Art in the Park

This weekend was perfect weather to stroll an art show in a local park and that's what we did on Sunday.

The Greeley Park Art Show in Nashua, NH

The 73rd annual Greeley Art Show sponsored by the Nashua Area Arts Association was held in Greeley Park, Nashua, NH. This annual 2-day event is always held on the last weekend in August featuring work from local artists and from other New England states.

The Greeley Park stone house

This public park sits on 125 acres on property originally bought in 1801 by Joseph Greeley. In 1896, his grandson deeded the land to the City of Nashua 1896. In 1901, a local businessman donated $5,000 matched by city funds, to change the Greeley Farm into a public park. The monies were used to create a stone and cement rest house, fountain, shallow pond, gravel walk and flower beds. The park includes hiking trails, horseshoe pits, ball fields, tennis courts and a community garden.  

Some art on display at the Greeley Park art show

Over 50 artists exhibited their work throughout the weekend including painters, water colorists, woodworkers, photographers and mixed media artists. 

Ornaments and lamps crafted from old books

One of the most unique displays was this one which features various items including animal figures, snowmen, ornaments and lamps made from old books. The artist told me that after her mother-law-passed away, a couple thousand books were in her home and that these provided the material for this craft.

The weekend event featured live performances by area musicians such as Electrik Soul (above) as well as artist demonstrations, children's games and a raffle.

This year's exhibitors included painters, photographers, woodworkers, potters, water colorists and mixed media.

Woodworker Ronald Marcoux presented live demonstrations of his craft during the two-day show and was very animated in discussing his craft.

I've learned from previous art shows that while some artisans don't mind photos being taken of their work, others are much less accommodating and have even posted signage, no photos allowed. Unfortunately, there are some who would seek to copy another's work. Therefore, I don't linger too long or take many individual photos.

Hopefully, you had a good weekend for anything outdoors. 

Welcome to a new month.

A Fair Stroll

The post title is a play on words combining two events we attended this past weekend. Both were in New Hampshire; only one required a road trip.

Our first weekend event was the 68th Annual Canterbury Fair in Canterbury, NH, an hour's highway drive from Nashua. In the afternoon, we walked downtown for the 2026 Nashua Summer Stroll. Both of these family-friendly community events were free to attend.

Canterbury Town Center: United Community Church, post office and general store

The Town of Canterbury, named for William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, is located in the central part of New Hampshire bordering the State Capitol of Concord. The town is primarily rural with an active agricultural and farming community. The population, as of 2016, was under 2,500 residents. There's a small commercial area with direct access to Interstate 93, which is how we traveled there.

Town Center set up for annual fair

The Canterbury Fair is always held on the last Saturday in July. It includes a 5K run, artisan demonstrations and music performances. It's completely volunteer run and a great example of small town community involvement. Proceeds from the fair and food sales benefit the Canterbury Fund and community service programs of the Canterbury United Community Church including scholarships and use for family emergencies. 

Vintage Canterbury Fair poster & folks lined up for shuttle bus to town center

The fair previously received recognition as part of a National Geographic Society listing of outstanding attractions nationwide.

The What-Not Sale is always a very popular fair event

This was our first time attendance. We soon saw that a couple of events were long-time favorites. The most popular was the large What-Not tag sale featuring a lot of everything from antiques to household goods, toys and holiday decorations donated by town residents and others. Items were laid out end-to-end on large tables in the historic town hall. It was packed with shoppers as seen in the above photos.

The book and video sale was the second most popular event

The used book and video sale also attracted many book browsers and buyers. The sale was housed in a large old barn. Books were displayed by subject matter. I avoided the temptation to buy books after recently donating a bagful. That said, a DVD copy of Titanic made it home. We enjoyed re-watching it this weekend, having forgotten that it's a very long movie and less costly than when first seen in a movie theater.

Canterbury, NH, one-room schoolhouse was a primary school until 1956

Stepping back in time, we toured the interior of the town's one-room schoolhouse. Built in 1844, it served as a primary school until 1956. The restored red brick building operates as a living history exhibit that's managed by the Canterbury Historical Society. The society runs an immersive One-Room Schoolhouse program which lets students from Canterbury Elementary and surrounding towns experience a full school day circa 1887. 

