Garnished with a slice of moon

I've been appreciating original neon lately, and last night, while riding as a passenger in a friend's car, I saw this sign. With some urgency, I asked my friend to "please pull over at the liquor store up ahead!"

Now, there was a time when I would have been in such a hurry to get inside, I would have missed this beautiful sign completely.

Things are different today.

Screensaver

Wouldn't this make a nice wallpaper...

...or endpapers for a leather bound book, or fabric for a fabulous silk  jacket , or a lovely scarf, or dinner napkins, or wrapping paper?

But I left it where it was, where it works pretty well:

Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, MA

finding my wooden paddle

Canaan, NH

Because shipping would have cost about the same as making the round-trip drive to pick up the kayak paddle I had bought online, I let the weather decide.   It was a nice day, so I got directions to Mitchell Paddles in Canaan, NH and set off in the morning, thinking I was heading for a small kayak shop.

The drive would be worth it if I could also find a nice place to take a little hike in the lakes region of NH.

When I found the address, (on a dirt road!) Mitchell Paddles turned out to be one young guy - Peter Mitchell-  and his shop, where he makes wooden, carbon fiber and Fiberglas paddles for all kinds of boats. I had come to the SOURCE!

Peter handed me my beautiful cedar Greenland-style paddle, which he had made himself, and then gave me a tour of the entire operation, which had been established by his parents who live next door, 40 years ago.

Oh, and on the way home, I took a nice little hike partway up the Mt Kearsarge Road in Warner, NH.

Scared the Daylights Out of Me!

I thought I'd take myself for a nice autumn walk in the woods this morning.
(Prospect Hill, Rowley, MA)

Making my way up a steep hill with my eyes on the uneven ground, I  looked up and gulped when I saw this scary water tower looming.  I was really frightened for a moment, right there in broad daylight.

Then I went to find a nicer place to hike. (Old Town Hill, Newbury, MA)

That's Plum Island and the Atlantic Ocean peeking up to the left of the tree, which was the only one left standing afer a winter windstorm ( February 2010 ) blew down all the trees at the top of Old Town Hill.

Some people would look at this nice clearing with a spectacular view and think: "New construction!" 

Not me.   I look at it and think, "Thank you to all the do-gooders (Trustees of the Reservations) who have saved this land for EVERYONE to enjoy."

Beach Day in February

The beach is not the first place I think of going on an average February day.  But this day was in no way average: temerature 51 degrees, sunny, no wind.  The walkway down TO the beach was a bit icy, but worth the risk.

Someone with tiny feet left their bare footprints.

Baby terns hurried by with their heads down, pretending not to notice the humans.

A Splash of Color on a Winter Day

I took these pictures one morning recently after a big snowstorm.

I liked the way the whitewash of the fresh snow highlighted the pretty pastel colors of some of the houses.  I found all of these houses along three blocks of a single street- the one I live on- between the library downtown and my house.