Our Long Island house

Our Oregon dacha in winter

When we moved to Long Island in the fall of 1999, we found a home in Bellport, a small village on the south shore of the island, not far from the lab where Larry works. We're the first owners of the house, and we're proud of the landscaping we've done. Before the first snows fell we had cleared the jungle in back, where heavy vines had climbed to the very tops of large trees and were pulling them down. We planted a lawn, new trees, flowers, shrubs. We designed the courtyard in front, added a terrace and patio in back. Now what was a jungle is more like a park. Here's a glimpse of Galina, a friend from Bulgaria, entertaining young visitors on our back patio.

But maybe the prettiest spot in our yard is on the north side of the house, a place known as 'Larry's Color Garden'. I had wanted the flowers in most of the yard to be in soft shades - blue, white, rose, lavender. But Larry likes bright flowers too, so we set aside a special space for those. Larry's garden started as just a rectangular flowerbed, but the borders of the bed expanded and softened each year. Now look at it! It changes every season, new flowers come into bloom as the old ones fade. This is how it looks in early spring. I'm lucky to have this beautiful area as the view from my computer.

Living here is a big change from the way we lived before moving to Long Island. Our previous home was right in the center of the city of Minneapolis, and the view from our windows was very different. Before coming to Minneapolis, we had moved from Seattle to Illinois. When we were in Illinois I missed living near mountains. But in Minneapolis the high-rises that loomed above us were a bit like mountains. They reflected the changes of light, and at night they were magic. I liked living in the middle of a big city - but I find I'm even happier now living near the sea.


However, I continue to love mountains and it always feels good to get back to our "dacha" in Oregon. All our grandkids enjoy joining us there. Here's Kenny back when he was 12 on top of the South Sister, that mountain that you saw behind me in the photo on my home page.

In the background you can see Mt. Bachelor, where Larry loves to ski. On good days, you can take the ski lift clear to the top of that mountain and see one Cascade volcano after another, stretching in both directions - all the way from Mt. Rainier up in Washington to Mt. Shasta in Oregon.

Our home near the sea and our Oregon dacha are only our main bases. A lot of the time we are away visiting other places, sometimes other countries. Larry is often invited to visit other scientists all around the globe - and I like traveling with him. If it's a short visit we stay in a hotel, but if the visit is a long one we find an apartment. That lets us feel we are really living there, not just visiting.