Category: Outdoors

Hit the ice

Your guide to skating outside

A month into winter, outdoor ice skating rinks across the state are open for the season.

Local rinks

Local cities and towns like Manchester, Concord, Nashua, Bow, Merrimack and Hopkinton have outdoor rinks that are free and open to residents and non-residents.

The rinks may be open on and off, depending on the temperatures, so be sure to call or check your city’s or town’s website or social media before you go. Matthew Casparius, director of Merrimack Parks & Recreation, said temperatures must stay below 32 degrees consistently for the ice at Merrimack’s rink at Watson Park to freeze.

“Ice conditions can vary greatly with a temperature change as small as a few degrees,” he said. “If it doesn’t get cold or stay cold, then the rink season may be shortened.”

The rinks are skate-at-your-own-risk. Skaters are asked to stay off the ice if the rink is closed, and to practice common-sense Covid-19 safety measures while on the ice.

“We don’t really regulate it, but obviously people should maintain social distance, and masks are recommended,” said Janet Horvath, Manchester’s recreation and enterprise manager.

“Anyone that is showing symptoms of Covid-19 or has been exposed to Covid-19 should not visit the facility until they have been cleared by a medical professional,” Casparius added.

That’s especially important since skating so far this season seems to be a popular idea.

“This year, with a focus on outdoor activities as being safer for all, there has been more interest in skating than ever before,” said Veronica Lester, director of marketing for Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, home to Labrie Family Skate at Puddle Dock Pond.

Puddle Duck Pond is approximately 12,500 square feet, “75 percent of the size of a standard hockey rink,” she said. With an admission fee of $12, it features amenities like an outdoor patio and food truck on weekends; services including ice skate rentals and sharpening; rink rentals for private events; and skating lessons for kids and adults.

The perfect skates

Dave Palisi, owner of Capital Sporting Goods in Concord, which sells new and used pond or recreational skates and hockey skates, shared some tips for buying your first pair of skates.

If you plan on going ice skating on any kind of regular basis, Palisi said, it’s worth it to buy your own skates. Owning your own skates allows you to skate anywhere rather than being limited to rinks that offer skate rentals, and your skates are going to fit better and be more comfortable than rentals.

“You aren’t going to get a good fit with a pair of rented skates because you don’t get properly fitted when you’re renting. They just give you skates based on your shoe size,” he said. “That’s fine if all you’re looking to do is get into a pair of skates so you can spend a half hour skating, then take them off and be done.”

If you decide to buy your own skates, getting professionally fitted in person at a local shop that sells skates is the only way to ensure that you’re buying skates in the right size, Palisi said, adding that he would “recommend 110 percent not buying skates online.”

“I can’t emphasize enough the fitting process and how important it is,” he said. “If you put the time and effort into getting fitted correctly, you know it’s going to fit and that it’s going to perform the best for you.”

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to buying skates, Palisi said, is buying skates that are the same size as their regular shoe size.

“People think they know what size they need, but shoe sizes and skate sizes are totally different,” he said.

Another common misconception is that the best-fitting skates are the skates that are more expensive and higher-quality.

“You do not need to spend a lot of money,” Palisi said. “You’re better off buying a cheaper skate that is properly fit.”

A good-fitting skate should be tight against the foot. If the skates are “loose and floppy” and have enough space inside for your feet to move around, that will lead to soreness and discomfort, Palisi said.

For the best possible fit, you can get heat moldable skates. Palisi said Capital Sporting Goods and most specialty skate shops have a special “oven” that can “bake” the moldable skates. Once the skates are heated up, you wear them for 15 minutes or so, creating a custom mold around your feet.

If you’re trying to decide what type of skates to buy, Palisi recommends hockey skates for beginners, as opposed to figure skates. The blade on figure skates is fully exposed, with a squared-off tail on the end and a jagged “pick” at the toe. The blade on hockey skates is inset in a plastic holder and is smooth and slightly curved on both ends. To slow down or stop on hockey skates, the skater rotates their leg and scrapes the ice with the flat edge of the skate, whereas on figure skates, the skater uses the pick to push off and stop, which Palisi said is more challenging and takes some practice.

