The summer months here in Portsmouth and the Seacoast areas of New Hampshire are just glorious!  Portsmouth is a working port, so the river and ocean activity kicks into high gear, and the tourists arrive in full force.  I consider myself to be very fortunate to be able to live in such a beautiful place as Portsmouth New Hampshire - a place where people from all over the world come to visit.  Their vacation spot is MY HOME!  How wonderful is that???During the month of July, we have all kinds of fun things going on all over Portsmouth and the surrounding towns.  With all of our parks and outdoor venues, there's bound to be plenty of great things to do for everyone!Here's a sampling of the fun in store this month:~ July 4 - Prescott Park Arts Festival Mid-Week Concert Series begins, runni... 07/02/2007

 I know there are many parts of the country that don't do assisted or accompanied  showings, but here in my areas of Seacoast New Hampshire and southern Maine, we still show our own listings about 80-90% of the time.  It's just the way things are done here - and I know many of you feel that's wrong and/or a waste of time! Anyway, the other day I was showing property to a new set of buyer clients -a wonderful young couple who will be buying their first home here in Portsmouth NH.  We had exchanged phone calls, had our buyer counselling appointment, and then met to sign the New Hampshire REALTOR Buyer Agency Contract before heading out for our first showings.  They had been well-prepared for the home-buying process, showings, etc.We show up at our very first showing, and the listing agent... 06/30/2007

 Have you ever seen any of the majestic Tall Ships that visit various ports around the world?  If you lived in Portsmouth New Hampshire, you would have seen at least one every year.   Once a year for the last 10 - 12 years, at least one Tall Ship has sailed into Portsmouth Harbor.  This year, we're lucky enough to have THREE sailing into Portsmouth!!  These ships are just absolutely beautiful when you see them in person - pictures just really never do them justice once you've seen any of them up close and in person.The ships coming to visit Portsmouth will be here July 6, 7 and 8, and will be docked at the State Pier on Market Street in the downtown area.   These ships represent three different classes of sailing vessels.The Pride of Baltimore II is a 157 foot replica of topsail schoone... 06/19/2007

Portsmouth New Hampshire has loads of pets all over the place, and it's a great town for walking dogs (and kids!) - sidewalks in most of the town, a pet-friendly downtown, lots of nice little parks.  And we have a City of Portsmouth Dog Park, too.  That wasn't easy to get going, but it's been in existence for a few years now at this point.  Good news about the Portsmouth Pooch Park - it's in the process of getting a nice new overhaul.  A couple of weeks ago, a brand new fresh surface was put in.  It's now a stone surface, and it's been properly graded.  After years of use, all the grass that had been there has worn away due to such heavy use.  The ideal surface would have been grass, but with such heavy usage, grass would have been too hard to maintain.  So an alternative surface was fo... 06/15/2007

An event that started 30 years ago, Market Square Day in Portsmouth New Hampshire, continues to this day, even bigger and better than the original founders of this fabulous event could ever have allowed themselves to imagine!  Market Square Day was originally created to celebrate the revitilization and renovation of the downtown area of Portsmouth.  Pro Portsmouth, which now organizes this yearly event, continues to bring thousands and thousands of people from all over the New England area to come see what Portsmouth is all about.  The first Market Square Day was quite local in nature - welcoming residents and families downtown to a small family town celebration.  It was such an overwhelming success, this event was put on the following year, and every year thereafter.I've been going to ... 06/11/2007

Fly right to PORTSMOUTH NEW HAMPSHIRE!!  How cool is that???  WAY COOL, I can assure you!                                                                                 Skybus, a newly launched airline, has added Portsmouth NH to its destination schedule.  Skybus began its twice daily flights in and out of Pease International Tradeport on May 12th, and will be adding more flights down the road.  They are here 'for the long haul'.If you've ever flown into or out of Boston/Logan, or even our own Manchester Airport, you know it can be just a tad bit troublesome at times.  Flying into and/or out of Pease is a total breeze!  And the airfares being offered are amazing!!  On every single flight, Skybus guarantees at least 10 seats will cost ONLY $10.00 each way....TEN DOLLARS!!  You do have t... 06/02/2007

I grew up all over the country.  My dad was an officer in the Air Force, which meant we moved when the government told us to, no matter whether we wanted to or not.  And I can assure you that neither I nor any of my sisters wanted to move every time we did - but we did.  I've no doubt we were a tad bit bratty at times over some of those moves - I'm pretty sure we were, and I recall a certain time when I know I was.  It just got to be really hard to move the older we were.  Moving during high school years was the worst!But, having said all that, wherever we lived, that was HOME to us.  We lived mostly in base housing, and that was never all that special.  What WAS special was the way my mom made each and every house that we called ours, for however a temporary time it was, OUR HOME. No m... 05/24/2007

