{ Happy 375th Birthday }

Our new hometown turns 375 this year. Southold was first colonized by English settlers in 1640 and was the first English settlement on Long Island. In 2015, in celebration of this milestone, our town is planning many special events. My husband and I have already decided that we're going to spend some time getting to know our town and it's people by attending as many of these events as our schedule will allow. 

 

I've been waiting a long time to move from the city into a small town. As of the 2010 census, Southold has 5,748 residents. The neighborhood in Brooklyn that we come from, Marine Park, has 86,000 residents. It's going to be a huge adjustment for my husband who's spent his entire life living in Brooklyn.

I'm enjoying the deafening quiet, the deer in the yard, nice neighbors, the local IGA market with the friendly cashiers, fresh air, the horses I can see out of my kitchen window, dark night skies full of stars, looking at my fenced off garden and imagining the possibilities this spring, smelling the neighborhood's fireplaces burning. I could keep going.

I'm still trying to convince my other half that this was a good choice for us. I know he's happy to be free from city traffic. {Well, almost. We're still not completely moved in yet and are still shuffling our belongings out there} He's happy with the space we have even though it's not a big house. There's more than enough room for us and our hobbies. I'll even have my own space to sew. I'll be so happy to set up my machine and be able to leave it out. He has more than enough room for his drums and tools.

What more does anyone need?

 

{ The Great Blizzard of 2015 }

 

Holy crap, we got a lot of snow in Southold! In fact, the entire North Fork of Long Island got a lot of snow.

 

 

 

You really can't tell how much from this Waterlogue watercolor conversion. Here's a couple from the clean up yesterday.

 

 

 

The foot prints ( actually, entire lower leg prints) on the right are mine. I had to wade through the snow to get to the house and the snow shovel. Before the snowblower could be started up we had an hour of digging a path from the street to the garage.

 

After we finished shoveling, blowing and digging out, we pulled out two folding chairs and sat in the sun with a cup of coffee and tea.  It was 19 degrees but felt like 70 in the sun. Perfect.