Life – Page 23 – New England's Narrow Road

Inspired by a Flower

I did a lot of gardening when I lived in Florida. It really wasn’t much fun in summer – and that is when the weeds would grow like mad of course – and I had just about every kind of southern flower and plant in my large yard. My favorites were the Camellias and Crepe Myrtle, but I also had lots of azaleas under the Oaks and yellow and white Jasmine covering the fence. I lived in that house for 12 years and added more to the yard each year.

The north has it’s own collection of gorgeous flowers that are not seen in the south. Hydrangeas are one such plant. It’s just too hot for many plants to survive that heat and the perennials need a dormant time (in winter) that the southern plants don’t get. At least not to the extent that the northern ones do.

I’ve been trying my hand at drying the blue hydrangeas that grow in the front yard of my rental house. I wrote a page about Hydrangeas and how to dry them, with lots of links, at my Squidoo site – if you are interested. I had one large blossom dry up nicely (in the picture to the right) and just added a few more smaller and darker blue ones to the vase, but my favorite thing to do is photograph them.

I think my pictures turned out better than my attempt at drying. I’ve used them to start a new store (#6) at Zazzle. I’ve sold many blue hydrangea cards and stamps from my main store- Narrow Road Designs, so this is an off shoot of that.

Click here to start your own Squidoo lens or to visit Blue Hydrangeas

Sunrise Pink Sky Photos

On my way back into the house from starting the car this morning, I noticed the sky. As I went in through the slider, my son said “Wow, come look at the sky”.

I told him I’d try to get a photo, but we had to hurry because a pretty sunrise can be gone in an instant. He got his camera and the two of us stood on the deck and got some photos.

A marvelous gift on the first day of Fall.

Then it was off to the bus stop, which is down by the lake – where I thought the sky would be spectacular. Instead a large dark cloud was moving in over the water and blocking out most of the sky.

No Eggs For You!

Summer in New England means fresh country eggs and it seems that many folks raise their own chickens. (Click here to see pics of their baby chicks!) My neighbors have some (that I ‘babysit’ when they go away) and the little store downtown has it’s own “Farm Fresh Eggs” section. The farm on the outskirts of town also sells them.
But this year they have been scarce. I haven’t bought one single dozen from my neighbors (the kids do the selling for fun money)…and even the little store has frequently had empty shelves. Usually people are giving their eggs away because of the abundance, but not this summer.
I blame it on all the rain and cold weather in June and July, but don’t really know the reason. I’ve heard that chickens need lots of sunshine to produce eggs, and I guess numerous rainy days could be the culprit.
Now Fall is approaching and the hopes of having fresh eggs is diminishing.
What’s the difference you ask? Well, just don’t start eating fresh eggs because you will be hooked and store bought will never appeal to you again.

By the way, raising chickens isn’t easy – it draws all kinds of unwanted critters such as foxes and bears, to the yard. It seems they love the taste of chicken. My neighbor has an electric fence up around his entire pen. He had to do this after a bear tore the coop apart and ate a bunch of the chickens.

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.