It's August and the SUN has finally come out!

It feels like it's been raining for a month now. When the weather people were predicting more of the same for this weekend, we came up with lots of grand plans for indoor activities. But no! They were totally off, and we had two really nice days of mostly sun! 'Bout time. On saturday we went to the Wilmot Farmer's Market and Musterfield Farm in Sutton in search of fresh veggies. And also cows and chickens, of course.






We got back from our produce adventure and Aiden was so pooped he only made out the car door before deciding the driveway was a good enough place for a nap.



In the afternoon we made an excursion to Philbrick-Cricenti Bog, which is about 2 miles down the road. Aiden showed off his big-boy balance as he navigated the plank bridging all the way out to the bog itself. He only fell in a few times, but no harm done, it's only muck. There were lots of tiny sundews and bog cranberries among the sphagnum moss if you looked up close, and a few pitcher plants also.

Sundew, a carnivorous plant

Orange slices are Aiden's current favorite fruit. We'd prefer he had an obsession with orange slices in winter, when that's about the only fresh fruit that tastes any good, but what can you do? He is also enjoying the summer fresh blackberries and blueberries, though not nearly as enthusiastically.

On Sunday Andy played in a lacrosse tournament in New London. Aiden and I walked to the park to watch Dadoo play. Andy had been playing softball once a week nearby but there was never much of a showing so he switched to lacrosse on Wednesday nights. Seems to be a lot more people into lacrosse than softball around here... better excercise too!

Boston with Brothers

Historic Fenway Park... so great even Yankee fans love it!

This weekend Andy and I (and the little boompa) went down to Boston to meet up with our brothers. My brother Micah (& Becky) live in Gloucester, but Andy's brother Dan (& Paulette) drove up from Long Island for the weekend. Micah, Andy, Aiden and I met Dan and Paulette and their friends Crista and Andy (is this getting confusing yet?) and their 3-year old daughter Sofia at the New England Aquarium on Saturday morning. I'm so glad we went really early! When we got there at 9:30 it was easy for Aiden to hop up to all the tanks to see the fishes, but by 11 am it was mobbed! The line for admission stretched several blocks from the building....time to make a get-away!

Jellies were the special exhibit for the summer

After the aquarium we strolled though Fanueil Hall and Haymarket to the North End to eat lunch at an italian restaurant. It was delicious, and we decided to top it off with some italian pasties from one of the many pastry shops... Both Aiden and Sofia wanted good old (though hardly italian) m&m cookies, about the sizes of their heads. After a brief moment of silent awe, Aiden made short work of his cookie. Actually, when Andy handed him his cookie, we recieved the first-ever unsolicited "thank-you!" from our little man.

Fanueil Hall

This part of Boston looks so much nicer now that all the construction is done!


Sofia dancing

Outdoor market

That evening Dan (yes, Dan) took Andy to a Sox game at Fenway Park. The weather was threatening thunderstorms but it held off until the Sox beat the A's 12-2. They got to watch the new guy, Jason Bay, hit a 3-run homer... who needs Manny anyway? Andy said Dan behaved himself the whole game (they were sitting next to some 80 year old men and a guy with his six year old son), didn't wear anything that might have gotten them both killed, and even raised his hands a little when the wave went by (purely research, of course).





The next morning we decided to go to Plum Island (Parker River NWR) for a little birding and beaching. We left Micah and Becky's after breakfast and wished them luck on their tuna fishing excursion that afternoon. Aiden had lots of fun running in the surf and a bit less fun identifying the thousands of shorebirds out on the mudflats. That's ok, we were grumpy with the birding too b/c we forgot the scope! Next time...

Micah and Aiden trying out a present from Uncle Dan & Aunt Paulette. Even the softest setting is earsplitting! THanks guys!!

Cedar Waxwing on Plum Island

This gull was coveting Aiden's orange slices

Purple Martins

Parker River NWR (Plum Island)

NH Tornados?

