Category Archives: Climate

Merrick, New York, USA. January 24, 2019. During winter sunset, golden reflection of trees and building fills windows of Merrick Public Library on south shore of Long Island.

Missed the Rainbow, Caught the Puddle

From LONG ISLAND – by Ann Parry (ann-parry.com)
January 31, 2019

Flash Flood

Driving on Long Island’s south shore at the end of yet another flash flood, I turned north toward the Merrick Library on Merrick Avenue and faced a fierce sunset.

I wanted to capture the fleeting sky show reflected on water, but the nearest body of water, a pond, was about a half mile away. So I turned west onto a soggy side street across from the library, saw a golden-orange reflection in a puddle, and pulled to the curb.

But a telephone pole and its wires were too prominent, so I slowly drove on, and as I passed a parked car discovered a lake of a puddle – the biggest one I ever saw this far inland from Merrick’s jagged shoreline. 

Merrick, New York, USA. January 24, 2019. After flash flood, reflection of colorful winter sunset fills large puddle in road of suburban town on south shore of Long Island. (© 2019Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, New York, USA. January 24, 2019. After flash flood, reflection of colorful winter sunset fills large puddle in road of suburban town on south shore of Long Island. (© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

After parking, I slowly walked around and around the puddle, all the while lifting and lowering and leveling my iPhone to capture the blaze. 

Puddle Sunset

Later, back at home, I saw a flood of pictures on local news and social media of a full double rainbow that appeared before the sunset and before I paid attention to the sky that late afternoon.

But if I’d caught the rainbow, I’d have missed that fiery puddle sunset.

Merrick, New York, USA. January 24, 2019. After flash flood, reflection of colorful winter sunset fills large puddle in road, on south shore of Long Island. (© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, New York, USA. January 24, 2019. After flash flood, reflection of colorful winter sunset fills large puddle in road, on south shore of Long Island. (© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)


Sunset Puddle:  MY GALLERY

Site:  Merrick Library

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Photo Illustration: Cammanns Pond in Merrick, New York, USA, © Ann Parry, FromLongIsland.com

Cammanns Pond: Or, New Year’s Eve in Space

From LONG ISLAND – by Ann Parry (ann-parry.com)
December 31, 2018

Cammanns Pond

Tonight, ten days after the shortest day of the year, and hours before the stormy last hurrah of 2018 would become the dawn of 2019, I stopped at Cammanns Pond on my way home.

Struggling through the downpour, the light from the street lamp behind me surrendered before reaching water’s edge.

Merrick, NY, USA. Dec. 31, 2018. A raft of ducks sleeps hidden at Cammanns Pond during rainy New Year's Eve. (© 2018 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, NY, USA. Dec. 31, 2018. A raft of ducks sleeps hidden at Cammanns Pond during rainy New Year’s Eve. (© 2018 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Rain coated the windshield seconds after each sweep of wipers, and dashboard lights bounced on the glass and water, so my bullseye view was light from distant buildings slashing an abyss.

But, after countless visits, I knew waterfowl must be near. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I covered the instrument lights with an infinity scarf, I saw hints of a silent, nearly still raft of ducks midway between shores.

Aiming my iPhone from the space between steering wheel and windshield, I captured rain smeared photos of two bare trees standing sentinel in front of the pond.

Going outside, I stood behind one tree trunk then the other, to avoid throwing a shadow, and leaned out to take photos of the ducks, pond, shores and beyond.

Shores & beyond

Then I sat silent and still in my car as ducks slept at the Merrick pond, on the deluged south shore of Long Island…

on the northeast coast of the United States on Earth as it orbited the Sun, in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, in the Virgo Supercluster…

as we made our way in the universe this New Year’s Eve…

forty years after the world understood global warming and still had a chance to avoid the extreme, destructive weather Earth’s now experiencing due to the climate crisis.

No home is an island.



• NASA: Global Climate Change Resources
• Bloomberg: Climate Changed
• NYTimes: Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
• United Nations: Environment, Disasters & Climate Change


fyi fLI
In 1890 Hermann Cammann bought the Carmen farm house property on the north side of Merrick Road and rebuilt a larger version of the house, across from where Cammanns Park is now.


Cammanns Pond:  PHOTO GALLERY

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