Cemetery Seens

Today's the day when ghosts and goblins and other things that go bump in the night are thought to be out. Grenville and I won't be tempting fate. We plan to remain at home tonight watching our favorite 🎃 films, Beetlejuice and The Addams Family. (Comedy is our preference as we're not into Halloween slasher movies, like Friday the 13th.)

But last week on an overcast and very dreary day, I explored a Nashua, NH cemetery that's about 2 miles from our mill apt residence. It wasn't to look for spirits, and thankfully none appeared. My purpose was to do shoot B&W white scenes using various exposures and an overcast day seemed ideal.

Edgewood Cemetery is one of the city's oldest burial sites. Some headstones date to the early 1800s, and many were topped over perhaps due to age or, worse yet, vandalism.  

While they hadn't collapsed (yet), these headstones, and others, were leaning rather precariously.

Many of the trees here are as old, most likely older, then the headstones. And like the headstones shown above, many of the older trees were not doing well.

Some trees had already fallen and the stump was left in place. 

Other trees were hosts for various fungi, which were really quite intricate, despite my macro shots not being as sharp as possible.

While I don't know the term for the way this tree has expanded, it was an interesting subject. (Please leave a comment, if you do know.) 

Can you see the face in this tree trunk? 

Despite the cemetery being a large one, there was a single mausoleum which bore the family name of Anderson. So I did a bit of online sleuthing and learned that, in 1885, Frank Anderson co-founded a large Nashua shoe factory that stretched an entire city block. The factory was sold in 1912 and an Indiana casket company from the town of Batesville took over the plant. Today, that building houses Palm Square Residences.

After Anderson's 1925 death, his widow approached city and cemetery officials with an offer to present a stone chapel to Edgewood Cemetery in her husband's memory. The chapel sits atop a rise in the Northwest end of the cemetery. Last year, the 83-year old building received a $100,000 make-over, a gift from a local family in memory of their son.

As stated, while I didn't see anyone else, living or otherwise, during my outing, it was time to leave after spotting these headstones. There's no need to tempt fate.

However, you're spending Halloween, keep a lookout 👀 for any 👻 spirits, as 💀 it's their day to celebrate.

Happy 🎃 Halloween

Downtown Nashua Scarecrows

Seasonal scarecrows are hanging around downtown Nashua, NH, and they're really hanging since all are suspended from downtown lamp posts. Some are more creative, others not so much. Many of those on display seem rather haphazardly assembled. 

A scarecrow is defined as an object, usually made to resemble a human figure, that's set up put in a field to scare birds away from where crops are growing. It's also described as a very badly dressed person who is odd-looking, thin or frightening, but harmless. Some of this year's displays fit those definitions quite well. 

We notice there were fewer scarecrows than in recent years with a total of 30 this year. There was a definite scarcity of creations from schools, which had previously been active participants. 

The powers-that-be management here at the mill apts opted out this year. In the past 2 years only a handful of residents, myself and Grenville included, volunteered to help with the project, so lack of interest may have been the reason. Perhaps that was the case with other groups too.

These seasonal works of art are crafted by local businesses, organizations, schools and non-profit groups. There's online voting for the top three winners, without any actual prizes just "bragging" rights.

The wood body and burlap head are provided to all participating groups, which then add the creative touches. These two entries has very little embellishments to the wood frame. Oddly, the one on the right below was the entry of a local art group. 

Many scarecrows, like these two feature-less and colorful entries, had no labels to ID the participating groups.

My personal favorite was this pumpkin scarecrow posted on the lamp post near a downtown brewery. While this wasn't a contender, it was the best downtown scarecrow.

Does your town or community have any seasonal decorations? 

Savannah Is In NJ

Yes, there's a city by that name in GA, but our family has a Savannah in NJ.

Two weeks ago, a post announced the arrival of our first great niece, Autumn Rose. Last week, Savannah Marie, our second great niece (and Autumn's cousin) made her fall debut. 

These photos of newborn Savannah were sent by her mom, Jamie. 

