No excuses, It's April

Hi! Yes, it's Spring (maybe?). Time to resume my daily beach walks. No excuses allowed, no matter how much fun I am having making doll quilts and other treasures with the recently arrived and very enticing boxes of 19th century fabrics . [next post]. It takes a hardy soul to enjoy the chilly spring beach. My friend stopped by one evening to give me the shard of cobalt seaglass he'd found during his run. And he was shivering, mentioned that it is so much colder by the water. Well, yes. Air may be 40s or even 50s but we looked up the water temp---ony 37*!  With the wind, it's like primitive airconditioning. Only colder.

This week we've had intermittent days of sun as well as heavy rain, but I promised myself I'd persevere. Since the beach is generally barren of treasure, I tell myself I am getting in shape for the spring flea market. Fingers crossed for Sunday!

Sometimes I wander through my small neighborhood, searching for spring sprung-ing flowers. Don't you just love stripey crocus? So hopeful.

Oh and Mr Mockingbird is definitely back. He looks fuzzy and flustered, poor little man.
But most days I am on the beach by mid afternoon. Below, a natural dune, recently formed by end of March high winds.

 It's a bit like having your daily walk down the fast lane of the Long Island Expressway at rush hour. See all the tire tracks?

 

The guys wave to me now, and I know and appreciate that they're working so hard to restore and enhance my beach. But it can be scary.

Look how close the trucks came to the oystercatcher!

He is scared! Not hurt, he got up and waddled away right after this.

Look at these deep grooves in the sand.

I followed tiny plover tracks up towards the dunes. Here is one of the try-out nests. The males make them to attract the females. This pair nests here every year.

This is what is happening only a few yards away.

 

 

Piping plovers are tiny, about the size of a sparrow. So their nests are hard to locate and entirely invisible to a man in a giant earthmover truck.

 

 

 

Then I walked east. Ruminating. "The OCs usually nest right about...yes! Here." And here is their nest.

Only two are here at the moment, down from 3 last week.

Usually we have at least 12, making 5 or so nests. They are partial to threesomes, apparently two males may share a female and help her with the nest and eggs.

This is a bouquet of ''easter egg tulips'', as my mom called mixed colorful bunches of our favorite cut flower. It's here for Mel who asks me why I so often choose white flowers. Nope. For April, I am going bright!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach!

 

 

First Spring Flea Market / Flower Show

Hi everyone! Did you all get washed out and away by the torrential rains? (At least it's not snow?)

The rain let up by this morning, but the first  spring flea market was washed out anyway. Not even a few die hard guys under the train trestle. I was very disappointed. This has been a red letter date, circled on my mental calender since the last flea market ended at Christmas. Three whole months of waiting! I even went to the bank and got---CASH, lol. But no. And the thrift shop was sparse too.

An alternative plan was required, because it is important to get out and be optimistic on these grey cold days of spring. I went to a big garden show with my friends.

This is the real world nursery where, in Nelson DeMille's best seller Gold Coast, our hero makes the acquaintance of the bad guy, as they mull over lawn improvement products. Right here. Cool.

My friends want to redo their small back garden. A two or three year plan. They are very partial to tropical looks, a style in which this garden center excels.

Feel like a tropical resort! Not hardy in our zone so very expensive to redo each year. But that's up to them, I'm just the advisor.

 

 

 

We bought them some elephant ears bulbs, to get their plan started....

 

Lots of wonderful unusual lillies and dahlias. These all do well in a seaside garden.

 

Beautful handblown glass orbs. Note to self to come back next year at Christmas, for my collection.

 

I am more of a country garden person, not that I have a yard or space to really garden. Just sand and  scrub for me. I love hydrangeas though. They're hardy at the beach.

Some deck planter ideas...

Love the foxgloves. Must have!

Oh and a pond! Like my parents had. My dad had Mr. Frogge and his family instead of koi, though.

 

 

 

I love the current gardening idea of mixing vegetables and herbs right  into the flower beds or planters.

Adorable spring/ Easter small basket arrangements. Lots of ideas, easy to make....

 

Isn't this so perfect for spring holiday tables?

 

more....

This is really neat, and if it was a nicer year weather-wise I might do this in a small way: blooming purple heather, like my dad grew year round in Cape Cod. With lots of cut pussy willow branches tucked in.

 

 

Hope you all enjoyed sharing a bit of Spring with me!

 

 

 

love

 

lizzy

 

 

gone to the beach..........

 

 

PS a few bloggy notes: Blogger has restored the function that allows me to respond to your comments right here! And then I believe they're forwarded on to your inbox. Very cool, so if you do leave comment, check back.

 

Also my ability to enlarge my photos for you is back and working. Plus you can still click any photo to enlarge to full screen / slide show, so please try that too.

 

 

 

 

When Christmas Trees Just Aren't Enough

Hi everyone! I ventured out to the beach today!

Yesterday we had what local people sometimes call a *clear storm*---sunny but very high winds. Often caused by a strong low pressure area off the coast, this is lso known as migraine weather.
The Weatherbug sensor thing is over on the golf course, by the bay, so whatever winds it reads, the winds is 10 or more mph greater right here on the open oceanfront. It was blustery---with sustained winds of about 40-45 mph.

One of the neat things about a clear storm is the  [to me, magical] sight of cloud shadows racing across the open beach or water.  Too fast to capture in a photo or vid...

And look who the winds blew in, poor babies. This is the first set of oystercatchers this year, the trio that live on the beach to the west. Some people watch for the first robins, but here we watch for the oystercatchers.

very long distance shot,
they are not used to me yet, of course

This year they are 10 days past their normal arrival date of St Patrick's Day. I hope it's not too cold for them.

Or too---busy? Remember the recycled Christmas trees in the dunes project? here So far, no dunes have begun there [take years]....And the dredging barge that sucked sand out of the channel to the east, was there all January?here We thought that sand was just for the town beach. But No! They are using the sand to rebuild our dunes.

The trucks are mammoth. And a bit scary since I am not at all sure they can see me hustling down the path behind their work site.

And on the open beach, they drive so fast! Right where the oystercatchers mingle and feed.

 

 

The guys are working against the clock, since I am pretty sure they must be done by April 1st when the piping plovers may arrive? The plovers---and , eeew, arctic terns!?--- are more coddled than my adorable OCs, who are not quite totally endangered. Yet.

This is where the boardwalk usually is. It is removed in the fall, except the section that goes over the dunes. That is then removed, repaired in March, and the entire walkway replaced each spring. This is pretty much my only path to the beach unless I drive to a park nearby....

But for the last two or three days an endless stream of big dump trucks has been arriving and dumping sand. The mounds must be 20 feet high?

I have read that artificial dunes like these are not structurally sound compared to natural dunes  where there is debris, driftwood and roots, and and all the tiny sand grains kind of nestle into one another to form a permanent hill of sand. On the other hand , this work area is right between my neighborhood and a park. The high storm tide of H. Sandy swept the dunes away. The water here flooded all the way to the main road, maybe across the entire island.

So whatever is done to repair that dune break [and others] is probably an excellent plan. Even if the trucks do scare me and the birds away...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach