mwvhistoryblogdraft

Astronomical Autumn began on Sept 22 this year. These photos were taken around that time to document the progress of this year's fall foliage.  The color began creeping in slowly around mid-September. It can start with a single leaf or a handful of leaves on an otherwise green tree. It seems to start in the swamps and stressed trees along the road.  Here you can see what I call a "bellwether" tree.  While this tree has almost entirely cloaked itself in its autumn attire, the rest of the trees in the photo have not even begun the process.  A wether is a castrated male sheep. The term "bellwether" refers to the dominant sheep fitted with a bell around its neck that leads the flock. The bell tells the shepherd where the flock is heading. The term then refers to something that helps predict where things are going. Notice that the tree above already has a good start on a fluffy bed of leaf drop to help facilitate our annual Snoopy and Charlie Brown ritual.  You rake,...

The Conway Public Library has reunited four paintings of local covered bridges for the first time in ten years.  Each of the paintings depicts a local historic bridge during a different season: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  For a driving tour to visit the site of each of the four bridges follow this link  here .  Three of the paintings are on loan courtesy of Sut and Margaret Marshall and one is on loan from Kennett High School. The Summer painting was presented to Kennett High School on July 25, 2015 from the Kennett High School Alumni Association, Class of 1965, as part of their 50th reunion. The bridges were painted by Conway artist Ernest O. Brown in 1970-71 for the now closed White Mountain National Bank in North Conway.  They were originally displayed on the walls of the branch bank in Conway and later at the main office in North Conway. After the bank changed owners the four paintings were lost until 2015 when Charles Kilgore of Nashua NH acqui...