North Fork

A Season Of Plenty: Harvest And Home

July 20, 2013 by Leah Leave a Comment

I’ve been eating insane amounts of tomatoes. I think eating tomatoes makes a person happier. I’ve been eating so many tomatoes I fear I might start to look like one. The Sun Sugar little yellow cherries are ridiculously delicious. It’s wrong. A vegetable shouldn’t taste this good.

A plate of homemade pasta with Sun Sugar tomatoes, zucchini, fresh basil, garlic, and capers.

I’ve also been eating tons of cucumbers and zucchini. The beans are finished. I ate those. The peppers are doing well. I am also consuming those at an alarming rate. The downside to all this produce consumption is that I can picture my body going into some kind of jittery withdrawal when the growing season ends and I am forced to haul myself to the grocery store to buy food again.

It is almost the end of zucchini season here, but I was distressed to find that my plants have succumbed to the squash bug. I was hoping my plants were stronger than that, but no. They cheated on me…with a bug. At this point, all I can do is tear the eggs off the plant, squash them on the patio and spray with insecticidal soap, a mixture of diluted Murphy’s Oil and water.

I’ve hardly had to do any spraying. I’ve sprayed the soap on some aphids, but for the most part, mother nature is helping me out. I have two garden spider webs with small spiders in them that are taking care of some bugs. And I’ve also noticed the birds hanging out on the tomatoes every now and then. So far, I’ve seen two dead tomato hornworms, but no damage and no more worms, so thank you, birdies!!!

The watermelon are slowly getting bigger. Excitement!!! These are the Doll Baby variety.

I went to Long Island for a week at the beginning of the month. It was wonderful. I wrote a piece about home for Women You Should Know that posted while I was up there. Being near the beach made everything better for a while. I mean, tell me, how could anyone be in the presence of such beauty and not be changed in some way for the better?

Bridgehampton beach on a summer day.

Ye olde mighty Atlantic.

A potato field down the street from mom and dad’s house in Mattituck on a walk to Bailie Beach.

Bailie Beach on a clear summer day.

My spot on Bailie Beach after braving the icy Long Island Sound water up to my calves.

Dad’s daylily garden. Every single one of these plants was hybridized by dad so they are each unique in their own special way. This is where the magic happens.

The docks in Greenport have finally been repaired following Sandy. I never get tired of this familiar sight.

A lavender farm in East Marion in full bloom. The color was almost as intoxicating as the smell. Perfumed rows.

A pretty sunset on Bailie Beach after a steamy summer afternoon.

Then I came back to my garden. And next week I head to Denver to be in my best friend’s wedding. Before the wedding, another BFF and I are hitting Estes Park to become one with nature in the Rocky Mountain National Park. We plan on hiking till we’re sore, drinking ungodly amounts of tea, and hopefully still being able to fit into our bridesmaid dresses at the end of the week. This is a big moment, when a bestie gets married. She will be my third bestie tying the knot. I have 5 who I consider BFFs because we’ve been friends so long it’s hard to imagine not knowing them. They have made my life better in so many ways. So I’ll stand beside my girl and try not to cry and thank God that she found a good man. That’s a really good prayer for a girl to have for her girlfriends…that they find good men who will love them like crazy.

I hope to post pictures of the trip next week if a bear doesn’t attack us in the park.

A Day On Shelter Island: Mashomack Preserve, Marika’s, & The Islander

April 28, 2013 by Leah Leave a Comment

Ah, lovely Shelter Island…impossibly beautiful, quiet, simple, quaint, and utterly peaceful. I’ve gotten into the habit of paying the $2 at the ferry terminal to walk on the ferry, hang over the edge of the boat, and turn my face to the sun like a dog with its head out the window. I can’t help it! The salty air is intoxicating and some of the most magnificent homes line the coast of Shelter Island. The Chequit is a short walk from the ferry, along with some cute little shops and restaurants.

Today we took the car over and had a bit more mobility. We stopped in town, walked down to Bliss Department Store and looked out at the empty harbor that will soon be teeming with boats now that spring is here.

Then we headed to the Islander for lunch. The Islander has a great clam chowder (or so I’ve been told, since I don’t eat seafood) and all of us enjoyed our lunch. The prices are reasonable, the staff is very friendly, and when Rob and I were there in September we were treated to a view of the resident turkey flock (gaggle?).

Just down the road is Marika’s Antiques, a lovely eclectic antique/vintage store that has tons of retro furniture, jewelry, and art. I love this place! It’s an absolute treasure trove. Marika is brimming with personality and you can tell she loves what she does. Every room is packed with stuff and there are buildings out back packed with more stuff. The place is a picker’s paradise!

