And a happy new year

New Hampshire rings in 2023 with a plethora of events

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

The Granite State will be partying it up on New Year’s Eve. Old or young, staying up late or going to bed early, there’s an event for everyone.

• The kids night at the Y theme at YMCA of Downtown Manchester (30 Mechanic St. in Manchester; 623-3558, graniteymca.org) on Friday, Dec. 30, at 4:30 p.m. will be a New Year’s pajama party. Kids ages 3 through 9 are welcome. A space costs $25 per single child; siblings are an additional $15. Register via the branch’s Facebook page.

• See First Night, a romantic comedy, at the Players’ Ring (105 Marcy St. in Portsmouth; playersring.org, 436-8123) on Friday, Dec. 30, and Saturday, Dec. 31, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $27, $24 for students and seniors.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover, childrens-museum.org) is hosting a family New Year’s Eve party on Saturday, Dec. 31, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., with a “countdown to midnight” during each session with noisemakers, hats and more. This is included in regular playtime tickets, which cost $12.50 per child with one adult, $10.50 per child with a senior age 65 and older.

• Charmingfare Farm(774 High St., Candia, visitthefarm.com) is hosting New Year’s Eve sleigh rides on Saturday, Dec. 31, starting at 10 a.m. The rides are sleigh rides to bonfires and holiday lights on a trail.

• Cowabunga’s (725 Huse Road in Manchester; cowabungas.com) is hosting a New Year’s Eve party on Saturday, Dec. 31 at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased at cowabungas.com.

• Join the Concord Public Library (45 Green St. in Concord, concordnh.gov) for a Noon Year’s Eve party on Saturday Dec. 31. The party will start at 11:30 a.m., and kids and parents can count down the clock together to noon. Recommended for kids newborn to fifth grade.

• Derry Public Library (64 East Broadway) is hosting a Noon Year’s Eve party on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 11:30 a.m. There will be a parade and balloon drop at the stroke of noon. Visit derrypl.org for more information.

• Celebrate the new year at the First Night in Portsmouth on Saturday, Dec. 31, in Market Square. The celebration starts at 2 p.m. and will end with fireworks at 7:30 p.m. Visit proportsmouth.org.

• The Kensington Parks and Recreation Department is setting off New Year’s fireworks at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31, in Sawyer Memorial Park (24 Trundle Lane). The Department recommends dressing warmly and bringing a flashlight.

• The Portsmouth City Orchestra is coming to the Music Hall’s Historic Theater (28 Chestnut St.) for a New Year’s Eve concert and Champagne toast on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $38 and can be bought at themusichall.org.

• Dave and Buster’s (1500 S. Willow St., Manchester) is hosting a Ring Ring Ring in the New Year party from 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 31, to 1 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 1, with an unlimited appetizer buffet and unlimited play on select games. Tickets cost $69 and can be bought at daveandbusters.com.

Pats Peak (686 Flanders Road, Henniker) is having New Year’s Eve fireworks on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 10:20 p.m. Get a reservation for skiing, snowboarding, or tubing to watch the show. Lift tickets start at $60 and can be purchased at patspeak.com.

• Seven New Hampshire state parks are hosting First Day hikes on Sunday, Jan. 1. The hike at Robert Frost Farm in Derry is already full; other locations include Greenfield State Park (954 Forest Road), Monadnock State Park (116 Poole Road in Jaffrey) and Odiorne Point State Park (570 Ocean Blvd., Rye). Check-in begins at noon. Advance registration is required; visit nhstateparks.org to register or for more information.

• The Apple Therapy and Derry Sports & Rehab Millennium Mile, a one-mile downhill race on Mammoth Road in Londonderry, starts at a forgiving 2 p.m. Registration costs $20 for 12+ and $10 for 11 and under, with the first 1,250 registrants getting a winter hat (if available, registration on race day costs $5 more). See millenniumrunning.com.

• Join New Hampshire Scot for a Hogmanay at LaBelle Winery (14 Route 111, Derry) on Sunday, Jan. 1, from 3 to 7 p.m. There will be traditional Scottish music, food, activities and more. Entry tickets cost $32 per adult ages 15 and older, $15 per child ages 6 to 14, and kids ages 5 and younger are free. Visit nhscot.org for more information.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Enjoying the winter landscape

Pruned trees for outside, cut branches for inside

Normally at this time of year I can go out to the stream behind my house and pick stems of a shrub called winterberry (Ilex verticillata) to use in vases and on my wreath. It is generally loaded with small red berries that persist until mid-winter when hungry birds eat them, or they just plain fall off.

