A Walk in the Park

Just a few shots from this afternoon:

Craft Fair

On Saturday, there was an Arts & Crafts Festival at Trinity Church. Clara Lee had a booth and sold her fabric gift bags and children's picture game quilts. This was her first craft show ever, and her work was well received (and sold quite well).

Come to MAMA VII

MAMA is the Monadnock Area MINI Association. Yesterday was their 7th annual fall run for MINIs through the back roads of New Hampshire. We're not sure, but we think this was our fourth one, the first three with the Bumblebee. This year's tour started at an orchard, featured five covered bridges, and ended at the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT (just across the longest covered bridge in the U.S. from New Hampshire). The foliage was a bit past peak, but the weather was sunny and mild.

Mr. Toad was pleasantly surprised to meet a near twin at the orchard.

The graffiti is a bit classier in NH than in Springfield.

We stopped for lunch at Patch Park in Charlestown, NH.

It wasn't part of Come to MAMA, but the Simon Pearce factory is next door to Harpoon, so we made a brief visit. One of the craftsmen was demonstrating the creation of one of their pieces.

Monday with Maggie

Jeremy and Amanda both had to work today, and there was no child care due to the holiday, so CL and Jim volunteered to spend the day with Maggie. We all had fun.

Well, at least two of us did. Maggie looks a bit apprehensive here.

But she quickly warmed up.

And managed to survive until Mommy came home.

Fryeburg, ME

On Monday, we drove to Fryeburg, ME. We went now because the Fryeburg Fair was in progress. We also went to visit Marge and Jack and Emily, Dennis, and Connor (Jim's cousins and family). We spent most of Tuesday and Thursday morning at the fair (it rained on Wednesday), and we took a scenic drive home through northern New Hampshire.

To be or not to be:

The fair itself has all the standard midway attractions and plenty of food opportunities (more on this later from CL).

But it's all the agricultural and crafts exhibits that we really enjoy visiting.

This is he, but we didn't see him walking tall, walking, or even moving while we were there.

The little ones were a lot more active.

This was a fascinating sport we hadn't seen before -- lawn tractor pulling. The weight being pulled was several times that of the lawn tractor plus driver, and the tractors don't have locked or limited slip differentials. The driver gets traction by bouncing on the seat, and he gets several inches each bounce. The tracks show how far he's gone, in this case a full pull.

This goat (sheep?) apparently was so new that his factory wrapping was still in place.

I'm not sure I understand this

or this.

When we got back to Mr. Toad on Tuesday, he looked as if he'd been neglected for months, but this was just one day's deposit of needles.

A couple pictures of Emily and Dennis' house. It's getting difficult to come up with superlatives for the wonderful places we've stayed. This B&B offers wonderful hospitality, entertainment, and food (Dennis is known far and wide for his lasagna).

No idea where or who this is, but Mr. Toad likes to consider anywhere with twisties part of his acres.

The covered bridge is in Fryeburg; the other foliage pictures are from the Kancamagus Highway, Bear Notch Rd., or an unnamed road off Bear Notch.

All in all, a very good trip. We enjoyed the Fair and the time with family, and Mr. Toad enjoyed the mountain roads.