decisions decisions decisions

Seriously, how on earth could I possibly chose which photos to post when I took over 300 then "edited" it down to about 180 and am trying to post maybe 15-20?  UGH like I said ... decisions decisions decisions ..

With all that said, who knew that balloons have names?  Certainly not I!  The beauty above is  "Abraxas" owned/piloted (according to the Quechee Balloon Festival insert in the local paper (aka The Valley News) by Mario Di Stefano from Worcester, MA.  

As you may recall from my most recent (yeah yeah yeah) post, the 32nd annual Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival was held here June 17-19.  One of the benefits of our volunteer positions here at the State Park is that we pretty much "front and center" for the event ~ a first for me, which truly sparked an addition (that I've done nothing towards fulfilling, BTW) to my "bucket list" - being part of a chase team.

"Last Penny" (don't you just love that name ...
Bill Colyer from Fairfield, CT

Abraxas, again, so does this second shot confirm that it MAY be my favorite?

"The calming Effect of Sunshine"
Time Strand, Bloomsbury, NJ

I think a large part of my attraction to these balloons was that they made me think of quilt patterns - big, bright and bold colorful quilts ... now if I could just duplicate them!!

"Uplifted"
Denny Welser, Tallmadge, OH
now is this a quilt pattern just waiting to be created or what!

top and closest is again, "Uplifted" with
"Going My Way" Dick and Mary Beth Young
Parsippany, NJ

Sadly a poor photo of a beauty called "Reflections"
James Regan from Kensington, CT

again, "Going My Way"

"Thunderbuster"
Paul Sena, Worthington, MA
decent shot of the flame ~ yes?

A random, colorless, evening shot of balloons at the field looking from the Quechee covered bridge, with Simon Pearce workshop and restaurant (still haven't been there - seems to be perceived as a bit too "foo foo" for us!!

"Thunderbuster" again

hmmm, I don't know the name and owner of this one, but isn't it great ~
so colorful and one of those that makes me think of a quilt pattern!

Oh geeez this may really be my favorite - "Great Balls of Fire"
Owned by Bill Whidden, Tavares, FL

The last evening of the festival we went to watch the balloons launch and as we had hoped they went right over the gorge ...

There are a couple balloon businesses in Quechee so we do see (and hear) them fairly often either early (6:30 or so) in the morning or around 6:30 in the evening as they are launching.  I thought it would be a fun adventure while we are here, but since it is in the vicinity of $250. per person, I don't think it is realistic for us to fulfill that adventure!

So that's the latest ~ albeit a month or so old from us ... stay tuned for more adventures!

the flora

In what seems to be my usual way of blogging of late, I loaded these pictures a couple weeks ago and am finally adding some text!  For those of you that have followed us since blog day one, you may recall there was a new and hopefully interesting adventure posted nearly everyday - my things have changed haven't they!  I knew when we started our volunteer position that the posts wouldn't be as interesting or as frequent but jeeesh louise, this isn't good!

Anyway, one of our tasks a few weeks back was to walk the trail to and along the gorge and pick up rubbish (hikers and campers in these parts are very very conscientious of litter so there was very little to pick up!).

The gorgeous swimming area at the bottom of the gorge.  Sir Arlo would LOVE to swim down here and the walk down and back would certainly be some good exercise for him (as it was for us).

Along the way, of course we passed lots of mushrooms (since it rarely stops raining here there is a plethora of fungi) and flowers

A "Jack-in-the-pulpit"

And a "lady's slipper"

and a man and his dog!

Last weekend was the annual Quechee Balloon Festival - I got some great photos - even a couple of the balloons over the gorge.  I think that I want to add "balloon chaser" to my bucket list.

Stay tuned ...

oh yes we are

HERE in Kwee Chee (aka Quechee)

Himself even has a golf cart (on occasion) to peruse his digs (as in we have a golf cart to use to do our "tasks" as well as our "rounds" a few nights a week) which concerns me - if we owned one how would we "enhance" it ....  oh what would himself, Mister "Gadget Man" do?

