Tag: Bethlehem

The Rocks to Host Author Tom Ryan & Dogs Samwise & Emily

Hikers and animal lovers, mark your calendars! Writer Tom Ryan and his canine companions Samwise and Emily visit The Rocks Estate to discuss their adventures, and some of the stories from “Will’s Red Coat,” his new book.

An admission fee of $10 per person will be earmarked for improvements to the events room in the main building at The Rocks. Owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, The Rocks serves as the Society’s North Country Conservation & Education Center.

Tom Ryan lives in Jackson, N.H., and is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, “Following Atticus.” During the winter of 2007, Ryan and his dog, Atticus M. Finch, climbed 81 4,000-foot peaks, raising several thousand dollars for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute along the way. The following winter, the pair climbed 66 4,000-foot peaks and raised funds for the Angell Animal Medical Center in Jamaica Plain, Mass. Their fundraising efforts garnered Ryan and Atticus induction to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Hall of Fame as recipients of the organization’s “Human Hero of the Year Award.” Ryan and Atticus also received the “Humane-itarian Award” from the Massachusetts School of Law.

Tom and Atticus adopted an elderly, special needs dog named William Lloyd Garrison – “Will,” for short. Will thrived in the companionship of Tom and Atticus, leading to their receipt of the Massachusetts School of Law Humanitarian Award. Ryan’s second book was “Will’s Red Coat: The Story of One Old Dog Who Chose to Live Again.”

The Rocks is the North Country Conservation & Education Center of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org). The Forest Society is a non-profit membership organization founded in 1901 to protect the state’s most important landscapes and promote wise use of its natural resources. The landmark 1,400-acre property The Rocks includes numerous buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers Agri- and Eco-tourism opportunities throughout the year. For more information please visit www.therocks.org For reservations and other inquiries e-mail [email protected] or call 603-444-6228.

Wildflower & History Walk at The Rocks Estate

The Rocks kicks off the summer season with a Wildflower Walk on June 3. The walk, from 9 – 11:30 a.m. will feature the intriguing history of The Rocks and the flora growing around the Historic Mile Path.

The guided tour at The Rocks will take place on the Historic Mile Path, an area normally off-limits to visitors. Led by Rocks Director and farmer Nigel Manley and wildflower enthusiast Ginny Jeffryes, the tour will include discussion of the property’s storied history, the array of plants growing there, and the forestry work done as part of the property’s long-range forest management plan.

“Guests will get to see some of the favorite places of the Glessner family, who built The Rocks and spent many summers here,” said Manley. “We’ll also explain the forestry work done the past few winters as part of our ongoing effort to protect the cultural sites here and to enhance wildlife habitat on the property.”

Manley recommends reserving a spot for the morning tour. The tour allows only 15 people, and they generally fill quickly. The walk will begin from the parking lot behind the barn at The Rocks. For more information, program times and to reserve a place on the tour, please visit www.therocks.org, e-mail [email protected], or call 603-444-6228.

The Rocks is the North Country Conservation & Education Center of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org). The Forest Society is non-profit membership organization founded in 1901 to protect the state’s most important landscapes and promote wise use of its natural resources.

The Colonial Presents: Session Americana

Session Americana is a rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle. This band/collective of talented musicians craft a musical experience unlike any other. On stage is a collapsible bar table wired with microphones, a vintage suitcase recast as a kick drum, an old Estey field organ, a pre-war parlor guitar, a mandocello and all of its smaller siblings, a harmonica case fire damaged when Jack’s bar went up in flames and graffitied by Depeche Mode roadies, and an assortment of other instruments that get passed around in this freewheeling modern hootenanny. The anything-could-happen feel of a Session show depends on craft that’s not accidental or easily won; they bring a kind of ease and genuineness to this timeless music, sometimes presenting the latest batch of original songs, sometimes reaching back into depths of the American “song bag”.

Tickets: $14, $17, $22

25th Annual Lupine Festival

Join the fun at the 25th Annual Celebration of Lupines!

Paying homage to the annual blossoming of this captivating wildflower, the Celebration of Lupines is a time honored regional event. The brilliant spikes of the lupine flower carpet local fields and pastures in a rolling sea of vibrant purples, pinks, blues and whites. The long-lasting blossoms attract equally dazzling butterflies and create a breathtaking floral display against the majestic backdrop of the Franconia, Presidential, and Kinsman Mountain ranges. Every visitor is sure to find abundant photo and recreational opportunities in the Northeast’s most spectacular mountain region. Our local greenhouses and businesses will be offering lupine plants and seeds so you to start your own field of lupine.

