Bogieblog

It's All About Me

I've been pretty busy last weekend and yesterday. Most times when I'm busy, it is doing stuff for work a=or doing stuff at the house, but not this time. I didn't take pictures, but others caught me, so I'll share.

I have a friend, "WelderDave" from the Firewood Hoarders Club who is moving from NJ to NH. They are doing it the slow way - they bought land near Keene last spring and are in the process of clearing the land. Then in the next one-two years they will build. Last weekend they came up and let the FHC know so some of us went to help. I went for several hours on Friday, others went up the other days.

That is one of the 3 brush piles we stacked up and they will hire someone to come in and chip it up.  There are 3 stacks of wood, and that is a short stack (other FHC members are taking that for their wood stoves). Another forum member from Maine is to the left, WelderDave in the middle and his wife is taking the picture.

Then the next day, there was a dinner cruise on the Mt. Washington. The HOG Chapter decided to do the cruise instead of the annual Christmas party. Bonus, one of our members drives school busses and was able to get one, for cost of gas, and a bunch of us met at the Harley dealer so we all didn't have to navigate thru the Weirs crowded boulevard. Bus left at 3pm and we got back to the dealership around 9pm.

Yesterday was the Scarecrow ride with the Chapter. People in the town of Chester, NH really go all out putting up different scarecrows. Go to link to see pictures from their Historical Society. I don't go on many Chapter rides, but after going on last year's Scarecrow ride, decided I couldn't miss it this time.

This was a rest stop. When I started out for the dealership to meet everyone, it was 42* so I had heated gear on beneath my leathers. It did get up in the mid 50's, but a lot of our riding was on shaded roads, so it was still nice to have on low heat during the ride.

Everyone on a Chapter ride gets a raffle ticket and I won! As one guy (the photographer) said, "sure, the person that doesn't drink wins the drink holder!"

Here are just a few of the 18 participants on the ride. Most sat inside, but we decided not to take all the inside tables and I sat with people that I don't usually interact with  (in fact, I could only tell you the name of the lady in the back left corner and the photographer (who was sitting next to her).

To end, here are a couple of pictures I took from the Mt. Washington cruise

Maples are Strutting their Stuff

In 2017 I planted 3 maples that should be colorful. All the maples in the back yard are of a type that go yellow then brown in a short time and never look really pretty, so I wanted some that would give the reddish color that New England maples are so famous for. Last year, the Burgundy Belle was a bust and I didn't even bother taking pictures of it. The Autumn blaze was more brownish, but the October Glory gave some really good color.

This year, October Glory has yet to even start turning, but the Burgundy Belle is putting on a nice show

And Autumn Blaze is too

October Glory is waiting until Late October apparently - at least I'll have something to post in a couple of weeks :)

A Couple of Warm Kitties

Out of all my cats (I've had 5 at this house), this is the first time any have been interested in jumping up onto the pellet stove for the warmth. The stove had finished cycling and had been off for about 1/2 an hour when Spot jumped up there Friday morning while watching me feed the birds. I also saw her up there yesterday after the stove had shut down, so it wasn't a one-time deal.

And then yesterday morning, I saw Rainey jump onto the hammock in the cat pen shortly after the stove started. The cat pen is currently situated along the air stream from the stove.

Fall Foliage 2019

Thursday I took Rita to the vet for some issues (she is okay, or at least we can't find anything wrong and she is rebounding). The drive to Peterborough is along a nicely scenic Rt 202, despite the heavy overcast, so on the way back I stopped a couple of times to take pictures.

My first stop was just a couple miles from the vet at a Peterborough dam on the Contoocook river

This Russian Olive is at the place I parked to get the dam pictures. Yes, it is an invasive non-native species, but has very pretty berries.

These next 2 pictures were in Greenfield and you can tell I stopped in the breakdown lane.

These next 3 were in Bennington along the Contoocook River. There is a "boat launch" just large enough for canoes and kayaks, so I stopped there to take pictures of an island in the river

And the far bank was looking pretty nice too. Too bad I just had my phone and not my camera as I couldn't zoom enough to really get the impact.

This is ome autumn dressed fungus at home :)

Autumn Crocus Happenings

Yesterday morning was our first real frost and the coldest morning of the season at 32* (same temp so far this morning). This picture of the Giant Autumn Crocus was taken yesterday afternoon.

The Saffron crocus (croci?) are beginning to send up shoots. I see 2 shoots in the picture, but there were several more in the planter.

12,000

Yesterday, I rolled 12k on the car - which I've had since late December. I use the Explorer for winter driving, hauling and most weekend errands and have about 6k miles on it since the beginning of the year. I have about 2,500 miles on the bike for other commuting miles this season (that does not count pleasure rides - just to work and meetings), so yeah, I put a little time and miles on my butt going to and fro :O