Our site is HUGE and I am trying to make it into one with a couple of enjoyable garden spaces -  we even have a few hummingbirds (such interesting creatures they are to me ...Sir Arlo is in charge of counting them each day)

a poor and dark shot above but trying to show the size of our space ...

as always, stay tuned ... photos for a post loaded a week ago, this one is, however, just to let anyone know we are alive and well in the land of Vermont's "grand canyon" (trust me I did NOT coin that phrase .... it is beautiful and all, but ...)

so, as the saying goes, stay tuned.....

just a ducky small town

A perfect small town America scenario.  A cool (60 ish degree) Sunday after what seemed like weeks of rain.  The community gathers to let the ducks out - at the Duck Race - an annual event here in New Boston, NH.  Until "researching" links for this post I had no idea what exactly the event was about other than a couple thousand rubber ducks (as many of you know, since Rick and I were married on a "Duck Boat" in Boston, I have a love of all things yellow duck like!).  I digress ... the duck race in New Boston is actually a benefit sponsored by the Community Church there in memory of a young man who passed away a few years ago - what a wonderful way to remember him.

Not only is the event about the ducks, it is about a community coming together 

with thousands of ducks in the bucket of a bucket loader

and precious Princess' sitting on the edge of said bucket

as well as face painting

and games for small children

including a fishing derby (her first I'm sure) oh T-T those aren't fish she is fishing for, they are, of course, ducks!  Silly T-T!

and finally it's time - the big event .... the bucket loader of ducks is on their way, with Police escort, mind you, to be put in the river about a mile down the road for their race!

 about 15 or 20 minutes later the first of them round the bend in the river

some get caught on the curves (yes, after the race is completed, someone comes along and gathers all those that made stops along the way!!)

Some travel in large groups ...

After the race is completed and the winners are announce and the prizes awarded, the booths packed up, the ducks bagged up and put away for next year, it is time to go to the playground

and practice climbing

and seeing if the old folks still know how to have fun on the big kid swings!  Yes, we still know how!

Now, since I have been so, shall we say lax about blogging .... here is a brief update.

We arrived at our volunteer position here at the Quechee State Park on May 23 and have been trying to adjust to it - not a difficult adjustment but an adjustment, the worst of which is that we have to "work" every weekend (not so good, in fact not good at all - we'd much rather be with our families when they are off for the weekend ...)

stay tuned for pictures and details of this chapter in our lives ...

trying to settle in

I will I will I will do a post soon - I PROMISE.  I loaded pictures some days ago and just haven't gotten to the text.

We are (well I am trying, Rick seems to be able to more easily) settling in to our volunteer/host position.

Be assured we are alive and well (and Marsha, we are no longer in Africa without electricity).

crazy, crazier, craziest

Yeah yeah yeah ... these pictures have been loaded waiting for accompanying text for nearly a month I'd guess!

I'd planned on adding a couple of  Easter festivities of grandchildren Connor (in NC) and Paige (aka Princess Muffin in NH) but didn't have the photos in jpeg and they were very poor quality so only Princess Muffin in the Easter bonnet she created and that won her the blue bunny she is hugging in the photo below.  She won for her age group in the local make your Easter bonnet contest!

We'd been in MA for five weeks (we left there a week ago today and have been in NH).  Most of the MA time was insanely crazy - with doctors appointments and meeting up with old friends and and family.  If nothing else, we did get a great deal accomplished and King Richard is waiting for his vision to complete the healing process from his two cataract surgeries that were done while we were in MA!  Amazing how "easy" and quick those surgeries were!  I am fairly certain that Sir Arlo constantly at his side helped as well in the recovery!

The weather for the most part of the last month and a half has been cold and rainy, and continues to be such.  Fortunately it was a gorgeous, perfect for running a half marathon day on May 1 when Chad ran in the Providence Marathon with Dreamfar (please note at the bottom of that website who designed and created it!) ~ the group he's been "mentoring" with.  One of the "kids" from Dreamfar is in the orange tank top just behind and to the right of him in the photo below.

Providence has always been one of my favorite small cities, and it was especially so on such a beautiful early spring day.  We used to enjoy going down for their Water Fires a couple times a summer and spending the weekend at a Marriott property overlooking the river.

The photo below shows the hurricane barriers along the Providence River in the "Fox Point" section of the city.

We will be leaving NH on Monday heading to VT to start our five month (oh dear five months) volunteer stint with the Vermont State Parks!

Stay tuned ...