In New England the only natural disaster we usually expect is a snow or ice storm. In the summer I never think, "gee, that thundercloud looks like it might produce a tornado... better get in the bomb shelter..." But last week a tornado buzzed around the state of NH for about an hour, causing lots of damage in at least 6 different towns. Only one person was killed, which is actually pretty amazing considering the swaths of destruction we've seen in aerial photos in the newspapers.

I was at two of the Forest Society's properties in eastern NH (Effingham and Freedom) this week that had some tornado damage. The pics are below. We had a youth work crew all set to camp at one of the properties on the night of the tornado, but thankfully, they were delayed at the Seacoast and decided to come up the next day. Two huge white pines came down exactly in the clearing they were supposed to camp in. Buy a lottery ticket, kids...

Mountains and the Sea... all in one state!

We are starting to really like New Hampshire! This weekend we drove to the Seacoast (what NH-ites call the state's small shoreline sandwiched between Mass and Maine), which is only an hour and 15 minute drive from our house. On the way we stopped in Newmarket, NH, which is a very cute town but that wasn't why we stopped. For reasons unknown to science, three Mississippi Kites (a hawk that usually prefers climates like Mississippi's) have been hanging out in Newmarket all summer. In fact, two of them are breeding and have a nest with a chick in a big ol' maple tree on Main Street, Newmarket. When we drove by we knew exactly where the birds were because there were about 10 geeky birders hanging out on the sidewalk with huge spotting scopes pointed up at the tree. We were excited to get our first lifer since our trip to Arizona in March.

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Wallis Sands State Beach

We didn't.

We spent the morning at Wallis Sands State Beach, and Aiden got his first taste of swimming in the surf. He was a little apprehensive at first but once he got the hang of it he was racing into all the breaking waves with reckless abandon. We tried to coerce a nap on the beach towel, but it wasn't going to happen (overstimulation!) so we drove just down the street to Ordione State Park. There isn't a sandy beach here, but there's a neat science center with lots of ocean fish tanks, a huge playground, and miles of rocky tidepools to explore. I think Aiden liked it at least as much as the sandy beach.

Tidepools at Ordione State Park

On Sunday we decided to do mountains instead of the seashore, and hiked up Mount Kearsarge with Aiden. He actually hiked up himself (except for some really steep bits that we had to carry him over) and was pretty proud of himself at the top. There was absolutely no view except of the inside of a cloud, but we snacked on lowbush blueberries before heading back down. The berries were so good we stopped at Blue Moon Berry Farm in Warner (again, but hey, I didn't get to go last time) and picked 11 lbs of huge berries. We froze about 9 lbs so we can have fresh berry smoothies for breakfast all fall and winter.

Starting with a bang!

Ledge on the south slope of Mt. Monadnock, looking out at Gap Mountain (another SPNHF property). Someone told me Mt. Monadnock is the second most climbed mountain in the world (after Mt. Fuji).


I started my new job with the Forest Society (SPNHF) on July 14th. Today (Jul 24) is my first day off since then, and I'd say I've spent about 6 hours of the past 10 days in the office. The rest of the time I have been visiting SPNHF properties with staff or land stewards, scoping out trail work, or conducting trail maintenance. It's been intense, but I happened to start just a few days before SPNHF's annual "Monadnock Trails Week," 5 days during which volunteers from EMS, NH State Parks, SPNHF and the local community come together to repair damaged or degraded sections of trail on Mount Monadnock. We worked the whole week on the White Arrow Trail, mostly fixing or creating waterbars (drainage structures). I have never moved so many rocks! All of the SPNHF Land Management staff are completely exhausted after 5 days of hauling tools, digging ditches, and setting rocks in the hot, humid drizzle (it was a pretty nasty week weather-wise). We were too tired to make an extra hike to the summit of Monadnock, but we did whip the White Arrow trail into pretty good shape! Below are some pics from the week.