Blizzard of Dec, 27, 2010

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had an enjoyable day with Eric, Marion's sister Ramona, and former co-worker of Barre's, Harold Brotzman. We had a nice visit with Paul and family via Skype. We shared opening of our presents at that time. Christmas was a beautiful cold sunny day.

The day after Christmas started out cloudy with very light snow. At dusk it started to snow harder. Over night the wind howled and we woke up to heavy snow. The picture below shows how hard it snowed. This picture faintly shows Eric's car at the end of the garage at the time of a strong gust of wind, basically obscuring the car.




The wind was blowing in gust around hurricane force. A gust of 74 mph (113 kph) was registered on our anemometer. We received 20 inches of snow (51 cm) in about 18 hours. Drifts 3 feet deep were all around the house. The view across the street to our new neighbors was often obscured by numerous gusts of wind.

Barre waited until afternoon to get out with the snowblower. Here Barre is clearing out the path to the flagpole. The whole process of clearing the driveway will probably have to be repeated again tomorrow since the wind is still blowing hard with much drifting.

Our best for a great New Year!

Happy Holidays from the Hellquists

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

We are thinking of you at this holiday time, and wishing you a wonderful new year full of
joy and peace. The pictures on the blog are memories of some of our days of travel,
and a view of a new house across the street. In 26 years, we have only had the view of
trees and the hills beyond.

Noel at home in Texas, first day of Spring

We traveled to McKinney to see the family in March, when Noel was on vacation from school. We had a busy week and enjoyed a wonderful, sunny day at the Dallas Arboretum. The marvelous displays of beautiful spring flowers, and fibrant colors, as well as trees and shrubs were a joy to behold. Noel took a lot of pictures on her camera. However, the first day of Spring, brought six inches of snow, and canceled our trip to the zoo. Noel, told us the animals would not want to be outdoors in the cold. She spent her time in the snow, making snow men, and throwing snowballs in the back yard. By mid-afternoon, the snow had almost disappeared.

Barre and Marion at West Geyser Basin

The summer started out with Barre and Eric co-teaching an aquatic plant mini-course at the University of Michigan Biological Station. We then continued west to Yellowstone National Park where Eric and Barre continued with the second year of the survey of aquatic plants of the Park. This proved to be a rewarding summer because a number of new species and populations of plants were located. Some of the sampling was in the extreme southwestern section of the Park where few visitors ever venture. Life was cozy in our FEMA trailer with the three of us plus 'Moose' Eric's dog. Marion and Moose did a lot of walking each day, and Marion was able to read six books, as well as meet and visit with our neighbors who were volunteers in the Park.

Bison at Hayden Valley, Yellowstone, N.P.
Between the animals on and along the road and the tourists viewing them every day, it proved to be an adventure as we headed out for the days sampling. This summer the Grizzly Bears were relatively common. Fortunately we were not threatened by any. Animals seen during the summer in order of numbers included: bison, elk, mule deer, grizzlies, black bears, big-horn sheep, and pronhorn antelope. No moose, we see them in New England each summer. The weather was delightful. In the morning we turned the heat on in the trailer. By 9:00am it was very comfortble. It did snow on July 6, just north of us in the Park. We did get a chance to visit many of the geyser basins and see many of the larger geysers. Our favorites were Grand Geyser and Bee Hive Geyser. We often had to wait while bison meandered in the road, taking their time, walking slowly. Marion encountered them while driving on errands , and one day a 15 mile drive took 45 minutes. She enjoyed the close-up views of the valley and the bison while waiting.

New modular home across the street from us

The fall coloration was early this year and was not particularly colorful. It was very dry this summer which probably affected the coloration. We watched as our new neighbors built a modular home across the street. It was fascinating to see the sections lifted into place by the large crane. The house was finished just in time to move in for Christmas.

Mt. Livermore, West Texas

In late September Barre traveled to San Angelo, Texas to the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society to present the nomination of Surrey Jacobs into the IWGS Hall of Fame. Barre also named a new water-lily in memory of Surrey. The two of them have worked on the Australian waterlilies for the past 12 years. While in Texas, Barre traveled to the Davis Mts. of West Texas to collect some aquatics seen there during years earlier while conducting research in the area.

