chuck houston III

Labels: Hollis

I've been getting kind of sentimental and nostalgic lately about Southern New Hampshire. This is due largely, I think, to the fact that this month marks 30 years living here. I moved here when I was 23. Now, I'm 53. As regular readers of this blog know, I've been spending a lot of time lately running around out in the woods. I've remained more connected to New Hampshire than I thought. I still love Vermont though. Anyway, on Friday I decided to drive up Federal Hill Road in Milford, and then hike up to the Lookout Tower that is up there. Bob Parker first brought me here years ago. You can go up in the tower, too! Here's a photo of the tower that I took:

Anyway, getting back to my point, from the top of this tower, you can see a 360 degree view all over central Southern New Hampshire - basically my stomping grounds for the past 30 years. You can see west out to the Monadnock region, and you can see to the southwest to Wachusett Mountain in Princeton, Ma. Actually, If you click on the photo below, and look real carefully along the horizon, you will see two things. The first from the left is a barely visible tower at the highest point on the horizon. That's Birch Hill in Hollis, NH. Along the horizon way over on the right is Wachusett Mountain. You can see the ski slopes along the northern face of the mountain. I was telling my Dad the other day that it's kind of cool because he can see the southern face of Wachusett Mountain from near Holy Cross College in Worcester. That's one thing that we both could be looking at, at the same time. The view from compoundville is best from just outside the Hart Center at the top of the H.C. Campus.
Here's the obligatory photo of the blogger himself. It was the first sunny warm day in a while around here. It was 68 Degrees F. when this picture was taken by the camera on a timer. I'm up in the Tower.
Speaking of Birch Hill in Hollis, last Saturday I was hiking over in that area and ..............well, you know when you're walking through the woods and you have to look down a lot, because you need to know what you're actually stepping on? Because it may look like a little twig or something, but it might be a snake? Sometimes, it is a snake. Case in point, this guy. I tried to play with him , but he couldn't hang out...he had his kid with him and he had to get going anyway. So, I continued up the hill.

Labels: Milford

Below is the Tedster. That's Ted Miller. He and my niece Katie are getting married next month. Ted was apparently given responsibility for the carrot-delivery program at Compound central.

The photo below is a great photo of Trace and Paul
Below you can see that Chuck IV was in charge of ham logistics. Paul's photosensitivity got the best of him in this photo (i think he's recoiling from the photo flash)
These were the featured drinks - Irish whiskey and beer of Irish heritage

Below is a good photo of my brother Dick and my Dad.

And below is a classic Easter portrait of the "Tomahawk" at the dinner table observing this joyous, yet solemn Catholic celebration. The Tomahawk is my nephew Tom Gannon. In this photo, he's (supposed to be) sitting beside his brother Joe at the young people's table.

Tom has a long history of non-traditional Catholic holiday role-playing. Take, for example, the photo below of Tom at his First Communion on May 1, 2005


Below is a piping hot dish full of Delmonico Potatoes; we just call them Delmonicos.

Below is Moi.... and my brother Dick. Dick surprised the family with an announcement that he had successfully traced our paternal ancestry back to late 17th century Northern Ireland. There was a large cohort of lowland Scots, including the Houstons, living in Northern Ireland throughout much of the 17th century. They call us the Scotch-Irish.

Basically, our line of Houstons has been in America for 10 generations now. My great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was Samuel Houston of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He came over here to New Hampshire in 1718. He settled in Londonderry, N.H., only a few miles from where I live now. I kind of sketched it out on a paper plate - click on the photo below to enlargen.


Hey one more photo - Below are two of my nieces. On the left is Mary Gannon, Kathleen and John's daughter. On the right is Abigail Hynes-Houston, Dick and Anne's daughter. In the background is the old people's table.

Labels: Family

One of the great things about working at Hahhhhhhhhhhhhvid is that Cambridge is wicked easy to get to from my house. I do have to drive 40 miles to a garage, then a few miles on the subway. In fact, hahvid is the 3rd stop on the Red Line.

Labels: Harvard