                     Do You Love to Shop??          Come to Portsmouth New Hampshire....  If you've ever been to Portsmouth New Hampshire, you already know that we have one of the most charming downtown areas you could ever want to find.  Loads of awesome shops, beautiful art gallerys of all kinds, wonderful cafes and coffee shops, and a myriad of delicious dining experiences in the huge variety of restaurants.  Portsmouth NH had been dubbed, "The Restaurant Capital of the Eastern Seaboard", due to the high number of restaurants per capita. Getting back to the shopping, for all you shoppers - Friday nights in downtown Portsmouth now offers a unique shopping experience, "Portsmouth Lights on Friday Nights".  Every Friday night, many of the shops downtown will be open later than usual, un... 05/12/2007

Cruise the Isles Of Shoals.   There are fun cruises for everyone.Yes, New Hampshire does have a coastline.  Only approx. 18 Miles long, but what a wonderful coastline it is.Bases in Portsmouth NH.  The Isles of Shoals Steamship Co.  offers a wide variety of cruises for everyone.  This is truly a unique experience for everyone in the family to enjoy.                                                         Whether planning a wedding, graduation, family gathering, or just a fun day, the Isles of Shoals cruise ship is one to consider.  You can choose from a day cruise, a spectacular sunset cruise!, or a light house cruise.  You will be able to escape and relax aboard the USS Thomas Leighton.The Lighthouse cruise happens to be one of my favorites.  Featuring Portsmouth Harbor, Whale-back Isl... 04/10/2007

Located in Portsmouth NH's waterfront district.  Strawbery Banke museum is a 10 acre neighborhood and museum dedicated to Portsmouth rich historic past.  Stroll through the niegborhood and hear stories told of the past.  Visit the historic homes, shops and gardens.  Learn how Portsmouth's first settlers lived their lives..Take the family while it is open daily from May through October 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or visit during the winter Nov. to April 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  This is surely to be a trip the whole family will enjoy.One of the many shops to enjoy will be the 'Strawberry Banke Museum Shop", offering books and gifts, special gardening- related items, ice cream, and candies.  You and the kids will most definitly not forget this experience.  04/10/2007

 WOW - what some great use of color can do!!  This is our newly remodeled 15 cinema theater in Portsmouth New Hampshire - doesn't it look just great with those splashy fun colors??  I think it does, and I love what they did!This theater is the Regal Cinema 15 Theater, located at Fox Run Crossings in Newington New Hampshire.  Newington actually is a tiny town whose commercial development areas are usually mistaken for being in Portsmouth.  That's okay - we'll claim them! In addition to this lively and inviting exterior makeover, Regal Cinemas now offers some great young family programs as well,  As a way to entice a new audience, Regal Cinemas here in Portsmouth NH began focusing on young couples and couples with young children who don't typically go to the movies.  This fun newly remode... 04/08/2007

I'm working with a great young couple, looking to buy a new home for their soon-to-be growing family.  After meeting with them for a buyer consultation, we began emailing them listings that had potential for them to look through.  They would drive by those that sounded appealing to them, and from there, they'd let me know which ones looked interesting enough to see the inside.  A little while back, we had 3 in one of the towns in the surrounding areas around Portsmouth New Hampshire.  We picked a day and time to meet up, and I went to work making the arrangements for the showings. In the process of getting the listing agents' contact information on each of these houses that they wanted to see, I came upon the instructions on one of them to deal directly with the seller instead of the ag... 03/18/2007

Do you love SEAFOOD??   If so, then you would have really enjoyed this 4 day seafood-packed dining adventure!!One of my sisters, Karen, came to visit me about a week ago.  She went to high school here in Portsmouth NH, so this was a bit of a memory-tour as well, as she hadn't been back here to visit in a good number of years.  Plus, she wanted to see my 'new' home, which she'd only seen pictures of.So, we picked her up at the Manchester NH Airport, and pulled a great surprise visit off on another of my sisters, Dale, who lives with her family in Manchester,  about 45 minutes west of me.  We just showed up, and Karen walked in the door a couple minutes later, and stunned Dale.  Needless to say we had great fun with that little surprise! Dinner that night was in Manchester, at Famous Dave... 02/11/2007