The fall contuinued with us travelling to Durham, New Hampshire to The University of New Hampshire hockey games. This years team is a pleasant surprise. Hopefully they will continue their winning ways after the Christmas break. We look forward to the trip and visits with the hockey fans we know. We also stay overnight with friends (we joke about it being our B and B) and don't have to travel home to the Berkshires in the middle of the night.

Eric continues to teach at the State University of New York at Oswego. He will again be teaching this summer at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Paul, Michelle, and Noel continue to enjoy living in Texas. Paul has had a very productive year working on the computer games for 'Gearbox'. Noel is settling into first grade and Michelle keeps busy with volunteer work at the school, and serves on the Board of Directors of the PTA.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and the best for the new year.

Marion & Barre

Geysers of Yellowstone National Park

Our summer in Yellowstone was very enjoyable and interesting, especially when viewing the geysers. There are many in the Park, and Old Faithful is the most famous geyser. It erupts once approximately every 55 to107 minutes. Everyone enjoys watching the eruption and claps when it is over. The height of the water reaches between 110-185 feet, and may last up five minutes.

This is the Grand Geyser, also is the Upper Geyser Basin, which has many geysers in an area of about two square miles. Grand Geyser does not erupt very frequently, but a sign is posted to let visitors know how long the wait may be. We came to Upper Geyser three times during our stay and waited patiently to see Grand each visit. It blows for 9-16 minutes at a height of 140-200 feet. It is well worth the wait to see it. There are benches to sit on while waiting, and time to chat with other visitors.

Emerald Pool is in the Black Sand Geyser Basin. The Pool has a deep emerald green, and the edges are yellow and orange colors. It is quite beautiful, and about 25 feet deep.

The Beehive Geyser is one that Eric told us would be very interesting to see, but it does not always erupt every day. We saw a large crowd waiting, and joined them hoping it would be our lucky day. It is considered unpredictable, unlike Old Faithful. The name is appropriate because it looks just like a large beehive on the ground. It erupted sending the water at least 150-200 feet. What a sight--it was amazing.

Here are Eric and Marion after Beehive "showing off". It had just begun erupting, when a strong wind started blowing straight at all of us standing on the boardwalk in front of Beehive. We got drenched so quickly, and began running down the boardwalk, but kept hesitating because we wanted to see the whole show from Beehive. All of us standing on the boardwalk were drenched, feeling cold for a few minutes, and laughing, but it was worth the experience. The sun was hot and eventually, the jeans and shirts dried--enough so we had supper in Snow Lodge before we went "home" to our FEMA trailer. No one seemed to notice that we were a bit disheveled.

Noel's vacation with Grammy and Grampa

Noel came to visit us for 10 days in early June while Paul and Michelle went to Scotland and England to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed our time with Noel, even though some of our days were rainy. Eric and Moose, Cathy and Nicky all came for a weekend visit. Noel enjoyed meeting the dogs, and playing board games, during their visit. We chose a beautiful, not too warm, sunny day to go to the Bronx zoo, before our weekend visitors arrived.

It was a belated celebration of her 6th birthday.

Before our weekend visitors, we took Noel to a Butterfly Sanctuary in Deerfield, MA. on a rainy day. There are over 3500 butterflies and moths in this marvelous place, filled with wonderful flowers, trees, and tropical plants that are home to butterflies and moths from around the world. We spent a lot of time there before and after our lunch. Noel was fascinated, and was able to see some butterflies leaving their cacoons. Two of our favorites were the Cairns birdwing, a beautiful green butterfly, and a beautiful irridecent blue butterfly from South America.

We were able to take Noel to Lake Ossipee to enjoy some swimming, and playing in the sand.

She loves the beach and building sand castles and collecting rocks. She wanted to carry them up the 80 stairs to the house. We suggested she build a small rock garden, which she thought was a great idea. She placed her rocks near a tiny maple sapling and some clover, near a shrub in front of the house. We will leave her rock garden in place with her name and date on a rock in the garden.

Memorial Day Weekend at Lake Ossipee

We enjoyed a "five day" weekend at Lake Ossipee, and were able to visit with all the cousins at their cottages. The weather was excellent, even though black flies and mosquitoes were present. Our sun was blocked from view on Monday, when we learned that the smell of fire in the air was the result of 50 forest fires burning 100 miles north of Montreal, Canada. The smoke resulted in an abstructed view across the lake for the day.

