Poltrack Blog

Two Days till Christmas Did Santa bring me a catnip mouse? Prepared for any family heated discussions (just kidding we don't have them) On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me A fake Cardinal in a fake tree Christmas Card from my Navy roomate, always a treat to see Christmas Past, my twins decorating the tree  I don't often attend Office Christmas Parties but  I attended this one Spinning a Holly Jolly Christmas tune

10 Days till Christmas Correction (01/03/2018) Most of these photos are of aircraft The Geminids and the Quadrantids  are the only meteor showers NOT originating from a comet. They are babies in the meteor shower family, only appearing since 1862. It is a great display and I caught a few on camera.  I wasn't too sure how well the camera would hold up in the cold before the lens would frost over or the battery would quit so I only took a sequence of 117 photos. I shot these with a 20mm Lumix lens which is equivalent in 35mm terms to a 40mm. Not exactly wide angle but the fastest lens I have. I chose a shutter speed of 30 seconds with a 8 second gap between shots. ISO was set at 400 which was the best quality I thought I could choose for a night sky. My neighbors Christmas lights gave me a subject for manually setting focus because this lens like so many other digital lens does NOT have an infinity marking (why not?). I hope everyone got a chance to ...

I play music with a lot of local folks including the Monadnock Mountain Music Jaffrey (MMMJ). They were guest musicians at a Thanksgiving Service in Jaffrey. They performed We Gather Together  which is probably the best known of the Hymns for this Holiday. Harvest Arrangement by Archie and Helen Coll

12 days to Thanksgiving The view from Taylor Road Just enough snow to look nice Snow Fence A Snow Angel Morning on Flood Control Dam 35 Flood Control 35 Remnant of Summer Rural Life The Woods

Hazel Balch Moore compiled an album of New Ipswich  WWII veterans for the New Ipswich Historical Society. It may be viewed as a slide show below. If you have information about the men and women in this album I encourage you to enter comments to the Flickr Album (click on any photo to view in full screen)

When I visited Gary and Cathy Johnson's Daylily Farm on Saturday I saw this 1940 Oldsmobile. I wanted to post this earlier, but I needed to obscure the license number, which meant using Photoshop, my great nemesis! Gary managed to find just the daylily blossom that matched the paint job. Visit me at the Garden Shop at  the   NICC Children's Fair and pick a color for YOUR car.

I think Daylilies are the perfect perennial, easy to grow, beautiful and well behaved. I visited the  NH Daylily Farm  in New Ipswich to view the flowers in full bloom and chat with Cathy and Gary Johnson.    " Our farm is located at 48 Mason Road in New Ipswich, NH. A circa 1800 farmhouse, known in the history books as the Davis-Russell House, was a gift to us from our dear friend, Bud, when he passed away in 2007. His parents, Al and Gladys Hobbs purchased the property in the late 1950’s. Al had a passion for daylilies.     We believe that Al tried to hybridize new lilies but we have found no records of him registering any new lilies. Over the years, the daylily patch had become overgrown. We felt we had to bring it back to the way it was so many years ago. So we dug and divided and replanted many beautiful daylilies. We’ve also purchased new varieties of named daylilies to add to our garden. In July, the colors are breathtaking. We welcome y...

Granted that the 4th of July was a washout. But the day after was awesome. I dug into my stash of fireworks and found some crackers.  These date back to 1972 and I bought them in Wyoming when we traveled across the country  after my Navy time. I had stored them in a coffee can and more or less forgot they were there. I'm happy to report they still worked.

The Europeans is a 1979 British Merchant Ivory Film , directed by James Ivory Several scenes were filmed at Barrett House and Bullard-Barr House in New Ipswich, NH Robin Ellis and Lee Remick filming a shot around the Central Cemetery Film crew The film crew complained about the sound of my camera shutter. I replied the chain saw in the distance was much louder. I was not going to pass up an opportunity like this. It was fairly cold when they filmed this. Apparently Lee Remick had a hot water bottle. I took the opportunity to meet Robin Ellis since at the time I was huge fan of the BBC series Poldark

Historic New England has been repainting the Barrett House in New Ipswich, NH Most of the primer coat has been applied which will be followed by 2 finish coats Light green primer on the shutters, followed by a dark green finish coat The shutters required a lot of repair, many slats were missing or damaged Appropriate beverage for New Ipswich

Thanks to all the volunteers who took to the town roads to pick up the beer cans, twisted tea bottles and other detritus tossed by careless motorists. Hopefully we will need LESS bags next year