Category: nature

nature, photography, memories, friends, travel, adventure, perseverance, childhood, moments, 'scene' along the way, road trip

Campello kids…

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The connections I’ve been making, both with family and also with friends, have mostly been with the kids from the south side of my hometown.  ‘Campello kids’.  Kids I may have gone all through school with, but in my mind when I have thought of them I remember them best as the Jr. high school kids we once were.  I connected with another one of them yesterday.  I was already close to her VT home, at least as the crow flies.  GPS showed three routes to her house from the NH campground.  One route seemed ridiculously out of the way but would keep you on highways the whole time.  I ruled that one out right away.  The other two were on a diagonal, point A to point B pretty much in a direct line.  I ignored the ominous warning box at the top of the screen.  It announced that the directions might possibly include unpaved roads!  Which one?, thought I.  That it might be both of those routes didn’t occur to me.  So yes, despite my trepidations I did turn onto Bobbin Shop Road, and it wound this way and that, and up and down.  And it eventually turned into an unpaved road.  But it got me there, and the scenery was worth it.  And the visit?  It was perfect!  Not rushed, a quiet afternoon talking and letting our minds wander together.  Was it enough time?  No, but there were a lot of years gone by to talk about…

I started out early, with fog hanging in the air and no sun out.  But as I drove the sun came out and the day became so pretty that I hoped I’d stop again as I retraced my route home, but I didn’t.  And I did manage to stay on paved roads this time…offtoJoan's4boatsOfftoJoan's2boatsofftoJoan's2_1greenboatOfftoJoan's1offtoJoan's5offtoJoan's6

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, friends, fun, moments, nature, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, road trip

City girls in the country…

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“Look,” said one city girl to the other. “Cows in a field of flowers! We have to go back for pictures!”prettycows

“They look so pretty, I love cows,” said the other city girl.bulls?

“Un, you don’t think they’re bulls do you?”, asked the first one, the light dawning a bit.ohoh

And now taking her photos from behind the car.oopsfencebull

Just two city girls out for a drive, seeing what they could see along the way.  They had gotten their photo of the ‘cow’ in the flowers, and so it was time to move on…bullinflowersmailboxes

 

'scene' along the way, adventure, bugs, Camping, finding my way, natural wonders, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip

The Kancamagus Highway…

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That was my goal Wednesday when I set out to take some pictures.  I think I just like to say Kancamagus, and it was too pretty out to stay home.  If you look at it on a map it looks like it goes in a diagonal line from where I am now, to Lincoln, NH.  That’s not true though.  You have to drive a bit to get to Rt. 112, and I discovered several distractions along the way that slowed me down and kept me from traveling the whole highway.  Which is okay because a friend of mine is most at home in the Lincoln area and I’m in hopes we’ll get back there together eventually.  This farm was a distraction along the way.  And when I stopped to take a picture this cow came over to say hi.farmagain6_12_19cowandbarn6_12_19cowandbarn26_12_19redbarnscene

Then the town of Bradford provided it’s own distraction.  Just a block long, but quaint, and good food.  A pastrami reuben at a little coffee shop called The Local Buzz.  What a great name, and a great sandwich.6_12_19waterfall1bradfordlibrary6_12_19townturretthelocalbuzzBuzzmap

Eventually I did make a run at the Kancamagus though, and I got there.  As promised by my cousin, the scenery is spectacular.  But pull-offs are too few and far between.  Which explains why I turned around after I passed the Beaver Pond scenic area and returned for photos there also.  But I turned out to be the main course for the black flies and mosquitos that were just hanging around waiting for an unsuspecting tourist to show up. When I told my cousin that I stopped at Beaver Pond he said that he and his wife hiked a trail there once and encountered a swarm of black flies that had them running to their car.  Glad to know it’s not just me being a wimp.  Nobody bothered my DEET infused legs, which was nice.  But too bad I didn’t think to spray my ears because they got gnawed on pretty fiercely.  Now my ears are burning, you aren’t talking about me are you?6_12_19beaverdamoverlook26_12_19beaverdamoverlook6_12_19beaverpondredux

 

'scene' along the way, adventure, Camping, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip, travel

One good thing…

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I thought that this would be the day that I would make a blog post without a single picture.  You see I discovered a potential tick bite, yes again, on Sunday morning.  I could feel the skin wasn’t right, but for the life of me I couldn’t see what was wrong because it was located in an unmentionable spot.  So I resorted to taking a picture, a picture that I’d have bet you a million dollars that I’d never take.  And yes, a bite of some kind, but maybe it would heal on it’s own.  Besides, Sunday was a busy day that started by waking up in NY and finished in front of a campfire in MA.  And the next morning it was back to NH by way of VT, several times back and forth it seemed.  But this morning I decided to go get it checked out, if for no other reason than to be able to delete that picture from my phone before I mistakenly posted it online.  And, darn it all, turns out I have the full blown bulls-eye of Lyme disease.  Let’s see, it took me a little over a week of camping to get Lyme disease?  That must be a record.

