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Scarecrows of the Port | Portsmouth NH Homes

Ann Cummings — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:09:00 +0000

If you make your home in Portsmouth NH, or have been visiting and wishing you had a Portsmouth New Hampshire home, you’ve most likely seen all the endearing scarecrows that have popped up all around the downtown area.

Some just kinda sneak up on you, and others are right out there and easily spotted.

These Scarecrows of the Port are the brainchild of volunteers from the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, and various businesses around town added some scarecrows of their own this year. “The Scarecrows of the Port began last year when the submarine USS New Hampshire was commissioned. It was suggested that the scarecrows would be a good draw to the city and give the submarine event another perspective of Portsmouth.”, quoted from The Portsmouth Herald.

Take a drive around the downtown Portsmouth area and see how many of these fun scarecrows you can spot! Every time I drive through town, I see another 1 or 2 that I hadn’t seen before. And to make sure you’re not missing any, make sure to check out the video and map available at the Scarecrows of the Port website.

Don’t wait too long to see these scary but lovable Portsmouth NH Scarecrows – they’ll only hanging out around town until November 1st…… if you miss them, you’ll have to wait until next fall to see them again….

Would you like information on the New Hampshire or Maine real estate market? Do you have questions about the buying or selling process? Give me a call at 1-888-349-5678 x 3839 or send me an email and let’s talk Portsmouth NH real estate!

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington, Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

Portsmouth NH Home to Tall Ships Festival

Ann Cummings — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:02:34 +0000

Those of us who call Portsmouth NH home know that we have all kinds of great things that go on all year long. One very special event that has been taking place for the last 10 summers is our Tall Ships Festival, put on by the Piscataqua Maritime Commission. The folks on that commission do a fabulous job bringing in Tall Ships for us to enjoy each year.

This year, the first of the four ships visiting for our Tall Ships Festival began arriving a week ago. The Tall Ships Boat Parade was Friday morning, starting out at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor. I watched them come into the harbor in Newcastle, and then I followed them through Newcastle and then down into the downtown area where they tied up at the State Piers downtown.

These ships are so majestic to see – just beautiful!

If you want to see more beautiful pictures of these Tall Ships, please check out Philip Case Cohen’s Photo Blog – The Daily Portsmouth. His photographs are just beautiful!

Images © 2009 Ann Cummings Portsmouth NH REALTOR
NH Coastal Living – Portsmouth NH Photo Blog

Tall Ships Are Coming to Portsmouth NH

Ann Cummings — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:01:14 +0000

If you live in or around Portsmouth NH, you know we always have lots of things going on that are centered around all the water we’re so lucky to have all around us!

Another fabulous event going on this week is our Portsmouth NH Tall Ships Festival, which is brought here to us by our Piscataqua Maritime Commission.

We’ve been fortunate to have had Tall Ships visit us for a number of years now, and visitors and residents alike just love our summer Tall Ships Festival. This is our 10th annual festival.

This year, we’ve got 4 ships coming in: the US Coast Guard Eagle, the Kalmar Nyckel, the Spirit of Massachusetts, and the Spirit of Carolina. These ships have begun arriving in Portsmouth Harbor. The Spirit of Massachusetts is already in port, having arrived on Sunday. The others will be arriving on the 5th and 6th. During the week, these ships will be sailing up and down the river – great picture-taking opportunities.

The Tall Ships Boat Parade will be held the morning of August 7th, starting at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor, going upriver to the docks in downtown Portsmouth. Once the ships are docked, the official festivities will begin – tours, entertainment, day sails, and more.

This is a wonderful event to take part in – plan a day here in Portsmouth NH and see these beautiful ships! I watched the boat parade last time, and got to see them at the docks. They are beautiful ships for sure!

If you’re here and make Portsmouth NH home, or if you’re in the area or are close enough to take a day trip here, come see these magnificent Tall Ships – well worth spending a day here to see them and enjoy all that downtown Portsmouth has to offer.

Would you like information on the Portsmouth New Hampshire real estate market? Do you have questions about the buying or selling process? Give me a call at 1-888-349-5678 x 3839 or send me an email and let’s talk real estate!

Portsmouth NH Strawbery Banke Community Day

Ann Cummings — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:35:11 +0000

For those of us who make Portsmouth NH home, we get to enjoy all kinds of great community activities going on year-round. One such fun event is today’s Strawbery Banke Community Day.

Community Day offers free admission with a donation of a canned food item, more than one would be awesome. All the canned foods collected will benefit local food pantries, which sorely need donations at this point.

Come check out all the fun things going on today from 10am to 5pm, Saturday August 1st, 2009. Children’s games, garden tours, house tours, and more. And of course, you must check out the hot air balloon rides from 10am to noon! One of the world-famous RE/MAX Hot Air Balloons will be at Strawbery Banke for tethered rides.

Great fun for family and friends – what a beautiful day today is for this Community Day in Portsmouth NH!

