Shelter Island - Day 4

I am writing this blog sat outside at 9.30pm and it is similar to being in the tropics, both with the heat and the background noise of insects, I think that they are crickets or something similar. That probably shows my ignorance of nature, however even the cornucopia of creatures around the house has impressed me.

I usually take a stroll in the early evening. Despite there being several houses around here I saw five dears on my walk tonight. Interestingly they must have become used to living amongst humans, as they do not run off as quickly as in the UK. You can see below the close up in the photo that I took.

After observing this solitary dear a whole family strolled across the road in front of me. You will also see a little rabbit that simply stopped in front of me.

While we were sat eating breakfast a large bird swooped on a small animal and carried it off across the lake. We have also observed some beautiful rusty red birds flyng by the house. Added to that are the echelons of Canada Geese that regularly pass over the house.

So even for us nature ignoramuses it is an impressive roll call of species.

I mentioned the weather, it is getting very humid, I think that it is building to a serious thunderstorm; indeed the forecast suggests that for tomorrow. So we are planning to do a little shopping tomorrow, primarily for some winter clothes as the retailers here offer such good value and quality.

We have already done some wine and beer shopping to share with our friends at the weekend. There is considerable local good quality wine production of both white and red wines. The winery that we visited was certainly producing excellent full flavoured and distinct. There is also a local microbrewery whose wares we will be sampling. When you add this to the large number of farm stands the area is quite a find for foodies. Tonight we ate some beautifully full flavoured tomatoes bought straight from the farm.

So in all respects nature is her pomp here.