Winterberry is a great decorative shrub in winter that prefers wet feet but will grow in ordinary garden soil too. It is dioecious, meaning that it requires male and female plants — usually one male will take care of all the females. This year I didn’t get many of those bright red berries I like so much for decoration, and I have heard from other gardeners that they had few, too.

This prompted me to walk around my property looking at my woody shrubs to see what might substitute for winterberries. I didn’t find any berries at all. But I did cut some red-twigged dogwood (Cornus sericea) to use in a vase, and some budded branches of a Merrill magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri).

The magnolia buds are a bit like pussywillows on steroids: an inch long and very fuzzy. I have some in a vase on the table, and they look very good, and will for many weeks ahead. I’ve done this before, and will occasionally get a few buds to open into white flowers. I cut some greenery to go with them, a few stems of white pine. Hemlock would look good instead, but doesn’t hold needles well indoors.

It struck me that winter can be pretty bleak for people who don’t have nice-looking winter shrubs and trees. Judicious pruning can transform a messy tree full of small branches going every which way into sculpture. I recently helped a client prune a 50-year-old Japanese maple into sculpture that will keep it looking great for several years — with only a few minor pruning cuts each year.

When pruning, I ask myself, what will this little branch, currently the thickness of a finger, look like when it is the thickness of an arm — or a leg. If it is growing sideways toward a walkway, it must come off. Going through the middle of the tree? Remove it! The maple I pruned had many small dead branches that had been choked out because bigger branches had blocked off the sun, effectively starving them.

Bark is important. I like plants that have exfoliating bark, which means bark that is shaggy and peeling off — thus showing more than one color. My Seven Sons Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is one of those. In addition to the nice bark it offers me a display of small white flowers each fall. White birch (Betula papyrifera) and river birch (Betula nigra) are others with interesting bark. In fact all the birches have handsome bark.

I’ve been growing a paperbark maple (Acer griseum) for about 20 years. It has lovely shaggy reddish-brown bark that is very handsome. It is a very slow-growing tree, at least in this climate. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant (good to minus 20 F) but mine has survived colder temperatures. It looks great in winter.

One of my favorites — but one I do not grow — is sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), which I knew growing up in Connecticut but is rare in New Hampshire where I live. It reminds me of the English plane tree, so common in Europe. The bark peels off in big swaths, showing light gray-green in some areas, dark brown in others. It is just barely hardy to Zone 4, and prefers to grow in river bottoms, but will grow in drier soils, too.

Of the bigger trees, I like American beech (Fagus sylvatica) for its smooth gray bark. Unfortunately, beeches are prone to a fungal disease that mars the bark and eventually kills the tree.

That same smooth bark is a prominent feature of a shrub known variously as shad bush, serviceberry and Saskatoon bush. All belong to the genus Amelanchierbut bear different species names. Most are multi-stemmed bushes that get no more than 10 feet tall, though I have a wild one more than twice that height. Their blossoms are similar to apple blossoms. They do well in partial sun, often growing and blooming on roadsides.

Apple trees, particularly crabapples, can look great in winter. Some crabs hold onto their fruit throughout much of the winter, some drop their fruit in fall and many provide fruit for the birds to eat (that disappears before winter is done). Ask at the nursery when you buy a crabapple if the birds like the fruit. The form and bark of a well-pruned apple or crabapple is gorgeous to my eye.

So if your landscape has little to offer you in winter, plan on adding some winter interest come planting time. And if your trees and shrubs are drab, think about adding some strings of little winter lights to brighten them up, at least at night.

Featured photo: Merrill magnolia buds look like pussywillows all winter long, and bloom in late April. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 22/12/22

Family fun for the weekend

Library activities

• The Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) is hosting a seasonal craft time for kids in grades 6 through 12 on Tuesday, Dec. 27, from 1 to 3 p.m. The project will teach them how to ink up their own set of dice for tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. Materials will be provided by the library. Register online in advance at nashualibrary.org.

• There will be a family-friendly movie at Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) on Tuesday, Dec. 27, at 2 p.m. The library will show Smallfoot (PG, 2018) and provide snacks and drinks. The movie follows the friendly yeti Migo, whose life changes after he discovers humans. Visit nashualibrary.org for more information.

• Join the Manchester City Library (405 Pine St., Manchester) for a Gingerbread Earthquake activity on Wednesday, Dec. 28, from 1 to 4 p.m. Kids in grades 1 through 6 can come by and build a gingerbread house and see if it withstands the library’s earthquake simulator platform. This is the last gingerbread event of the season at the library. For more information, visit manchester.lib.nh.us.

