Like a red, red rose, continued

It was a long, long winter. How I yearned for warmer weather, free from snow, ice, and All Wheel Drive. I longed to sit on the back deck and drink ice tea, or take evening walks on a daily basis to lose a few pounds I gained in the winter. Sleep with the windows open. Watch the sunset on the longest day of the year. Oh I had hopes and dreams alright but it seems Mother Nature, or something more sinister, had different plans.

Don't get me wrong, there have been days of warmth and glorious sunshine, like the day I took these photos, but on average it seems we've had about 2 days of sunshine per week for the past few weeks.

Emotionally I don't do well in this dreary weather. It's almost a seasonal effect thing. My body craves warmth and sunshine. The past few nights I sleep in long sleeved pj's because I'm cold.

Where is Summer? I NEED Summer! The birds NEED Summer!


I know some of you in other parts of the country are baking with heat, and I'm sorry about that, but at least you have sunshine. All we see, day after day, is drizzle, rain, and cloudy skies. They're saying we might see a bit of sunshine tomorrow. I'm crossing everything in hopes of some natural Vitamin D.

On a positive note (because who wants to listen to me complain about the weather) ... I had seen these Roses in Exeter last Summer and hoped to photograph them but it didn't happen. They never left my mind though and as soon as I noticed them in bloom a few weeks ago I made an early morning drive to capture a moment.

After I was done shooting them I walked along the street just looking around and ran into a lovely 82 year old woman who was born and raised in Exeter. We conversed for a few minutes about photography, Phillips Exeter, her brothers, etch until she said, "There's some pink Roses up the street" I asked if they were on a fence also and she replied, "Yes they are. They're in front of a mansion!"

I don't know that it was a mansion but the pink roses sure were sweet, though the rain had beat them down pretty good, like all my flowers. So it was a 2 for 1 day!

Here's hoping some of your warmth cycles up our way!

Like a red, red rose, that's newly sprung in June

I hope you will come back for more

And the winner of the Sand Sculpture Contest is . . .

I know these aren't the best pictures but everytime I go down to Hampton Beach it's been foggy or hazy so I did what I could.

Yeah, I'm not so sure the Blossom sculpture should have won either, but it is different. Goodness knows there is a lot of work in all of them! Tomorrow, June 28th, is the last day they will be on display. After that all sculptures will be demolished due to safety issues.

Storm on the horizon

The view from Plum Island, MA Parking lot and beach last night. Cumulonimbus clouds are capable of producing severe thunderstorms or even tornados. Luckily the cloud remained off shore and we had neither.


And another view from Rye Beach, NH on Amy's Blog

Swans of Rye

This past week-end while my husband and I were driving along the beach we happened to notice this Swan family sitting right next to the road! Several concerned people had stopped and were standing around trying to figure out what to do.

As you may know, a Swan doesn't do anything a Swan doesn't want to do, including move!


And so there they stayed with their babies, grooming and resting. There was quite a bit of traffic and they were less than 5 feet from the road!




Momma decided to do a little Swan yoga while the babies sat close by (sorry for the blur)



And dad had one eye on everything, including me

Isn't Momma Swan a vision of loveliness? Though it may look like there are 3 cygnets, I believe there were actually only 2.

We grabbed a sandwich at Peteys and then drove back through. Luckily by then the Swans had made there way into the water. Phew!!! Do to the feathers lying around I would say they've done this before though.

Sandsculpting Competition at Hampton Beach, NH

The past two week-ends I've gone to Hampton Beach early in the morning to take some photo's of the Annual Sandsculpting Competition that was underway. The first few pictures are from a week and a half ago while the rest are from this past Saturday morning. By Saturday evening the sculptures were completed and judged, however it has rained ever since so I haven't made it back to the beach to take more pictures of the finished products and winners. I will. In the mean time, which one is your favorite? All sand sculptures are sprayed with a glue mixture to hold them intact and will be on display, day and night, thru June 28th.

he Loves me, he Loves me not

Plum Island Beach

When the birding/blogging/tweeting/chirping group went to Plum Island, MA on Saturday we never actually made it to the beautiful stretch of beach at the end of the island. Due to a childrens fishing derby the parking lot was full and they won't anyone to park on the sides of the road. Here are a few shots I took back in March while visiting the beach with a friend.



Looking out across the water, south towards the main land, is a stark contrast to the vast openess of the island itself. There are houses lining the shore 4 and 5 deep for a long distance.

