And For My 200th Blog Post:

More pictures, what else would I be posting?


I recently took my parents canoeing on Long Pond in Lempster, NH. I bought the canoe last year almost brand new, very cheap. It is quite stable and tracks nicely.

The Lempster Wind Farm as seen from on the water (click the picture for more detail on the turbines). This is something of a pilot project which many other areas in the state are watching to gauge the success. I hope it catches on!

Wild blueberry blossom

Mountain Laurel Bloom

A rather odd-looking fungus growing on a tree on one of the islands in the middle of Long Pond

Out on a hike on the country roads in my neighborhood: my friend Matt on the right, his youngest son in the red jacket, my youngest child in the black fur coat

A lovely cow-meadow right above my house

The road above my house (where I had the night-time moose encounter in the previous post).

One of the ecological treasures in my area is the presence of some old-growth trees which are well beyond a century old, probably saplings when the area was first cleared for farm land. This sugar maple is one of them. We have dubbed it the "Whomping Willow" because of the resemblance to the tree in the Harry Potter movie.

A porcupine den in an old-growth poplar tree down in a ravine in the middle of the woods.

Eastern Phoebe (probably female) sitting on a clutch of eggs

Possibly a timely picture considering recent events, I took this a week before he died. It was in a free book pile that someone brought in at my workplace. I thought it made for an unusual children's book.

Long Pond

Oh my word, I am very sore, my legs and arms still feel like they are on fire. On Friday a couple of my coworker friends and I went up to Long Pond in Lempster, NH for an afternoon picnic. The town beach there is posted for use by town residents only and they enforce this rule rigidly. However the boat landing uses state tax dollars so they can't legally eject out-of-towners if they are hanging around or entering the water at the boat landing. Additionally, the island in the middle of the pond is state property and available for use by anyone who wants to make the swim/boat trip over. Well, I don't have a boat yet. So I towed the cooler and the rest of our picnic supplies over on an inflatable lounger raft. It's about a 1/4 mile swim. We had a great time hanging around and being lazy in the sun, but we waited a bit too long to make the trip back. By the time we went back in the water the sun was setting and it had become a bit chilly out. I ended up towing J on a boogie board in addition to the raft because he has a bit less 'insulation' than I do and was too cold to let his top half into the water. I definitely got my exercise that day. I intend to go up there again to hike around and take pictures during foliage season.

G and J