Lurking Above

Alien life form? Back view of a Great Owl? Chewbacca headpiece? Monstrous apparition?
Alerted by a thwick, thwick noise, the sound of something dropping from the 40' pine tree, I looked up expecting to see a squirrel stripping pine cones and casting the debris to the ground. Instead I spied this huge (12"-18") nest. At first I thought it was a tree burl or that it might be a wasp or hornets' nest, but on closer inspection, with the aid of a zoom lens, I think it has more to do with Aves than Vespa.


But what kind of bird would build such an elaborate nest? I've spent as much free time as possible with the long lens trained on that small hole and I can proudly say I have identified the residents as birds: a pair of small, fast, brown birds. That's the best I can do. A humungous nest and two tiny brown birds. Maybe Jennifer can help? She correctly identified the giant moth from yesterday's post.
Birds, giant moths, spiders, flowers, a kitty and a week full of beachy posts - this seems to have become a blog on the flora and fauna of Long Island. Are we ever going to get back to the uniquely modern, I hear you cry. The answer is yes. Starting tomorrow, posts about the wonderful mid-century modern pieces that have been coming my way this week. Stay tuned!

Big Brown Butterfly

Caught on the big blue spruce and brought to me by The Grey Knight (formerly known as The Guy) who thought I'd appreciate it and maybe like to share it with the interwebs - does this man know me at all? I don't like dead Lepidoptera any more than I like them live, so I had him place it on the patio table where I could photograph it from a safe distance (I would have preferred he left it in the tree and called me to shoot it there but apparently that wasn't an option).
I have no idea what the species is, whether it's a moth or a butterfly but it's big, brown and bound to be one of these. It's about 6" from wingtip to wingtip, so if it had flown near me I would have screamed like a girl yet I'm sad that something that was so pretty is now lifeless. Anyone out there have a clue to its common or scientific name? (Click to embiggen).

Disorderly Webs

I've gotten used to the thick, white cobwebs that form lacy patterns under the windows on the exterior of The Cool House. They appear sometime in late July or early August and are a pretty gingerbread decoration for the rest of the summer. Then winter comes, they are gone and I forget all about them. I've never seen the spider responsible; the ones I usually see spin straightforward Charlotte's Web-type gossamer circles.
This morning I was shocked to find this spider INSIDE the house; it had a plume of white billowing behind it, a horizontal will-o'-the-wisp that I could clearly see. It reminded me of the vapor trail of an aircraft against a cloudless blue sky - except the pristine sky had been replaced by a slightly grubby baseboard.
Now, normally I would just pick this baby up and put it outside where it belongs but a cursory googling of spiders in New York has led me to believe that this might be a Brown Recluse Spider. They are known for building shelters from "disorderly threads" and being a tad poisonous. Let me quote from Wikipedia:
A minority of brown recluse spider bites form a necrotizing ulcer that destroys soft tissue and may take months to heal, leaving deep scars. The damaged tissue will become gangrenous and eventually slough away. The initial bite frequently cannot be felt and there may be no pain, but over time the wound may grow to as large as 25 cm (10 inches) in extreme cases. Bites usually become painful and itchy within 2 to 8 hours; pain and other local effects worsen 12 to 36 hours after the bite with the necrosis developing over the next few days.
Sounds delightful, doesn't it? So I'm respectfully keeping my distance until someone can assure me the spider is safe to handle... or until a knight arrives in a full suit of shining armour and disposes of it for me. Either. Or.

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.

Sad Kitty Needs a Home

Found in the hood of a car (just like Hermes) this adorable kitty cannot live with his rescuers (there's a no-animal policy in their apartment) and the local shelters are full of similar fluffy bundles. (Though obviously none are as cute as Sad Kitty).
We would foster him/her but we're already known as the crazy people who take a train of kitties out with them when they walk the dogs... and I've found there's a three cat happiness metric that we are already exceeding. I don't think it would be good to add an extra bundle of cuteness to the dynamic!
Look at those beseeching eyes... that expression that says "I just want to love and be loved".... Won't someone take Sad Kitty to his/her forever home?

Lean On Me

Just a few terns and gulls snoozing on the jetty -a pretty good way to spend a Friday afternoon in summer

Grooming Time

Cormorants, or shags as they are also called, and a random gull grooming themselves on the pontoon at the beach. The big brown seabird hogging the limelight front and centre is an immature shag.


In the middle of the day it's quiet down at the beach so the diving platform is where they like to hang and dry off their wings. It's hard to believe, looking at the number here, that DDT decimated the cormorant population in the 1960s. The recovery over the last thirty years has been so great that "management actions" (that's culling to the less euphemistically-inclined) have been championed. You can read more about that here. They are extremely poopy birds but they're graceful when skimming the water and fun to watch diving and catching fish in the Sound.

Crab Flip

Either you find beauty in the washed up remains of shellfish or you don't. I do, I love the carapaces of crustaceans - especially when they are intact, but if you found the Dead Man's Fingers gross I guess these won't find favor. But if you stay just a moment longer, maybe I can persuade you that the Horseshoe Crab is an extraordinary animal?


