This gorgeous autumn view exploded upon me as I turned to leave
the "private opening" of the Canterbury Shaker Village gift shop
on Friday, returning to purchase this hand made black birch
cat's head basket, below, that I had seen in September.
This was definitely a pleasure, but what led me there
was more lamp filling and fun, because . . .
. . . it involved a watched-for opp to take Chick-Fil-A lunches
from the closest restaurant in Merrimack to the Canterbury
Sisters (nearly to Loudon; Sister Omer assigned to Korea,
and Sister Tuttle assigned to French Tahiti). Driving from
where their apartment is in north west Concord over surface
roads to Canterbury presented new vistas of colorful autumn
country side, adding a white steeple and a cemetery to
my collections (cemeteries will be discussed next weekend).
Another major source of filling our lamps this week came with
news that the Blackhams will arrive into mission boundaries
toward the end of this week. It will be comforting and
so much fun to have another Senior couple here!
We also celebrated Elder Emmett's birthday.
(Elders Wells, Emmett, Allison, T. Smith & Warner)
Today, October 18, 2020 is a memorable day because it
is Vince's birthday, and a milestone one at that
(THINK: threshold for aging benefits).
I want to honor him here for the many ways he blesses my life
along with his contributions to NHMM mission and experiences.
I WOULDN'T be here without him (convincing me to serve), but
he COULDN'T be here without me (senior couples come together).
* * * * *
Below is the photo he could see in mind's eye. Making
a plan, he invited me to come as he looked to find it.
Over a parking lot perimeter barrier, through small woods,
tramping on newly-fallen leaf carpet to the neighborhood road
(we now know how to drive here), edging out to bank's edge,
Vince ambled to a place on the Merrimack River near
where we now live to see the colorful tree in reflection.
He's proven himself quite creative in his own spheres!
Vince's humor in [nearly] every situation is probably why
I was attracted to him as a co-ed. He certainly has used that
attribute sans cesse here in the mission field.
This image is from an autumn 2019 hike up the hills
near Goffstown, NH. Caption:
My rock-it man -- holding up the world for me!
While waiting in Lehi, Vince found this historic sign online,
and it was among the very first "sights" we hunted down
once arriving in Manchester.
It's his birthday - so I didn't disturb his wish to sleep in!
Making the bed together is the usual early bone of contention
we share. But yesterday, he finished up alone, and left me
this cute smiley face token to see when I returned with groceries.
(Dual lavender sachet eyes, sticky note nose, and
heat therapy corn bag grin.)
Through these posts, I have shown many of Vince's activities
to inject humor. In his Vehicle Coordinator job, he has a
multitude of chances to reach out to urge compliance.
Here is a selfie he took to email, expressing how rough
his life might become if the missionaries don't get
monthly vehicle reports turned in on time.
Self-styled as an "amateur entomologist" before his call,
he has lovingly been labeled as "The Bug Man".
This is the beetle (now dead and mounted) that was captured
and brought to him at the Mission office in a shoe box.
The walking stick "generations" have already been documented.
The young missionaries regularly refer to bugs -- or
creatures "like unto" them -- in their communiques',
as was this salamander, an accompanying photo from
Elder Sears, sent in recently.
Vince became enthralled immediately with the colorful birds
that we encountered landing on our deck or feeding at his feeder
in Goffstown, or . . .
. . . Manchester (near Hooksett). This blue jay, above,
is a mature male and this one, below is immature.
Nice to think that time spent here has yielded enough
familiarity to recognize their harsh call and know when
they are flying close.
Cardinals have been a special sort of challenge,
and he took to "baiting" them with peanuts,
and setting up a blind inside the sliding door with camera posed.
Here is a female, and here . .
. . . is the male.
Vince has been the force behind many of our adventures in NE,
including a bumpy, ocean spray-filled, 'three-hour tour' out of
Booth Bay Harbor (ME) to see the puffins!
(Yep - this is as NEAR as we got, and they are
quite small even when CLOSE by.)
So I'm tagging this narrative about the animal kingdom
onto my tribute to Vince, because he DOES enjoy the variety.
Following is a catalog of many types from multiple locales.
We've stopped at - and have seen even more - cemeteries
in our drives. I include this image here, because what first
appeared to be clever funerary art, that is -- the bird of prey
on this Romanesque stone monument -- turned out to be
made of feathers and bones, and flew away a moment later!
Made me think of a Utah Shakespeare Festival production of
Pirates of Penzance where the recumbent tomb-topping knight
that was part of stage scenery and props eventually
climbed down to dance and sing, startling the audience!
In the Butterfly Garden house at the Maine Botanical Gardens
near Boothbay, the host told me how my good luck was assured
when I had this specimen land on my shoulder!
We haven't seen a moose 'in the wild' here yet, but this
is the carved trekker viewable in the visitors' center
at Franconia Notch Stake Park (NH).
Thought I saw a bear near NH114 navigating on the berm
between highway barriers, but we passed too quickly to be sure.
A sign, like this one, on the way to Sharon VT, always prompts
a Vince joke about how the DOT was warning the wildlife!
(Who left off the colon?)
Old Sturbridge Village features a farmland community,
so no surprise that we viewed farmhouse chickens . . .
. . . cows and calves in fenced fields, both in town, and . . .
. . in long-view pastures . . .
. . . and a ram within arms' reach of a straw band
weaving interpreter in town.
We occasionally glimpsed deer herds in the wild, but this one,
below, is stone-carved from Millstone Trail wall, in VT.
For squirrels, 2019-20 have been years of abundance,
and so the humans have seen them everywhere.
Here, this gray is deciding if I'm a menace, as I stroll
along the main street sidewalk in Old Deerfield.
Mallards near a river's edge - Vince can't resist.
Snake on the trail around Walden Pond.
Well-camouflaged woodland toad uptrail from Enfield, NH.
We chuckled at this roadway sign near Lake Champlain
in VT, but the roadway-crossing turtle I DID see . . .
. . . was at the margin of St. Anselm's Drive in Goffstown.
(I admit I worried about him, and walked back later,
expecting to see a smear that would inform my worst fears,
but he apparently made it all the way to safety in the grass.)
Other creatures we saw won't be pictured here:
horses (domestic and draft), falcons and hawks,
chipmunks, various fish and insects, and lots of dogs!
* * * * *
Hidden but ever-present are the wild turkeys.
Easy to side with those opposing Ben Franklin's proposition
that this become the National Bird - they can seem rather ugly.
A flock, below, was pushed from the woodlands surrounding
Manchester chapel property after a torrential rain last month,
and have come onto the tarmac to sun themselves and dry
their feathers, hence the strutting and spreading in this video.
(Listen quickly - the gobbling comes right at the start!)
All things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
The Lord God made them all.
Words by Cecil F. Alexander, female poet who included
these words in a children's Christian hymnal.
We know that the animal kingdom is a blessing
from our Savior Jesus Christ, Maker of this world.
Praying for eyes to continue to see earth's blessings
all around, even during a period of blight!
(Just three more postings to go!)
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