Ongoing events including Lupine Inspirational Walk and horse drawn carriage rides through the lupine. Special events featuring the Open Air Market with music & artisan demonstrations, Free concerts, Touch-A-Truck, Wildflower Trail Walk, workshops and much more.

Most events take place in Sugar Hill, but check out the website for full event details. http://www.franconianotch.org/celebration-of-lupine/

The Colonial Presents: The Cashore Marionettes

The internationally acclaimed Cashore Marionettes redefine the art of puppetry. The moving and humorous performances have astounded audiences in Europe, the Far East and across North America, including stops at the Kennedy Center, Annenberg Center, Kravis Center, and many others.

The program, Simple Gifts, is a series of touching portrayals and poignant scenes from everyday life set to stunning music by such composers as Vivaldi, Strauss, Beethoven and Copland. Through a combination of virtuoso manipulation, beautiful music, theatrical illusion, and artistic insight, the original vignettes presented in Simple Gifts provide an entertaining and sensitive vision of what it is to be human. The performance explores a range of emotions with characters and actions that are amazingly convincing. The marionettes are engineering marvels and the quality of movement is extraordinary.

Joseph Cashore has received numerous awards for his artistry including a Pew Fellowship for Performance Art, based upon his artistic accomplishment; a Henson Foundation Grant, an award intended to help promote puppetry to adult audiences; and a Citation of Excellence from the UNIMA- USA, the highest honor an American puppeteer can receive. The Cashore Marionettes are so well conceived and projected, the movement so convincing, the illusion so powerful, that the result is a compelling and unforgettable theatrical experience.

This program is good for ages 8 years old and up.

Tickets: $12, $19, $23

The Secret Sisters at The Colonial Theatre

There are two ways of handling a dangerous, raging river: you can surrender and let it carry you away, or you can swim against the flow. For The Secret Sisters, there was a point after the release of their last record when they could have chosen to do neither – instead, sinking to the bottom as the weight of the world washed away their dreams. They went from touring with Bob Dylan to losing their label, purging their team, filing bankruptcy and almost permanently trading harmonies for housecleaning. But there’s a mythical pull to music that kept sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers moving forward, and they came out with a biting and beautiful third LP, produced by Brandi Carlile, You Don’t Own Me Anymore. Their first as New West signees, it’s a document of hardship and redemption, of pushing forward when it would be so much easier to drown in grief. And it’s a story about how passion and pure artistry can be the strongest sort of salvation – how art is left, like perfect grains of sand, when everything else has washed away.

Tracking in South Africa: Presentation at Bretzfelder Park

Join us as a NH wildlife specialist shares tales of her South African tracking expedition in this wonderful evening presentation!

Black bear specialist Nancy Comeau has spent a lifetime tracking animals and trying to fit together wildlife puzzles from the hints animals leave in their travels. On May 16, Nancy and Karen Gordon, her partner in adventuring, will share photos and stories of a distinctly different tracking experience: a two-week expedition through South Africa.

The free presentation will begin at7 p.m. at Bretzfelder Park in Bethlehem.

“I started following my dad through the woods at an age when I could barely see over the ferns. He had a great appreciation for wildlife, which he shared with me, so it was a natural progression for me to pursue a career in wildlife,” says Comeau, who is a black bear technician with the USDA Wildlife Services. “I have always enjoyed trying to figure out animal tracks and sign.”

Always open to learning more, Comeau and Gordon completed a nine-month tracking apprenticeship through White Pine Programs in Maine. When White Pine assembled a 14-day tracking and trailing expedition to South Africa in 2016, Comeau and Gordon immediately signed on.

“Led by two of South Africa’s leading trackers and guides, we traveled through three different diverse and amazing habitats and lodged in private bush camps,” Comeau said. “We spent our days tracking and trailing lions, leopards, elephants, both white and black rhino, and many other species. We definitely had a couple of what I like to call ‘exhilarating moments.’”

They will share some of those moments with participants in the May 16 discussion at Bretzfelder Park.

Owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org), Bretzfelder Park is managed in cooperation with the town of Bethlehem. The park, bequeathed to the Forest Society in 1984 by Helen Bretzfelder in memory of herf ather, Charles, houses a classroom, educational trails, a pond, and several picnic sites.