A living fossil, older than the dinosaurs, they shed their hard shells and can regenerate lost limbs; they have ten eyes and spawn at the new and full moon and they just might be reincarnated Samurai warriors. But perhaps you're a quibbler who needs to remind me that the Horseshoe crab isn't really a crab at all, it's an Arthropod - a relative of spiders, scorpions and ticks.


Maybe you'd feel more comfortable if we stuck to true crabs, the ones we like to eat as soft shell crabs after they molt and leave behind the empty exoskeleton? Like the Lady Crab or


the Blue Crab or


perhaps the aggressive invader - the Japanese Shore Crab?

Just a few of the species on the Long Island shore providing dinner for the gulls.

Beach Letters: S is for...

SEAGULLS swooping low at sunset


SAND marked by the ebbing tide


SEAWEED - red, green and brown


SHELLS and smooth, shiny STONES on the Long Island Sound.

Seaweed

Seaweed. Much maligned, especially at low tide when it can stink and attract hordes of beach flies, but lovely and lively when shot as the tide recedes. Here are just a few examples of red, brown and green algae I spotted today with a very amateur attempt at identification...


There are thousands and thousands of red algae. Could this be Porphyra ? Behind in the surf is a green algae, Monostroma.


More of the Porphyra with another red algae, the dark purple Chondrus crispus or Irish moss


Norwegian kelp also known as egg wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum), a relative of the ubiquitous bladderwrack I used to love to pop as a child, and a type of brown algae. The knotty Norwegian kelp is lying poetically on a bed of Mermaid's Hair


The all-too realistic Dead Man's Fingers (Codium fragile)and more Monostroma.

Six distinct types of seaweed found in 15 minutes on a 10' stretch of Long Island Sound on a warm and sunny summer day = perfect beach life.

Coiled

Rough, grey rope coiled and waiting...

Tomorrow

Maybe tomorrow we'll see Connecticut but today we just have to believe it's there.

Clothkits

Or another delve into the photo albums. (Bonus: my kids are going to freak when they read this. I expect shrieks to be heard all the way from BXL)

Jean Martha, curator of Renovation Therapy and lover of beautiful fabrics, sent me a link to this blog from UK artist and designer Jane Foster. As I scrolled through the gorgeous images I came across this doll that looked familiar. Then I zeroed in on the text: "the doll I designed for Clothkits".

Clothkits! Way back when I dressed the kids in Clothkits. These are ready-made Clothkit dresses and somewhere in a toybox stashed in the secret room is an original Clothkits doll I sewed for them.


Dungarees, dresses and sailor hats, robes and padded jackets, I made them all from their ready to sew fabric. It was a delightfully easy experience. The fabric was printed with the pattern ready to cut; wadding, binding and all the other haberdashery goodies were included and each came with a pattern for a wee stuffed animal to go in the pocket. They were ADORABLE. (I made the jackets large so they could wear them for several seasons, that's why one poor child is swamped).


See that elephant on the front of the jacket, the one I stitched around to highlight? That is a muff. A place to warm tiny hands made icy while forming snowballs. And it's attached to the coat so it never gets lost. Genius.

Clothkits suffered an expansion and bust scenario many years ago that put them out of business but it seems they are back.

Anyway, enough with the happy memories and cuteness. Go visit Jane Foster's blog and as Jean Martha says "lose a few hours" in the retro-inspired fabrics, modern and vintage... she even has a store where fabric cats rule!. Enjoy!

After that, hop on over to Julia's Hooked on Fridays blog fest to browse through her family heirlooms

Thinking positive

The upside of all the rain and humidity: moss on moss

-morphic musing

Is that where snails come from?

If anthropomorphic is attributing human qualities to the non-human, what is ascribing animal-like attributes to a plant?

Almost as addictive as twitter

It's summer and in spite of the thunderstorms and pouring rain I have been making a batch of ice cream every week. Last week it was a refreshing blueberry that turned out the most amazing shade of purple. Today's gelato recipe is a sweet vanilla ice cream with cream cheese for stabilization and texture. It's rescued from boring blahness by


the addition of a handful of roughly chopped Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds from Trader Joe's. These are the most addictive bonbons ever to land on the supermarket shelves. I decided to make this gelato just to limit the number of times we pass by the kitchen cupboard and sneak a couple. Buy 'em, try 'em but be warned, you may have to give them away to save yourself!


The Recipe
2 1/2 cups of cream and whole milk (or half and half)
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4oz cream cheese
2 tbsp sour cream
Handful of chopped chocolate almonds. (If you can't get the salty ones you could add a 1/4 tsp gray sea salt)

Heat the cream, milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Cook stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Add vanilla and cream cheese. Whisk gently until the cream cheese has melted into the cream mixture. Take a bowl and fill with ice cubes, place the pan in the bowl and allow to cool. Whisk in the sour cream. Meanwhile chop a handful of the almonds. When the cream mixture is cool to the touch pour into an ice cream maker and add the nuts.
There you have it, almost every tastebud is tickled: Creamy, Crunchy, Sweet, Sour and Salty Gelato. Enjoy!

