Category: Outdoors

Kiddie Pool 24/06/06

Family fun for whenever

Bugs!

• Twiggs Gallery (254 King St., Boscawen) will be offering a free Little Ladybug Make & Take on Saturday, June 8, between 1 and 3 p.m., at which kids can learn how to make an adorable paper ladybug, according to a press release. All supplies will be provided to make this paper craft, according to the same release. The gallery is handicapped-accessible. Visit TwiggsGallery.org

• NH Audubon and Steve Mirick, an avid birder and expert butterfly enthusiast who has guided birding and butterfly communities, will lead an exploration of butterfly habitats in the capital area on Tuesday, June 11, starting at 11 a.m. A similar program on Tuesday, June 18, at 11 a.m. will be led by Mike Thomas, a retired entomologist and butterfly enthusiast. Both will be at the McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road, Concord, nhaudubon.org). Participants will learn how to identify butterflies in various habitats. All skill levels are welcome. Space is limited and registration is required.

On stage

• The Community Players of Concord with their Children’s Theatre Project will be holding auditions for Charlotte’s Web, which is based on the book by E.B. White, by appointment only on Sunday, June 9, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or on Monday, June 10, from 4 to 8 p.m. at The Community Players Studio ( 435 Josiah Bartlett Road, Concord) for those between the ages of 8 and 18. Kids ages 6 or 7 can audition to be baby spiders or baby Wilbur. To schedule an audition slot, contact Director Karen Braz at [email protected]. For more information visit communityplayersofconcord.org.

Library fun

• Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., Nashua) will allow kids in grades K-5 to explore simple printmaking techniques using everyday materials on Monday, June 10, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in their Activity Room. Objects include apples, leaves, Legos and more, and participants will dip, press and create their own prints on paper or fabric in this interactive art activity, although supplies are limited, according to the website. Visit nashualibrary.org.

• The Children’s Room staff at Manchester City Library (405 Pine St., Manchester) have announced a storytime program in collaboration with the SEE Science Center where once a month kids between the ages of 2 and 6 are invited to join Ms. Yvonne and Ms. Helene from the SEE Science Center for Storytime Science, with hands-on activities afterward the story-reading, according to their website. This month’s reading will take place on Wednesday, June 12, from 10 to 11 a.m. with I Am Not A Fish by Peter Raymundo. Registration is required to ensure enough materials for everyone, according to the same website. Storytime Science is a program of the SEE Science Center’s First Steps in Science Initiative presented by Dartmouth Health Childrens, according to the same website. Call the library at 624-6550, ext. 7628.

Have improv, will travel

Colin Mochrie takes the show on the road

By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]

Described as a hardworking and imaginative mammal in his bio on the show’s website, Colin Mochrie (Hilaritycus smoothius, as it says), known for his improv expertise on Whose Line is it Anyway? will be taking the stage in Portsmouth with Brad Sherwood, a fellow Whose Line-er at the Music Hall on Thursday, June 13, at 7:30 p.m. as part of their “Asking for Trouble” tour.

“It’s like a live version of Whose Line,” Mochrie said. “There’s a lot of games that would be familiar to a Whose Line fan … some games that we just made up ourselves…. We don’t have a host, we don’t have other people to work with. It’s just two hours of goofy fun.”

Audience members will have a good idea but will never know exactly which improv games to expect at the unscripted show.

“We do start off with a basic foundation but it can easily change…,” Mochrie said. “We do a new one that’s kind of fun, just because it scares me; we do sort of a musical tribute to the town that we’re playing, so it’s going to be a musical about Portsmouth, we’re hoping.”

Mochrie and Sherwood met on the hit television show.

“It was actually his idea to go on tour,” Mochrie said of Sherwood.

Every Super Bowl Sunday, Drew Carey, the former host, would take the cast to perform in Vegas in multiple shows leading up to the big game. Sherwood popped the question during one of these marathon improv sessions.

Afterward, they gave the idea a test run, and it worked. The tour has been running over 20 years.

“We’ve been friends, God, over 30 years now. It really helps when you’re working with someone, especially in improv, somebody you trust and you like. We both have sort of the same viewpoint on improv and what we like to do with it,” Mochrie said. Although nothing lasts forever. “So far. It could always turn, of course, because, you know, he has problems, but so far, so good.”

The Scottish-born Canadian improvisational comedian was drawn to the craft at an early age and referenced comedian Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams, as improv influences.

