Take A Walk With Us: Or Perhaps A Drive Up The Coast

The Ocean Air

I am at my desk in my little office/studio a lot.  By a lot, I mean pretty much all day Mondays- Friday. At least one day most weekends, and sometimes both, too. The life of a one girl show.

This makes it necessary for me to sometimes high tail it away from the homestead, where my little office/studio is located. Get out and about. Take in the sunshine. Breathe in the ocean air. Luckily, it's only 6 miles from the house.

I wish these pictures captured the color that was the ocean yesterday. It was an amazing and stunning mix of blues and and greens.  Deep, saturated color.  It took my breath away. Ask G how many times I said, "I can not believe the color of the ocean" and he'll tell you at least 100. And he's probably right.

I also wish there wasn't some speck of dust stuck in my little lumix lens (my big camera's battery needed charging so I just took my little one with me). Ignore any blotches. And if you know any tricks for getting fuzz out of a camera lens, do tell.

For now, sit back and enjoy a little jaunt up our coast.

We had been keeping our eyes open for the snowy owls that have been making it's home near Rye Harbor.  As soon as we passed the harbor and turned the corner, there were cars lining the road and we knew there was an was owl nearby. They are such welcome visitors.

There it was. Sitting right on the ground in the marsh, having a little nap in the sun. Like the snowies we saw just south in Salisbury last month, this one could have cared less about all the people like myself making their way across the snowy marsh to get a picture. I was amazed at how close it let us all get.

Blending like a lump of melting snow, right?

They are just so damn cool.

Then we continued our way up 1A.

It was so clear, it seemed you could reach out and touch the Isles of Shoals, which are 6 miles off the New Hampshire coast.

G stopped here, a little bridge spot he has always liked.  The marsh looks frozen, but there was still plenty of water running under the bridge and back out to sea with the tide.

We made our way to Newcastle, and passed one of my favorite places, the Newcastle Commons.  Read: I pouted as he passed the turn. G redeemed himself when we got near the coastguard station and I said....'what's this little road? Maybe it gets us closer to the lighthouse?'. He took the turn and we found that it did indeed get us closer to Portsmouth Light and we still had a good view of Whaleback too.

 

The house at the end of the newly discovered road, had the most amazing chimney. Just look at that brickwork.

We continued north towards Portsmouth.

There were lots of people out and about, walking, running, taking their pooches out for much needed exercise. We still lucked out and found a parking spot right off the square.

I got out of the car and noticed I could see the sky straight through the window on the far wall of the church. 

As always, the North Church steeple, had quite a presence against the blue sky.

It was a perfect Sunday drive.

Beyond that we had a campfire with the neighbors on Friday night, followed by leftover antipasto that my sister brought over on Thursday night. When I was done working at my desk on Saturday, the neighbors got together again and we ordered some pie. I love it when the pizza man brings dinner to the door.  Yesterday, I treated G to lunch and we had leftover pizza for dinner. I did no cooking whatsoever this weekend, and I have to say, it was kind of nice having a break even though I love cooking.

Did you do anything exciting or did you stay close to home?

Have a great start to the week!

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us: Part Two

A Beautiful Fall

We took our time making our way around Pierce Island on our Sunday excursion. Time to take it all in.

It was truly a brilliant day.

The ocean was sparkling like an endless sea of diamonds.

It was so clear, it was as if you could just reach out........................

...the other side of the harbour.

A picture postcard day, to be sure.

The colors of fall were all around.

This Great Blue Heron was not happy when I tried to get closer.

He took off squawking a moment later.

Then we headed into downtown Portsmouth.

The good thing about parking on one of the higher floors of the parking garage, is you get a great view of the North Church Steeple.

We passed Bow Street on the way to Market Square.  The thing I love about Bow is that all the restaurants on the left side of the street, are on the water. Talk about great views.

It's hard to shoot a bad picture of North Church. Quintessential New England.

 

There are always lots of people in Market Square and Sunday was no different, except they were joined by this motley crew. 

What a great way to spend a Sunday. The colors didn't disappoint on the ride home either.

The last two shots were taken from the car while we were on the highway, but I couldn't resist the colors.

What a great way to spend the day.


Our temps have slowly dropped since Sunday, and it's a bit brisk today. The sun is doing its best to shine and more leaves are falling.  There's no holding onto summer anymore.

Hey, I'm not sure if I've said this lately or not, but I can never say it too much anyways. Thanks for being here.

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk (or Drive) With Us: Part 3

I Need This

Now that I have spent my entire day online 'chatting' with Earthlink - my website host and email provider, I really need to take a breather.

All I was trying to do was another add and email address to my account which I have done previously with no problems (since I have a website with them, I can add multiple email addresses....or so I thought). This time, not so grasshopper.

If my head wasn't attached it would have blown off when the first guy, who I'd spent 30 minutes in chat and 40 minutes in screen sharing to resolve the problem, up and backed out of session. Poof. Buh-bye. In fact, I told the second guy my head was ready to blow off and added something else about the problem. He answered 'good'. I replied, not really. I kind of like my head.

In the end, I figured out the problem myself, though the second guy was much more helpful.

Anywho.......a short break. Sure, I'll take a walk, I'll take a ride. What about you?

Isle of Shoals just off our coast. Sometimes it's like you can reach out and touch them.

Pretty houses on the way into town.

 

Part of Great Bay at low tide.

A horrible shot of Porstmouth, but I thought it might give you some feel for our little city on the bay. Lots of brick and lots of history.

 

It's still dressed up for the holidays.

You know if we're in Portsmouth, we're heading to the Square right across from North Church.

LOVE this one. WE. Because together we can accomplish so much.

Next stop RiRa, thanks to Santa. You can not take a bad picture of this beautiful stained glass dome. That's the NH state seal in the middle.

