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.

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Lebanon - Our New Home Town

Today marks three weeks since we arrived in New Hampshire.  It seems longer than that I guess because we have done so much already to become residents.

Here's a brief tour.

The center of town is formed around this green called Colburn Park.  A very large rectangle of grass, trees, pathways, benches, tables, a bandstand and playground.  This is where the Farmer's Market is on Thursday afternoons.


Here's Dan buying us spring rolls at the farmer's market.


On the north side of the park is this Civil war statue.  Made of wood surprisingly and just coated to look bronze.


It stands in front of this building, the Soldiers Memorial Building.  


Next door is the Opera House and Town offices currently under renovation.


The Lebanon Mall is next on the west side.  Three Tomatoes is a good restaurant there.


On the southside of the park is the Congregational Church.


On the east side is the library (below) and post office (no photo).


A lovely cemetery is behind the church and comes out on School Street which is one of the spokes of streets exiting the center of town.




In one section all the memorials were these obelisks.  Must have been popular then.


Lebanon has the start of the Northern Rail Trail.




The trail is very popular on weekends.  We see the cars parked at the Recreation Center lot with the bike racks.

On the other side of the Lebanon Mall is the Mascoma River Greenway.  This will soon be connected with the rail trail once the tunnel under the mall parking is completed.

The Mascoma River at the start of the Greenway.

We used it to walk to the auto repair shop where our car was inspected.  We needed a new muffler.

Looking back the way we came.


That's a brief intro to our new home town.  Much more to come.


Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Day Lilies

I must share these photos as the day lily season is almost over.

Our apartment complex has lovely landscaping.  Day lilies are planted all over and not just one variety.

See what I mean.









Reminds me of the garden I once had.  

In other news both Dan and I got weather alerts on our phones yesterday at 3:00 pm.  Tornado warnings.  At first we thought it was because our numbers are from Maryland though we knew the hurricane had already passed through Maryland.  We turned on the Weather Channel and sure enough it was here in New Hampshire.  As we watched the chyron announcing the warning it showed our daughter's town as being in the path.  No tornado happened thankfully but last night they lost electricity.  Was still off this morning.

Here we had lots of wind and rain.  Lights flickered only once.




Monday, August 3, 2020

Sunflower Season

The sunflowers are in their glory period around here.

My daughter's garden has lots of sunflowers, some they planted and some that volunteered.




Friday evening they came for dinner and brought me two bouquets.  I think some of these sunflowers in the arrangement are ones I photographed the week before.




They also brought these zinnias.


Next door to our apartment complex is this organic garden area.


The sunflowers are in bloom there too.











Sunday, August 2, 2020

NH Living

Swimming in all sorts of bodies of water is the thing to do here in New Hampshire when it gets hot.


Our very first Saturday, daughter Emily invited us to join them at a local creek for a cool dip.  Since our things had not arrived by van we were without bathing suits so we came to dip our feet.


We were to meet at one spot along School Street where there was parking for three cars.  Fortunately we arrived at exactly the same time because there were no parking spots available and we were able to follow them to another access point.


The water wasn't deep but the granddaughters had fun.


The next Saturday Dan and I went exploring.  I'd read about Sculptured Rocks State Park in Yankee Magazine and had bookmarked the directions years ago.  It was a beautiful drive east.  What we hadn't considered was that it was Saturday and the parking lot was full. Turns out it's a popular swimming spot too.



We drove past the lot and the signs along the road that said no parking.  We found a spot to pull off and eat our sandwich.  Then resolved to drive past the lot again and if there was a spot we'd stop to see it, but if not we'd go on.


No spots in the lot but farther down the road there was a pull off where there was no sign to stop us from parking.  We walked back to view the rocks and river.




The sounds of people enjoying the water filled the woods.


Can you see the guy below in the rapids?


Here's the NH Park's description: Sculptured Rocks Natural Area, which spans 272 acres, is a unique example of nature's powerful yet delicate artistry. The Cockermouth River carved a narrow canyon in bedrock on its way to Newfound Lake, beginning as the last ice age drew to a close. Nature used grains of sand suspended in the current to carve the walls of the canyon into curious shapes and create potholes in the bedrock.  https://www.nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/sculptured-rocks-natural-area.aspx


I'm not sure I'd enjoy swimming among those rocks.



Here's another swimming spot this time in Vermont in Windsor.  We arrived here Thursday morning to join Emily and granddaughters. They like to swim early before all the local campers come and before the lifeguards go on duty.  They can wear swim aids then.


It was another beautiful day.  We didn't wear our suits on this day either because we had appointments later to get our drivers licenses in Newport with the DMV.


We will return to swim someday soon.