The Month of March: Bits and Pieces

Just a few notes for this month. Spring has finally arrived, and winter is gradually receding. Snowdrop flowers have already popped out and formed buds, waiting for a warm day and open up. The patch has expanded slowly but surely over the past number of years, with a few starting to show up in odd spots where I had not planted any of the original bulbs. Rugged and resilient, snow drops come up long before the crocuses do and are an excellent harbinger of spring.

Snowdrop flowers in March


But just to show you how volatile the weather is here in Northern New Hampshire, the above picture was taken on March 22. The picture below was taken yesterday (March 29).

Snow on snowdrops

We’ve gotten at least six inches of snow with this latest storm, but the nice thing about spring snow storms is that the snow doesn’t last. It’s already changed to rain and well before next Saturday, this stuff will largely be melted, and the snowdrops will pop back up, totally unphased.

A flock of robins made a reappearance this month, feeding on the hawthorn berries still clinging to the thorn trees out front. I’ve been watching for cedar waxwings, as they like feeding on berries, but so far no sign of them. Several nights before, I heard an owl hooting off in the distance. After listening to online recordings, the one that comes closest is the barred owl. “Who-cooks-for-you-who cooks for you” is how many people hear it, and it did sound like that. Unfortunately I’ve never seen one, as they are nocturnal and even by day are well camouflaged, so I’m not likely to spot one.

One animal I spotted recently, is one that has migrated north over the past few decades. This sad little sight of a roadkill greeted me when I was out walking one morning last week.

Deceased opossum


Virginia Opossums this far north, were unheard of when I was a kid, but global warming has made the climate in New Hampshire tolerable enough for them to spread about up here. They are prolific animals, a female sometimes having a dozen young at a time. Their lifespan is only a few years with predation and roadkill a frequent hazard. Information online suggests that ticks are an item on the menu of these omnivorous animals, so in spite of their homely appearance, they are beneficial to have around.

Seeds for planting

While it’s too soon for planting, I’ve begun going through seed packets left over from last year, as well as the year before, to determine what might still be viable and which need to be consigned to the composter. Bush and pole beans, beets, parsley, peas and swiss chard are viable on average about two years. Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and squashes average three years. How long a seed stays viable is not carved in stone,with some outlasting others depending on the conditions they were stored under. I will be experimenting with them to see what shape they are in.

Have a safe and happy April.

Bits and Pieces of January 2025

Chilly weather is biting this month, though nowhere near as hard. The lowest nighttime temperatures I’ve seen this month have been just 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, a far cry from my childhood when 20 to 25 below zero F and even 30 below would occasionally accompany a real cold snap. The picture below dates from at least 10 years ago.

Thermometer showing below zero Fahrenheit



I only took a picture because such low temps seem to be a thing of the past (hope I’m not jinxing myself). This is one aspect of global warming I won’t complain about.

Snow has been sparse this winter. On January 19, there was about two inches or snow on the ground instead of the usual 6 to 8 inches. Additional flurries have left a dusting, maybe one time we got about three and half inches. This was dry snow, so dry that my brother was able to use a leaf blower to clear his driveway.

This is worrisome as it likely means a dry spring with the risk of brush fires. While New Hampshire is usually immune to the vast wildfires which plague the far West, smaller brush fires are not uncommon in the spring. The largest forest fire to hit New Hampshire was in April of 1941, the result of some unusually hot weather coupled with a huge amount of tinder left over from the Great Hurricane of 1938. WMUR, the state TV station, had a local color story giving an account of the event.
Only time will tell if we get any major fires this spring and summer.

Animals are stirring about. I have a plastic composter in the backyard where I collect leaves, spent flowers and weeds I yank up. Food waste also goes into it, but only after sitting in a compost bucket in the breezeway where it gets skanky enough so wild animals will turn their noses up at it. Even so, they still check the backyard composter once in a while. About a week ago, I noticed the lid was off. On checking I found a generous number of raccoon tracks around the composter. The material inside is still frozen solid, so I don’t think they found much that was palatable. I’m glad it was just raccoons rather than a bear, as bears can trash a plastic compost bin without too much trouble. That was the sad fate of one that I had many years ago, which is why I have the food waste in a ‘half-way’ house before I finally consign it to the composter. I figure even bears have their limits.

While it’s still mid-winter, I saw something this past week which is usually a sign of spring. A flock of robins came through, feeding on the neighbor’s lawn and visiting my hawthorn trees which still have berries on them. It was startling to see them and left me wondering if this meant an early spring. Previous to this, the earliest I had seen a robin was late February.

Robin in winter plumage


As mentioned in a previous post, I have begun baking bread again. Since it’s been so long, a learning curve needs to be renegotiated. So far, my loaves seem to want to deflate in the oven. I’ve gotten new yeast so the problem is likely over-kneading or possibly over-proofing. I do tend to be a little vigorous with kneading so will have to lighten up. The resulting loaves are still perfectly good for eating but not quite what I’m striving for.

