Wow - I haven't written anything since July 6 ?!?! Where has my lazy butt been?

Oh yeah - in NH, where I spend my summers in a cottage on a lake. There is no computer access there, which some might view as heavy withdrawal-which I welcome with open arms. I enjoy the entertainment and communications options one has with a computer, but not having one is also nice. It's good to take a break now and then.

It must be a well known fact by now that the weather normally reserved for Seattle WA as, instead, been assigned to the Northeast. It has rained about 20 inches in NH this Summer, while raining only 1/2 inch in Seattle. The mean temp seems to have been about 68 degrees F and the lake water has only recently begun to warm up to it's usual 78 degrees F.

Essentially, it has been a Summer of fishing, sailing, swimming (brrr) and maintenance projects, with a good sprinkling of shopping included. No. Conway, NH is a shoppers mecca, with virtually every national clothing sales place amply represented in the vast malls. I stay away from all this as much as possible while my wife enjoys the experience.

Here's a few pics which will explain why NH is our Summer time place of residence:

The camp, outside

The camp, inside

The lake

The Loons

This is quite interesting. Somehow, the loons arrange fishing parties which include loons from other lakes who fly in for the occasion. I don't know how they let each other know about this party, but I have seen up to 14 loons partying on a lake that has only 6 loons in residence. They corral the fish and feast on them, all the while playing and calling to each other. I took a video of the 9 I found this summer at YouTube - Loon fishing party . If you watch the whole thing, the first loon to leave the party takes off, running across the lake to get air-born, it's feet whacking the water as it goes.

The Sunset

The moon rise

We are now home for 2 weeks, after which we will go back off and on through October. It's a 3 season house, so there is no heat or water in the winter and the camp is shuttered up.

Now, I have apartments to clean and rent, so it'll be busy for the next couple of weeks. Today, and yesterday, it finally turned hot, but of course we are no longer near the lake to cool off. It often happens that way----