Angus

storm approaching Meredith NH. The skies dark to the west and light raining falling here. It has been brutally hot/humid and horse flies on the backroads up here have been brutal during my bike rides this week.

That was the week I chose to ski at Sugarloaf for first time...5, 6, 7 runs total that day, bad frost bite on my face each time, was told by the liftie to go into the lodge each time. Such a miserable experience that I didn't ski for the rest of the season nor the next there!

Agree whole heartedly ... if folks truly understood (absorb the impact) the price differentials between not just drugs but hospital equipment - domestic versus foreign and the subsidization that goes on between markets there would be outrage. IMO pricing differently between a developing country and W. Europe/USA/Canada/Japan is completely justifiable and good business - I do alot of pricing work in my job and love to price on the margin - but the differentials between W. Europe and US in many cases is crazy.

So true.

This is terrible news and so sad. Way too young. Next winter, storms possibly delivering winter weather to the cape won't be half the fun! Prayers to James, his family and friends.

I don't play golf but a friend told me it is one, if not the best examples of a un-modified Donald Ross course...of course, I have no idea what that means!

On a handful of occasions, when I've been up on the Presidentials at nite in early July, I always pause to look north and enjoy the glow - especially from Adams and Madison.

Smart dog.

A word of caution... if you accidently slip and fall into that crack between the two plates, you won't stop until you reach the molten core of the planet. It's scary.

@HoarfrostHubb We ended spending some time in the airport waiting for another party and watching primarily Americans stock up on booze there was pretty sad...until I realized how much it cost outside of duty free! Alcohol is exorbitantly taxed in Norway too. I thought I would be eating seafood all the time but found the restaurants did not to have a ton of fish...I don't remember investigating extensively but figured it was all exported...like you find some coffee growing, less prosperous countries tend to drink a lot crystal, instant coffee! Gas is expensive but you need to go out of your way to rent a large American SUV. I was just speaking about this with a friend, make sure your credit card(s) are PIN enabled.

We did in reverse order - 2018 was sweden and norway and iceland in 2017. flew from Stockholm to Bergen but never entered city, drove from there to Alesund over 5-6 days via Voss, Flam, Jostedalsbreen National Park - spectacular. Oslo is also a wonderful city. Have said here before, would love to go back in winter and spend a few weeks downhill, nordic and ski touring

went for a week in 2017 - spectacular place. stayed in AirBnB everywhere.

Only good thing about this heat is it will warm up the lake for next weekends install of the dock.

Went up to Tuckerman's today and took two runs down left gully which was really the only route down that looked serviceable. Chute had multiple, deep runnels formed by sliding snow. Left gully had sliding snow too but you could ski across it as it was moving down the slope. There were about 50 people in the bowl all together. Hillmans is now disconnected about 3/4 of the way up which is something I always like to ski. There was consistent snowpack in the woods just below the caretaker hut so approximately 3,800'. Assuming that's it for the 2020-21 ski season, a strange one for sure. I weighed my pack when I finished, 40lbs according to the scale, I'm tired!

Up in your neck of woods yesterday. Was surprised by # of boats in the water and activity on lakes. Top of Long Lake boat launch was busy. I still remember vividly, my Uncle and Dad trying to get me to dive maskless to find a propeller part which they'd accidently dropped in the the sebago lake basin at some boat yard back in the early 70's. There was no visibility and I panicked almost immediately! They kept sending me back down!

I bought a Dewalt - push/not self-propelled $399 - used once. worked fine. I'm finding that lawn mowers and ethanol gas even with stabilizers don't mix well. It was nice to press a button and start right up. I now have two old combustion engine mowers I need to get rid of...neither work

Thanks for posting that. I was heading south on rt. 3 just north of exit 1 where you can look out over the Lowe's to the east and saw that plume of smoke on Saturday between 5 and 6. It was pretty impressive and definitely made be do a double take.

raked all day on Winnisquam - it is very dry up there and the trees are ready to blow up next week. easily 2 weeks ahead of schedule right now. Beautiful day today. and NO black flies!

heading over to the CVS right now for my #2

Pico is a great mountain, gets great snow and everyone goes to Killington instead. The only problem is my daughter doesn't like it for some reason.

Wow, I just saw the tweet by Gray that ice out was declared on Moosehead on Friday, I didn't think was possible! https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/water_activities/boating/ice_out_dates.shtml

Hiked the kinsman ridge yesterday from the south, up the AT. I can report there is still a lot of snow in the woods from about 2,800' and up. I was frankly astounded by the depth. the snow is rotten but we were going down to our hips before slipping on the snowshoes. Estimate 8-10" that fell from this past storm, snowed all day at elevation. Saving grace was the air temperature was moderate and there were not strong winds.

@tamaracksnowing pretty good at SLoaf. They just announced ski and golf next weekend btw. windy here in concord, ma - has been for last 2 hours.

left concord a little after 6am. first traces of snow around shirley, had to pull off at rt. 12 in fitchburg for gas, once back on rt. 2 and going up hill from there, it starts snowing. 3-4" at bottom of WaWa, got up to about 1,600' and there was 8" (all eyeball) and it was dumping. Poor dog could hardly walk he had so much snow in his undercarriage...it was comical. snowing all the way back to concord when I arrived at 9:20ish. calling it 1/2" right now.

I had tentatively planned to come up and start raking this weekend. Earliest ever, huh!