Pretty. Pretty.

The cheesey bacon fries we shared weren't bad either.

Ahhhh, I feel better already. Still annoyed at wasting so much time, but there's nothing I can do about that..........so I'm moving on.

Thanks for taking this breather with me.

Be here tomorrow for our first shop and blog link up party of the new year. You do love to party, don't you?

Ciao for now,

Quick & Full Visit

Here and Gone

Part of our Dublin family was here last week. Garrett's brother Fran, our sister in law Fiona and niece Rachel.  It was a fly by. Just two quick days. We headed up to Portsmouth one day, just 10 minutes North. Beautiful small city on the water.  Wonderful restaurants, artsy, historic. Porsmouth is simply a great place. The one problem that day? It was hotter than hell.

As we tried to park the car in the parking garage, we kept going up and up and up. I made note of the fact that this was not a day to park on the roof. Viola, literally about 3 spots before we hit the open air, seriously hot roof, somebody backed out and we scored the spot of the day.

The good thing about having to go up and up and up, is that we ended up with a great view of North Church.  So of course, I had to get a shot of my sister in law Fiona and my niece Rachel.

We walked a block up to Market Square and then headed toward the harbor. Garrett and his brother Fran were ahead of us gals. I said to the girls, 'it is HOT' to which my sister in law replied, "I'm dying. I think my eyes are sweating."

This flower smelled heavenly. I have no idea really what this flower is, but the leaf reminds me of hydrangea. Perhaps an odd variety? The flower certainly doesn't look like any hydrangea I've ever seen.

We finally made it to the waterfront and Prescott Park.

There was no breeze, so the Dubliners, who have had nothing but rain this summer and weren't used to the heat, were starting to melt.  They found a bench under a tree while I checked out this fountain I've been by a thousand times.

Upon closer inspection, I found this dedication.

I continued to wander because I could see art in the distance.

Then I wandered a little more, past the stage where they put on a summer play each year.  Behind the stage I found the set trailer, which had been painted during last year's street art exhibition. Very cool.

The quote is from a Celia Thaxter book. She was a poet and author born in Porstmouth.

"Under the light-house no sweet-brier grew, Dry was the grass, and no daisies Waved in the wind, and the flowers were few That lifted their delicate faces. But oh, she was happy, and careless, and blest, Full of the song-sparrow's spirit; Grateful for life, for the least and the best Of the blessings that mortals inherit. Fairer than gardens of Paradise seemed The desolate spaces of water; Nature was hers,- clouds that frowned - stars that gleamed,What beautiful lessons they taught her! Would I could find you again, little maid, Striving with utmost endeavor,Could find in my breast that light heart, unafraid, That has vanished for ever and ever!"

Found this cow lurking around the corner. 

Then I made all the shade lovers get up from their bench and stroll with me through my favorite part of the park....the secret pocket garden. It's not really secret, but I like to pretend it is.

We happened on an art exhibit. More art. This always makes me happy.

As I headed back out the door, I spied this on the back of the trailer with the cow. How'd I miss that?

Then I told them they had to see patchwork garden.

We were now sufficiently hot and could do nothing else but make our way past Oracle House (this is where the firts NH daily newspaper was published)....

....back to Market Square and our favorite corner at RiRa. We met our friend Mike, who is a former rugby player who likes Guinness as much as Gar. I neglected to get a picture of Mike, but I did get his son in this shot.

I went with the sampler (4 5oz. minis) instead of a pint. Loved it and enjoyed the beer on the left the best. Lagunita Lucky 13 (or lucky 7,) I think.

Mike kept asking Fran if he wanted a Guinnes and Fran kept saying no (not something he'd normally say), he'd stick with a Stella because he was just too hot.  They continued to joke him about the fact here he was in the place that had the best Guinness around and he was having a Stella. Then this 'little' treat appeared thanks to Dave the manager, who is from Cork. A 'pint' of the black stuff that Fran could easily put away even on a hot day. 

That cracked us right up.

Then we went home and took a nap. See what the heat does to you?

Later we were off again. This time just up the road to Margaritas for dinner.

We all thought Fran could have done a better job parking so we taunted him until he moved the car.

As always we enjoyed our meal, but we didn't let on to the manager. I could see Gar was thinking about calling him over just to cause a little trouble, because that's just the way we are. Anything for a laugh. Then he was having second thoughts and I said, "go on, call him over and tell him the refried beans were done one too many times."  He did and we all kept straight faces. I dont know how, but we did.  The manager fell for it and said, "Well sir, we do have to cook them twice for them to be refried", to which we all exploded into laughter. Including the Kevin the manager.

Our waitress could see we were causing trouble and said, 'you know the other manager would totally fall for that, shall I send her over?' But of course.  Yup, we straight faced it again, and did the same thing. I backed Gar up again adding that 'they seemed like maybe they were just a bit overdone'.  Fiona and Rachel had to face the wall from laughing because this girl's chin dropped to her chest and she just kept saying uh huh and nodding. Then we all lost it again and she said "I was thinking are they serious? Why didn't they call me over before they paid the bill". I swear, we're going to do that in every Mexican restaurant we go to from now on. It was classic.

So, a great day was had by one and all. Wish we got to spend days like thatwith our Dublin peeps more often, but at least we make good memories when we do.  We'll have a chance to in a few short weeks, when brother Niall, sister in law Caragh, our niece Leah and my godson Harry arrive. It will be the first time we get to meet Harry face to face, other than via skype, so we're psyched. Their visit won't be nearly as quick.

We're in the midst of another hot and humid downpour.  How the heck are we supposed to get laundry done around here?

Anyone participating in the photo challenge? If you are, get me your pics by the end of the day today if you want me to include them in tomorrow's post.

Have a great Sunday.

Ciao for now,