“If you don’t know what the toe pick on figure skates is or know anything about how to use it, just don’t even go there,” he said. “You don’t need to. Just go with a hockey skate.”

If you’re only skating outdoors, Palisi said, it’s futile to get your skates sharpened more than once a season.

“All the sand and grit on outdoor ice is going to ruin your sharpening, and there’s just nothing you can do about it,” he said, “but as long as you’re staying outdoors, [sharpening] is not a big need.”

Build a backyard rink

Building your own backyard rink is a great way to get in more skating time this winter while maintaining social distance.

“There are lots of backyard rinks right now,” Palisi said.

First, he said, find an area of level ground and decide how large you want your rink to be.

Then, go to a hardware or home improvement store and get a sheet of plastic for the base of the rink, and boards to enclose it.

“Just tell the people at the store that you’re looking for some liner to make a backyard rink, and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about,” Palisi said, adding that some stores also sell complete backyard rink kits.

Another perk of building your own rink is that it doesn’t require as much freezing as public ponds do, so you can still skate even when the public ponds are closed.

“Ponds are deeper, so there needs to be several inches of ice,” Palisi said, “but if you make a backyard rink with just one or two inches of water, you don’t need it to be as cold for as long.”

To maintain your rink simply hose it down after each use at night when temperatures are freezing.

“It’ll smooth out overnight and be ready for the next day,” Palisi said.

Guided forest bathing walks
Not all rinks may be open. The open/closed status of the rinks can change from week to week depending on the temperatures. Call or check the city’s or town’s website or social media for the most recent information.
• Beaver Meadow Pond, at Beaver Meadow Golf Course, 1 Beaver Meadow Dr., Concord, 225-8690, concordnh.gov/1410/winter-activities. When open, hours are daily from dawn to dusk.
• Bow Town Pond, next to the Bow Community Center, 3 Bow Center Road, Bow, 223-3920, bow-nh.com/256/Parks-Recreation.
• Dorrs Pond, adjacent to Livingston Park, 56 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 624-6444, manchesternh.gov/departments/parks-and-recreation. When open, hours are daily from dawn to dusk.
• Four Corners, behind Holman Stadium, Sargent Avenue, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov/1464/ice-skating-rink–seasonal. When open, hours are daily from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. for general skating, and before 11 a.m. and between 4:30 and 6 p.m. for hockey.
• Ice Skating Rink at Watson Park, 441 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 882-1046, merrimackparksandrec.org/watson-park. When open, hours are daily from dawn to 9 p.m.
• Jeff Morin Fields at Roby Park, 126 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov. When open, hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. for general skating, and from 8 to 10 p.m. for hockey.
• Kimball Lake, 47 Kimball Lake Road, Hopkinton, 746-8263, hopkintonrec.com/info/activities. When open, hours are daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Labrie Family Skate at Puddle Dock Pond, at Strawbery Banke Museum, 14 Hancock St., Portsmouth, 422-0600, strawberybanke.org/skate.cfm. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission costs $12 for skaters age 5 and up. Skate rentals are available for $6, and skate sharpening is available for $7.
• Rollins Park, 116 Broadway St., Concord, 225-8690, concordnh.gov/1410/winter-activities. When open, hours are daily from dawn to dusk.
• White Park Pond & Hockey Rink,1 White St., Concord, 225-8690, concordnh.gov/1410/winter-activities. When open, hours are daily from dawn to dusk.

Buy skates
Here are some local shops selling ice skates.
• Capital Sporting Goods, 276 N. State St., Concord, 224-6921, capitalsportinggoods.com
• TSR Hockey, 5 Kelly Road, Salem, 898-7777, tsrhockey.com

Featured Photo: Labrie Family Skate at Strawbery Banke Museum’s Puddle Dock Pond in Portsmouth. Courtesy photo.

Know your trees

Winter is a good time to get outside and explore

This is a good time to be outdoors exploring the fields and woods. There is so much to see that will be buried in snow later on. But, you may ask, what is there to see? Trees, winter weeds, animal footprints, signs of insects, shelf fungi on trees, evergreen woodland plants and more. If I had to choose one person to show me the outdoors in winter, it would be Donald W. Stokes, who wrote A Guide to Nature in Winter, which covers all these topics and more.