“I just saw this demonstration … that had been invented by this Englishman in Calgary called theater sports, and it was improv in sort of a sports setting where this referee would issue challenges and then you would improvise. I thought, ‘Oh, well this could be fun.’ It was something I enjoyed doing. I never thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be my career,’ just because there wasn’t an outlet.”

If Mochrie isn’t producing laughs on stage with Sherwood, he most likely will be on another stage doing the same.

“I improvise with a lot of different improv groups around the country,” he said. He also does an improv tour with his wife, Debra McGrath, as well as a tour with a hypnotist called Hyprov. “The beauty of improv is you’re kind of open to everything.”

Mochrie was open to the idea of a Whose Line live tour and noted that they had shot enough so that another season with host Aisha Tyler will be able to air: “It’s just a show you can’t kill, it keeps coming back.”

Mochrie is quite fond of the television show.

“I think the beauty of it was, we only shot two weekends a year so … unlike shows that go on forever and ever, we didn’t have a chance to get on each other’s nerves, so everybody still really enjoyed each other…,” he said. “We’re all good friends. We’re constantly tweeting and emailing and keeping in contact with each other. It is a good group.”

Not only has Mochrie been on both British and American versions of Whose Line is it Anyway; he’s also performed in numerous film and television roles and most recently in the film Villains Inc., which came out in April. He is also an award-winning writer , performer and producer.

“I do have fun doing scripted stuff on film and television. What I enjoy about stage more, I think, is that we are the architects of our own fate,” he said. That sense of autonomy is a driving force behind his work: “Doing improv and doing our show, we’re in charge. If the show sucks, it’s because we suck. If it went great, it’s because we were good. There’s no one else to blame and I like having that pressure.”

“I just love [that] every show is different. Every show is for that audience. No one else will ever see it again,” Mochrie said. “So it keeps it fresh for us. I think that’s part of the reason we’re still enjoying each other and the show after all this time.”

Asking for Trouble
• Thursday, June 13, 7:30 p.m. at The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org
Tickets $44 to $88

• Sunday, Oct. 6, 5 p.m. at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org
Tickets $49 to $75

colinandbradshow.com

Featured Photo: Colin Mochrie. Courtesy Photo.

Getting the garden ready

As the saying goes, “spring has sprung.” In my garden, daffodils are blooming and tulips are on the way. My peas are planted. But how do you know when to plant your veggies and tender annual flowers? It’s not just about the last frost of the spring. You need to think about which plants can survive and thrive in cold, wet soil and which would rather wait to get planted until late May or even mid-June.

In the vegetable garden, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are the prima donnas. I generally wait until June 10 at 9 a.m. to plant them. Or something like that. I shape up my wide raised beds well before I plant, allowing the soil to dry out and get warmed up. I rake off the straw or leaves I used to protect the soil from erosion over the winter. I like to work in aged compost well before planting time.

Peas and spinach are very cold-hardy and can survive frosts. Root crops like carrots, beets, onions and potatoes prefer warm soil for growing but will tolerate cool soils and won’t get killed by a late frost even if their leaves are up. But in my opinion almost any plant would prefer to grow in soil that is at least 50 degrees.

Whether you start your tomato seedlings indoors or buy plants from a garden center, you should “harden them off.” They need to be introduced to sun and wind in small doses at first so they don’t get sunburned or dehydrated after being pampered for weeks in a greenhouse or on a kitchen windowsill. This process will take five days or so, but if you don’t do it you will either kill your baby peppers or stunt their growth for two weeks or more while they recover.

Start by putting your plants outside in a place protected from the wind that only gets morning sun. Give them two hours of morning sun the first day, then bring them back inside or well out of the sun’s rays. Increase the time outside each day and by Day 3 give them some afternoon sun too. On Day 5 they should be OK outside all day, and after that you can plant them.

What about fertilizer? I generally don’t give annual flowers like cosmos or zinnias any at all. Soluble nitrogen found in chemical fertilizers will make them grow tall but delay flowering. Of the vegetables, only peppers need no fertilizer, but in my opinion no vegetables should get chemicals of any kind, including fertilizer and pesticides.

Newly planted seedlings and seeds need to be kept in lightly moist soil. A seedling that cracks open its husk to send up a shoot may not make it to the soil surface if the soil is too dry. So check your garden every day. And if your tomato starts to look limp or drooping, water immediately — even if it means going to work late. Just email me; I’ll send an excuse to your boss to keep you out of trouble.

