Sag Harbor Here We Come.
So, there are two things, okay--truth be told way more than two things, but two things for the moment, that I want to "talk" about right now. The first is the most obvious, and I cannot bring myself to write anything about it--really, what can I say that has not been said already as we witness the very worst of humanity, power, greed, evil and the very best of humanity, empathy, generosity, courage, patriotism, loyalty, faith? I leave you with your own thoughts on that.
The other thing is a more Hummingbird kind of topic in that it has to do with turning the page, starting a new chapter, moving on, and the like.
Yup. We're moving again. Less than a year and a half ago, I wrote about our move from our 20+ year home in Southold to a townhouse in Jamesport. Part paring down, part Lord knows what, we knew this would be a transitional couple of years as we got to the other side of the pandemic while figuring out where and what the heck the next chapter would be.
And so, as good fortune would have it, off we go again, this time to Sag Harbor. We feel pretty sure that this will be, if not our "forever home," then at least something more along the line of a longer-term plan. All this moving around is not at all "us." We sign up for 20 year stints... seriously, not kidding. It's odd for us to land in Sag. It's where we thought we would like to be some 30+ years ago when we took a working "sabbatical" for one year to the North Fork--that was way, way, way before remote working was a thing. Then, when I had the good (or bad, however you want to look at it, but I prefer good) fortune of exploring the de novo banking world through Georgica Bank, we were going to move over to Sag Harbor again then. And of course one of my husband's favorite authors is John Steinbeck, so again, Sag is calling--Steinbeck's house is for sale, did you know?
Rare But Welcome “Quiet” in the Harbor
Here we are on the cusp of our move over there. I will miss the North Fork, although it has more in common with the South Fork these days, the crazy busy weekends, the higher prices, the attitudes of some of the less genteel visitors, real estate development and a CRAZY real estate market. I will miss our ever-changing view of the Long Island Sound, hearing the high winds and gentle breezes, and the waves hitting the shore through the seasons and storms. The light-- I cannot express how much I appreciate the light here. My friends, but they will come over, our neighbors we wave to and have come to "know" in that special North Fork neighbor kind of way. My husband and I will both continue working much the same--remote is remote, and again we are just a "ferries" ride away. But in this next chapter, we will be just blocks away from our children and GRANDCHILDREN--giant smiles. We look forward to being much more a part of their "everyday lives." And our children too--they invited us!! They found our house... right near theirs! And there are some things we want to do--rowing club, ocean beach for swimming, reading, walks, time with friends and family, food pantry volunteer, arts organizations, library--no shortage of volunteer things for us to get involved with.
So it's a bittersweet start of a new chapter. The North Fork has been good to our family. We have spent half of our adult lives here! I have the feeling we will be back to visit often, feeling like a cross between new visitors and old timers. We'll be sure to be the kind of visitors that we would have welcomed and follow the North Fork visitor "rules" (developed for and posted on Hummingbird). And Hummingbird will be expanding its horizons too, as we have our North Fork and Brooklyn contributors, and now we will be adding some Sag Harbor too. I am reluctant to say "Hamptons" vibe, because Sag Harbor is not that, although it has somehow found itself looking like the center of the universe these past couple of summers, but we shall see, now won't we.
And ONWARD.