Prescott piano in Canterbury one-room schoolhouse

Many early schools contained a piano for music and singing lessons. This one was built in New England by the Prescott Piano Company originally established as the Prescott Organ Company in Concord, NH, in the 1830s, Prescott built a line of American upright and grand pianos in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company originally catered to local schools, churches and parlors, manufacturing instruments specifically designed to withstand New England's seasonal humidity and temperature shifts.

Antique vehicles at Canterbury Fair

A notice of the fair included information on an antique auto display, unfortunately, there were only a handful of cars and tractors on display this year.

Main Street Nashua, NH (photo by Seth Dewey) before & during summer stroll

Later, Saturday afternoon on a perfect weather day, the 2026 Nashua Summer Stroll turned downtown Nashua's Main Street into a pedestrian-only event of art, live music, food, crafts and activities. 

The event include musical performances, boxing demos and ghoulish folks

The downtown stroll was sponsored by the Downtown Nashua Association and ran from 4 to 8 pm attracting hundreds of residents and visitors. There was a lineup of local musicians with musical performances on the corner of Main and East Pearl Streets throughout the afternoon and evening. 

Synthetic roller skating rink, chalk car painting and wall painting

Interactive attractions included a synthetic roller skating rink and wall painting. A local nonprofit group, Positive Street Art, hosted many of the art events and brought back last year's popular chalk car which members of all ages decorated.

Sunday Farmers Market in Renaissance Park, Nashua, NH

Downtown Nashua will be hosting a series of upcoming events before the end of the year, which seems to be coming up fast. Halloween decos have already been seen in local stores — way too soon! We're looking forward to these events: Coloring Main Street in September, the Main Street Monster Mash in October followed later by the Festival of Trees, Main Street Unwrapped, Plaid Friday and the annual Winter Stroll. The best part is that all of these are within walking distance of our home.

Hope that whatever you did this past weekend, it was good for you.

Renaissance on the Riverwalk

This heart provided a great photo opp over the weekend

We spent the Memorial Day weekend at home in Nashua, NH. Despite the cooler and often rainy weather there was a lot of activity going on adjacent to our apartment residence.

Residents and city visitors lined the new river walk on Memorial Day weekend

Last weekend marked a 4-day celebration, Renaissance on the Riverwalk, to celebrate completion of the river park, Le Parc de Notre Renaissance Française, known locally as Renaissance Park, and a new walkway along the Nashua River. 

The event, which was coordinated by the Downtown Nashua Association and the city’s Department of Economic Development, brought many residents and out-of-towners to the city for events that included live music shows, a duck race, craft vendors, outdoor yoga, petting zoo, drone show and kayak parade.

Musical entertainment was heard Friday & Saturday evening

Built along the Nashua River waterfront, the park includes a paved walkway, grassy areas, benches, a band shell with outdoor seating and a mural. 

This mill worker & son sculpture overlooks the river walk

La Dame de Notre Renaissance Française, the sculpture of a mill worker and her schoolboy son, remains the focal point of Renaissance Park. It was also in the former park and was protected all during the reconstruction roject.

Mill workers were the driving force behind the city's transformation from a farming village to a major industrial hub. Employed primarily by the former Nashua Manufacturing Company and the Jackson Manufacturing Company, these mainly female workers fueled New England’s textile boom for over a century.

An estimated 5,000 ducks were dumped from the Main Street bridge

The highlight of Saturday afternoon was the return of the Rubber Duck Regatta with 5,000 ducks dropped into the Nashua River from the Main Street bridge. This fundraiser had community groups, businesses, and organizations competing to adopt the most ducks. The first duck to cross the finish line earned $1,500 for their team’s cause.

Up to a dozen volunteers in kayaks collected ducks after the race

Once all the ducks were dropped, volunteers in kayaks helped wrangle the ducks and then collected them after the race completion.

Makeit Labs provided these permanent duck sculptures for the river walk

These duck sculptures were installed on the river walk last week and will be a permanent display (unlike the Love Nashua display). They were completed by Makeit Labs in Nashua, the state's first community workshop described as a volunteer collection of engineers, makers, hackers, inventors and tinkerers who enjoy building cool things.

This new river walk mural was dedicated during weekend events

A new 70-foot-long mural along the north wall of the Water Street Bridge facing the Riverwalk shows highlights of the city's history. Students from Nashua high school helped artist Graham Carraway paint some of the mural. 

Some of the mural highlights include tributes to baseball, movie theaters and wildlife on the river. The Nashua Arts Commission hopes it will be a popular spot to socialize and take pictures.

