Susan Gets Native asked for pictures from the street I live on, but I felt a little funny taking pictures of my neighbor’s houses, so I decided to extend my search for snapshots to the whole neighborhood. The purple mums are decorating my front stoop (yes, my parents were from Jersey City, NJ – does anyone else call it a *stoop*? 😉
This is a view from the street beside our pond. Fairly boring, but we have lots of old trees and lots of kids in the neighborhood now. The older people are downsizing and moving closer to their adult kids and young families are moving in.
Our newest neighbor on the street is our family doctor. He bought this house for 1.9 million dollars. Can you imagine? A few houses on the street have been rebuilt lately – this house used to be a ranch, like the one you can see the corner of to the left, but the prior family bought the house for $600,000 and tore it all down, except for the garage. They rebuilt it to this and less than five years later sold it for more than 3 times that amount.
This is our church, technically in the next town, set on a hill. I love the steeple, and on quiet days I can hear the bells ringing.
I think this is considered a creek, but it seems too wide to be called that. It borders our town and the next and often hosts ducks, herons, egrets, and terns. It’s a popular crabbing spot, but isn’t our usual place. Just to the left of the pic is the local army base and all its communication equipment, which I was afraid to photograph.
Around the corner from our house is this little farm field, usually planted with raspberries and blackberries. The deer fencing is new. Buddy and I often walk the edge of this field to look for the red-tail hawks that like to hang out in those trees in the distance. There is a little creek and farm pond down there and it’s a nice spot for warblers and frogs and mosquitos. And an occasional fox.
My favorite place to shop, just down the street. It used to be just a little farm stand surrounded by fields and orchards, but now it’s a gourmet market that sells beautiful plants and fresh, mostly local produce, plus anything else imaginable related to flowers or food. There’s soccer and baseball fields and a playground, and a wonderful old farmhouse that has been preserved by the town.

Susan also suggested that I take pics of the house I grew up in and the schools I went to, which I think would be kind of fun. I may take a drive to the old neighborhood this weekend to share some memories of growing up.

Today was my volunteer day at the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory. This is the view to the right of our center. Are you wondering why I’m posting this bad photo of Canada Geese? Well… I had a surprise visit today from Patrick, another SHBO volunteer and the face behind The Hawk Owl’s Nest and his buddy Mike from 10,000 Birds. Patrick was giving Mike a tour of the Hook. Mike made a comment that he’s not sure I bird anymore because I never blog about birds. So I felt obligated to post this pic of some birds. Oh, and about 10 minutes after you guys left, Tom B. called to report a possible MacGillivray’s Warbler – not sure if that panned out, but you know Tom’s penchant for finding the rarest of birds!
Back to the photo tour. Laura from Vitamin Sea and Lene from Counting Petals wanted to see water views. This is the view from the front porch of the bird observatory; technically, you have to walk off the porch and cross the road to see the color in the poison ivy or whatever that is growing at the base of the rocks, but Sandy Hook Bay is gorgeous. Today when I arrived it was cloudy and raining and there were thousands of swallows migrating low over the water and high up in the sky. There were also lots of Monarchs migrating today and nectaring on the goldenrod that blooms along the dunes.
I ventured to the ocean side to get a pic of the water and sand, so that Lene could imagine sinking her toes into it. There were a lot of people out with their dogs once the storm had passed and I enjoyed watching them play in the water. I made the mistake of sitting down in the sand to take pics and the big galoot in this picture came bounding up to me and mugged me with his wet face.
On the way home I visited the Twin Lights lighthouse in Navesink. I haven’t been there since grade school, even though I drive by at least once a week.
This pic is of the old 9 foot bivalve lens that had been used to guide ships into New York Harbor and was one of the brightest navigational lights used in the US. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1949 and a smaller, and much less powerful commemorative light replaced it in 1962. Taken from inside the working *twin* light. Going up the spiral staircase was much easier than coming down! Dizzy city! View from the top of the lighthouse, Sandy Hook is that long spit of land jutting out into the horizon. I enjoyed taking these snapshots today and will post some others in the coming days. Feel free to add a request!

This month’s edition of The Festival of the Trees, celebrating trees and tree-ish things, is up at Hoarded Ordinaries. Stop by, enjoy the collection of links, and consider contributing to next month’s festival.

A fun idea for a photo meme from Vitamin Sea via Pure Florida.

Send along your requests for photos from where I live. I’ll go out with camera in hand and roam the neighborhood. It’s a chance for me to play tour guide and show off my hometown and local area. What snapshot from New Jersey would you like to see?

Include requests in the comment section here and consider playing along on your own blog.

This is the sight that greeted me on Tuesday when I got in from work. The general mess with hay strewn about is normal, the collapsed hidey-box is not. It’s been threatening to give way for a few weeks now and I’ve been on the lookout for a new box to replace it with. But I hadn’t found one in time. This box was huge and once held 50 pounds of hay shipped across the country from Nebraska for the spoiled rabbits. I haven’t ordered from that company in a while, so don’t have another.
I didn’t expect to find Boomer happily snoozing the afternoon away inside the busted box, but I should have known better. That bunny can nap!
I threw away the box and cleaned up and set out their bed and they snuggled inside it, as they do. But it just wasn’t right… these bunnies need a box to *hide* in. None of the others have ever had a box, but I’ve always given one to the flemmies. They chew the doorways to their liking and shred a back entrance hole. Boomer especially loves the box and I have to rouse him morning and night to eat. He prefers his salads and his hay in bed. Lazy boy!
Before the night was over I had replaced it with the only box I could find that is almost big enough, but not nearly. Boomer seems happy to have a roof over his butt, if not his head.