The two cousins share some things: both were born in NJ on a Tuesday, both arrived with a headful of dark hair, and their moms are sisters. Savannah was a lightweight at 6 lb. 7 oz. 

Savannah Marie is now home with her parents, Jamie and Mike. We'll see them all when we visit our native NJ to see family and friends during the Christmas holidays. 

But, first we'll meet Autumn Rose at Thanksgiving. She's doing well and shown below with her first-time grandparents (my brother and his wife) and mom, Julie.

These two little girls were the best fall arrivals in our family this year.

Welcome to the family, Savannah Marie 💜

Friday Funnies

Saw this display at a local supermarket recently.

Who knew that mayonnaise was cage free?

Of course, I know this refers to chicken eggs used to make the product, but the wording seemed an odd choice. Sure glad that mayo wasn't fenced in.

Enjoy Your weekend, Everyone.

Downtown Duck Derby

A river of 5,000 yellow rubber ducks floated downstream in Nashua, NH, last Saturday.
They weren't bathtub escapees.This was a planned fundraising event.

The 2nd Annual Duck Derby was sponsored by the Nashua Rotary Club. Right on schedule, the yellow flotilla was released dumped into the Nashua River near our mill apt residence. We joined the gathered crowds to cheer on the silent race entrants. 

Duck contestants raced floated an estimated 500 feet to a duck barrier near the Main Street bridge. There, duck wranglers snagged the first ducks to reach the finish line. The top three won cash prizes for their adoptees.

Days before the duck derby, volunteers put waterproof numbered tags on the bottom of all 5,000 entrants. The names of those who adopted ducks were entered into a database which had the person's name and number of ducks adopted. Tag numbers were randomly assigned by computer. According to race officials, this was to ensure that: "no ducks were on steroids and that the race was not fixed."

There was no official announcement of the winning time, and the total race time was under 15 minutes.

Duck adoptees didn't get to keep the winning or losing duck(s). That's because after the derby, all ducks were collected and expected to travel to their next race somewhere in the U.S. Laundry baskets worked quite well for the collection efforts.

Funds raised from the duck derby will go to support various local non-profit organizations and activities. When we lived in VA, this was an annual summer fundraiser sponsored by Eastern Shore Hospice. It's a fun and popular way to raise needed funds. No ducks were injured in the race.

Cracking Down on Spam

To me this means checking published blog comments daily to read "legitimate" ones left by fellow bloggers. All of these are read and appreciated. 

What's not appreciated and so annoying is to find a lot of spam comments on recent or previous posts. Several recent ones have been left by spammers using names of the Oxford School and Unknown. 

What can be done?

My suggestion is to — Check published comments regularly. When spot a spam comment is found, click the box to the left of the comment, then select Spam at the top. 

Next, look for Spam (it's under Comments) and delete all the comments marked as Spam. This will remove them completely from the affected blog post(s).

Will this stop spammers?  

Most likely it will not, and it could even cause an increase in unwanted spam. 

But, I will definitely continue to be diligent about deleting all unwelcome spam.

How about you — any spam deletion methods to share with fellow bloggers?

Friday Funnies

This RV conversion has to be one of the most unusual ones seen on the roadway. It was sent by friends, who live in Oregon, and was seen on their cross-country trip.

It looks like that RV has a lot of other repair work going on too.

Enjoy Your weekend, Everyone.

We'll be enjoying Art Walk events here in Nashua, NH.

Going Batty . . .

We've been going batty every time we leave or enter our apartment. Here's WHY . . .

The bats flew in over the weekend thanks to our next door neighbors. This isn't the first time they've decorated the door. Last March, they placed shamrocks all over our door. 

Quite possibly, this latest add-on was "pay-back" for the pumpkins, scarecrows and fall decos we put outside their entry a couple of weeks ago. Yes, those are mini pumpkins growing in the tree. Wait until the Christmas decorating season arrives; we'll have lots more decorating fun.

