Musings, Commentaries, Photos and Reviews

There was an article in the Monadnock Ledger about sculptor Nina Winters . Nina spends some time in New Ipswich. Winters, whose work on “Samurai” brought her to Oregon and Montana, says that the summers and autumns she spends in New Ipswich provide a much-needed reprieve from her high-paced globetrotting. “There’s such a sense of calm and purity,” she said, “and I can feel my potential when I’m there. It’s not intruded in upon by the city. I love urban environments, but when I’m there [in New Ipswich], it’s sort of just me and my creations. Everything just kind of settles down, it’s a very peaceful place to create.” Winters first landed in the Monadnock region in the late’70s, when she hopped from farmhouse to farmhouse in Temple, Jaffrey and Harrisville. She still remembers the day she went blueberry picking on Wildcat Hill and spotted a parcel of land near an eight-acre pond. “It was just an exquisite place,” she recalls, “and I thought, ‘Wow, I wonder if I could buy that?’” At...

Such a great candidate for "Toilet's of the world" Photographer - Tim Bouwer

I was happy to see that our state was able to get the relatively cheap $500 signs for our local American Recovery and Reinvestment Act paving project, unlike some of the other states. On my ride to Peterborough, I was greeted with this. At least half of my ride was smooth sailing. The signs cost $500 apiece in Maryland and New Hampshire, $1,700 in Georgia, $2,000 in Pennsylvania and New York, and $3,000 per project in New Jersey. Our Senator Judd Gregg railed on a bit about this on a ABC News Video spot in spite of getting bargain priced signage. Geez! I love the smell of fresh asphalt in the morning… it smells like “Recovery”.

For over two weeks it has been raining everyday. Last night was no exception but we woke this morning to the sight of blue skies and sunshine. I'm sure that the soaked earth will be fueling some interesting thunderstorms. At least thunder and lightning will be more exciting than a dull gray drizzle. During yesterdays morning walk (in the rain) we discussed a Ray Bradbury story " The Long Rain " which was included in the 1969 film " The Illustrated Man ".

The leaves are out but there are a number of trees that will never recover from the ice storm of December 2008. I’m eyeing 2 severely damaged popular trees that I’m sure that will die. I’m trying to determine if I drop them I can avoid having them crash through the kitchen window. I’m assuming that if I look at the top at a 45 degree angle I can guess the height. I haven’t been too successful lately with my logging. I managed to drop a tree on my 30 year old chain saw. The good news is that I didn’t drop the tree on my body. The bad news is that I am now in the market for a chain saw. The town has arranged a brush pile pickup that is behind schedule and underfunded. A short drive around town shows the extent of the downed limbs. My pile is sparse and unkempt. Of course there is always someone that excels at everything, they have the best Christmas light display, the nicest lawn, the neatest wood stack and of course the neatest (and biggest) brush pile.

Why another blog? I’m experimenting with the idea of location aggregation websites. I live in an interesting town, I noticed that some of my postings were not really musings but observations about the daily occurrences in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. The sign, the ice storm and more. Not much content yet, but I’m sure something will happen soon.

9:30 PM EST - December 29th I get a phone call from my sister who claims she has seen a UFO in the skies over New Boston, NH. What she had actually witnessed is a fireball that exploded in mid flight. I am SO JEALOUS!!! If anyone else was fortunate to see this, please send in a report to Dec 29th New England Fireball Sightings.