The warm dark

This week Donna and I are on the north fork of Long Island at the Mears family bungalows, on the Peconic Bay shore, staying with Dave and Dorothy. And it's warm and dark - here at 10:30pm, pitch dark for hours, and still we're in trunks and a very light Hawaiian shirt, staying cool in the mild onshore breeze. So very nice. Spending the days reading or boating or clamming or swimming. Haven't even played the radio since we arrived - not even in the car.

Fresh sweet corn with dinner, and the peaches and blackberries are in this month at the farm stands. We really haven't done much, and that's great. Donna, Dad and I gathered 2 buckets full of clams the other day, and now they are floating in baskets, waiting to become chowder. Kayaked down a nearby creek today and saw 9 great egrets in one set of trees, along with a great blue heron and a school of fat little bluefish jumping in unison.

This bungalow - at Fleetsneck - was built a long time ago and has a wonderful summer cottage feeling - with the eclectic bookshelf, jar of sea glass on the shelf, all kinds of bamboo furniture, real fuses in the fusebox, fishing poles, outdoor shower, shell-lined paths, lots of big old windows to slide open, well-used boats, diverse collection of lawn chairs, a garage full of storm shutters, bicycles, rusty clam rakes, and decomissioned inflatable rafts, and of course a great collection of odds and and ends and art and old family photos accumulated by several families over many decades of summer fun.

This is Sheida's first experience with a real 80-degree summer with 71-degree ocean water and the sound of crickets at night. After a day or two of adjustment and learning, she's fit in nicely. We stopped lapping at the salt water, and we're not playing ball on the deep sandy beach anymore - so the upset tummy and hack-hacking on the sand have ended. What a treat to swim in the clear water with our doggie - she's a real waterdog - and what fun to watch her splashing in the shallows, trying to find the line between "wading" and "swimming"! While she loves to swim at home, we never knew how long she could sustain her doggie paddle - faster than Mike's breaststroke - to stay out with us, to sniff all the buoys and things, and to just have fun. We're glad she's happy here after behaving so well on the airplane ride in her kennel.

Donna is happy to have the climate where she can wear the clothes that definitely say "with child"! A sarong and sandals are classy maternity wear here in the tropics.