Readers, Welcome to my blog (formerly Birds, Blooms, Books, etc). I'm entering a new decade taking on the challenge of moving from Maryland after living there 46 years and learning about my new home here in New England in the Live Free or Die state - New Hampshire. Join me as a write this new chapter of my life.

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Tea and Blooms

 Friday, daughter Emily and granddaughters invited me to join them for tea and flower picking. Emily had booked an hour at Song Garden. We had tea in the tea house and picked all sorts of blooms to fill two canning jars.

Join me as I wander the grounds.





The tea house.




















Now back to the tea house for tea.












And it was!


Monday, August 30, 2021

Fire Pit

 Look what we built Sunday morning?

We used this YouTube Video - LINK here. Our costs were about double of what they described and we had to use 12 stones to make a circle not 10.

The fire Marshall required that we have 1 foot of area outside the circle.  He was surprised that we built it so fast.  He came on Saturday to review whether our placement was okay and then I called him on Sunday afternoon to approve it and issue our burn permit (required by state law).  He was impressed.


We invited daughter and family over for a campfire Sunday night to inaugurate the fire pit.  Emily brought the makings of s'mores except no graham crackers - she substituted gluten free cookies.

After they went home, we sat outside listening to the radio (streaming from WAMU FM a Washington DC station) until the fire burned down.  It was lovely.

p.s. you can see the finished deck there too.  No real furnishings there yet so I'll save featuring that until until next Spring when we make deck furniture purchases.

And today the driveway is being redone!  Progress!

Friday, August 27, 2021

The Fair

Last weekend was the Fair in our township.  It's a very big deal around here and lots of folks volunteer for different aspects: ticket taking, parking, exhibits, first aid, sales, and food.  The rides are contracted out of course but the fair entrance fee ($12 adults and $3 kids) is a big money maker for the school PTO.  

We volunteered to take tickets for 3 hours (4 pm-7pm) Saturday evening at one of the 5 entrance points.  Ours was right across for the largest parking lot which generated lots of traffic to our booth until it filled up.  There were waves of people.  I never have handled so many $100 bills!


Emily and I handled the ticket sales and Dan did the hand stamping and vehicle monitoring for those needing access to school parking lot.

We attended the Fair on Sunday.  Here's what we saw.

Tractors


Animals


Rides



More animals



More tractors


More rides



Historical stuff





More animals





And more rides




And more tractors new and old.










I would bet that before tractors became so prominent horses would have had a bigger showing at a fair. There was only one building devoted to a few horses - the rest were filled with cattle.







We are definitely in a farming community here in New Hampshire!