Monday evening we did have a sunset glowing on the lake, and the "fire clouds" were beginning to weaken. We learned that the smoke traveled as far south as Albany, NY, and Cape Cod, with northern Maine, NH, and VT experiencing heavier smoke, and smells.

This is our view on sunny days, when the wind is not blowing the waves across the lake toward us. The Ossipee Mountains are in the west. Barre had taken this picture on a previous visit.
For those who are not familiar with our location on the lake, we are on the "high banks", and walk 80 steps to reach the water!

Windy days

Last week there were a few days of very strong winds. We watched the many tall poplar trees bend in the wind, which was blowing in the the direction of the greenhouse, hoping they would not get blown over. The first morning we saw three of them uprooted, and laying near the swamp and the marsh marigolds that were in the bloom. The second morning we awoke to find this tree laying across the roof of the greenhouse. It did not puncture the plastic, but we did have to wait patiently for a few days for the "tree man" to come and cut it up, because there were more important situations to take care of--like trees on wires, and streets. We also had a few more trees removed to avoid others from falling onto the greenhouse filled with Australian water lilies.

This is my first attempt at making a quilted jacket. Thanks to quilter friends who have made jackets and encouraged me, I decided to make one for Noel for her 6th birthday, May 12. The fabrics were colorful two and a half strips packaged as a "jelly roll". I used a jacket pattern, and randomly sewed the strips on to the batting and lining, then cut the pattern pieces. The jacket was then sewn together (already quilted!). The lining is a colorful fabric with pictures of flowers in pale yellow, green and pink colors. I enjoyed making it, and when I had questions during the process, I was a phone call away from help, thanks to Betty King.

A Texas Vacation

Marion had mileage on United that would expire in August, so we decided to visit Texas. As luck would have it, the week of March 15 was Noel's school vacation, which coincided with Barre's vacation from teaching a course this semester at MCLA. We looked forward to warmer days since Paul had told us the days in early March had been in the 70's. We took no heavy coats with us, and looked forward to wonderful sunny days for the week.

Our first excursion was to the Dallas Arboretum. The weather was wonderful, and the gardens and flowers were spectacular and so colorful. Spring had arrived! Noel really enjoyed the gardens, and taking pictures with her own camera. The cowboy hat and bandana were part of a costume from her dance class, and she really looked like a native Texan, but speaks without the accent.

There were massive plots of many various flowers like tulips , daffodils, hyacinths, etc. with a variety of colors, all so beautiful. The weather was perfect. Because it was school holiday the parking lots were full, so we were shuttled by bus from a parking lot in a nearby mall.

The trees and shrubs were also beautiful, and Barre could identify them when we had a question.

The Arboretum is very large, and the walking is easy. It borders a large pond, and the plantings near there also include water features, and koi fish, which Noel enjoyed watching. By the end of the day, we realized we had done a lot of walking, enjoyed all of the beauty around us, and were a bit tired!

On Friday night Barre and I attended Paul's hockey game. He is the fellow in the yellow shirt, playing goalie. It was our fourth day in McKinney, and the temperatures had gone done enough to make us wish we had brought a heavy coat. The game time is shorter than a college game, and we survived. His team won.

Sunday morning found us looking out the windows at six inches of snow! Noel was excited, and after breakfast she went out to play in the backyard. She loves snow, and spent quite a while playing. The snow was quite wet-- good for snow balls, and snow men. In the afternoon, Noel returned to the yard, and already, the grass was visible, and much snow had melted, but there was enough to make small snowmen.

This is the view from the front porch on Evergreen Drive. We didn't expect to have snow on our visit, but it had completely melted by Monday morning. Noel had to go back to school and we flew home, so Barre could teach on Tuesday.

It was too cold on Sunday to visit the Dallas zoo, so we went bowling, and had lots of fun. This picture was taken when we returned home. Paul, Michelle, and Noel had better scores that Barre and I. Our week also included a tour of Paul's work place at Gearbox, which was very interesting.

Spring is here

The ice was out of our pond on March 24th and daffodils, iris, and day lilies began to poke through the soil. On April 1st, the Spring Peepers, and Wood frogs began to sing at night--a true sign of spring. We can hear them at night, even with the windows closed. The weather was warmer than usual, and the magnolia tree was in full bloom in one or two days when the temperature on April 7 and 8, was 84 and 79 degrees. The weather these past few days has been cooler, especially at night, so the flowers have lasted longer. We hope the early rush of Spring does not turn to weather cold enough to bring snow in April!