I find that learning the names and characteristics of plants and animals makes them more interesting. Many people look at all evergreen conifers and call them “pine trees.” But if you know the difference between a white pine and a Canadian hemlock or a balsam fir, you can decide whether you want to grow one or the other on your property.

Donald Stokes’ book explains that if you learn to identify the six most common deciduous trees and the six most common trees with needles or cones, you will know 80 percent of the trees in most northern forests. And you can do this in winter. Bud location, size and shape are good indicators for identifying trees.

1. Maples. As on ash trees, the buds, branches and, later, leaves are arranged opposite each other, while most other trees alternate the location of them on stems. Maples have oval buds that are between ¼ and ½ inch long.

2. Ash. Buds on ash trees are larger than maple buds and are dark and dome shaped. The twigs on ash trees are generally thicker than on maples.

3. Oak. These have clusters of buds at the end of each branch, and the younger trees often hold onto their brown leaves through the winter. Buds and branches appear in an alternating pattern.

4. Beech. The buds on beech are long and pointy. But the most distinguishing characteristic is its smooth, gray bark. There is a beech fungal disease that can mar the bark, making it look like a bad case of acne.

5. White Birch. Most people can recognize white birch by its bright white and peeling bark, but other birch species can have golden or greyish bark. The bark also has long horizontal lines marking it, and they often have catkins hanging from the tips of upper branches.

6. Poplar, also called aspen. These trees tend to grow in clumps in places with poor soil. The upper bark has a greenish tinge, and their buds are variable in color but always have sharp, pointy ends.

Then there are the evergreens:

1. Pines. They have clumps of needles in groups of two, three or five. White pine, the most common, has groups of five long, soft needles.

2. Hemlock. These trees have short (1/2-inch) soft needles with two white lines on the underneath side. There is a short stem between needle and twig.

3. Balsam fir. One-inch needles, also with two white lines underneath but no stem between needle and twig.

4. Cedar. Small, scale-like needles arranged along the twigs.

5. Spruce. Four-sided needles that are uncomfortably sharp to the touch.

6. Larch. No needles in winter, but cones may be present. Stubby twigs on branches.

After that basic list of characteristics, the Stokes book provides interesting details about the various species of trees, and differences within a genus. So, for example, he explains that most wooden sports equipment and the handles of our garden tools are made from ash because it is strong, relatively light, and flexible. And he notes that sycamores, known for beautiful variegated bark, are often hollow when large, and home to nesting mammals like raccoons and skunks.

I was fascinated to read that willow seeds, if washed away and deposited on a muddy bank (in spring), can germinate in two days and grow seven feet during the first year.

Poplars or aspen are often the first trees to grow after land has been burned or damaged by construction of roads. They often appear in clusters, as new trees pop up from the roots. They are not long-lived like maples or oaks, which can live hundreds of years: poplars, Stokes noted, generally last no more than 80 years, and frequently less.

Did you know that the sounding boards of many musical instruments are made of spruce? Stokes points out that it is especially clear of knots and imperfections, and resonates better than other woods.

If you pay attention to your trees, you will learn to identify them by shape and bark. Sugar maples, for instance, have nice rounded tops and older ones have craggy bark. I can identify a white pine from a fast-moving vehicle: branches on the lower part of the tree droop downward, upper branches reach for the sky.

So head outdoors and study the trees along a woodland path. And bring along A Guide to Nature in Winter. Almost anyone will learn something from it in no time.

Featured Photo: Birches have horizontal lines on their bark. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Nature bath

Milford resident leads forest bathing walks for wellness

For Laura Putnam, walking through the woods isn’t about burning calories or reaching a specific destination. It’s about sipping the air, watching a leaf twist in the wind or listening to water trickle downstream — and it’s all part of a practice called forest bathing.

“Forest bathing is a guided meditation to open the sense doors and bring people into the present moment, and it offers an opportunity for people to experience nature in a different way,” she said.

For the past several months, the Milford resident has been guiding small groups into the woods for forest bathing and meditation. It’s still a relatively new practice for Putnam — she had never even heard of forest bathing a year ago.