The new riverwalk mural shows parts of Nashua's history

The 1948 Nashua Dodgers were the Class-B minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. They competed in the New England League and home games were played at Holman Stadium in Nashua, which today features summer collegiate baseball teams.

Downtown Nashua was once home to several single-screen venues that operated throughout the 20th century (State Theatre, Star Theatre, Tremont Theatre, Daniel Webster Theatre, Brandt Theatre and Nashua Mall Cinema). In 1896, the Nashua Theatre on Elm Street was the site of the first movie shown in the city. Today, none of these movie houses remain.

The fleur-de-lis in this egret mural is a nod to French mill workers

The Nashua River hosts a wide variety of marine life including geese, ducks, otters, herons, seagulls and turtles. This past week, a lone swan was seen on the river.

Lighted kayak parade on the Nashua River

Once the Saturday activities ended after sunset, kayaks and small boats floated downstream on the Nashua River decked out with lights and colorful decorations, before pulling off to the shoreline to take in the drone show, which started promptly at 9 p.m.

A colorful drone show capped Saturday's festivities

But, the evening's highlight was a lighted drone show over the river concurrent with the lighted kayak parade. The drone show was coordinated and staged by Sky Elements Drone Shows, which is the largest drone light show provider in the U.S. This first-time Nashua event was a huge hit producing the largest crowds of the weekend.

The drone images above depict Clocktower Apartments (formerly Nashua Manufacturing Company) and one of several mill towers in the area.

The Riverwalk is the new location for the weekly Sunday Farmers Market, which will continue through October with a rotating list of vendors. Unfortunately, rain on Monday morning cancelled the annual Memorial Day Parade.

Jazz guitarist & singer John Pizzarelli at Nashua Center for the Arts

We capped off the weekend by attending a show at the Nashua Center for the Arts featuring jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli with a musical tribute to the late Tony Bennett.

We couldn't resist a photo opportunity 

Being at home in Nashua, NH, was the best way to spend the Memorial Day weekend. Better yet, it was within steps of our apartment.

De-Bridging in Nashua

We will be traveling by the time this update is posted about local goings on and there has been quite a lot of projects in the City of Nashua, NH, especially near the Clocktower mill apartments.

This is what greeted us earlier this week as we sat by the window enjoying breakfast. It wasn't an everyday sight for sure. Can you figure out what this is? 

Here's a couple of views showing exactly we saw at the window — Yes, a large crane.

Piling were driven into the river bed to check how far down to the river bottom. This project is  being done to replace the wooden bridge seen in the above lower left photo and below.

The bridge is behind the mill apartments and the City of Nashua is coordinating the work which is necessary as the wood is deteriorating. Years ago when the former mill, Nashua Manufacturing Company, was in operation the area below the bridge was an outflow for the water that powered the mill. Today, the bridge receives heavy regular usage from recycling and trash removal trucks, seasonal plows and auto traffic, all of which place more stress on the old wooden timbers. 

Work started earlier this week and it has been interesting to look down and check the progress of the workmen. We have a direct view of the bridge from our apartment windows.

This mother Mallard led her seven ducklings away from the river construction site. This was the first Mallard family we've seen on the river this summer. 

However, we have seen many families of Canada Geese this summer in various stages of growth.

There's been a lot of crane activity around the mill neighborhood. A couple of months ago these cranes were used for renovations in Le Parc De Notre Renaissance Français, the small pocket park that's adjacent to the mill apartments on Water St.

In recent weeks, the cranes have left and this photo shows the current state of renovations at the park. The building with the curved roof seen above in front of Clocktower Place will serve as an outdoor amphitheater for musical concerts and other events. The built-in seating that surrounds it is all concrete and bring-your-own seat pads and/or blankets will be needed for comfortable seating.

There's another small park area being developed along Main Street. The top half of the above collage is an architectural image of how the area below is expected to look once renovations are done. The white arrow points to a walkway that will lead from the pocket park.

When completed, the walkway will continue alongside a Main Street restaurant and become an extension of what is called the river walk. According to local officials, the park projects are anticipated to be done by year end.

Unfortunately we will miss watching the progress of these projects for the next 12 days. That's because by the time this is posted, we will be far away in — Alaska. This land-sea cruise (my first) is a pre-celebration of our 🥂 anniversary later this month. As we opted to skip the very costly onboard wi-fi package, posts about our adventures will likely be delayed until our return.