New England's Narrow Road

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!

On the other hand, the flowers like this Hydrangea and the Lilies in the background are growing great!

I used photos of this hydrangea plant to create products for my Zazzle BlueHyd store.

Roxy’s Walk

Since I no longer have a dog of my own, I sometimes take my neighbor’s black lab, Roxy, when I go for a walk.

The weather has been so nice and cool, that we’ve been able to enjoy being on the trails quite a bit this summer (once the dreaded black flies disappeared).

Roxy is always happy to go for a walk, like most dogs. She is very good and enjoys all the new smells and I feel like she would be helpful in keeping the bears away too! There have been quite a few sightings in my neighborhood and although I know that they are afraid of me, I would probably have a heart attack if I came across one on the road out in the middle of nowhere! So I feel less alone when Roxy accompanies me.

After we walked about a mile down this dirt road the day became much warmer and I was thinking that the dog must be thirsty, so we stopped at the lake. Roxy’s name is appropriate, since one of her favorite things to do is play with rocks! Even in the water she was searching for a rock to dig up.

I usually bring my camera, but it’s sometimes difficult to get a steady shot with the dog pulling on the leash. This was just about a perfect day weather wise, and I think she had fun too.