November used to be a quiet time for shopkeepers and innkeepers in the Mt. Washington Valley. No longer. Talk to any shopkeeper, and they’ll tell you that the November weekend customer base now largely consists of small groups of women who annually head north in the fall for foliage and shopping blitzes. Not only do people shop, the mostly-women visitors…
Speaking of being new to New Hampshire,” the woman said, “we hadn’t been living here long when I heard gunshots in the woods, so I called the police. I got the dispatcher. I guess she was the dispatcher. She wasn’t particularly cooperative. ‘I need to talk to the chief,’ I said. “‘No,’ she said, ‘you can’t.’” “‘Can’t you get him…
Strawbery Banke 27th annual Holiday Stroll Just imagine that holiday traditions are great stitches, binding years of the past together like pleats in the fabric of time. Well, nowhere in New Hampshire is the holiday fabric richer or more colorful than Strawbery Banke, where events of 350 years are gathered and displayed. And the patterns of history literally glow each…
Mind Games I was interested to see your reference to the “Brainball” game in your November Editor’s Notes. Did you know there is a place to play this high-tech game right here in New Hampshire? The Children’s Museum of Portsmouth installed the Mindball game as the centerpiece of its newest exhibit earlier this year, and we are the only children’s…
It’s a bit of a puzzle how the Granite State prides itself on both rugged individualism and a powerful sense of community. That’s a contradiction we can live with. In spite of our differences and our longing for independence, we know we are better together than we are apart. By John Walters The tradition of living in community has deep…
The Democrats are tinkering with the calendar again, which is always a dangerous thing. The party’s rules committee plans to insert a Nevada caucus between Iowa’s caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, leaving this state third on the schedule of presidential events. The Old Man of the Mountain must be turning in his rock pile. Several of the expected Democratic…
The sun is a-rising To welcome the day. Heigh-ho! Come to the fair! In “The History of the 124th Rochester Fair,” Violet Horne Dwyer and Florence Horne Smith give a fine account of the early days of the fair (when a luminary no less shining than the South Berwick, Maine, writer Sarah Orne Jewett was a visitor). According to Dwyer…
In the country: granite mountaintops, cliffs and ledges; tumbledown stone walls; random rocks and boulders scattered everywhere. In towns and cities: graveyards, public monuments and buildings great and small. Do some yard work or plant a garden; hunks of granite peek through the surface or lurk underground. Get in your car, and granite goes along for the ride — well,…
Human happiness is a work in progress. Once it was enough to survive. Civilization and culture created new standards of success. Philosophy and psychology opened doors to self-realization, but through it all hearts have hungered for ultimate meaning and delved deeply into human potential. Today, those seeking happiness may follow a path of personal reinvention or transformation. This can take…
What do fragrant pea blossoms, caramelized elk filets, delicate peach ice cream and Coulommier cheese have in common? Yes, they were all part of recent dinner service at the Mountain View Grand, but more importantly they all have long roots in New Hampshire. Dinner from the hilltop grand resort is always a treat, for one, because Chef Kevin Cottle cares…
