What's Happening Here

Posting about places we've gone to on road trips is fun, but here's what's been happening at home in Nashua, NH. (There will be a few more posts about our recent anniversary road trip.)

On Monday, there was a parade down Main Street in observance of Memorial Day. It's never a long parade and participants included high school and middle school marching bands, boy scouts, veterans groups, and (of course) politicians. Attendance was surprisingly larger than in previous years spoken from our experience in attending the annual Memorial and Veterans Day parades.

The nearby town of Hudson, NH, has its annual flag display on the town square which we passed by several times last week. It will stay up through the July 4 holiday, hopefully escaping any gusty winds.

Nashua is the only city in the U.S. that hosts an annual international sculpture symposium. This year, sculptors are representing the U.S., Israel, Poland, and Iran.

Work is continuing on four sculptures that will be placed in and around the city with completion set for this weekend. The materials in use are marble and granite. Onlookers are invited to watch the sculptors. They are working outdoors at the Picker Artists studios, an artisan cooperative of nine artists in 12 studios that's within walking distance of the mill apartments. (Spoiler Alert: A future post will have more information on the Nashua symposium.)

It seems that spring took quite a while getting to Nashua, NH, however, within the past few weeks, flowers have been blooming in the garden at Le Parc de Notre Renaissance Française (informally called the French Park or Renaissance Park) near the mill apartments.

This public garden is tended to by neighbors on our apt floor. Their gardening efforts are appreciated by everyone who spends time here. More flowers will be in bloom in a few weeks.

These beauties were in bloom around the mill apartment grounds within the past few weeks.

A definite sign of warmer weather is the increase in Canada Goose on the Nashua River. This week, there were several families with 3 to 6 goslings in each. Watching them is entertaining as the young ones practice flight maneuvers on the river. However, the presence of so many often makes walking an exercise in dodging substantial droppings along the river walk. 

Unfortunately, many people toss bread products, as unhealthy for goose as for humans. Geese consistently fed bread become malnourished, filling up on junk food and neglecting natural food sources. Extreme cases can lead to a condition known as angel wing which can leave the birds unable to fly. For anyone tempted to offer food, better choices are birdseed, lettuce or other greens, foods just as nutritious for humans.

An evening of severe downpours resulted in this colorful sunset across the Nashua River. The building is Lofts 34 another apartment building that's not connected with the mill apartments.