“Trees really do talk through chemicals, so there are physical benefits that are emitted from trees,” she said. “You’re being showered with all these chemicals. … Those chemicals help our immunity … [and the practice] naturally lowers blood pressure, increases focus … concentration is better [and there is] just an overall sense of well-being.”

According to Putnam, the chemicals, which are called phytoncides, can also increase creativity and decrease depression. Between the chemicals and the fact that scientists have found a correlation between increased depression and anxiety and lack of time spent outdoors, doctors in Japan now prescribe outdoor therapy as part of their patients’ health plan; there, it’s called shinrin yoku, which translates to forest bathing.

Putnam started forest bathing before she even knew what it was. Back in April she was furloughed from her job at the Visiting Nurse Association in Manchester, where she’d been working in an administrative position, helping transition patients to and from health care facilities.

“When Covid hit, I could no longer visit all those facilities because of the risk of infecting patients,” she said. “During this time … I should have been probably devastated, really worked up, anxious, crazy, thinking about being a single mom with a son in his senior year of college, like how [am I] going to make that all happen.”

And she was worked up, at first. But Putnam has forests and conservation land right outside her back door, and, trying to avoid showing her son that she was upset, she started to head outside when she felt stressed or needed to cry. Pretty quickly, both she and her son noticed that those walks outside changed her.

“He would say to me when I would come back, ‘Mom what happens to you out there? Because you’re so happy when you come back,’” she said.

It’s not as though Putnam hadn’t spent time in nature before. The avid hiker has completed all of New Hampshire’s 48 4,000-footers, and until the pandemic she had never considered making those hikes about the journey rather than the destination — or not having any destination at all.

“I’ve exercised in the woods for years, but never had I investigated fungus … or [looked closely at] tree bark,” she said.

Putnam started to do some research on the positive impact she was experiencing and eventually found an organization called the Association of Nature and Forest Therapists. She enrolled in the program, became a certified guide and started Biophilia Nature and Wellness, offering guided walks either privately or through local rec centers.

“This is what I feel most qualified to do, ever, in my life,” said Putnam, who is also a nurse and is wilderness first aid certified.

At the start of her forest walks Putnam leads participants through a guided meditation, inviting them to open up each of their senses — “feeling the wind on your face, sipping in the air as our sense of taste, listening to the sounds of birds.”

“Then you’ve sort of set the scene for, OK, now we’re all here together in this moment,” she said.

Throughout the session Putnam offers “invitations” to participants, sending them out to wander in the woods with specific prompts, like bringing back a small tactile object or focusing on some kind of movement, like ice going down the river. They then regroup and share what they found or the experiences they had.

“Then the day ends with tea [made with] what I have learned is safe and edible,” she said — a group last week had tea made with white pine and hemlock tree.

Putnam said that while most people around here have never heard of forest bathing, it is more popular out west, and she sees it becoming more prevalent here in the near future.

“I think right now the general population is just lacking connection and kind of looking for a way out of their heads,” she said. “I think there’s so much fear and stress and anxiety — I can’t think of anybody who [forest bathing] wouldn’t be good for.”

Guided forest bathing walks
Laura Putnam has several upcoming guided walks through local recreation centers, or you can contact her directly if you’re interested in a private group session. Search for Biophilia Nature and Wellness on Facebook, or email her at biophiliawell@gmail.com.
The Amherst Parks and Recreation Department is offering forest bathing guided walks with Putnam on Fridays, Jan. 15, Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Peabody Mill Environmental Center (66 Brook Road). The cost is $40 for residents and $45 for non-residents. The walk is for adults ages 18 and older. Visit amherstnh.myrec.com.
The Milford Recreation Department is offering a bathing guided walk with Putnam on Saturday, Feb. 6, from 1 to 2 p.m. and Saturday, March 6, at Kaley Field (448 Nashua St.). The cost is $15 per class. The walk is for adults ages 18 and older. Visit milford.nh.gov.

Featured Photo: A table set for tea to wrap up a guided forest bathing walk. Courtesy photo.

2020 gardens

What worked last year and what didn’t

This past year was a tough one for many of us: isolation due to Covid-19, political turmoil, employment interruptions and more. But in the garden? For me, it was pretty good, overall. It was a very dry summer, but that meant that there were fewer fungal diseases on my tomatoes and phlox. Since a small stream passes through my property the water table is high, and my established plantings did fine with little supplemental watering.