After Marika’s we headed for the Mashomack Preserve, which took all of us by surprise with its beauty. The preserve is owned and maintained by the Nature Conservancy and has 2,039 acres of pristine land on the coast.

There are about 10 miles worth of trails that are all well maintained, and even though they run through the woods and meadows, it seems that one could avoid deer ticks in the season if careful and dressed accordingly. We took the yellow and red trails, about 3.5 miles, that took us past the shoreline, through some marsh, and into an expansive meadow where bluebirds and swallows were nesting.

The meadow was a field of rolling golden grasses, boulders, and pairs of bluebird houses set up throughout. A feeling of peace hung in the air. The woods were quiet, save for bird calls, the muted swish of wings on a branch, and the crunchy undergrowth noises of chipmunks and squirrels foraging.

I would love to come back when the marsh grasses are a lush green and the meadow is alive with butterflies.

We drove around the island, past the mansions on Shore Road, and I have to say, there wasn’t one house we passed that I couldn’t dream of living in, even the small ones. The whole island is picturesque. I always feel like life on the island must be so peaceful, so quiet. Oh the writing a person could do!!! Just for kicks I checked the real estate section in the Suffolk Times and the least expensive home listed on Shelter Island was $449k, boasting 1,000 square feet, and needing lots of updating. I found a lovely place in better condition for about $795K. I really need to win the lottery.
These times at home are so special. As much as I love my house in Franklin and feel so utterly blessed to have it, I miss the water terribly. You can’t grow up by the water, move away, and not miss it…simply impossible! I would love to move back here, but there just isn’t a way right now…there may never be, but I will hold each moment I have here close to my heart.

Sunset on Bailie Beach: Mattituck, NY

April 27, 2013 by Leah Leave a Comment

Bailie Beach is my favorite “by the water” spot at home. I grew up down the road from this beach and have memories of fishing off the shore, climbing all the way to the end of the jetty, swimming out to the big rock, stepping on crabs (ew!), finding cash in the seaweed after storms, and taking lovely long walks. I’ve also seen some of the most breathtaking sunsets from this shoreline.

By day Bailie is your ordinary northeastern rocky beach.

By evening, it can transform into something magical. The sunset we saw last night was “meh” compared to some I’ve seen, but still very pretty. Like moths to a flame, the locals started showing up. A pair of ladies hurriedly walking to catch the fading light, cars pulling up to the guardrail in time to watch, teens running down from the old Boy Scout lodge to stand at the edge of the sand before the last light of day…

(All pics taken with my crummy little iPhone. No filters were applied because nature is just that pretty sometimes.)

Home: The East End of Long Island

July 16, 2012 by Leah Leave a Comment

Working on the house has been an enjoyable task, but an exhausting one at that. After mom and dad came to visit and help with more house repairs, I headed home to Long Island for a much needed vacation to see friends, walk on the beach, and decompress. July is absolutely beautiful, everything is lush and green, and the inlets are teeming with life. Here are two glimpses of New Suffolk.

A lot of people ask why I moved to Tennessee, and my answer is the same answer thousands of other people in Nashville give: to work in the music industry. I am one of the lucky few who found an amazing job that I love and it is my main reason for staying here. Franklin is a very pretty town with tons of history and a bustling little main street with privately owned shops and boutiques, and even though I enjoy living here, that sense of “home” has never come to me.

I’m reading a book called “A Sense of Place” by Michael Shapiro. The book is a collection of interviews with travel writers. One of my favorite writers, Frances Mayes, sums up my feelings perfectly. She talks about places where she and her husband, Ed, used to live and says, “…it’s an act of freedom when you make your own choice of a place according to what you need, want, love, crave…I’ve never had that sense in California. I’ve lived there since 1973, and I’ve always liked living there…I loved my job and have lots of friends there, but I could walk out of there tomorrow and never look back. I don’t have that I-love-this-place feeling about it.” She talks about when she and Ed went to Italy, they both felt that sense of home and knew they wanted to stay, so they purchased Bramasole, which led her to write Under The Tuscan Sun.

Every time I’m home and I get the ache in my chest when I look out at the water, I think to myself that I could walk away from Tennessee and never look back. When I was a teenager, all I wanted was to leave Mattituck, explore, set out on my own, and become myself. In the process of becoming who I am, I came to the realization that beauty and aesthetics in the place I live are vitally important to my happiness. The surrounding environment has this subconscious impact on my psyche that comes from my feelings about the trees, water, flowers, tiny towns where people run into friends on the street, and a deep sense of belonging. John Ed Pearce aptly said, “Home is the place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.” My dream is that someday I can return to the East End and become an integral part of preserving the community and environment there.

