Our Mini trip!

We arrived back home just before lunch time this afternoon. I’m rather tired after being up late and not sleeping too well. Yesterday was quite interesting and I learned so much. Not just about fruit production, but vegetables, and the trials and tribulations of fungus’s, winter kill and insect damage. I was really interested in all but one of the presentations, and learned quite a bit about the vegetables I have in my garden.
The conference was held at the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield, New Hampshire.

At the conference they had two sessions in the morning, one on marketing. The second was on how to keep birds and pests away from your fruit trees and the garden. All in all, the best way is to net the cherry tree. But, the man speaking was really good and very funny as well, which made his time fly by, at the podium!
At noon we went into recess and adjourned to the main dining hall where they had a buffet lunch. Mostly it was salad or sandwich fixings, and coffee, tea or iced tea. They also served home-made chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Rain seemed to plague us all day long, and at one point walking back to the conference hall, I was taking a picture and it started to rain again. I stood there posing with the giant chess set, anyway.

After that we ran back down the hill and had the afternoon session. The first man was a Professor that both Jack and I know pretty well. He sat with us at lunch and we laughed a lot with him. Anyway, he spoke about the difficulties of growing fruit in the “arctic” climate of Coos County. It is colder up there than where we are, but we do see a lot of the same problems with winter kill and winter damage to the trees.
Then a woman spoke about problems in the garden especially to cucumbers and squash plants. Hers was truly fascinating and I learned quite a bit about Powdery Mildew. I also learned during her presentation, quite by accident, how many people in my State of New Hampshire are now getting food stamps. My gosh, it is so terrible that there are so many people unemployed and having to get help from the government and from local food banks.
At the end of the show they had a door prize raffle and they had many wonderful prizes. I so wanted the new pruning saw, but no, what did we win? A basket full of gourds!

Oh they are pretty, but, I sure did like that pruning saw! LOL!!!!!
We drove back to our friend, Jon’s house in Vermont, and just as we went over the pass we could see clearing a bit in the distance. I told Jack to pull over so I could take a picture.

We had a great meal of fine lamb chops grilled on the barbecue and stir fry vegetables and couscous. We drank champagne and sat around chatting. It was such a nice evening.
The next morning I walked around Jon’s yard and enjoyed the cows. Jon leases some of his fields to a local farmer to graze his cows. They were so friendly and followed me every where.

Jon’s dog, Sammy, also followed me everywhere too. He is a nice dog, but he is high energy! That is until he snuggles up with you and then he is a real cuddler!

l got one good shot with my macro lens. What do you think?

And that was how I spent my two days away from home!