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Four-inch moth photographed yesterday on my screen door by my friend Caren. Never seen anything like it!
I HATE BLOG POSTS THAT START OUT with “Sorry I haven’t been blogging much lately, but…” Jeez, I think, no one cares about your excuses. Either do it or don’t do it. Don’t complain, don’t explain, as Wayne Dyer says.
However. I haven’t been blogging much lately because:
- It’s June, I’m in the country, and the weeds are calling my name.
- Deadlines. I’ve written three magazine articles in the past two weeks, including a Maui story for Coastal Living and one about a cute cottage in Sag Harbor for Hamptons Cottages & Gardens
- I’m without a camera at the moment (and how frustrating not to be able to photograph the irises!) My last one — a Nikon Coolpix — shattered when I fell off a ladder onto my butt, with it in my back pocket. I have a loaner, but I’m unable to charge it. I’ll be in the city later this week and will get myself a new camera at B&H. Suggestions welcome (up to $300).
- I’m lacking in focus, and have been for some time (if it’s not evident). Since I’m not actively house-shopping or renovating, my life as I’m living it doesn’t offer much blog fodder. This is not a blog about reading on the deck or getting new tires for my car. And though I troll the real-estate listings here on the East End of Long Island, I haven’t seen much worth calling to your attention.
- I’m suffering from a failure of imagination. Maybe it’s a lack of feedback. Though I’m still getting 400 or so hits a day (a huge fall-off from the numbers of a year or two ago — what is that telling me?), and recently hit the half-million mark since starting this blog in December ’08, I don’t know what y’all want to read out there. My creativity is in a fallow period. Any time you want to shoot me some ideas, or let me know what you’d like me to focus on, please feel free.
Bear with me, friends…
LAST NIGHT I, and about a thousand others, attended a party celebrating the publication of a big fat coffee table book called Hamptons Gardens by Jack deLashmet (Assouline), held in a private garden more akin to an arboretum.
There wasn’t an uninteresting plant on the four-acre property, which was designed by deLashmet. No fussy perennial borders — just one extraordinary hedge, tree, and shrub after another, mulched and manicured to the last pine cone, interspersed with pools and statues, but not too gaudy or too many (with the possible exception of the sphinxes). There was an almost Japanese restraint holding the homeowners’ obvious incredible wealth and ability to do anything they wanted in check.
Me, right
The property, owned by Tony Ingrao and Randy Kemper, interior designers and antique dealers, is all about strolling lawns, discovering hidden corners, admiring individual specimens. The party was all about drinking vodka tonics, sampling tiny hors d’oeuvres, mixing and mingling. It wasn’t too fancy; a lot of people were wearing jeans. It felt like one of those rare “right place at the right time” moments. The season has begun.
Note: The pictures in this post were taken with my friend’s iPhone.
THERE ARE LOTS OF LITTLE TREASURES tucked into the quiet back streets of Greenport, a bayside town with great vintage character on Long Island’s North Fork.
Here are two that just hit the market within the past week. The broker who called my attention to them is John Yunitis, 631/252-8451.
Exhibit A, above, is a mid-19th century 3BR with eyebrow windows, original clapboard siding, wide plank floors, wood-burning stove, and an old outbuilding, below, in the backyard. Asking price: $399,000.
For more interior pictures showing the original staircases and other details, go here.
Exhibit B, below, is described as an 1880s saltbox, but it looks about the same size, era, and construction as the other — said to be 1840s, which seems about right (and not a saltbox). Also 3BR, it’s apparently in very spiffy shape, as you can see from the many interior photos that accompany the realtor’s listing. Ask is 362K.
THIS WEEK belongs to the rhododendrons. Surely they must be king of the flowers.
Seen in and around East Hampton, N.Y.:
I’m also pleased with my irises and perennial geraniums, below. The Deer-Out is holding them at bay.
And here’s an evergreen, low-maintenance, completely deer-resistant garden solution, below: the all-boxwood garden. It has a kind of a whimsical fairy-tale look, I think, very Hobbit-y — but as much as I love boxwoods, I could never limit myself to a monolithic planting scheme like that.
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