So I got checked and I got my prescription, and asked Siri to take me home by the back roads, in search of a photo op.  So she sent me home on Lyme Road.  Sigh, of course she did.

But the good news is that I saw that Dartmouth College was in the area, and I didn’t even have to make a turn in search of the campus to stop for photos.  Lyme Road took me straight through the campus, so I did get a few photos today, and none of them are embarrassing!  A very good thing.6_11_19Dartmouth6_11_19Dartmouth26_11_19Dartmouth36_11_19Dartmouth46_11_19Dartmouth76_11_19Dartmouth86_11_19Dartmouth1006.11.19dartmouth606.11.19dartmouth906.11.19dartmouth1206.11.19dartmouth13

I have to say that Charley would have had a field day with this whole Lyme disease thing.  Oh, he’d be sympathetic alright, but he would have had a grand old time speculating on what I was up to that led to a tick bite on the butt.  And that’s the really not so great part, because I did nothing out of the ordinary.  So I have no clue what to do, or not to do, so it doesn’t happen again.  Excuse me while I go take my pill…

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'scene' along the way, adventure, dragonflies, flowers, gardens, life, natural wonders, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip, travel

Innisfree Gardens…

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Down the most innocuous looking one lane dirt road, looking as if you’ve gotten onto a service road rather than the road into a garden destination, you will find Innisfree Gardens.  If not for the 15 mph signs every so often I’d have tried to find a spot to turn around.  I thought to myself that the senior price was only $5 and I shouldn’t have expected much.  But then you are finally in the parking area with lots of other people.  Some are pulling coolers out of their cars, clearly planning to spend some time rather than just take some pictures.  This sign greets you, and explains the place better than I ever could.6_08_19sign

And yes, you roam the paths and on the grass, and at every turn there are lovely little scenes. 06-08-19gardenview16_08_19gardenview46_08_19gardenview56_08_19gardenview66_08_19gardenview706-08-19threechairs6_08_19gardenview96_08_19gardenview36_08_19gardenview86_08_19gardenview26_08_19chairs

And of course where there are flowers there are bees, and butterflies…6_08_19bee6_08_19butterfly26_08_19purpleflower

But this dragonfly provided the most fun moment.  I had been keeping pace with a family of several generations as they enjoyed the park.  One of their group was wearing a red ball cap and a dragonfly decided to perch on it, much to the delight of her family.  I had missed the moment but I told them that dragonflies always come back to the same spot, and I was going to add that I didn’t think that that would apply to the cap, except there he was again.  Both he and she were quite cooperative and I appreciated the chance to capture that moment.  I hope they have stuck with the blog for a couple of days because I told them I’d use the photo, but it has taken me since Saturday to do it.6_08_19dragonflyhat6_08_19dragonfly

The little woodpecker in the featured photo was quite a surprise.  I wasn’t fast enough to catch the exchange as one adult flew into the nest and the other flew out.  But I zoomed as much as I could and took a picture of the tree just in case, and I planned to explain that I could hear the babies in there chirping for food.  Because I did, but what I couldn’t see until I looked at the photos in the computer was that someone was keeping a watchful eye on things.  It was a small price to pay for such a lovely day.

'scene' along the way, adventure, backyard visitors, birds, family, life goes on, memories, moments, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip, sky, sunset, travel

Leaving places behind…

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When my daughter moved out of New York I remember thinking that I’d be sad not to drive there from MD in August and see the sugar maples beginning to turn color in anticipation of fall.  And I would miss the ride on 81 N through Hazleton, PA where I would see spectacular early morning color in the valley as I drove on the road above, skirting a mountain which meant that the scene just kept revealing itself as I drove.  That was amazing.

And now it’s my son’s house in NY that I won’t be visiting again after this, except for a quick high school graduation trip soon.  Then they’ll be moving back to FL, so it’s good news really.  But I was aware of this and came here wondering if the deer would visit, and if I would I see some pretty farmland to photograph.  So far so good…6_08_10NYbirdie1birdie2I saw a deer out back almost as soon as I got here on Friday night.  I was able to sneak out the sliding glass door onto the screened porch, and then out the screen door and onto the steep back steps for these shots.  The back yard is a steep slope, too steep to mow, so the birds, winter wrens according to Merlin’s best guess, were enjoying the weeds and singing up a storm out there.  The deer stood still, watching me, and then disappeared into the woods.  She was back again this morning and maybe I was sneakier because she went about her business.  As soon as I got a few shots I went back inside and left her to munch away on those white flowers.6_08_10NYdeer26_08_10NYdeer1

On the way to dinner last night I stopped for a quick iPhone shot of this farm.  I can’t wait to get out there today and see what else I see out there…afternoonfarm