new hampshire

A collection of 42 posts

fall

When the Time is Right

Don’t think the horse is the only one with the bit in its mouth, or the dog with a collar. We are leashed with the rest of them.

nature

An Old Canoe

Where is the person who embarked with it on those waters? It must have been someone like me, who desired a hidden canoe to hop across nature’s boundary.

nature

The Valedictorian

We chose it as our signature tree, as a centerpiece of the field—We voted it valedictorian, and class president.

Spring

Caught Flat-footed

The fox was a gift of creation. I hollered, “No! No! No!”

Other Musings

Winter Distemper

I think the deep freeze we have been experiencing is making everything irritable

Deer season

Good Luck, Little Buck

Deer season starts today in New Hampshire, and this is no time for attitude if you are a handsome buck.

Other Musings

Autumn Hugs

Fall has arrived, and we hope, so will the pilgrims.

February

February

We made it. February. Now the year can really begin.

Other Musings

Wood Heat

Heating with wood is a complex business . . . one manufacturer described the process as more art than science.

Jarvis Coffin

Independent, Inching Forward

Soon you have the sense you are talking about the same things, which is when it hits you . . . you have only inched forward.

Jarvis Coffin

June

Huckles has developed a problem: he visits the neighbors.

Jarvis Coffin

Tractor Pull

I interview everyone with a tractor and they say the same thing: I love my tractor.

Jarvis Coffin

Mozart on Norway Pond

Mozart was with us that day, regretting every other invitation from the concert halls of Europe and around the world.

Jarvis Coffin

Nothing Much Happens

If you had to pick one thing to describe rural life, it could easily be that nothing much new ever happens.

Other Musings

Power to the People

I wonder how far it will be in the future when the notion that we delivered electrical power around the world by stringing wires over hill and dale will seem archaic.

Jarvis Coffin

Just Like That

Thanksgiving, and just like that our inboxes are full of Black Friday offers. The world is released to fill the airways with carols, string holiday lights, and buy Christmas trees.

Other Musings

Thanksgiving

It is hard to feel wistful for the long hours and seven-day work weeks. But we are thankful for having been innkeepers in many small ways and, sometimes, as you see, in big ones.

Jarvis Coffin

Crunch Time

We can imagine fifty thousand acorns hitting the ground in front and another fifty thousand more behind. A total of one hundred thousand acorns scattered across our parcel in the woods.

Other Musings

Docks Out

Notice has been given by the nice people that handle the in and out of our dock that the time for out is upon us . . . This is usually when remorse settles in about how little time we spent during the season on the pond.

Other Musings

Fiddleheads

Hancock’s Fiddleheads Café reopened Memorial Day weekend after a winter hiatus, during which time owner Sherry Williams continued her search for a buyer to fulfill her retirement goal, having worked might and main at the business for eighteen years. Ownership events occurring with small, rural businesses in New England

Other Musings

Sentimental Lights

I can conjure an argument for why our collective imagination, the state of romance, and all the poetry in the world have suffered since the advent of incandescent light.

Other Musings

Winter

If you want the real deal when it comes to New England, you must come in winter.

Postcard

They're Baaack

The black flies came early this year. The adage has been Mother’s Day through Father’s Day, but I think they were here right after Easter. We live in the woods by the water, prime conditions for the little bloodsuckers.

Other Musings

Getting Out More

An ocean person will point to an island on a map and say, I have been there. Mountain people will stand at the base and respond, I have been to the top. Each always has thoughts of returning.

Other Musings

Beneath the Canopy

Beneath the canopy, very little grows straight. Every bit of ground is contested. Every angle of sunlight is made available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Everywhere there are predicaments