Museum fun

• Join the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover) during their holiday hours Wednesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., and Tuesday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon. The museum will have active play time, holiday themed activities, story times, and craft projects. Tickets cost $12.50 per child, $10.50 for seniors ages 65 and older, and are free for children under 1 year old. Visit childrens-museum.org to reserve a spot in advance.

• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester) is open regular hours over the holiday break, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The museum will be closed on Christmas Day but will be open on Christmas Eve from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $13 for seniors ages 65 and older, $10 for students, $5 for teens ages 13 to 17, and are free for children under 13 years old or members. Visit currier.org for more information or to reserve tickets online.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry) will be open Friday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 27, through Friday, Dec. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum will have the annual “Holiday Festival of Toy Planes and Model Aircraft” exhibit open during those hours. This year’s exhibit features more than 2,000 toy planes and model aircraft on display. Younger kids can participate in the 12 Planes of Christmas scavenger hunt, where they look for specific planes in the mobiles of the exhibits. Admission costs $10 for adults 13 and older, $5 for kids ages 6 to 12, seniors 65 and above, and veterans/active military. Kids 5 and younger are free. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org for more information.

SEE Science Center (200 Bedford Road, Manchester) is hosting a slew of hands-on, interactive activities during winter break. In addition to being open on Monday, Dec. 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the museum’s hours will be updated to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday. There will be different activities each day, including a chance to try a machine learning game, make a science craft to take home, or touch a fossil. For more information about the museum or to reserve tickets, visit see-sciencecenter.org.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) will be open Friday, Dec. 23, from 10:30 to 4 p.m. and then daily from Monday, Dec. 26, through Saturday, Dec. 31, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $12 for adults, $11 for students and seniors and $9 for children ages 3 to 12, according to the website. Planetarium shows cost an additional $6 per person (children ages 2 and under get in free); see times and descriptions for the different shows online. Purchase admission online to reserve a morning or afternoon visit spot.

Ice is nice

• The Douglas N. Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road, Concord) will be open on Christmas Eve from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for ice skating. Admission is $6, with children 3 and younger being free. Ice skate rentals are $6 a pair and there are refreshments at the snack bar. Visit concordnh.gov for more information.

Let there be light

A look at light shows across southern New Hampshire

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

There’s something magical about the twinkling of holiday lights that puts people in a festive spirit. While many lights are in residential neighborhoods, some places, like LaBelle Winery, are doing more for the season.

LaBelle has upped its lightshow this year, said Michelle Thornton, the media director at LaBelle. LaBelle Lights, which is in its second year, has grown to three times the original size, and has many brand-new displays.

“This year has really exploded,” said Thornton. “There’s half a million lights and a hundred displays. It’s really magical.”

Some things have stayed the same from last year, like the exit ornament and tunnel of lights, but overall, the show has grown in every way.

The biggest difference is that the LaBelle staff designed and built the light show themselves this year, which led the team to be more adventurous, said Thornton. New additions to the light show include Santa’s sleigh lit up for the holidays, oversized iron sculpted flowers in a larger-than-life garden, and a chandelier bridge.

“When we planned, we had children in mind,” Thornton said. “We asked, ‘What would you like to see as a child?’ but we still wanted to create some awe for adults, too.”

Another change that LaBelle has implemented are “selfie stations” Thornton said. The map of LaBelle Lights will show an icon of a phone, marking it as a prime spot to take a good pic. Thornton said that the response has been overwhelming, seeing LaBelle get tagged in dozens of social media posts each week.

One surprise from these selfie stations is seeing how many people are getting engaged at the exit ornament this year. Thornton said that she’ll open the winery’s social media accounts and be thrilled to see someone else’s engagement photos.

“The way [the exit ornament]’s lit, I think of Cinderella’s pumpkin,” said Thornton. “It is lit so beautifully, it’s like it’s become the unofficial proposal spot of New Hampshire’s winter.”

While LaBelle is a beautiful light show, sometimes it can be too cold to walk around outside. That’s why parks and recreation departments in towns across New Hampshire have teamed up to create a warmer environment for light shows.

The Tour of Lights is a list of houses with holiday displays from Salem to Amherst. The show was started by Merrimack’s park and recreation department and has more contributing homes this year than ever before, said Matthew Casparius, one of the organizers in the department.

“It’s crazy,” Casparius said. “Facebook has been blowing up as people like, share and comment. By Saturday I had a dozen people who had directly contacted me to ask how to get on the list.”

While there’s no guarantee that houses will keep lights up past Christmas, Casparius said that there’s a good chance that they will stay up until the new year.

Casparius said the department used Mapquest to navigate a way through the towns to hit up as many lights as possible.

