Sunday Sunrise Over the Peconic Bay

We got up around 5am Sunday morning, had coffee and a doughnut, Amy worked at a book design on her laptop at the dining room table while I lazed in my chair catching up on email, facebook and such.  When I looked up sometime later there was pink light coming through a window by the fireplace.  I hopped up to look out and realized that a very special dawn was afoot.  I dressed as quickly as possible grabbed the camera and drove the one mile south to the bay way too fast, these things don't wait until you're ready.  It was very cold.  I shot multiple bracketed exposures until my fingers couldn't take it any more, around fifteen minutes.  By then the best of it was gone.  I went back to the jeep and folded up the tripod, knowing I must have gotten one or two good shots (I'd taken 80 or so!)  As I climbed in I noticed a fellow sitting in his pick-up truck nearby.  He gave me a "thumbs up" as he pointed toward the bay sky.  I waved back, happy.  Click on photos to enlarge.

 

On this shot just right of center one can see a high sand dune on the Southampton shore across the bay that we used to climb for the great view.  It's now off limits as too much playful traffic had become destructive.

 

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The Days Are Getting Longer!

Every year after winter solstice I feel my spirits begin to rise knowing the time of daylight lengthens, darkness shortens and things in general are going the right direction for me, i.e. toward spring and ultimately my favorite time of all, summer.  A sunny day such as last Saturday can make me feel positively giddy even though the temperature was in the low thirties.  It was time to get out, look around, shake off that house-bound feeling and take stock of the current situation knowing that things will only improve.  It was okay to see beach houses still buttoned up...   that will all change in May, so for now the peace and quiet in the sun was like looking at a dormant summer which will begin to waken with the rains of spring.

 

 

 

 

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Wind Vanes on the North Fork

There are many unique winds vanes on the North Fork, most are atop church steeples that were erected many years ago.  Of those represented four are over two hundred years old and and two of those are from before our country's first Independence Day.  They look handmade to me, though I can't be sure.  I shot these from several hundred feet away on maximum zoom, hence, some grainyness.  I'm linking this post to Sky Watch as one can't look at a vane without seeing the canvas on which it appears. 

Sea Gull is not part of the original design.

 

 

 

 

There's no reason why you can't have fun on the beach in the winter!

Of and Near the Water

These photos were taken at different times and places.  The common thread is water.

This fall the grasses by the East Creek Inlet showed lots of color.

The Long Island Rail Road's tracks and stony bed provide the hard surface needed by gulls to break shellfish shells to get at the goodies inside, a "clam opener". We sometimes watch juvenile gulls pick up their latest clam find, fly up in the air, then drop it onto soft sandy beach.  This is repeated for quite some time until their bird brain finally gets it (hence the term?).  This section of track passes through Dam Pond Preserve.

Things left or uncovered in a tide pool after the tide has gone out.

This is a fresh water pond that fills with rain water and melted snow runoff.

Whelk Shell

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The Effect of Cold on Salt Water

Crystalline salt water in it's myriad forms never ceases to amaze me with it's beauty and can put on pause my dreams of summer.






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Orient-by-the-Sea Restaurant and Marina is the location furthest east on the North Fork where one can dine if you don't count the snack bar at the Cross Sound Ferry terminal 200 yards away.  During the season many "party boats" make their home here, taking fishermen out for half day or whole day fishing expeditions, the way to go if you don't own a boat.  At the end of the trip the crew hands you your catch cleaned and ready for cooking.  This shot was taken in December with a low angled sun under leaden skies.  Three shots at different exposures were combined to get his result, fun to look at and a little other-worldly.  Some colors and other details pop.

Orient-by-the-Sea Jig Saw Puzzle

Click on the link below. When that page comes up, click on the red word play. Click on the puzzle pieces to move them around. Have Fun!

A special thank you to Lily Robinson for the idea!!

http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?m=pr&id=8d98d03ffe16658e

Little Gull Light -- Worm Drilled Shell

New Year's Day Walk

One reason we wanted to get a place on the North Fork was because the winter weather is tempered by the Peconic Bay and Atlantic Ocean to the south and the Long Island Sound to the north, one mile and two miles respectively in Cutchogue.  This is supposed to translate into moderate winters and a lengthy growing season similar to that of Nashville Tennessee and Bordeaux, France.  This climate along with a nearly identical Bordeaux sandy soil make-up is why wine grapes are grown so successfully here.  This year, however has turned the notion of a quick mild winter into a record busting snowfall the last day of fall and two more snow days since then, one three days ago and another today, a few inches already with no end in sight!

Yesterday we took a walk on the Blue Trail in Inlet Pond Preserve and enjoyed the intermittent sun as we trudged through the woodsy areas, then on out to the Sound with it's beaches strewn with drift trees, on up the bluff to a Sound overlook covered with bittersweet... a lovely afternoon.

 

A photo of me atop a frozen wave of ice piled up by the tides over ten years ago, 

our last big snow year 'til now.