When I tell people I’m from New York, they think I grew up in the city. When I elaborate and say I’m from the East End of Long Island, they envision some overcrowded suburb just outside of the city. There is nothing that would make me happier than to share with my friends the incredible beauty of where I grew up. Since airfare is crazy expensive these days, I took a few pictures (all on the iPhone, but obviously one doesn’t need a high tech camera, these places would look gorgeous taken with a disposable keychain camera). Allow me to give you a 5 cent tour of some of the highlights of Long Island in July.

Dad’s daylily garden contains thousands of brand new flowers he’s hybridized over the years. The result is a palette of color only God could have created. Each day dad faithfully crosses the prettiest flowers that show the most genetic potential with each other to produce seeds which he can then plant and re-cross, otherwise know as “flower sex.” When mom catches him surfing the net for pictures of new varieties, she calls it “lily porn.” This giant garden is a hobby that turned into a labor of love. Many people in church, some of my friends, and now I have dad’s own unique lilies in our yards.

My very favorite pastime, walking Bailie Beach in Mattituck to find pieces of sea glass at low tide.

The next three pictures show a small peninsula in New Suffolk called Kimogener Point (pronounced Kim-ah-jen-er). The point is a private strip of shore that defines the landscape with its iconic windmill. The Jacqueline Penney print in my dining room shows Kimogener Point at night with the moon peeking through the clouds, so I wanted to get some pics of the actual place. I think the home in the third picture has one of the most incredible views on all of Long Island being surrounded by the nothing but the Peconic Bay and salty air.

Baby birds seem to be a theme these days. This little blackbird fell out of the nest and the parents were squawking up a storm and fluttering about him. I can only hope the little guy was able to make it.

Bailie the kitty (named after Bailie Beach) taking a moment to reflect on the lovely summer day.

A trip to Greenport with some friends to see the fireworks. Afterward we headed to a little restaurant called First and South to discover that our server did a new locally themed chalk drawing every week.

A new ferry route opened the weekend after July 4th by the Peconic Jitney taking passengers around Shelter Island all the way to Sag Harbor. Schedules can be found at http://www.peconicjitney.com/ . The trip was absolutely gorgeous! We sat on the top deck, breathed the salty air, and took in the incredible scenery of waterside mansions and million dollar sailboats. Shortly before we arrived in Sag Harbor we passed Jimmy Buffett’s yacht and all waved like idiots. He often docks in Greenport, and one of the passengers with us pointed his boat out to everyone as he cruised by. This is a great little trip if you just want to do some light shopping and eat lunch. The Hampton Jitney can be taken to the other towns if you’re adventurous enough to sit in bumper to bumper traffic on Montauk Highway.

A trip home for me usually includes a trip to the Hamptons. Mom and I will head down there, hit up the Cheese Shoppe in Southampton and the Golden Pear Cafe for lunch, along with every thrift store on the south side. One time I picked up a pair of old Manolo Blahniks for $20. This time, a vintage white leather Mui Miu purse for $12!!! The TJ Maxx in Bridgehampton is also a favorite stop for me since I found my dining room chairs there. For exactly one third of the price for the same chair in Anthropologie, I shipped two down to TN. Mom and dad brought two more when they drove down, and voila, I have chairs from the Hamptons. The East End also has a plethora of incredible wineries where one can get quite sloshed after a day of tastings. The vineyards are so beautiful and a much more pleasant sight than ugly subdivisions and housing developments. If you want to get the inside scoop on the historical social drama in the Hamptons, I would highly suggest a book called Philistines At The Hedgerow: Passion And Property In The Hamptons by Steven Gaines. It is most educational and quite entertaining!

The North Fork can’t be summed up in pictures and I can only convey a small sense of what being there is like for me, which simply cannot do justice to this lovely piece of shoreline. In the past several blogs I have shared my house with you and in this one, I wanted to share my home. To those of you who live there, don’t forget to treasure what you have. Sometimes it’s very easy to miss the beauty in a place when you see it everyday. To those of you who have never been, I hope that someday your travels will bring you there so you too can breathe the marshy air, get frizzy hair from the humidity, glance down and find a piece of sea glass, and fall head over heels in love with a Long Island you never knew existed.

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