“It’s a nice collection, and a free option to get people out there to check out the lights,” Casparius said.

Lights galore

Here’s a list of light shows open through the holidays across southern New Hampshire. Email [email protected] if there are any holiday light shows missing.

Daly Family Festival of Lights
Where: 51 Pond Lane, Fremont
When: Daily, 4:30 to 9 p.m.
Visit: facebook.com/Dalyfamilyfestivaloflights

Encore of Lights
Where: Charmingfare Farm, 774 High St., Candia
When: Dec. 28 through Dec. 31, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Price: Sleigh rides start at $199
Visit: visitthefarm.com

Gift of Lights
Where: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 1122 Route 106 North, Loudon
When: Thursday, Dec. 22, through Monday, Dec. 26, 4:30 to 10 p.m.; Tuesday, Dec. 27, through Thursday, Dec. 29, and Sunday, Jan. 1, 4:30 to 9 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 30, and Saturday, Dec. 31, 4:30 to 10 p.m.
Price: $35 per car; $60 per bus, limousine or RV
Visit: nhms.com

Hudson Christmas
Where: 75 Pelham Road, Hudson
When: Daily, 4:30 to 9 p.m.
Visit: facebook.com/hudsonnhchristmas

LaBelle Lights
Where: LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry
When: Wednesday through Sunday, until Jan. 15, 4:30 to 9 p.m.
Price: $16 for teens and adults, $10 for seniors older than 65, $8 for children ages 4 to 12, free for children younger than 4.
Visit: labellewinery.com

New England Animated Lights
For a complete list of houses with animated light shows in New Hampshire and beyond, visit https://tinyurl.com/yhx933mj

Southern New Hampshire Tour of Lights
Visit merrimackparksandrec.org for the complete list of locations.

Featured photo: LaBelle Lights. Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 22/12/15

Family fun for the weekend

Getting crafty

Make your own cocoa mug at Voices of Clay (16 Meetinghouse Hill Road, Brookline) on Saturday, Dec. 17, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Kids will get to build a mug out of slab-rolled clay and decorate it with underglaze paint to make it uniquely their own. The mugs will be ready for pickup one month after the class. The price of the class is $35. A space can be reserved at voiceofclay.squarespace.com.

• Drop kids off at AR Workshop (875 Elm St., Manchester) for a mini Santa and friends wood block workshop on Saturday, Dec. 17, from 3 to 5 p.m. This program is recommended for kids ages 6 and older. Choose a reindeer, a snowman, Santa, an elf or a gingerbread man. A set of three costs $29; all five cost $45. Visit arworkshop.com for more information and to register.

Meet Santa

• Santa is coming to the Educational Farm at Joppa Hill (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford) for a Christmas Festival on Saturday, Dec. 17, at 5 p.m. The festival will include a tree lighting, a bonfire, s’mores kits, food trucks and face painting. Visit theeducationalfarm.org for more information.

• Join the New Boston Parks and Recreation department for s’mores with Santa on Saturday, Dec. 17, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the town’s gazebo. The tree lighting ceremony will be at 5 p.m. and kids can visit with Santa afterward. There will be cocoa and hot cider in addition to the s’mores. Visit newbostonnh.gov for more information.

Museums and libraries

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover) is having two free admission days for Service Credit Union Members on Thursday, Dec. 15, and Saturday, Dec. 17, for the 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m. sessions. For more information on how to use the discount for a playtime session or to register for a play session, visit childrens-museum.org.

• Friday, Dec. 16, is the last chance kids will have to visit the Concord Public Library (45 Green St.) to write a letter to Santa. The library has all the materials needed for kids to write their list and check it twice. The event runs all day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the children’s section. Visit concordnh.gov for more information.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive, Concord) is premiering a new planetarium show called “The Great Spirit Bear Chase” on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 7 p.m. The show was made to tell the story of the night sky from the perspective and cultural traditions of indigenous people. Admission is free and there will be hors d’oeuvres served. Visit starhop.com for more information.

Showtime

• Find out who did it at the free family mystery show A Merry Little Crime Scene at Emmanuel Church (14 Mammoth Road, Hooksett) on Sunday, Dec. 18. The comedy mystery show follows people searching for who stole a missing piece of the nativity scene. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 6 p.m. Visit emmanuelhooksett.com for more information.

• Join Chunky’s Cinema in Pelham (150 Bridge St., Pelham) for a family-friendly showing of Elf (2003 PG) on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 6:30 p.m. The show follows Buddy, a human adopted by one of Santa’s elves, as he goes on an adventure to find his biological family.