Let’s start in the vegetable garden. What tomatoes did best for me? For sheer production, it was one called “Big Mama.” She is shaped like a plum tomato, but three times the size or more. Flavor-wise it was not spectacular for fresh eating, but it was great for making sauce. I got seeds from Burpee.

My best-flavored tomato? One I bought as a seedling called Hungarian Heart. It is a big, juicy tomato that makes any sandwich memorable. I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner when I had them. Seeds for this heirloom tomato are available from The Seed Savers Exchange or Burpee seeds. And since it is an heirloom, you can save seeds from this year’s harvest to use next year.

Equally tasty is a perennial favorite of mine, the Sun Gold cherry tomato — early, relatively disease-free, highly productive. It’s a modern hybrid, so you’ll need to buy seeds or plants every year. But buy them early: They sell out fast. They’re great for snacking or in salads. I also dehydrate them by the hundred and use in soups, stews and salads all winter.

Best-looking early tomato? Blue Beauty. It starts out blue but ripens to be a red tomato with black shoulders. Very productive with six- to eight-ounce tomatoes and a nice flavor. Hybrid. Seeds available from Pine Tree Garden Seeds.

Best annual flowers? My wife Cindy ordered 18 dahlia tubers last winter, and we started them indoors last March in 12-inch pots. We grew them under lights until mid-June, when the soil was warm enough to please this heat-loving flower. They grew purple, pink and white six-inch blossoms on six-foot-tall plants. We had more dahlia plants than any normal people would want, and even after we gave away a few we had a forest of them.

These big plants had to be staked, and the only thing strong enough to support them were one-inch-square hardwood grade stakes, five- or six-footers. We dedicated one eight-foot by three-foot flower bed to them and scattered a few plants elsewhere.

For years I have been trying to find the perfect spot for a nice flowering shrub called Carolina allspice or sweetshrub. I moved it this year for the third time, and finally found a good spot. About 10 years ago I planted it in full sun with moist soil, and the leaves burned. Then I put it in shade, and it didn’t flower much. This year I moved it to a drier location in dappled shade under a pear tree. It grew well and appears to have settled in *well.

Sweetshrub produces nice burgundy flowers in late June. Some varieties are very fragrant. Mine is not. (Note to self: Buy flowering plants when in flower if they are supposed to be fragrant.)

We had a fierce windstorm in 2020 and it partially tipped over a 15-foot catalpa tree that we’d had for three years. I was able to push it back up to vertical position but worried that it was unstable. I tied it to three stakes for a while. Then I had the idea to place a large stone over the root ball on the side that had lifted up. That really stabilized it, and I removed the ropes, which had begun to dig into the bark. So far, so good, despite strong winds this fall.

For years I have been frustrated by weeds that infested a walkway through a terraced area for flowers. Goutweed and creeping grasses were seemingly impossible to eradicate, especially since the roots could hide under the large flat stones I had used as stepping stones. This year my wife, Cindy, decided to make it better.

First we removed all stepping stones and she dug out the weed roots. She hired three teenagers to wheelbarrow away the soil and help with the digging as she excavated the path. They dug out a pathway about eight inches deep, two to three feet wide and 80 feet long. They then put down six inches of one-inch crushed stone and covered it with landscape fabric. Then they edged it with bricks standing on edge and filled it with rounded pea stones about half an inch across.

The project was a huge success: For the first time ever, we had no weeds in the walkway. Not one, all summer. Stone, with no soil mixed in, will not grow weeds and the bricks kept soil in the beds from getting into the pathway. We will be on the lookout for scraps of goutweed that might pop up at the edges of the walkway next year, but the landscape fabric will keep any scraps of root from sending up shoots.

Each year is different. Each year certain flowers or vegetables are supremely happy, and others sulk. That’s part of the fun of gardening: remembering the good, learning from the bad, and looking forward to the next year. My best wishes to you all for 2021.

Featured Photo: Calycanthus or sweetshrub is a shade-loving shrub I love. Photo courtesy of Henry Homeyer.

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