2021 Life Logs, Day 295: Visit with Friend Leslie Kole in Rye, NH
Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 70, Low Temp 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with Detta and Tom Porat, Greenland, NH
As Shadow and I got into the car to drive to New Hampshire this morning, I noticed that it is finally beginning to look like fall on Cape Cod. We don’t get a lot of color, but this week enough leaves have fallen in my side yard to completely cover the ground. The leaves on the oak trees, however, are still as green as they were in the summer. As I drove northward toward Boston, trees with leaves in all shades of red, yellow, and fiery orange lined the highway. But once I drove through Boston and headed northeast toward Portsmouth, the color began to fade. Many trees had dropped all their leaves. My suspicions that my trip north this fall was too late to enjoy the height of the ‘leaf peeper’ season were confirmed. Next year I’ll have to coordinate my trip with the changing of the leaves.
Due to Covid, I haven’t been to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area to visit with my friends Leslie and Detta and Tom as often as usual. As I got closer to Rye to visit with Leslie, I got super excited. The plan was to spend the afternoon with Leslie and her new dog named Quinn, have dinner with Leslie and the new man in her life, Bob, and then go to Detta and Tom’s to spend the night. I was a little nervous about how Shadow was going to deal with this, but I am happy to say that he is doing great. Leslie and Quinn, a super cute little female white and tan Cockapoo, were waiting for us on the front steps and Quinn and Shadow hit it off immediately. 
Quinn can run as fast as Shadow, so they enjoyed playing chase in the front yard while Leslie and I visited. Then we went for a long walk. We put the dogs in the car and drove about a half mile to New Castle Island. The island is surrounded by the Piscataqua River and there is a lovely, wide walking path to the Great Island Common with a beautiful view of the Piscataqua entering the Atlantic Ocean. Leslie and I talked and talked as we walked back. We took a detour to walk out to Fort Stark which has another lovely viewpoint and then we headed back home. Shortly after we returned, Bob arrived. He and Leslie are planning a trip to French Polynesia in March, so we spent time talking about some of the experiences Mark and I had there. Leslie served a delicious Tuscan stew for dinner and then Detta and Tom arrived to have dessert with us. It was wonderful to be together, but the time passed much too quickly. Detta, Tom, Shadow and I said farewell to Leslie, Bob, and Quinn and headed on to Greenland where Detta and Tom live. They live on Great Bay that leads out to the Piscataqua River.
I had been forewarned about the major construction happening at the Porat’s, but it was even more extensive than I had expected. They renovated part of their house when they moved there, but left an adjoining part to do later. The adjoining part included a family room and the guest quarters where I have stayed many times. That is now gone and the new foundation is in place ready for a two-story addition. The views of the bay from the point on which their house stands are gorgeous. I will be anxious to see the construction and the views in the morning. But tonight, we spent time visiting while Shadow and the Porat’s dog, Addie, played together. Addie is a four-year-old Golden Retriever and quite a bit bigger than Shadow, but they are getting along great. Shadow met Addie about a month after I got him in the fall of 2019, and they seem to remember each other.