YMCA holiday

• The theme for the teen night at the Y is Yankee swap at the Westwood Park YMCA (90 Northwest Blvd., Nashua) on Saturday, Dec. 17, from 3 to 6 p.m. Teen ages 13 to 16 can participate by bringing a gift to exchange with others. There will also be other activities and snacks and refreshments. The cost of the event is $5 for YMCA members, $10 for nonmembers. Tickets can be bought in advance or at the door. Visit nmymca.org for more information.

Composting: It’s important, even in winter

Today’s veggie scraps makes tomorrow’s soil

When I was a boy it was one of my many jobs to take out the kitchen scraps every few days and dump them in our woods in a compost pile. Like the postman, I did my job no matter what: “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays this boy from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.” I would not say that the postman nor the boy enjoyed their tasks in a blowing rain. But I did it. Now, older and wiser, I still do it.

Making good compost is easy. Plenty has been written about the best way to create that “black gold” we all love to give our plants. There should be the proper mix of ingredients that are high in nitrogen and those that are high in carbon. That will help our microbe pals breakdown leaves, weeds and kitchen scraps into useful biologically active material to support plant growth. Now, in winter, composting is more of a challenge.

Scientists disagree about the ratio of carbon and nitrogen materials to get a compost pile “working.” Some say an even 50-50 mix of materials, but others say up to 30 times more carbon-based materials than those high in nitrogen. Me? I aim for three parts dry, brown material to one part high nitrogen material. Eventually, everything breaks down and turns into compost.

What ingredients are high in nitrogen? Grass clippings, green leaves and weeds. Animal manures are good, but you should never use cat or dog waste. Vegetable scraps, raw or cooked, fall in this category too, and coffee grounds. Moldy broccoli from the back of the fridge? Sure.

High-carbon materials include dead leaves, straw, tea bags, even a little shredded paper. If using newspaper, avoid glossy pages and things with lots of color. Newspapers are pretty benign these days, as they use soy inks and no heavy metals. I keep a supply of fall leaves next to my compost pile and spread a layer over the kitchen scraps every time I empty the compost bucket. That also minimizes flies in summer.

A good compost pile also needs oxygen to work well. And if your pile stays soggy, it won’t allow the microorganisms to get enough oxygen. But if your pile is too dry, the working microbes won’t be able to thrive, either. If you grab a handful and squeeze it, it should feel like a wrung-out sponge. People who really want a fast-acting compost pile turn over the compost with a garden fork regularly to help aerate it, but I don’t have the time or energy to do that.

In winter, most compost piles stop breaking down plant material because it is too cold for the organisms that cause decomposition. In summer, if yours is working well, temperatures can go up over 140 degrees F, which will kill weed seeds. In fact I’ve done experiments and found that 125 degrees for a couple of days killed the seeds of the annual grass I placed in it — though some weeds may be tougher to kill than that. To get my compost pile that hot I layered in fresh lawn clippings. Still, the pile had cooler pockets and hotter ones.

So how does all this help you in winter? First, accept that your kitchen scraps will be frozen and not breaking down. Even those big plastic drums that rotate compost probably won’t work in winter — the material will be one big lump impossible to turn.

I used to keep my compost pile near the vegetable garden so I could throw weeds in it. But the problem was that in winter I needed boots or snowshoes to get to my compost pile. If you don’t want to build a bin or trudge to a distant compost pile in winter, think about just using a big trash can and saving all your scraps until spring when things thaw out and temperatures are good for composting. This will also keep dogs and skunks out of it. Recently I built a nice bin made of wood pallets that is next to my woodpile, near the house — and more accessible all year.

Not all compost is the same. The microbes attracted to material made from woody plants are different from the ones attracted to kitchen scraps and grass clippings. Think about the soil in an established forest: It is dark and rich, formed by the breakdown of leaves, twigs and branches over a long period of time. You can mimic that and speed up the process to create mulch or compost to put around newly planted trees and shrubs. Just compost your autumn leaves, twigs and small branches. I shred them in a chipper-shredder machine.

If you collect scraps (no meat or oil) and are a member of a CSA, they may accept your kitchen scraps for their composting system. If you have a 5-gallon pail with cover, you can easily transport it to a farm or recycling facility that accepts food scraps. When we were on vacation in Maine, we brought our kitchen scraps to a farm that used them for compost.

Aside from helping your plants, making compost helps keep food waste out of the landfill, which is important: We are running out of space in landfills. So do your part, even in winter. And whatever you make will enhance your soil when you add it in at planting time.

Featured photo: I keep chopped leaves in a barrel next to my compost pile to spread over kitchen scraps. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

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