Pam – Page 156 – New England's Narrow Road

Hiking Pitcher Mountain

A short hike up Pitcher Mountain gives plenty of awesome views.

My son and I have a tradition of going to Pitcher Mountain to pick blueberries each August. The mountain is in Stoddard, New Hampshire and the hike to the top is quick, but the views from the 2163 foot summit are gorgeous!

This is the first time I’ve seen these new wind towers. Sorry my photo isn’t that good, but we counted 8 of them on the hillside in Lempster. I’ve heard that they are loud, disrupt the flight patterns of birds, and other negative info. Wind Towers are also being put up near another favorite spot of min – Gregg Lake in Antrim. I’ll have to become informed, but after reading about it, I don’t see how it will save me any money and I wouldn’t like these things popping up all over this beautiful state to ruin the views!

The top of the mountain is full of blueberry bushes. If we split up and pick, then combine our efforts, we can gather a nice crop of berries to eat, cook with and freeze. All that is required is a donation at the bottom of the hill in the parking area.

According to this site, New Hampshire has 17 active standing fire towers and others that are not used. If you want to know how to visit them click here.

Fire tower at the top of Pitcher Mountain in New Hampshire. — Pitcher Mountain Fire Tower

Every year I say I’ll go back again and get more berries and then the time goes by and blueberry season has ended. But the mountain is still there, and we can always go for a hike and get some new photos.

Blue Hydrangeas in Bloom

I just visited Flandrum Hill’s blog and she has some gorgeous photos of the flowers blooming in her yard in Nova Scotia and she inspired me to post these flower photos from my own yard to my blog.

I don’t do anything special to make this Hydrangea blue, it grows that way. In fact the blooms lower to the ground on this plant seem to be the ones with a purple tint. The acidity of the soil can make a difference in the color, but some types just tend to be one color or another and can’t be changed.

We’ve had such drama this year with all the baby birds in our yard. This poor Robin has had her nest invaded by red squirrels, eggs dumped by a wind storm and so on…She did finally have success as we watched her sit in a nest with a bunch of young ones. They are gone now, so I assume all went well. This one (the dad, I think) was in just the right spot to be part of my Hydrangea photo.

I use my Hydrangea photos for making postcards, stamps and other products and selling them at my on-line store, BlueHyd. I never tire of taking floral shots. I love preserving the beauty of a quickly fading bloom.

Meredith New Hampshire Classic Boat Show

My brother-in-law just bought a place in Meredith so my kids and I drove up to check it out. We chose Saturday because the weather was suppose to be nice – and it was. We haven’t had too many nice summery days this season, so when there is sun…everyone wants a part of it!

We walked (thankfully) down to the docks in downtown Meredith which is at the north end of the big lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. There was a bit of a crowd and the traffic never let up!

The boats were interesting and we took some shots.

The boats and jet ski’s came and went as everyone was enjoying the heck out of the day.

I thought that this one with the blue trim looked nice. They all mostly seemed to be built in the early to mid 1900’s and each had a paper with stats and some history.

And of course we had to eat! The wait was (surprisingly) not very long.

Growing Tomatoes With Too Much Rain

I’m adjusting to living in a rental house. I’ve even planted a few vegetables in a little patch of lawn out back. But, everything is waterlogged and my tomato plants are looking nice and green, but the buds are falling off.

I read that this is probably due to the excess moisture we’ve had so far this summer. Not to mention the lower than normal temps…like highs of only 68°.

The cukes are growing well and I even have a tiny cucumber on one of the vines now. I use tomato cages to surround my squash and cukes so the dog (my landlady’s dog) doesn’t run through the garden when the veggies are small and trample them!