YIKES! it's already here as shown by displays in a local store last week. Earlier, fellow CT blogger, JP, posted that she saw Christmas items in a Walmart there. Most likely FL blogger, Sandra (Madsnapper) has also seen them in the Walmart she frequents.

At the Dollar Tree store, the Halloween and Thanksgiving fall decos had been condensed to make room for the expanding Christmas displays. In the coming weeks,it will only intensify. Sadly, there's nothing like merchandisers rushing the holidays much earlier each year.

Are holiday decorations already on display in stores where you live ?

Vintage Cars in Downtown

Far too often it's been said that they don't build things like they used to and, while that applies to so many things today, it certainly applies to vintage automobiles like these.

This past Sunday, a local church sponsored a car show to honor one of its long-time members, Harvey Shaw, an avid "car guy" who died in 2018.

Shaw was the owner and principal mechanic for over 20 years of an automotive center in Lowell, MA. He collected and restored antique cars, showed them and won numerous national competitions with a 1967 Shelby Cobra and 1956 Mercury Monterey. He was well known in area car groups according to show organizers. 

Two blocks of downtown Main St. in Nashua, NH, were closed off to traffic for over 2 hours on Sunday allowing visitors to check out a variety of vintage and not-so-vintage cars. The show wasn't restricted to a specific type of car and the only "requirement" was that owners bring "interesting cars." Show cars included 70s muscle cars, European and American sports cars, Ford Model A's, and cars dating from the 1930s through the 1950s

The weather cooperated with no rain, lots of sunshine, and temps in the mid-60s as Grenville and I and others looked at nearly over 50 cars. For some owners, it was their first time showing a  restored car. No pre-registration was required and owners were permitted to bring their cars the day of the show and pay the entry fee.

We are not avid vintage car enthusiasts, but always enjoy going to these shows, which most times are free to spectators. Grenville usually always talks to some many of the owners who are always more than willing to chat about their vehicles. A restoration is definitely a labor of love and these owners welcome talking about their "baby."

All the shows at the show had already been fully restored with this lone exception, a vintage DeSoto. The owner told us that he had recently purchased it "as is" and expected to spend quite awhile working on it. Maybe we'll see the finished results at a future show?

This show was a free event for spectators. Participating car owners were charged a $10 early entry fee and $15 day of show fee. Show proceeds will fund activities of local agencies serving Nashua and surrounding communities.

Friday Funnies

No bones about it, this motley group of characters was seen at the Home Depot store here recently. While we can't image spending $$ on these, some folks must do so.

Others just lost their heads or carried a couple extras..

It's getting close to that day in just about 3 weeks, when all this madness stops (we hope).

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone.

Thanks to ALL for the comments on a post about the arrival of our first great niece, Autumn Rose, They were read and appreciated by her parents as well (we shared them).

Autumn Has Arrived

No, I'm not talking about the season in this post, but the very happy arrival of our great niece, Autumn Rose. Her name is appropriate to the season. Fall will be a special season for this family as her parents recently celebrated their wedding anniversary this month.

Autumn made her debut in NJ late Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 7 lb. 2 oz. She has a full head of dark hair (like her parents) and, from what we heard a great set of vocals too. 

These photos were sent by her mom, Julie, who was exhausted after many hours of labor (more photos to come later). New dad, Michael, and daughter are in the photo below.

She's too young to know that her middle name, Rose, was chosen in memory of her late grandmother, my mom, who had the same middle name, and was named Clara Rose. 

Autumn Rose is our first grand niece, and also the first grandchild on both sides of the family. Below are her maternal grandparents (left) and paternal grandparents (right).

Coincidentally, her cousin, Savannah Marie, is due to arrive later this month when Julie's sister, Jamie, gives birth. My brother and SIL will become grandparents for the second time in the same month and we will have a second grand niece to celebrate.

Grenville and I will meet this newest family member in less than 6 weeks when family gathers in Lancaster, PA to celebrate Thanksgiving together.

Welcome to the family, Autumn Rose 💜