New Hampshire – Page 5 – New England's Narrow Road

Antrim’s Home and Harvest Day Parade

Official seal of Antrim, New Hampshire — Image via Wikipedia

Last weekend we attended the home town fun in Antrim, New Hampshire. The weather was nice, even a bit cool when the sun went behind the many clouds, but that made the day very comfortable.

Fire trucks in a parade — The Parade Begins

I went downtown with my daughter and her boyfriend and his daughter and my youngest son. We parked by the schools and walked down into town where the sidewalks were crowded with people waiting for the parade to begin.

I love parades, even very small ones like this one. We saw some kids in the high school band that we knew and all the people on the floats threw candy to us and I never realized that Antrim had so many fire trucks!

I have more photos but don’t have the time right now to add them all so I will later on this week – hopefully.

I’ve only lived in Antrim for a little over 5 years, but I am impressed with all the activities and the dedicated natives who take pride in their home town.

Antrim, NH town hall — Antrim's Town Hall

The Air Up Here

When I visited North Carolina one year I remember standing outside on the deck of the house we had rented just breathing in the cool, dry air. I lived in Florida and air like that never happened. We would get less humid air – our “winter” – but it still was not the same as the “northern” stuff.

I realized then how much I missed that lack of humidity that wasn’t brought about by air conditioning.

I also thought it was odd to think of the Carolina’s as “north”. I never could get used to everything being north when I lived in Florida.

Now that I am back in New England the world seems right again. North Carolina is in the south and the air I breathe up here is mostly wonderfully dry. I swear there is no air like the air up here. Even during this hot, and sometimes quite muggy, summer we get a break and the air clears.

This morning at 4AM it is like that.
I just let my cats out, against my better judgment, and I went outside on the deck to scare away any wildlife that might want to hunt them, and the air is just awesome.

The day before yesterday I finally bought an air conditioner to help with this humidity we’ve been having, and now the temperature has dropped to about 40 degrees! But I love it.
It feels like Fall, but I am not fooled. It’s only the beginning of August and we are bound to have more humid, muggy days, but this morning I feel the energy that comes with this sweet smelling northern air.

Almost Planting Time

Last year I bought some Nasturtium seeds and planted them all around the edges of my newly dug gardens. Some of them did very well, but the red ones especially did not.

For some reason they got aphids (I think) all over them and died.

Nasturtium seed packets — Ready to plant!

I didn’t buy seeds this year, but I did collect seeds from the dried out pods last year and I’m hoping they will grow once it’s safe here to plant seeds – which should be very soon.

In fact this weekend will be in the 80’s and I might not be able to wait until June 1st -which is the safe planting date for this area. This time of year the temperature is like a roller coaster…today was about 52 and tomorrow will be mid-eighties.

I think lots of New Englanders will be planting.

It Must Be May in New Hampshire

Generally, I love where I live in south-western New Hampshire. But at the end of April and all through the month of May the black flies are plentiful and annoying.

I pretty much write off the entire month of May as lovely weather to look at from the safety of indoors. It’s a shame that just as the sun begins to get warm and the days are longer and everyone wants to be in the yard doing something, these little bugs make life miserable.

You would think it’s no big deal. They are just tiny flying bugs. I lived in Florida for 27 years and believe me I saw some nasty, awful creatures down there, but nothing was as horrendous as these flies.

They buzz your head and fly into your ears. Wearing long sleeves and a hat helps some, but they crawl up under the hat and into the sleeves and gloves, etc. and BITE! The bites are itchy, but not right away. In fact you can’t really tell they are biting until later.

That’s when the welts begin to appear with a horrible itch. My bitten ear is swollen and red and I have a lump the size of a quarter on my arm.

Hence, the net. When we first moved to NH, we saw people wearing nets over their heads in Spring … and laughed at them! Now, it is how I dress to do any type of yard work this time of year. Even so, I am not safe outside for long. Inevitably I end up with a new welt someplace.

The photo is a self portrait from last year. I took it of my reflection in the slider.

Happy Spring! (And don’t come to New Hampshire in May).