New England's Narrow Road

Adjusting to The Time Change

Time ticks away and we never seem to get ahead, until Fall, when we gain an hour. Then part of that extra hour is wasted changing the time on all our clocks.

Although the time change has screwed up my sleep even more than it was, I have felt like I had extra time over the past couple of days. I even took an hour off work yesterday to sit and watch The Walking Dead episode I missed. I couldn’t stay awake until 9pm to see it on Sunday night.

Now I go to bed at 8pm and get up at 3am and I guess that is how it will be for a while. I’m glad I don’t have a baby in the house. Their schedules get all messed up, and I remember how tough it was to get my kids on any kind of sleep schedule (they didn’t like to sleep), and then the time change would happen. It was like starting over again.

Now the mornings are brighter, but they will get dark too. Our shortest days are ahead, and that is a tough time. I’ll be going to bed earlier and earlier as winter closes in. It’s a form of people hibernation I suppose.

But nice days are in the forecast for this week, and there are a lot of leaves out there to rake. I see backaches in my future for sure. My workday will have to be cut short so that I am not raking leaves in the dark!

If the weather is not too cold this morning I will go downtown and vote with my daughter and then walk home, while she goes on to work. It should be sunny and bright, and there won’t be many more days for walking. Most of the leaves have blown off the trees, but there are still some beautiful colors on the stragglers.

Today I am happy about the end of political ads and phone calls! Whoo hoo…..

Seasonal Photos of a Rural Life

colorful fall leaves — Autumn Leaf Collection

I collected these leaves while on a walk along a dirt road one day. I used to live in a very rural location and I didn’t own my own place, so I had a lot of time to walk. Fall and winter were always my favorite seasons to take landscape photography around the nearby lake. I walked alone mostly, but sometimes I took my landlady’s dog with me for company. The area was full of dirt roads and paths to follow through the woods. It was fun to find moose tracks (never saw one though) and spot wildlife.

In winter I got out early with the camera to capture the morning sun glinting on the tall pines. When I was a kid I always wanted to be the first one to go out in a new snowfall and make the first tracks. There is just something about a landscape of fresh smooth snow that calls to me!

Although I knew it was not my true home, that area where I lived for a few years made an impact because of it’s beauty. I enjoy solitude, and my rental years near the lake gave me plenty of that. The change of seasons was especially pretty there, and I always looked forward to the leaves changing color in fall. Many of the houses around the lake are seasonal, and are empty during foliage season. During summer the place is buzzing with visitors to beach and boat ramp, but once the kids go back to school the place becomes mostly deserted.

Since I work from home, I could take time during the day and get my photos without any people getting in my way. So here I share some of my photos.

dirt road forest photo — “Missing Sun” poster

fall landscape photography — “Autumn Pond”

winter sunrise — “Winter Morning” postcard

A Trip to The Lake to Photograph Fall

fall foliage photography — Orange Leaves at Gregg Lake

I was finally able to take a ride around the area where I live in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, and take some fall pictures. One of my favorite places to photograph is near a lake in Antrim. It’s usually quiet, and the scenery is very pretty at any time of year, but fall can be a great time to get photos.

We’d had some nasty rainy weather just about the time I noticed that the autumn color was really nice. I hate when that happens. The foliage brightens and then leaves us all to quickly as it is, and we don’t need the weather to knock the leaves off even earlier. But what can you do?

Fortunately I had driven along Rt. 202 to the computer repair shop in Antrim and my son was riding with me. I brought the camera and asked him to take pictures of anything that looked good along the way. And he got some pretty good images.

Then I went back up to Antrim to specifically visit Gregg Lake. But by the time there was good enough weather, the leaves were looking a bit gone by. And sure enough, when I got to the lake, it wasn’t too wonderful color wise. But I did take a bunch of photos anyway, like the one of the orange leaves headlining this post. I made it into a poster and will add it to other items in my Fall Colors online store.

I had a nice and peaceful visit to my old stomping grounds, and even ran into an old friend who was walking her dogs. Fall is still looking pretty good as I write this, but shortly the season will be ending, and we know what comes next!

Peterborough New Hampshire Celebrates 275 Years

scenic Peterborough foliage — Peterborough Downtown October 3, 2014

This weekend, October 11th, Peterborough, New Hampshire is celebrating 275 years from the time it was first “discovered”. It’s not a celebration of the official founding of the town, but the town prefers to follow the lead from the time the residents recognized the centennial year in 1839. I suppose they celebrate every 25 years, but I am not sure. I haven’t lived in this area very long. I managed to get these fall foliage photos as I was out driving one recent beautiful day.

The celebration is for the 275th year from the time the first settler came to the area. Thomas Morison is the man who traveled north from Massachusetts to find his own special tract of land in the area of what is now called Noone Falls. He came back later to build his house, but the anniversary is counted from the time of his first visit in 1739.

The celebration will be a big deal with lots of visitors expected. Shuttle busses will be transporting visitors from area parking lots, since downtown parking spots are at a minimum. It seems to me that the best place to park would be the Peterborough Shopping Plaza. From there you can walk the path that leads around the back of the Shell station (it goes under the road, so crossing traffic is not a problem) and then follow the sidewalk into town. Click here for a Bus MAP, where you’ll see the other two parking spots are at the Conval High School and the Community Center on Elm Street. You could also walk into town from Elm Street if you so desired.

There are ongoing events during the day, with a parade in the morning, at 10am, that will travel down into town from PES (Peterborough Elementary School) and the day will end with a fireworks show around 7pm.

This information was taken from the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript newspaper and the link will take you to the entire 275th special section, which includes lots of old photographs as well as aerial town views. Read more about what will take place at Peterborough’s 275th Celebration this coming weekend of October 11th.

If you can’t make it to Peterborough this coming weekend, maybe you will be free to enjoy the yearly event, Peak Into Peterborough, with more festivities next weekend, October 17th and 18th. That celebration includes free hay rides, food, music, demonstrations and a rummage sale. I hope the foliage hangs on, because it’s quite beautiful right now.

The yellow signs advertising the yearly fall event are up along all the major roads in town, as seen in my photo.