Family Is The Best!

 I have relatives in New Hampshire, some of my most favorite people ever. When I mentioned that I was going to be in the neighborhood, a grand plan was put in play. We are going to have a Cousin Reunion!!

First though, I moved up to Milford, New Hampshire. A tiny little town in southern NH. I am camped in a field next to Trombly Gardens. Trombly is a small nursery and has incredible pastries and ice cream. Every night before closing, the line for ice cream went all the way across the parking lot. My brother Kevin and his wife Barb flew in from Minnesota a couple of days early and met up with me. We decided to spend a day at Andres Institute Sculpture Park, which is New England's largest outdoor sculpture park. There are miles of trails spread out on more than 140 acres. What we did not know was that the park is on an old ski area. As a consequence, it seemed to me that most of these trails were uphill. Every year, they invite 3-7 sculptors to come here and sculpt a piece. There are more than 100 sculptures from 40 different countries.

Souls of Peace
Gerard Motondi
Kenya

Temporal
Finn Cossar
Australia

Once you climb to the top of the park, you have this view.

Dinner on the patio overlooking the Souhegan River

Haven't had a sunset picture for a while

We also went up to Manchester, an old milltown and toured the Millyard inside an old textile mill. The Currier Museum of Art was a lot of fun. We were able to hear a concert by the Manchester Choral Society. Their spring concert was called “Considering Matthew Shepard”. If you know the story of Matthew Shepard then you know that there were tears involved.

Marble Madonna
Ann Agee
Porcelain Slip on Stoneware (no marble involved)

Siddharta Gautama
Faig Ahmed
This is woven carpet - amazing!

While we were day-tripping (just one day), a robin built a nest under my slide. 
I don't know what I would have done if there were eggs in there. 
Spend the summer in New Hampshire?

Finally the big day arrived. It was time to get together with the cousins. Two of my brothers(and wives) flew in from Minnesota and a cousin flew in from New Mexico. There are ten of our cousins in this branch of the family and we had seven show up. How great is that? One of the cousins, Tom, has a lake place on Little Squam Lake, a very upscale lake. It is the place where the rich folk from Boston come to summer. Tom took us on the Rattlesnake hike which gave us great views of the lakes. It was a most marvelous time.

Squam Lake

Cousins, Brothers, In-Laws and Me!