There are many ways to keep your plants lightly moist in the vegetable or flower garden. One way is to set up a drip irrigation system. I’ve had good luck installing soaker hoses — rubber hoses that leak slowly through pores. I’ve bought the “Snip and Drip” system from Gardener’s Supply.

The basic kit comes with the hose and T-junctions and fittings to install it. Then, if you buy a watering timer the system will come on a schedule you determine. I’ve used many types of timers during my time as a garden designer and installer. My advice? Get the simplest one you can get.

What about rototillers? Should you rent or buy one, or not? I used one for years until someone more knowledgeable than me explained why he didn’t: Rototillers seriously disturb the microbes in the soil. They break up useful fungal networks that support your plants. They make a bed clean and neat, but in fact have only sliced up the weeds and buried them. One invasive root becomes multiple roots and can move them farther from their initial location. I have a friend who rototilled a small patch of horseradish and turned the bed into a large bed full of horseradish he could never eliminate.

I no longer recommend rototillers. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

So how do I prepare my soil? I use a five-tined old-fashioned potato rake that loosens the soil as I pull it through the soil. Or you can use an ordinary garden fork to loosen the soil if it is a heavy clay, and then finish it off at planting time with a good hand tool like a CobraHead weeder. You can use a hoe to pull soil from the walkways up to form mounded beds. And as you improve your soil with compost each year it will get easier to prepare nice, fluffy beds rich in organic matter.

Gardening is fun. It is rewarding, too: Tomatoes and lettuce taste better when eaten the day they were picked. The exercise will make you healthy, too. Just don’t work so hard you get blisters and sunburn. Ease yourself into gardening — just like you harden off your plants.

Henry is an organic gardener who has been fussing around in gardens for about 75 years. He is the author of four gardening books. His email is [email protected].

Featured photo: This kale was started indoors on Feb. 22 and needs to be hardened off before going in the ground in early May. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 24/05/30

Family fun for whenever

Music, fun and games

• Saturday, June 1, marks Nashua’s Parks and Recreation Department’s official start of summer. Join the fun at Greeley Park (100 Concord St., Nashua) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be games, touch-a-truck, various activities, and live performances by children’s musician Judy Pancoast (judypancoast.com) at 10:30 a.m. and magician BJ Hickman (bjhickman.com) at 11:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Animals

• At Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center (928 White Oaks Road, Laconia, prescottfarm.org) on Wednesday, June 5, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., pre-K visitors accompanied by an adult can see a taxidermied owl, sing and dance to owl sounds and music, and play an owl and mouse game in the “Summer Polliwogs: Whooo’s Who (American Owls)” program. Tickets for a pair are $15.

• Celebrate National Dinosaur Day on Saturday, June 1, at Leach Library (276 Mammoth Road, Londonderry) from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. with their Explorers Workshop: Dig into Dinos. This program, open to ages 9 to 14, will focus on paleontology and dinosaurs; participants will excavate their own dinosaur and create an identification card for it that will include a name and characteristics, according to the website. Register via the Events calendar at londonderrynh.gov/leach-library.

Vehicles

• Touch a truck at New Boston Central School (15 Central School Road, New Boston) on Saturday, June 1, from noon to 2 p.m., with Quiet Hour noon to 1 p.m. Children will have an opportunity to see and touch many types of trucks, and talk to the people who drive them. This event is organized by the Whipple Free Library (whipplefreelibrary.org, 487-3391). Food will be available from the Tola-Rose Italian Eats Food Truck, according to the website.

• The 80th annual New Hampshire Soap Box Derby race will be held Sunday, June 2, at 120 Broadway in Dover — check-ins begin at 7:45 a.m., with side-by-side competitions starting at 10 a.m. The Derby is an opportunity for kids ages 7 and older to create a gravity-powered car and race it down a track in hopes of making the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship, hosted in Akron, Ohio. Cheering on the racers is free, and parking is available at 73 Oak St. in Dover. Visit nh.soapboxderby.org.

Hands-on

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire’s (6 Washington St., Dover, childrens-museum.org) New Hampshire Maker Fest is on Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is a large-scale show-and-tell with makers of all kinds, including artists, engineers, scientists and others, showcasing their creativity. Admission is on a pay-what-you-can basis, with a suggested $5 donation.