One use for less than perfect loaves is to use them to make stuffing mix. A YouTube video by someone styling himself Wyyse Guy had a recipe that looked good. I made a few adjustments, leaving out the carrots and egg. There’s no need to wait for the bread go stale, you can just dry it out in the oven. As it was always my mother’s custom to add giblet meat to her stuffing mix (she used Bells Stuffing Mix for her breading), I saw a chance to use up the chicken livers I had bought at the local farmers’ market over the summer. After cooking and grinding up a few, I added them to the mix I had, along with the cooking water. Baking it all in a casserole dish produced some very pleasing results.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a good February.

Valentine's Day Heart

Tail End of November

It’s amazing how fast this month has come and gone. So much has been happening, it’s hard not to be left a little dizzy by it all. A Thanksgiving Day storm allowed only one of my brothers to come for dinner. It was a quiet meal as we avoided politics and stuck to mundane topics like odd family relatives, cat hijinks and how easy it really is to replace the battery in a watch.

The weather in the earlier part of the month was mild enough to I was able to snap this picture in mid-November of a dandelion plant, near the edge of the road, sprouting a pair of bright yellow flowers.

dandelions in November

There have been enough frost so that it’s unlikely pollinators will be visiting these blossoms. But dandelions are rugged little beings. If they could talk, they would say “We don’t need no stinking pollinators.” They can self fertilize and set seed. The seeds can lie dormant in the soil for up to five years before sprouting. The plant can re-sprout from bits of small taproot left in the ground. No matter what you do to them, they can bounce back from any blow.

Now there’s snow staying on the ground so winter is here, at least for now. But take a lesson from the dandelion. It’s possible to bounce back from anything. If a lowly weed can do it, so can we.

Peace and long life.

Columbia, Spirit of Liberty

Looking Over October


With Halloween on the horizon, it’s worth looking back over the past month. October is one of those transition months, where late summer and early winter duke it out. Global warming has pushed the first frost date into October instead of mid to late September, the way it used to be when I was young. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. A few extra pleasant sunny days are always welcome. It also extends the growing season a few weeks longer. My calendula has been faithfully blooming, though thanks to the light frosts of last week, insect pollinators have largely vanished. A pot of johnny-jump-ups that I had dumped into the garden since it looked like the plants were winding down, instead has put out a new crop of small bright flowers. A very nice surprise for so late in the season.

small viola flowers, johnnyjumpups

Still all good things come to an end. Columbus Day weekend is usually considered the end of the summer tourist season with a brief respite before the skiing season starts. Tourists come for a look at the fall foliage. It’s always a busy long weekend but this past holiday stood out for the shocking hordes of leaf-peepers it brought. Franconia Notch was apparently the go-to place to see and everyone must have decided to come on the same day.

Crowds on hiking trail

The above is an image taken by a hiker showing how packed things were. Some locals who had come were shocked by the enormous number of people.

Artists Bluff in Franconia Notch

Artist’s Bluff (shown above) was filled with humanity and if you look closely, you will not see any protective barrier at the cliff’s edge, nothing to stop some idiot from falling over it. Fortunately no one was injured but some locals who had come for the view had difficulty enjoying themselves. WMUR interviewed one woman who stated she felt unsafe with so many people jostling and elbowing up and down the trail. And who could blame her?

Such huge numbers of people also meant a lot of trash was left on the trail. Two employees from the Tramway took it upon themselves to go up and brought out several large bags of rubbish, ranging from plastic water bottles to used disposable diapers. It was great that they were conscientious enough to do this, but it shouldn’t have fallen upon them to collect trash. The tourists themselves should have cleaned up after themselves.

This is a problem afflicting all tourist attractions ranging from Mount Fuji to the beaches of Bali, not just in terms of trash but in the vast press of humanity. Everyone wants to see the beauty of nature but in such large numbers, the risk is that they will love it to death. It might be useful to come during the off season, but if everybody decides to do that, we’re no better off than we were before. One solution might be charging a fee to enter the favored spot but of course this blocks out people who can’t afford it. Another is to limit the number of people who can enter the tourist attraction at any one time. The risk here is disappointing people who might have to call ahead to see if they have any chance of getting in. There probably is no perfect solution to this dilemma.

Perhaps we might benefit by simply staying closer to home and discovering the beauty and occasional surprises of our own local area. While out walking last week, I came across a stone wall abutting someone’s property. On the stone wall was an open padlock someone had forgotten. No one has touched it as it is no use without the key. But someone found a use. A very tiny someone.

tiny spider on abandoned padlock

Within the red circle I drew on the photo is a very, very, VERY tiny spider, barely visible even with the arrow pointing at it and the circle around it. Its body wasn’t much longer than one of my eyelashes. Even this late in the season, this minuscule being was spinning a web on the padlock, showing that hope springs eternal.