Bob Vila makes it look so easy*

Sometime, a couple of winters ago, after the sprinkler system had been winterised by some joker who took the pipe apart, we noticed one of the outside taps was dripping. Turning off the water to the faucet helped but there was still a persistent drip through the winter that replacing washers and tapes just wouldn't stop. Not good. In Spring we replaced the sprinkler faucet and everything worked until winterisation rolled round again. This time the upper compression faucet leaked. We turned the water off again and waited for Spring. The solution this time was to replace the old wheel type with a new lever and the sprinkler guy offered to take off the completely seized-up fixture but he didn't have one of the right size to replace it so he capped it and I was supposed to go buy one and fit it myself. That was April and as we rarely use that faucet we didn't miss it until now.
Now is mid to end July when the humidity on Long Island causes the stone and brick to turn green and algae to grow on the asphalt. Now is power-washing time. Now is the time when a working hosepipe is necessary to blast the green gunge off the paths. Now is the time to fix the faucet.


So with old tap in hand I set off to purchase a new tap. And an adapter so I could run the hosepipe from it. And another adapter the purpose of which escapes me but which I bought anyway. I've learnt not to argue with the hardware guy.


Having assembled some plumbers tape, a wrench, a screwdriver (just in case) and the necessary hardware I set about unscrewing the cap. I tried, I tried really hard but I couldn't get that cap off. Eventually I called for back up


The Guy applied the wrench, twisted and turned and eventually loosened it and pulled it off. Which is when we realised we had not turned off the water to the faucet.


It could have been me kneeling in front of the tap. But instead it was The Guy who caught the full force of the flow. Luckily I had my camera to record the moment and more lucky still, he was wearing swimmers. Rule #1: Always shut off the water when messing with the plumbing!


After a quick run to the basement to shut off the water he attached the new tap, complete with its extra doodahs and after another run to the hardware store where he laid down $16 for the right size spanner/wrench we have a leak-free outside faucet. Hurray!


The hosepipe we bought last week is connected and after a couple of adjustments, drip-free. We are ready to tackle the power-washing...

*If your outdoor faucet isn't completely corroded and your compression faucet not connected to another compression faucet that connects to your sprinkler system you can probably easily fix the drips by watching this video. Repairs should only run you a couple of dollars (if you have the right tools) and take less than 5 minutes.

Beach Cat

He's done it before, in fact he often takes a stroll down to the beach, but this is the first time I've captured photographic evidence of Cassis the Cat hanging out with Polly on the bulkhead overlooking the Sound.

Vineyard Spam

Today's recipe for spam courtesy of Gmail: Vineyard Spam Salad. Very appropriate if you live on Vineyard Rd and I imagine it's rather good - if you don't eat the spam...

Lousy, Holey Hostas

Last year the Hostas were shredded by a monster hailstorm, this year it looked like slugs had got to them. Holes everywhere, neighbours out with pet-friendly snail bait, and the conditions this year have been ideal for an infestation: rainy, damp, humid weather for months. The wet weather is what makes gardening in the UK so challenging and rewarding but it's not something I've come to expect from New York's Long Island.

Having grown up a warrior in the never-ending fight against the pests I was well prepared to find lots of the slimy creatures and to deal with them. My father dug cups of beer into the ground and sprinkled salt on those that slunk lazily down the paths leaving their silvery trails behind. As a pre-schooler I was encouraged to hunt for slugs and proudly carried an old beach bucket half filled with beer and salt to drop them in. (I believe there was a reward for most slugs captured). I was ready to do battle! I searched and searched for slugs and snails, turning up leaves by day, at night peering under them by flashlight. But I found no sign.


There were plenty of holes in the leaves, even my Basil had been attacked. But no sign of slugs. Which is when a lightbulb went off in my head.


Investigation around the yard showed me that only the common green Hostas had been eaten; the giant species and the variegated varieties had been ignored. Furthermore the basil is in a huge container 2' off the ground. If it were a slug chewing on my favourite salad herb he would either have had to parachute in, master the art of trampolining without the necessary equipment, or he would have left a trail. I checked: No trail.


I went back and looked a little closer at the holey leaves. And there they were. Everywhere.


The culprits: Woodlice on every leaf, on the ground, under my plants. Not surprising really as they like moisture even more than slugs do. It's still a mystery why they are eating only the less interesting Hostas but the most pressing question was what to do about them. According to those in the know they prefer dead material to live plants so I could leave decaying plant material about for them to gnaw on, although this would probably look worse than the half-eaten Hostas. The other ingenious suggestion I read about here: Drinking straws. This I can do, after all it's the perfect solution for a cocktail drinker. Let the Woodlice War commence!