Portsmouth NH Area Fireworks

Ann Cummings — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:27:11 +0000

Looking to catch some great fireworks displays in the Portsmouth NH area?

Here’s where some of them will be:

Friday, July 3rd -
Portsmouth fireworks starting at 9:15pm – South Mill Pond across from Portsmouth Middle School. Music at 7:30pm.
York fireworks start at 9:05pm – Harbor Beach York Harbor.

Saturday, July 4th -
Dover fireworks start at 9pm – Maglaras Park.
Greenland fireworks start at 9pm – Bramber Valley Golf Course – outdoor grilling all evening.
Hampton fireworks start at 9:15pm – Hampton Beach area.
Rye fireworks start at dusk – Parson’s Field.

Sunday, July 5th -
York Beach fireworks start at 9:30pm – Ellis Park Short Sands Beach

UPDATE – Portsmouth NH fireworks have been move to Sunday night, July 5th, same time and location

Find a fireworks display near you and enjoy them!

I wish you and yours a safe and enjoyable 4th of July holiday weekend!

Summer Fun Begins! Portsmouth City Pool Opens

Ann Cummings — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:24:01 +0000

Every summer in Portsmouth NH, kids of all ages look forward to the city pool opening up for the season. This year’s season for the Peirce Island Pool begins today, June 29th, and remains open through August.

If you live in Portsmouth’s Little Harbor area or the South End area, you’re lucky enough to be able to walk to the pool and other fun things in the area. There is parking, so if you have to drive, no worries.

If you’re a town resident, use of the pool is $1.00 for adults and free for kids as long as you have proof of Portsmouth being your home. If you don’t live in Portsmouth, you can use the pool for a $2.00 admission for adults and $1.00 per child.

For a full schedule of the city pool hours, swimming lessons, etc., check out this City of Portsmouth Pool link. Portsmouth also has an indoor city pool, which residents are welcome to use as well.

Fun Stuff to Do While Shopping for Portsmouth NH Homes!

Ann Cummings — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:28:29 +0000

Are you thinking about making the Portsmouth NH area your home?
It is a great area to call home, that’s for sure!

So, while you’re here checking out the Seacoast area, you might want to take a break and check out a few of the really special places here for fun and relaxation. And of course, you have to eat, so I’ve included a few restaurants along the way as well!

The Portsmouth NH Southern Maine Seacoast area is simply put – BEAUTIFUL! I am a tad bit partial, but I have every confidence you’ll agree after you’ve been here for even just a day!

If you’re going to be up in York Maine, I’ve heard the York Wild Kingdom is a great place to go with kids. I’ve never been so I don’t have first-hand knowledge, but I’ve heard plenty of others say it’s an enjoyable time. While you’re in that area, go to the Nubble Lighthouse Park, in York. It’s one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. They have a nice park, a little restaurant right there and a cute gift shop. Here’s a little Nubble Lighthouse picture show I put together on this park.

A little bit north of there is Ogunquit, with the Perkins Cove area. That’s a neat little peninsula with quaint little shops and great seafood restaurants. Barnacle Billy’s is good, tourists and locals alike go there. I think it’s a bit pricey but it’s in that great area and on the water with views that make you want to stay all afternoon.

As you come south towards Portsmouth, there are all the outlets on Route 1 in Kittery Maine. There’s a great seafood restaurant there, across from the Kittery Trading Post – Weathervane Seafood. Awesome seafood, they have their own boats and it’s very reasonably priced. Locals eat there all year-long. Very casual and great for families. Bob’s Clam Hut is across the street, I’ve never eaten there but have plenty of friends who frequent it. Wild Willy’s is a fun casual small restaurant for awesome burgers and hand-cut fries – one of my favorite places to go for burgers!

Portsmouth NH – a wonderful walking downtown area with lots of great little local shops, galleries, and restaurants all over the place. We have a beautiful riverside park, Prescott Park, with gardens, plays, concerts, etc. that go on all summer long. It’s a great park to pick up lunch somewhere and then go and enjoy a picnic there. Across from Prescott Park is Strawbery Banke – an outdoor living museum. This is a great place to go if you like history. It spans over 350 years of area history, showing how families lived back then, gardens, shop, grounds, etc. It’s quite interesting.

Restaurants in Portsmouth - there are so many, it would be hard to choose – for really good casual food (burgers, salads, etc.) the Rusty Hammer is good, right downtown. The Oar House and the Dolphin Striker are both famous restaurants – they’re a little pricey but the food good. We have several restaurants right on the water downtown – The Old Ferry Landing is a fun place to go, they have seafood and sandwiches and you can eat out on their deck and watch the river traffic go by. We have restaurants galore just in the downtown area alone – you’d be hard-pressed not to find something you’ll enjoy, no matter which ones you pick out. The Portsmouth Gas Light and the Portsmouth Brewery are both fun places to stop and enjoy a bite to eat.

