Hurricane Sandy...the day after

As the world knows, the north eastern region of the USA was struck by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012. These photos were taken as the storm subsided, October 30th. I've continued taking photos and will share them in a timely fashion.

This first shot was taken right in front of my house, facing the corner of Garfield and Jackson Crescent.
Power was out here by early afternoon.

This was the first time I have ever been alone during a storm and frankly, I was scared. Dinner though was an adventure. I took some left overs from the fridge, cooked ravioli, pulled pork, homemade tomato sauce and put it all in a frying pan with shredded mozzarella on top. YUM! Thank goodness the top of my gas stove was still working.

As I walked the neighborhood Tuesday morning this was the first house I saw with a tree upon it. Only 3 houses away from me, reality struck home and the tears began to flow. Tears of sadness for my lovely new neighborhood, tears of sadness for the unknown world (no contact via phone/internet/tv/radio) and yes tears of relief that my little cottage was still whole.

By the time I saw this house I had seen many others in similar distress. For some reason though I thought this house was occupied by a family with children and I didn't want to imagine a child's fear if this monstrosity came crashing upon one's bedroom.

The root systems in some cases were enormous, almost more to deal with than the trees themselves. These were large healthy trees.

We had little rain with the storm, it was a blessing for us. We would have lost so many more trees if the grounds were saturated. Look close and you'll see how dry the soil under this root mass is just as the storm was leaving our area.

It was hard to venture far from home on October 30th. The winds were still strong, squalls blew through and there was an underlying sense of "what might yet come".

A few blocks down the road the aftermath on Coolidge stopped me in my tracks. I only had my phone with me on that trip but had to snap another photo.

We were lucky to have power at my bank in Islandia so I had to be there the next few days. In the next post you'll see photos I took a few days after the storm.

melanie

Centerport, my new home

Welcome! It's about time you dropped by to see the place :-)

As promised, here's some images of my new little cottage in Centerport, New York (north shore of Long Island, between Huntington and Northport).

Not everything in my life has changed. As you can see, Calie-the-wonderdoodle still greets any visitors that have managed to find out my little hide-away. At six years old though, Calie has grown a bit wiser. She'll stay on the front stoop if I ask her unless a dog is being walked right along our fence line.

This is the cottage, the whole thing. As you can see, there's not much to it but more than Calie and I need to put a smile on my face. 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bath and dining room downstairs, one room upstairs. Life is simple here, I can clean house in one evening!

We have a corner lot. Since each house on my street has only 2 homes, I guess we all have corner lots! The street is only 5 blocks long, so we really are well tucked away from the rest of the world. I love the views out of all my windows, I see flowering trees and shrubs and darling cottages in each direction.

Here's the other side along with the little side yard. Upstairs is a single room my daughters have set up when they are here. At 5'9" poor Lauren can only walk down the very middle of the room. Ouch, banged my own head once too often up there!

I brought what garden accessories I could, probably more than I should have but some just couldn't be given away or left behind. This antique chimney top came back after a wonderful trip with my friend Chris and I will drag it where ever I go.

There's a little garage although I don't use it. My landlord has the most incredible antique red tractor stored in it! A little fish pond is there too. I've put my money pot by that pond, as close to the rear left corner of the lot. The wealth has begun to flow although not cash, just lots and lots of peace, happiness and laughter.

Now here's the real treasure, just 3 short blocks (super steep down hill) is the beach! Sunday I sat there with a beer in hand (pure heaven) and watched this darling Dachshund walk along the water edge side by side with a slowly gliding swan. They continued like this for at least 5 minutes!

I've always loved birds and we have so many here but I will admit I was surprised at just how many swans are on our water. There's easily 30 of them out at one time.

The tide here changes pretty drastically. Our sand is well kept but when the tide is all the way out there's always some green sand. I spent as much time as possible there last summer but didn't go for a swim. Somehow the water doesn't appeal to me that way.

Lots of locals have kayaks and that is something that I am very interested in trying! As you can see, when the tide is out the opposite shore is quite close. We're surrounded with little coves and beaches so a kayak would have plenty of places to visit.

Hope you liked the tour! My new camera came today so soon there'll be lots of garden shots.

melanie