Robert Frost

Friday, September 4th we were traveling near Derry, NH and I saw on the map a red dot for the Robert Frost Farm State Historical Site (Link here).  It was one of those serendipitous findings because that was the first day the site was open to visitors this year!  And though tours of the house were not available the staff person on site was there to give us a most thorough oral tour along with photographs of the inside.

When I think of Robert Frost and his poems I think of him as someone grounded in New Hampshire. That his home would be somewhere he had resided for most of his life.  Wrong! I was very surprised to learn he was born in San Francisco and the longest he lived anywhere was at this farm and that was for only 11 years.  He was a writer and poet from youth but sought other forms of employment including farming and teaching before he finally was published at age 40!  That didn't happen until he lived abroad in England.

The farm is very beautiful and typical New England.  His daughter Lesley was instrumental in getting the state to purchase it upon Frost's death after 1963.  The family didn't own it because Frost sold it after 11 years.  His grandfather purchased it for him with the stipulation that he reside there 11 years before he could assume ownership.  

The farm was called Frosty Acres when the state purchased it and it was an auto junk yard! The owners claimed that Frosty was not a play on Robert Frost's name but the weather!

If you're near Derry, NH on a weekend it's worth the stop.

Biden in His Words

 I read an editorial in the Valley News, our local paper, entitled "Conquering a great nation through division and hate" by Willem Lange.  You can read the entire editorial HERE.  What struck me that I felt needed sharing was this quote from Joe Biden in an interview that he had with Evan Osnos of The New Yorker.

Referring to our current chaos, Joe Biden reflects: "I thought you could defeat hate. You can't. It only hides. It crawls under the rocks, and when given oxygen by any person in authority, it comes roaring back out ... The words of a President, even a lousy President, matter.  They can take you to war, they can bring peace, they can make the market rise, they can make it fall. But they can also give hate oxygen."

More and more we are seeing hate given oxygen by tRump.

Please say that you plan to vote him out!

After I first posted this I came across this that reinforces what is happening.  Thanks to  OctoberFarm.

Adjusting

 If we were still living in Maryland this would seem like a cool day for the end of August - high of 82º.

Here in New Hampshire these temps feel more like October than August.

What will winter be like?  Will we be able to adjust?

Boston Lot Hike

Today marks 6 weeks that we have lived in New Hampshire. We are getting acclimated and liking this climate a lot. Yesterday was a cool day with highs only in the 60s.  Hard to imagine that happening in Maryland in August.

We took advantage of the lovely day to explore the Boston Lot, an expanse of woods north of us owned by West Lebanon. It gets its name from a failed granite quarrying company based in Boston. Quarrying never happened but the name stuck.

We parked at that green rectangle on the left side of the map above and walked up the access road - the double red line.  That was quite a climb. We walked then around the lake on the Lakeside Trail.  That was a misnomer because the trail continued to climb and though we could glimpse the lake through the trees it was not a lakeside trail at all.

The ferns were lovely.

Roots and rocks to clamber over.  The soil must be shallow that's why the roots are so much on the surface.

Here's a view of the lake near the end of our walk.  There were two camping sites at this vantage point.

A lovely day for a hike in New Hampshire.

We had lunch from the food truck parked on the Lebanon Green. First time we'd tried it. We'll be back! It was good.