Rothko Inspired Beachscape

Halloween was eerily warm and spookily windy; a strong breeze out of the south whipped the water and kept the clouds scurrying across the bay and the natural division of sand, water and sky reminded me of Rothko's Color Field paintings. Enjoy!

Dozy Sunday

Another Palm Springs moment.

Shooting for the Moon

I missed the sunset tonight, but I'm considering myself compensated.

Reflections

Because I haven't posted anything specifically about the house in a long while, even though there are lots of plans in the works, I bring you dappled sunlight reflecting the trees on the siding - eastern elevation of The Cool House. Pretty and peaceful. Enjoy!

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!

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.

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.

-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?

Red Sky at Night

There was a terrific thunderstorm last night and I shot this in the middle of it (from the safety of the porch). Kind of looks like the house is on fire, doesn't it?

Another Evening, Another Sunset

Suffice to say every one is different and every one a winner.

This is from Saturday. I had let the battery on the Canon rebel run out and I didn't think it was going to be a stellar sunset so I only had my iphone. It turned out pretty good regardless - a little Turner, a little Rubens - pinks, orange, purple and grey-blue. Click, as always, to embiggen.

Come hither...

Spending too much time communing with nature... I think it's beckoning me

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.

Beach Walk

Yesterday was a lazy day.  

The kind of day when taking the time 

to walk on the beach with someone 

who sees beauty everywhere

could lead to discoveries 

mundane and marvelous. 

 

Finding beauty in the remains of a pier 

 

or a gushing drainpipe

 

sea life

 

and shells 

 

ospreys soaring over the pond

 

ending with the promise of summer

Magnolia

Such fleeting beauty...