Year in Review: 10 Notable Blogs of 2011

Since the section launched on May 4, people from all walks of life have gotten to in the form of a funny-sounding format — the blog. “Blogging” is really nothing more than a freer way of opinion writing. Some have used it to talk exclusively about one subject, others have associated their writing with the news of the day, some use the blog to promote their business or new project, and others just like to talk about daily experiences living on the North Fork.

It’s all good. Here are just a few standout blogs published in 2011. Thanks to everyone who has submitted — we’ve had some very creative, informative and occasionally heart-wrenching and hilarious posts over the past eight months. Keep them coming!

Local writer Damon Rallis didn’t miss a beat the day after “Local Voices” launched with this funny and familiar tale of pigging out at a chicken dinner fundraiser at in Greenport. Damon went on to entertain us with his adventures in trying to quit smoking, toddler tantrums at a baseball game and falling into a shopping nightmare on Black Friday.

LeLonni Campbell got 47 comments on her very first astrology blog for North Fork Patch and her intriguing blogs since then have consistently been some of the most popular.

Shelter Islander Carla Cadzin wrote a beautiful remembrance of her friend, Lt. Joseph Theinert, who died in Afghanistan at the age of 24. She wrote the piece shortly before thethe island before they disbanded.

Writer and Cutchogue resident Liliana Nealon had a bad experience trying to buy a car locally. Given the popularity of this particular post from this prolific blogger, many could relate.

Blogger Jeannie Sargent shared this personal and touching reflection on Father’s Day, centered around her memories of her own father, who died in August of 2009.

Local CPA Scott Hunzinger has consistently provided blogs filled with very useful tax and financial advice, and this one, written when , was particularly newsworthy.

Mary Agria was one of our first bloggers to sign up in May, and since then this gardening fanatic has provided poetic, funny and literary philosophical musings on gardening and nature and life in general. And skunks.

In the midst of the fear and frantic preparation for what was then still Hurricane Irene, writer Patty Pece pulled off this blog with a positive spin on the impending storm.

Blogger Nancy Kelley’s timing with this well-written piece on the wonders bats do for the world was perfect — and all the myths associated with the blind little nocturnal creature many have come to fear.

Richard Olsen-Harbich, now the winemaker at, has a way of incorporating a worldliness in not only his winemaking but to his writing about the subject he has dedicated much of his life to. Here is only one compelling blog from him about the industry that has transformed the North Fork over the past three decades.