Rollins State Park

 One Saturday in late July, we set out to take a hike that I'd read about in Yankee magazine. The description made it sound like a doable first hike for us as new residents of New Hampshire. And it was doable, but not as we expected.

First we didn't realize that we needed to make a reservation to enter the park and drive to the trail to take us to the summit of Mount Kearsarge.  We found that out when we arrived. So since we had our lunch with us we started to eat it and wait for cars to leave so we could enter.  We would be the second in line.  We expected a fairly long wait since the attendant said there had been few cars down.   It wasn't so long and in fact we had to gather up our lunch and take it with us when she gave us the sign to go up.

The second surprise was the trail.  Described in the magazine write up as a former carriage road we expected a gravel or dirt pathway up the mountain. Does this look like a carriage road to you?

It was a 300 vertical feet climb for over a half a mile.  I was glad for hiking shoes and my L.L. Bean hiking stick.

Here's the summit.

Like many mountain tops in NH it's bald.  Devoid of most trees not because it's above tree line, just no soil for trees to grow.

On the trail besides people and dogs were these little motorized vehicles.

It was a lovely day for a hike.

America's Stonehenge

This spot in New Hampshire has been on my list to visit since I read an article in Yankee Magazine about it.  [Latest article here.] 

Once called Mystery Hill, it's been open to the public since 1958.  Though you can download an app to give you an oral tour, we opted for the printed version.  The labels and trail have the tired look of having been in place since the 50s, but despite that it was a fascinating walk through some history.  Questions remain as to how ancient it really is.

[Disclaimer: In loading these photos, the new blogger has mixed the order up!  Argh! I've tried to put them in order to label them with the tour guide map but I don't know how successful I've been.]

Many of the structures have some significance to the astronomical alignments.  This one above and below is on the February 1st and November 1st alignment.

The rest of these are out of order but you get the sense of the magnitude of effort to lift these stones into place.

The above stone was labeled the sacrificial table with the grooves carved around the perimeter.  Sacrificing what?  Or was it something colonists made?

Below it's the horizontal stone with legs.

In the viewing platform you can look in all the directions and see standing stones.

This standing stone is in alignment with the center of the site.  You can see the viewing platform in the background.  I don't know whether this is for summer or winter solstice or an equinox. It is quite impressive to see all the points in the distance from the viewing platform.

Google America's Stonehenge to read more about this site.  Fascinating to consider what civilization created it originally.

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.