• Join the Seacoast Science Center (570 Ocean Blvd., Rye) for World Ocean Day on Sunday, June 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day will feature hands-on games, educational activities, naturalist-led tide pooling sessions, food trucks, a beach clean-up and a life-size inflatable whale. Visit seacoastsciencecenter.org to see a detailed schedule and purchase tickets (for non-members the cost is $20 for adults, $15 for children, free for those under age 3; members pay $5 or free under age 3).

Kiddie Pool 24/05/23

Family fun for whenever

Outdoors is open

Want to celebrate unofficial summer by the water? Here are some state parks offering lake or ocean side fun. Day use fees for most state parks: adults, or those 12 or older, $4 to $5 depending on the park; ages 6 to 11 $2; free for those age 5 and younger and New Hampshire residents 65 or older with a valid NH license. Visit nhstateparks.org.

• Pawtuckaway State Park 128 Mountain Road, Nottingham, 895-3031. This park is always open for recreation unless closed or restricted by posting, according to their website.

• Odiorne Point 570 Ocean Blvd., Rye, 436-7406. When park is unstaffed during the season, please deposit payment in Iron Ranger (self-serve paystation) or Seacoast Science Center main desk, according to their website. The Seacoast Science Center is currently open Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but that is an additional fee that is not included with the State Park admission fee, according to their website.

• Hampton Beach 160 Ocean Blvd., Hampton, 227-8722. Metered parking 8 a.m. to midnight; Haverhill Street Bathhouse open 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Marine Memorial Bathhouse (A Street) open year-round 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; North Beach Bathhouse (High Street) open year-round, 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Seashell Bathhouse (beach side) opens on Saturday, May 25, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; South Pavilion Bathhouse (F Street) open year-round 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., according to their website.

• Clough State Park 455 Clough Park Road, Weare, 529-7112. This park is always open for recreation unless closed or restricted by posting, according to their website.

Kiddie Pool 24/05/16

Family fun for whenever

Kids love trucks

• Liberty House will host a Touch-A-Truck event on Saturday, May 18, at 100 William Loeb Drive in Manchester from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to raise funds for veterans struggling with PTSD, housing instability and other concerns, according to the press release. Participants can explore a wide array of vehicles that includes fire trucks, race cars, BearCats, school buses and propane bobtail trucks, and there will be other activities suitable for children, such as face painting, lots of games, and a family-friendly scavenger hunt. Participants also have the opportunity to win a ride to school in a fire truck from the Manchester Fire Department or even a Kawasaki Electrode Motorbike, among other prizes, according to the press release. There will be a Ben & Jerry’s food truck, and Fungo from the New Hampshire Fisher Cats will make an appearance at the event, where all proceeds will benefit Liberty House, which provides a substance-free residential program and community pantry, helping veterans regain their independence and build stable futures, according to the same release. Admission is $5 per person or $20 for a family. Children under 2 are free. Registration is on-site. Visit libertyhousenh.org/touch-a-truck.

Kids love a parade

• Bedford’s Memorial Day Hometown Parade will travel from the Bedford High School down County Road to Liberty Hill Road at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 19.

On stage

• Stuart Little will be presented by The Majestic Academy of Dramatic Arts and will run on Friday, May 17, at 7 p.m., Saturday, May 18, at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 19, at 2 p.m. at the Majestic Theatre (880 Page St. in Manchester).The play is based on the book by E.B. White and is described as an endearing classic about a mouse named Stuart Little who is born into an ordinary New York family. The cast plays many human and animal roles in a series of delightful scenes that make up the marvelous maneuverings of a mild-mannered mouse trying to survive in a “real people’s world,” according to the website. Tickets are $10 and $15. Visit majestictheatre.net or call 669-7469.

• For the Tay-Tay fans of all ages, catch Shake It Off! A (Taylor’s Version) Tribute featuring the Swiftie Tribute Band at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) on Friday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 18, at 2 & 730 p.m. Tickets cost $35 and $40.

• Catch the final weekend of the Teen Mainstage production of Godspellat the Peacock Players (Janice B. Street Theatre, 14 Court St. in Nashua; peacockplayers.org). The musical will be on stage Friday, May 17, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19, at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $12 to $18.

• Learn while you watch the adventures of Ada Twist Scientist and Friends, based on the books and spotlighting STEM curriculum, atStockbridge Theatre (5 Pinkerton St. in Derry; stockbridgetheatre.showare.com) on Tuesday, May 21, at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Tickets cost $12.

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