For more information and a calendar of events, please visit www.therocks.org,e-mail [email protected], or call603-444-6228.

Rec After Hours at Rek’-Lis Brewing

Join the Bethlehem Trails Association (BTA) and Rek’-Lis Brewing at this exciting event, which begins and ends at Rek’-Lis Brewing.

Rec After Hours includes Adventures in Bethlehem from 5:30-7 p.m. — Explore Bethlehem with a BTA Board Member via Mountain Bike, Kayak, or on a Trail Run (must have own gear), followed by Eats, Drinks and Networking at Rek’-Lis Brewing from 7-9 p.m.

Contact Joanna Boisseau to let us know you are coming to Adventure or for more info: [email protected].

 

Vernal Pool Workshop at The Rocks

The Rocks invites budding naturalists of all ages to participate in a free educational program about vernal pools April 25. What are vernal pools? How – and when – do they form? Who lives in them?  And why are these seasonal wetlands an important part of the New Hampshire landscape?

Ecologist Sarah Turtle will introduce participants to the fascinating science of vernal pools. The program will begin at 7 p.m. with a discussion of the natural history of the amphibians and invertebrates that live in these unique wetlands. Participants will then pull on muck boots and head outside to look for vernal pools around The Rocks.

Boots and headlamps are suggested gear for this program.

An instructor of biology, ecology, and environmental science at Plymouth State University, Turtle became fascinated with amphibians and reptiles 30 years ago as a college biology student.

During graduate school, she conducted research on environmental impacts on vernal pool amphibians and rare turtle species. In the years since then she has worked on various research, conservation and education projects focused on these unique creatures.

Turtle has a Ph.D. in zoology and is also involved in education programs run by White Mountain Science Inc. in Bethlehem.

The Rocks is the North Country Conservation and Education Center of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org). The Forest Society is a non-profit membership organization founded in 1901 to protect the state’s most important landscapes and promote wise use of its natural resources.

The landmark 1,400-acre Rocks property includes numerous buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers Agri- and Eco-tourism opportunities throughout the year. For more information and a calendar of events, please visit www.therocks.org, e-mail [email protected], or call 603-444-6228.

The NH Maple Experience at The Rocks

Maple syrup lovers young and old are welcome to The Rocks this spring, where the New Hampshire Maple Experience will return for the last three weekends of March and the first weekend of April.

With hands-on lessons in maple sugaring, horse-drawn wagon rides, and a visit to The Rocks’ working sugar house and its resident sugar maker, the Maple Experience is a sweet welcome to spring.

“It’s a fun interactive thing for families and couples to do,” said Nigel Manley, manager of The Rocks. “The idea is you could actually go home and make maple syrup after learning the process at the Maple Experience.”

Before embarking on a tour of the historic and scenic 1,400-acre estate, Maple Experience visitors will learn the history of maple sugaring and how the process has evolved from the time of the first European settlers to today’s high-tech operations.

Visitors will take a horse-drawn wagon ride through The Rocks and discover how to distinguish sugar maples from other species of trees. They’ll learn how to safely tap trees to collect the sap needed to make maple syrup and sugar. A tractor-drawn wagon will carry Maple Experience participants to the Maple Museum and working sugar house, where 4th-generation sugar-maker Brad Presby will demonstrate the process of boiling sap into syrup.

The Maple Experience concludes with a syrup tasting, complete with the traditional donut and a Rocks sour pickle. Chefs from local restaurants will also give maple cooking demonstrations each day at noon, and there will be maple kettle corn and maple cotton candy available during each day of the Maple Experience.

The Maple Experience at The Rocks will run Saturday March 17, March 24-25, March 31-April 1, and April 7. Tours begin at 10 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:15 p.m., and 2 p.m.

Reservations are highly recommended and may be made by calling The Rocks at (603) 444-6228.

The Rocks is the North Country Conservation and Education Center of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org). The Forest Society is a non-profit membership organization founded in 1901 to protect the state’s most important landscapes and promote wise use of its natural resources.

The landmark 1,400-acre Rocks includes numerous buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers Agri- and Eco-tourism opportunities throughout the year. For more information please visit www.therocks.org  For reservations and other inquiries e-mail [email protected] or call 603-444-6228.