Life's a beach!

After over 10 years, I was finally able to make it back to the beach.  We were all invited to our office beach party taking place at Westhampton Beach on Long Island, NY.  It was a hike from Pennsylvania, but well worth the trip.


Of course, the people there were great and it was so much fun hanging out with them in this venue.  I usually only see them at the office.  This occasion offed up an opportunity to see another side of them in a much more relaxed environment.


In between, I was able to get some shots of the area, first up, the bay near the home of our host & hostess, just a short hike away:

After lunch at their home, we all headed down to the beach for dinner.  Here is the table and in the background you'll see a ring   

that was set up for the barn fire and marshmallow roasting / smores making later that night after sunset.

Here are some views from the table:

After the sun went down, the torches were lit.

And not to be outdone by the sun, the moon made an appearance and reflected itself off the ocean:

The perfect ending to a perfect day...naturally.  :)

What Was That???

Have you ever been startled awake from a sound sleep?  I mean, really startled, where your heart is pounding and you're scared because you have just heard this noise, this loud noise that has jolted you up out of a wonderfully sound sleep, on one of the 2 days you're able to sleep in???


Once you've calmed your nerves and you know for a fact that no one has broken into your house, you need to find out what that noise was.  At least, that's the process I went through.


Well, this happened recently.  Once I calmed myself down, I walked out of the bedroom to the top of the stairs and listened to see if the noise would come again.  It did and it made me jump because it was so loud, louder now that I was out in the hall.  So I went downstairs to listen again, and put myself where I thought the noise had come from.  The noise came again and I turned and looked at the fireplace.  Was something stuck in there?  I walked over and looked through the glass doors, nothing.  I looked up and saw that the damper was closed so nothing could get into the firebox.  I know that the chimney is enclosed at the top with a screen to keep critters out, so what was causing the noise???  As I was pondering this, the noise came again and I almost fell over backwards.  Now I'm annoyed because now, I have to either be constantly on the alert for this noise or jump out of my skin and possibly hurt myself.  LOL  So I went back upstairs, put on some clothes and went to get down to the bottom of this.  All the while, this noise continued.


I figured it had to be coming from the outside, since nothing could get inside, but on the off chance that something got in, I'd have to go out to see where.  I opened the front door, and looked up at where the chimney stack was and at first everything looked as it should.  I went down the stairs so that I could see more and looked up again and there, peeking back at me was a woodpecker!  He looked at me for a few seconds and went back to drumming on the top of the chimney guard.  Then he walked back over to the edge and looked down at me as if to say, "yeah, that was me and there's nothing you can do about it, cuz I'm waaaaay up here and you're waaaay down there."  And back he went to drum some more.


I went back into the house to grab my trusty camera and rushed back out to get a picture of the little bugger.  But of course, when I get out and get my camera lined up, the noise maker takes off to the trees, but I got him.  Him and the other one, I'm guessing he was most likely trying to impress or intimidate.


Here is the culprit:

And here is what I'm guessing is the other he was creating all the noise for, maybe a female or rival?:

They look like the same bird right?  Tust me, they're two different individuals.  :)