Have you ever heard of a fish decoy? I hadn’t until I came across them at the show on Saturday. Sheepishly I asked the gentleman selling them if they were just decorative or if they actually had some use. He explained that yes, some people collect them, but in places where spear fishing is allowed these decoys are used to lure bigger fish to a hole made in the ice of a frozen lake. Lines are attached to the decoy, then to a stick or *jig* and the decoy is made to swim in a way so as to attract other fish that can be speared from above the ice. Like duck decoys, fish decoys are quite popular as folk art, in addition to their more practical use. Who’d have guessed it? Me, I just thought it was pretty. It’s a Lake Trout, carved from white pine and only 8″ long with a beautiful curve to its body. It’s surprisingly heavy for its size, due to the weights placed in its belly to make it *swim* properly. The carver suggested I try it out in the bathtub to see how it works.

I had a hard time choosing which I liked best, but think I chose a good one. The artist, Rich Brooks, has won many awards for his decoys and lures and the one I chose was featured in a display this summer at the Tuckerton Seaport where he was the *artist in residence*. A nice pic of my decoy is available here and more info about fish decoys in general is available at this website.

What I love most about the decoy show is the chance to chat with the people who make such beautiful things. They all seem to love to talk and share their expertise. I’d imagine it’s difficult on the ego to set up a booth filled with things you’ve worked hundreds of hours on and poured your soul into, only to see so many people pass by without much more than a glance. Those of us that do stop to ask questions (and to buy) are richly rewarded with a peek into the heart of an artist. Each decoy I own has been bought this way, after the telling of a story or a conversation about some aspect of their craft. That personal connection is what makes each decoy unique and special to me.

Randa at Garden Geek tagged me with another book meme. I love an excuse to talk about books, but felt like I needed to narrow the focus a bit, so decided to think in terms of nature books only. As you can see in this pic of one of my bookshelves, my book collection (and my thinking about books) is not very well organized. I tend not to think of books in the terms used in this meme; maybe that’s what made this so very difficult for me. Anyway, here goes…

1. One book that changed your life: Changed my life? I won’t go that far, but should mention Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey by Dan O’Brien. I remember wandering around a Barnes & Noble and being drawn to this book in the “Discover New Writers” section because it had a falcon on the cover. I was just getting interested in birds and this was the first of an endless series of nature books I’ve devoured in the 10 years or so since reading it. I read each of Dan O’Brien’s books that I could find in the library and have purchased each new one as it is published. I read the authors who wrote *blurbs* for this book and found Jim Harrison, Rick Bass, and Stephen Bodio each of whom has lead me to other authors and other books.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Prior to reading books on the natural world I had been reading a lot of gardening essays. Naturally, I began to find myself favoring those garden authors whose books intersected with my interest in the outdoors. Sue Hubbell is one such author and her A Country Year: Living the Questions is a book that I’ve read over and over when the mood strikes me. It’s the type of book I can pick up and read for an hour or two and return to six months later. Hubbell’s books cover varied topics like bee-keeping and living in the country, but also sea life and bugs among other things. Good stuff that I always enjoy.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Easy question! Sundial of the Seasons by Hal Borland.

4. One book that made you laugh: Nature books as funny? The only ones I can think of are by Pete Dunne, but he gets less funny the more you read him; he needs some new one-liners! Sorry, Pete!

5. One book that made you cry: The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter. Wonderful book that I enjoyed immensely and have often given as a gift. It tells the story of a Cherokee boy growing up the Appalachians in the 30’s.

6. One book that you wish had been written: I’d love to see someone write a book about Sandy Hook and its environs, something like Season at the Point: A Birder’s Journal of Cape May by Jack Connor. I know quite a few people who have the knowledge to write a book about the Hook; maybe someday one of them will.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: I won’t bother finishing a book if I’m not enjoying it, so can’t really answer this one. The most recent book that was disappointing to me was On the Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon by Alan Tennant. It got good reviews, but nearly bored me to death.

8. One book you’re currently reading: Whispers in the Pines: A Naturalist in the Northeast by Joanna Burger. I haven’t made much progress with it yet, but it’s there on the nightstand. I loved one of her other books: A Naturalist Along the Jersey Shore, so I’m bound to enjoy this one too.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: I want to find the time to re-read Scott Weidensaul’s Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds. Every one of his books is great, but this was a favorite.

10. Now tag five people: I’m not sure that I want to trouble anyone with a tag, so I’ll just extend a general invitation to anyone that might feel like doing this. In particular, I would love to hear (maybe just in comments to this post) about your favorite book about the natural world. Nothing is better than a book recommended by a friend! I’d also like to know if anyone has read any of the books that I mentioned here and what your thoughts were. Let’s talk books!