New Hampshire Heat Wave

North Hampton Beach Bungalows

Last summer, the summer of aught '15,  I stood on a six foot ladder and wielded a pruning pole to top off a few 15 foot paper birch trees growing between my house and my neighbor's driveway.  These willow birches are delicate trees and cannot bear the load of heavy snow and their brothers on the other side of the house, unprotected by buildings snapped,  and I had to cut them back and they may not survive.  Some evergreens, about the same size grow in a line with the birch trees along both sides of my property. 

This past winter was nearly snowless, at least compared to the winter of '15, when it snowed every day and the last remnants of snow persisted into May. People talked about how nice it was to have a winter you didn't have to shovel snow every day,  but the dry spell has persisted into the summer and now constitutes a drought, rare along the precious 18 miles of New Hampshire seacoast.  Lawns have turned brown and there is a watering ban.

But the trees between my house and my neighbor's driveway have taken no notice. They have grown above our roofs. 

Somehow I failed to notice until today, when I looked out my second floor window to look across at my neighbor's house and found the view blocked by a solid mass of green leaves.  I asked my wife when the trees had grown, but she hand't noticed either. She never looks out that set of windows.  We keep those blinds drawn, for privacy, but with the leaves, we need no blinds. 

Contraband Norway Maples

Walking the perimeter of my yard, I discovered growth has exploded all around. The only trees which have not tripled in size are the two illegal Norway maples, which may be trying to keep a low profile, knowing they are undocumented aliens and may be at any moment uprooted by governmental authorities. 

How has this astonishing growth happened?   These trees must have some source of water unavailable to the lawn.

Girl With Pig

On my morning bicycle ride, I ride past a farm on Timber Swamp Road. They have cows, and chickens and turkeys and two lamas, but my favorites are the pigs.  This farm inspired a painting by Obadiah Youngblood, and truth be told Obadiah is not an accomplished artist, but I like his Seacoast subjects, and the Girl with Pig speaks to that. 

Pigs just seem to belong. They don't worry about belonging; they just do. Pigs are simply not self conscious. 

It is 100 degrees F today. Mr. Tugboat, the Lab, plunged into the ocean as soon as he arrived for his morning walk down at Plaice Cove. There were six other Labs doing the same. Mr. Boat will not swim more than four feet into the Atlantic, ordinarily, unless there is another Lab going after a ball further out.  This morning he seemed only too happy to be in the water, a cool place to be.

Somehow, despite the drought, the heat, growth is happening, silently, relentlessly, mysterious, asking for nobody's permission along the New Hampshire Seacoast.