Meeting a College Hockey Legend

Eric and his girl friend Cathy are both college hockey fans. Eric inherited his interest in the game from Barre when he was a little boy who began to attend UNH hockey. The gentleman in this picture is Canadian Ken Dryden, a grauate of Cornell Univesity, Cathy's alma mater. This particular evening Cornell celebrated his career in the early 1970's as an outstanding goalie, (lost only 5 games in three years), by retiring his hockey number, 1, and permanently displaying his shirt in the rink.

Eric has heard of Ken for years, but was too young to see him play. However, he has read some of Dryden's books, (he played pro hockey for 10 years, is a lawyer, and a member of Parliment in Canada). He and Cathy were pleased to meet him and have their picture taken with him. He also autographed Eric's book. At the end of the evening, Cathy and Eric went to an ice cream shop in Ithica, and arrived at the door as Ken Dryden and his friends were entering. They were invited to his table and spent an hour conversing on college hockey, former players, and the "Miracle on Ice", when the US won the gold medal at the Olympics.

Cathy and Eric will never forget this hockey evening!

Winter storms

The heaviest snow fall we had was in late February. The scenes in our back yard and view of the pond were beautiful. Barre's measuring stick marked the total at 17 inches. It was a real winter picture, with the snow falling gently all day.

It took a long time for Barre to blow the snow off the driveway, but he took his time and got the job done. It includes making pathways to the greenhouse, bird feeders, and back door of the garage. He actually enjoys the job because he likes the snow! We expected to have the scene of deep snow last long enough to really enjoy it, but the following day brought a heavy rainstorm, and the snow settled so much, it was hard to believe that the previous day had deep snow. The next day, however, brought us 10 more inches of snow, and Barre went back to work using the blower again.

This picture was taken in March, two weeks after our big storm. This is taken in Searsburg, Vermont, on our way to New Hampshire. There were storms in the mountains that we did not have in Adams, and we were surprised by the high banks on the road side. Deep snow, and beautiful mountain scenery was spectacular on Route 9.

As we drove into Brattleboro, Vermont, we passed a farm that collects maple syrup the "old fashioned way" with buckets, not hoses, which send the sap to huge tanks to be collected. We stopped to take this picture, as the season was just beginning. However, the weather warmed up too quickly, and the season was shortened, but the quality of the syrup was excellent, with less gallons produced.

Celebrating the Olympics

During the two weeks of the Olympic Games, we flew the flags of Canada and British Columbia. We enjoyed watching many of the events, and stayed up later than usual every night to see the races and other competitons. Racing down mountains on skis, ski jumping, bobsleding, half pipe, luge, etc. kept us on pins and needles, hoping there were no mishaps. All the figure skating, and hockey games were of interest, too, and we watched a number of Curling contests, and began to understand the rules of the game. Of course, we wanted the US Men and Womens's hockey teams to win the gold, but were still very pleased with their success.

Winter in New England

We have had our share of cold weather through December and into January. Barre has recorded 26 inchs of snow for the winter to date. Yesterday, Jan. 14, was the first day of the month that the temperature at our house has been about freezing.

Christmas Day on West Road, Adams, Ma. The view in our yard and of our small mountain in the back yard was spectacular. We had frozen fog, and all the trees were shining with ice on the branches. Barre took this picture from our pond, with the view across the yard where he has recently planted small evergreens (notice the stakes).

The view of Mt. Greylock on Christmas morning, just a half mile north of our house.

Last weekend while visiting friends in Durham, NH, we took a drive to York, Maine to view Nubble Light on Cape Neddick, and gaze at the ocean, on a sunny winter day. Locals were walking their dogs on York Beach.

This is route 8 in Searsburg, Vermont. This was our view as we climbed the mountains in southern Vermont, as we traveled to New Hampshire for a weekend of hockey games at UNH.
It had been snowing frequently most of the week before we left on Friday.

January 2, 2010. Eric and Moose both enjoyed the snow while visiting. They walked out in the woods frequently. Moose enjoys exploring for squirrels along the stone walls, and jumping and rolling in the snow. Eric enjoys the snow, but didn't get to skate on the pond because the snow hadn't been cleared.