Enjoy the rest of this fall and be sure to keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you’re going to see.

cicada on sidewalk

September Notes




Well, the big birthday Seven-Oh has come and gone for me. I don’t feel a whole lot older than I did at this time last year, however old age is one of those things that creeps up on you bit by bit. Maybe a little more gray and couple extra wrinkles but slow enough so I don’t really notice it. Sometimes there’s a bit of stiffness in the morning but that goes away quickly once I start moving. Not often, fortunately, though when it does, it brings to mind the late comic Tim Conway’s character The Old Man, barely moving at a shuffle.

world's oldest man as portrayed by Tim Conway

So what has changed over the years I’ve lived in my home town? Quite a bit and yet a lot is the same. It was and still is a small town. There was a Newberry’s store eons ago with rows of little bins with trinkets fascinating to a small child. Now the Newberrys is long gone. I’m old enough to remember shoe stores that would measure your feet and order shoes which would fit and not cause discomfort. Yeah, you paid a little extra for them but it was worth it. Now the small town shoe stores are gone as well so you order online while you cross your fingers.

Big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot have muscled in, wiping out most of the local clothing and hardware stores we used to have. But some small businesses have managed to soldier on and prevail. A local candy and gift shop is still hanging tough, though the Covid shutdown threw them for a loop. A book store which started up over fifty years ago has gone through multiple incarnations and still prevails in spite of Amazon. Also enduring is the local diner as well as a small restaurant on Main Street.

Residential neighborhoods still look the same, though people have come and gone, with small town suburbia slowly spreading into the countryside. Both the fire and police departments have their own buildings now, moving out of the Town Building where they formerly resided, in order to avoid the traffic and stop lights on Main Street as well as escaping from very cramped quarters. The only drawback to that is that their new digs are just a few streets away from me, so I hear them whenever they go bombing out on a call.

Some changes seem to fall into the ‘How Long Will That Last?’ category. All of the big box stores built themselves on the local flood plain, becoming obvious whenever a heavy rain happens, which seems to be happening with more frequency now. The flooding we had last July turned Walmart and Shaws into temporary islands and caused water damage at Walgreens. The much touted Riverside walk next to the Ammonoosuc River with picnic benches and wrought iron railings experienced a small land-slide at one end putting the picnic area at risk. Ominous looking cracks have appeared on the small sidewalk running along the river. Since the riverbank at that point is extremely tall and steep, any repair job will be complicated as well as expensive. Even if it’s done, the can is only being kicked just so far down the road. Land slump happens.

Nature itself has undergone changes. Rainfall seems to be in the feast or famine area. After a number of years of abnormally dry weather, we now get deluged with heavy rains. While it hasn’t gotten a whole lot warmer over all, the growing season is extending itself. Fall frosts seem to be receding into October when once they began in early to mid-September. Last winter’s temperatures almost never fell below zero degrees Fahrenheit, something I found unprecedented, having lived here my entire life. I’m curious to see what this coming winter will bring.

When I was a child, cardinal birds were a rare and exotic sight. Now they are nearly as common as robins. It’s been ages since I saw any indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers or Northern orioles. They may still be around but greatly dwindled. The orioles used to build their nests on the elm trees around town. Unfortunately Dutch Elm disease blasted the once-elegant trees lining Main Street and are sadly long gone. The change in vegetation as well as much development have altered the environment, making it less suitable for these lovely birds.

Other invasives are gradually altering the landscape. Now we’re watching for the emerald ash borer and the hemlock wooley adelgid. Queen Anne’s Lace, Japanese knotweed and garlic mustard are steadily invading, looking like they’re here to stay. There’s been no sign of the Joro spider as yet, so it’s too soon to know if it will have any effect on the local weaver spider population. Naturalists seem to think it’s not having too much of an impact. Let’s hope they’re right.

Virginia Creeper in fall

Virginia creeper (a native plant) began making its appearance in my area about twenty years ago, probably seeded in by turkeys and other birds who like to eat the small blue colored berries,which are inedible to humans. I’m not sure if it was here in Northern New Hampshire to begin with but it is definitely expanding its range. The vines grow vigorously anywhere they can (which is pretty much everywhere). I’m constantly pulling them up, leading me to dub them the Kudzu vine of the northeast. Their saving grace is the handsome garnet color they turn in the autumn.

I’m sure there are more changes to come. Barring accident or illness, I anticipate another twenty to twenty five years of life, as both my parents lived to be 91 years old. We seem to be living in interesting times now. While I don’t expect total apocalypse, things will definitely never be the same. I think we’re resilient enough to get through it.

Peace, long life and a quiet October to all.

baby merganser