No trespassing signs dot the islands landscape in order to protect natural habitat and nesting areas. If you ever have the chance to go to Plum Island, don't miss out. No ferry is necessary to get there and the admission fee is only $5 per car after Memorial Day.

Plum Island - Newburyport, MA website

Birding with Bloggers, Tweeters, and Chirpers on Plum Island

On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity of hanging out with some great birders, bloggers and tweeters I've met online. Mother nature must have been on our side because the skies cleared for one day and then we we're back into the rain.

Right there in the Plum Island parking lot are Purple Martin houses. Love the PMs! This particular house appeared to be the busiest of them all but the duct tape was less than appealing to photograph so just pretend it's not there, okay?



Chris from Picus blog is giving us the lowdown on the days activities. He and Dawn/Dawns Bloggy Blog organized our birding get together. Great job to both of you! Over on the right you can see the No Entry signs which are there to protect nesting birds, especially Piping Plovers.

Here we are hogging the whole road! That's John over there, the tall one with the hat and enormous camera on his shoulder. John and his wife Sharon are from Birding of Maine. They were kind enough to cart Steve B/Shooting Our Universe and I around for the morning in their car. All very nice people.

Heading down the boardwalk in hopes of seeing something spectacular

Okay, so he wasn't spectacular, but boy was he mad! He and his lady had a nest right near the boardwalk so he squawked at us all until we were out of sight.

After 4 hours, and much more scenery than I've shown, this is where our journey ended 0n Plum Island, looking out over the preserve. It was a great morning which hopefully will be repeated sometime in the future. Maybe this fall?

Can't say I've met a nicer bunch of people in a long time. Wish I could have stayed longer but my daughter had to photograph a wedding that afternoon and it was my job to get her there. Dawn, I look forward to seeing you again sometime! Thank you everyone for the wonderful memories!

Besides those I've already mentioned (John, Christopher, Dawn, and Steve), here is a list of the other bloggers/twitterers/birders that participated:

Bev from Behind the Bins

Lauren from Worn Field Guide

Cattie from Birding Girl

Janet from Plover Warden Diaries

Amanda from Fledgling Birder

Dan from Nature Observances - by Forestal

Mark and Laura from Strack 16

Welcome to New Castle

After the rain

It rained all morning, not to mention we've had off and on rain for the past few days now. Finally the sun started to break through and what do you suppose was the first thing this Robin wanted to do?

Yeah, that makes sense ... not

The little sparrow just wanted a drink to wash down all the peanuts it keeps eating from my feeder! After several minutes of being splashed it finally gave up and flew away.


The Peonies are hanging heavy with rain but you can see it was drying fast on the bricks

I discovered a bloom about to make an entrance on my enormous Hosta (which you'll see more of soon)



I might have helped the drop along ... just a little

At this point the air was becoming steamy. All that moisture was turning into haze which made quite a showing this afternoon while the girls and I were in Portsmouth and New Castle




Perfect Wisteria

Portsmouth Commercial Fishing Pier

There's no way to hide it, Portsmouth Commercial Fishing Pier is small. Very small in comparison to Gloucester, and there isn't much going on these days. Nestled in between Prescott park and Pierce Island it adds to the charm of the area and is photographed frequently by locals and tourists alike.

At one time the pier was operated by a co-op who would house and ship the locally caught fish to either Gloucester or Boston. The co-op closed down in November 2007 so the fisherman must now either unload in Gloucester or store and transport the fish themselves to the market, or hire someone to do it for them, either way costing them lost wages and prep time.

Ice purchases must be scheduled in advance and gas must be paid for with a credit card. Although the co-op has been looking for someone to run the business over for almost 2 years there have been no takers. Many see it as a nonprofitable business venture.

Due to current groundfishing regulations, overfishing, and high permit fees, fisherman are finding it more and more difficult to make a living.

At the time these photos were taken in April there were only 5 fishing boats currently unloading in Portsmouth. Most had moved on to other ports such as Rye or Seabrook, NH, or Gloucester, Mass., or gone out of business altogether. What will happen to the fishing pier in the future is anyone's guess. Considering the pier used to have 60 boats offloading and is now down to 5 may be a sad indication of what's to come.

In the mean time many will enjoy the view.

Article on Portsmouth Commercial Fishing Pier: Too little, too late