November 8, 2026- Hana and I worked on puzzles, this afternoon. They were a farm animal puzzle and a dinosaur puzzle. I put the pieces in the puzzle and she took them back out again. She especially liked to hold a sheep and a horse. When I told her the sounds these animals make, she copied my sounds.

Hana’s day with her parents was also very vocal. She “makes a case” for us letting her eat chocolate and sip coffee. Neither is going to happen, any time soon, but I give her credit for trying. She enjoyed playing with Yunhee, in her future bedroom.

A small group of kids, who were visiting our downstreet neighbour, were playing kickball, in the cul-de-sac. It does my heart good to see this. When I was a child, the street and all the nearby yards and fields were ours to roam. To the greatest extent possible, I want to see that again.

HANA’S NOTE- I am starting to recognize the animals that Papa shows me in books and on the puzzles. I like to make groups of animals that look the same.

EXPANDING CIRCLES: New Hampshire- The Granite State was our vacation spot, along with Cape Cod, for the first seventeen years of my life. There was a comfort of sorts, in knowing we would have three or four days in the White Mountains or somewhere in the vicinity of Lake Winnepesaukee. I loved The Flume and Old Man of the Mountain, a granite outcropping, that sadly collapsed, about ten years ago. My first overnight camping trip was on Mount Chocorua and I have been to the top of Mt. Washington, three times. The beaches also bring fond memories: Kingston and Hampton, especially. Several extended family members live in various parts of New Hampshire.

The Turf: The southwest of the state is covered by rolling hills and a rough plain, from which rises Mount Monadnock. The central part of the state is covered by lakes, the largest of which are Winnepesaukee, Umbagog and Sunapee.. The southeast is a riparian plain, with a short seacoast in the very east. The White Mountains lie to the north of the Lakes Region, and are an extension of the Appalachian Mountains, entering from Vermont and continuing on into Maine. Far northern New Hampshire is thick forest-even using the moniker, Great North Woods. New Hampshire is drained by the Connecticut River, (which rises out of the Connecticut Lakes, near Pittsburg.), as well as by the Merrimack, Piscataqua and Salmon Falls Rivers, along with their tributaries.

First Nations-New Hampshire is the ancestral home of the Abenaki and Pennacook peoples. The people suffered mainly from disease, when coming into contact with Europeans, in the Seventeenth Century. The tribespeople largely moved away from New Hampshire, or intermingled with the Europeans. Clashes between the two groups were not as common, or as severe, as conflicts in Massachusetts or New York. There are no First Nations communities in New Hampshire, in the present day.

Where I feel most at home: Portsmouth, Kingston, Hampton, Manchester, North Conway, Franconia, Mount Washington.

Where I feel most at peace: Franconia, Alton Bay, Kankamagus Highway

NEXT: Maine