April 21: Out of state

We traveled way out of Maine today, all the way over the border to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Things are different down south. For one thing, check out the exotic-looking iris, above. There's nothing blooming like that back home yet. And the streets are lined with fragrant flowering trees, crabapples and cherries. It felt like summer here, with the cobbled sidewalks of historic downtown filled with tourists in flip flops and sundresses, street musicians on every corner. Even more exciting, they seem to value poetry here in a very public way. We noticed these Ambushed by Poetry signs all over town.

In the sunny shop

Bob Dylan's singing for us,

our weekend away.