. The only creatures to have dipped a toe in there are the frogs... So far no sign of summer.

Dusk on the Dock

a little fishing


one last pass before night rolled in


the intense pink and deep navy sunset
Click to embiggen!