I do not have a following yet, and is it no wonder? Six months have gone by without one post. Since my last blog, during a frigid Connecticut winter, I have moved back to my home in Arkansas. It is August and quite the opposite of frigid. It is hot! A lot has happened since my last post.

Another snowfall blankets my neighborhood. I went for a short walk and captured these images.

This is down the street from where I live. It is a little library branch. I have been using this library since I was in first grade. The interior has changed very little since then. What I miss most are the beautiful oak  library card catalog drawers with brass handles. I learned how to find things alphabetically (looking up authors and titles of books) by sifting through the oaktag cards, one by one. When I was a kid, it was exciting when I would find the card I was looking for. The drawers were about three feet long!

Looking at this picture, I can almost smell that familiar musty scent…

Directly across the street from the tiny library is my elementary school. It was renovated and enlarged in the early 1990’s, but the original building was left intact. The front of the school barely resembles the school I attended from 1970-1975.

This church is a few hundred feet away from where I currently live. As a kid, I attended Brownies and Girl Scouts here. As a women, I got married here! Now, my husband and I walk to this church to attend service on Sunday mornings.

The house where mr. newenglander and I currently live. When I was 13, I began walking home from school with a boy who lived here. I became good friends with his parents and we have been friend for thirty years. When I expressed my desire to move back to CT in July 2008, they said, “Please move upstairs!” So we did.

My trusty van! I have put this van through a lot of traveling back and forth between Arkansas & Northern Maine, and Arkansas & Connecticut, too many times to recall. It has held up well. Chevy doesn’t make the Venture anymore. I can’t imagine why. Now, they make a similar van called an Uplander. Unfortunately, Chevy will only sell the Uplander to corporations in fleet (huge) numbers. When it is time to retire this van, I want an Uplander!

Northwest Arkansas gets cold in the winter. But, the ice storm that came the other day was not like any ordinary winter storm. It may have been the storm of the century! Who knows, since this century is still in its infancy.

Here are some photos, taken by mr. newenglander’s oldest son:

The part of Arkansas where my home is was not hit this hard. Northwest Arkansas is where the University of Arkansas and the Walmart headquarters are located (for those unfamiliar with Arkansas).

Click here to see more cool pictures from the same storm!

mr. newenglander and I thought long and hard about our decision to sell the house that we love so much. Unfortunately, we just don’t get up to northern Maine often enough, so the house sits empty most of the time.

It is such a nice house. I especially love the front porch. I enjoy eating out there and looking out the windows, where you can get a close-up view of New Brunswick, Canada. The house is on the Canadian border, in the Saint John River Valley.

One of the best things about the property is that there is lots of it! Part of it is forested. Part of the land includes a portion of the International ATV trail, running between the US and Canada. The trail is lined with raspberry bushes. mr. newenglander picks berries by the bucket!!  Here is a picture of the trail, on our property:

Snowmobile and ATV paradise!

Click here to see the house listing

I hope it sells before the summer arrives, but I will miss my beautiful cozy “cottage”.

I have twin boys. One of them is pictured in a previous post (the manhole picture).

Today, I spent time with the younger of the two. He is younger by one minute. He works on

his family’s farm and is among those in the fourth generation.

Farming isn’t all work and no play…..

Here is a picture of my twin boys’ great uncle. He is in the second generation of the farm.

His parents started the farm in 1914. He is 88 and is very healthy and strong.

He still works on the farm, mostly in the summer months.

My kids adore him and so do I.

Mounds and mounds of snow are everywhere! Snow keeps falling and the temperature stays below freezing between the storms. So… it just keeps piling up, snowfall after snowfall. After a while, one runs out of places to push it!

When I was young, my father would take my brother and I out to Burger King after our Saturday piano lesson. I looked forward to these weekly lunches. So, following in his footsteps, I took my son to Subway for a grinder and some quality conversation…

So much for quality conversation. He spent our time together texting his friends!

Today, I took some pictures of houses that I have always thought are beautiful.
New England is abundant with historic homes. Here are images of two homes in
Cheshire, CT.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/20/content_10692402.htm

Whether one voted for him or not, today we have a new president.

As Americans, I hope each of us will embrace this new president and will

respect his leadership.

This morning, on WTNH-Channel 8, an egg was cracked into a frying pan. The pan was placed on an asphalt parking lot. Within 5 minutes, it was frozen solid. While I was living in Arkansas, a meteorologist set an egg up for a similar demonstration. Of course, the result was different. Within five minutes, the egg fried. While I watched it this morning, the juxtaposition amused me.

For the past few weeks, this frigid climate has endured. The other day, I went outside for my morning walk. As I passed by my van, I was reminded just how cold it really was that morning.

Water slowly freezes to the ground

How else to describe this, but as a frozen water drip?

When I saw this, I almost decided to go back into the warm house and forget my walk!

When I returned from my walk, I put my scarf on the bed. A little while later, I saw my cat Emily napping with it.

At times, I can’t help but wish I were Emily. She gets to lounge around all day, has her every wish granted…and will never be expected to earn her keep.

I cherish my hometown.

How many moments can you recall having looked down a manhole in deep contemplation? That is exactly what my good friend (a.k.a. ex-husband) was doing the other day.

The handsome teen is our son. Father and son are the third and fourth generation of the family’s farm.