 I was reading a copy of Midwest Living Magazine over the holidays, and came across a small little article that was titled, "Midwest Metros Get Green".  The title caught my eye, so I read a little more....This article was talking about cities that had been ranked as being among the most 'sustainable' in America.  To be considered 'sustainable', the group who did the ranking looked at public transportation, local food sources, energy usage, water and air quality, park space, walkability, and more.  Other factors they looked at, in the event of how well a city can perform in the face of emergencies, was energy crisis preparedness and natural disaster risk. SustainLane.com is the group that did this ranking.  In addition to the above factors, they also took into consideration the quality o... 01/08/2007

My sisters and I grew up in the Air Force, and as such, we lived in scattered places all over the country.  My earliest memories of tracking Santa are from when we lived in Idaho, on Mountain Home Air Force Base.  We used to be able to turn on the TV and track Santa's progress, and we could see how close he might be getting to our house.  And, of course, what that meant was, we needed to get to bed AND be asleep BEFORE he got to our house or he wouldn't stop.   My sisters and I really thought this was Santa's path, and it would work.  We'd jump in our beds and somehow manage to go to sleep so Santa could arrive.What we didn't know then was that NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense Command, actually did this every year for the last 50 years.  Of course, back then, it came over our TV.... 12/24/2006

We've got a brand NEW Library here in Portsmouth, and it just opened this morning!!  It is just a beautiful building, both inside and out.  The landscaping still has to be done, and that will be taken care of in the spring.  Even without that, it's gorgeous!I took this picture this weekend of the sign made by the Portsmouth Middle School, which is right next door to our new library.  I thought it was really cute to see this, and a great indication that everyone has been so looking forward to opening day! I just got back from a very nice guided tour of the library, and there are so many really neat things that we now have that our old library just didn't have the space to offer.  It is probably one of the nicest libraries I've ever been in!The new library is in a great location - it's ri... 12/18/2006

Forbes Magazine just released their list of the smartest cities in America, and this time around, Boulder Colorado took the top honors.  Boulder stood out not necessarily because the University of Colorado is there, but because Boulder makes great effort in making their city "sticky", keeping college graduates in the area, living and working after they graduate.  Two of the things cited for making Boulder an exciting place to live were the outdoor lifestyle and the employment opportunities.  Way to go Boulder!!Forbes used the information gleemed from Sperling's Best Places to live, and took from that the 200 biggest metropolitan areas around the country.  They then ranked them based on the percentage of population that's 25 years old and older, and at minimum had a bachelor's degree.Bet... 12/16/2006

 It sure is looking festive around my area this year!  I noticed on Thanksgiving night this year, many homes were already starting to show off their Christmas and holiday decorations.  I don't really remember them showing up that early in the past. This is a home in my area that really goes all out!  You may remember I did a Halloween post about more houses getting all decked out for Halloween this year than I'd ever seen before.This is the same house in those pictures - this time decked out for Christmas and Santa Claus!!                I'm certainly seeing more and more of these balloon-type and snowglobe-type decorations this year.  They light up at night, and many of them have all kinds of mechanical movements, too.  Is this sweeping across the country like it is here?The Annual Cit... 12/15/2006

 Have you ever wondered about mistletoe - where it comes from, how it came to have the romantic magic it does?  I saw a bunch of it for sale somewhere recently around Portsmouth, and I got to wondering how a plant like that evolved into something with the magical powers that mistletoe symbolizes.Did you know that mistletoe is really a parasite?  It is!  It's a parasitic shrub that's usually found in fruit trees, maples and sometimes in oaks.  And in North America, it's typically found in trees from New Jersey down to Florida.Mistletoe has been associated with the holidays at this time of year going back for centuries, and has symbolized peace and love.In ancient times, Druid priests thought mistletoe was a sacred plant because it grew in the air in oak trees, which was their sacred tree... 12/13/2006

Fifteen years ago, a couple by the name of Merrill and Karen Worcester, owners of the Worcester Wreath Company, began donating wreaths for the Arlington Cemetery.  Back then, they were the leftover wreaths that they had that were still fresh.  He didn't want them to go to waste, so he began sending them to Arlington.  This came about because when he was younger, he won a trip to Washington DC, and he always remembered the Arlington Cemetery from that trip.He has continued sending these wreaths each year, as his way of giving back to veterans because "without them, we would not have what we do today".This year, 2006, is the first year that they've included other veteran's cemeteries around the country.  They've sent six wreaths, "one for each branch of the military with the sixth wreath ... 12/12/2006