A drive through New Castle, just off Portsmouth, is a nice drive. New Castle is an island town, dating back to the 1600’s, and you can see that by the antique homes and winding streets that you’ll go on as you circle the island. The Wentworth-by-the-Sea hotel has a nice lunch, and is a beautiful place to stop. They also have a restaurant right across the street, Latitudes, that has pretty much the same food, and there you get great harbor views as you eat.

A nice little tucked-away Portsmouth restaurant at the end of route through New Castle is BG’s Boathouse – locally owned and fresh seafood, with a deck that overlooks a river, a nice and relaxing place to eat and take in the views. Just before you get to BG’s, on the left, is The Ice House – great seafood, burgers, sandwiches, and of course delicious ice cream, too.

The Bratskellar on Route 1 in Portsmouth is a great restaurant for pizza and sandwiches, very casual, and great atmosphere for just relaxing a bit. Down in North Hampton on Route 1 is Abercrombie and Finch – another very good casual restaurant, lunch or dinner. And right next door to Abercrombie’s is Wings Your Way – if you like chicken, they have a ton of different wings and sandwiches, along with burgers, salads, etc. Again, another casual place to go.

We’ve got a lot of chain restaurants, so if you like those, you’ll find plenty of other places to eat in addition to the local places I mentioned above

I love a drive along the coast, all 17 miles of it!

You’ll see rocky coastline and sandy beaches mixed in.

Hampton Beach is a fun place to go, if you like summer beaches and people-watching. They have the regular beach-type shops and restaurants there that you’d expect. All summer long, you can find all kinds of activities going on in Hampton Beach, and be sure to check out the famous Hampton Beach Casino to see what concerts are going on there. Enjoy the Sand Sculpture Contests, Seafood Festivals and more!

This is just the tip of the iceberg for all the activities and restaurants in the area! I hope you’ll enjoy your visit, and that you’ll come to think of the Portsmouth NH area as your home if you’re relocating here. I love it here, and I’m sure you will, too!

Portsmouth NH Homes – Lilacs Abound Everywhere

Ann Cummings — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:11:32 +0000

Portsmouth New Hampshire Homes Show Off State Flower – Lilacs!

Lilacs are the state flower of New Hampshire, and one quick drive through town, and you’ll clearly see them all around Portsmouth NH homes. For several weeks each May, the intoxicating scent of lilacs is all around you here in the NH Seacoast as well as all around the state…..breathe deeply……………ah…. I love that fragrance!

The first lilacs introduced into NH came to use via England in the 1750’s. Royal Governor Benning Wentworth wanted them to showcase his Portsmouth NH historic home, now known as The Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion. Every summer, this historic home in Portsmouth is open for free tours, and each May you can see the lilacs bursting with those fragrant little flowers, descendents of the original lilacs brought over in the 1750’s.

The most common lilacs you’ll see around homes in Portsmouth NH are the lavender, deep purple and white lilacs. In the last few years, light pink lilacs have been showing up, and I saw a couple of yellow lilacs recently as well. Those are really beautiful, and striking when you see them because they’re not very common varieties of lilacs. They smell just as beautiful as the more common colors.

This year’s Lilac Festival will be May 29th, from 10am to 4pm. You’ll be able to buy beautiful lilac bushes, lilac-themed gifts, and refreshments. Tours of The Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion will be offered, as well as the opening of an art exhibition. The festival is free to all who attend, donations are most certainly welcome, so feel free to donate whatever you feel being able to see and smell this beauty is worth to you!

Whenever I’m near lilacs, I can’t help put gather a branch, pull it to me, and breathe in deeply that heady lilac scent. I can never get enough! Fortunately for me, I have my own lilac bushes around my own Portsmouth home.

I wish I could put a ‘scratch and sniff’ tool on my post so you could experience their fragrance as well…. who knows, some day soon ‘scratch and sniff’ may be a tool that comes with all computers. As a friend always said, “if we can think it, someone somewhere has or will create it’. I’m waiting!!

If you’re interested in buying or selling homes or condos in the Portsmouth NH real estate market, let me know. I love helping people achieve their real estate goals!

Once you’re here, this area just makes you fall in love with it, and this just helps to make my job as your Portsmouth NH REALTOR that much more enjoyable to ensure you have as smooth a move as possible! Give me a call or send me an email, and let’s get started!!

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle,
Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington,
Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery,
Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

Send me an email or give me a call at 1-888-349-5678 ext 3839.

Seacoast NH Homes – Things on the Side of the Road

Ann Cummings — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:05:07 +0000

Showing homes in the Seacoast areas of NH and Maine is always a treat, and something I enjoy doing, most of the time.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve traveled in a variety of different directions showing homes in the Portsmouth NH areas, in both New Hampshire and Maine. And because I wasn’t in a rush, I noticed things along the roadside that I’m not sure I’d ever seen there before.

Things like:

I think she’s looking right at me!

——>>

You just never know what you’ll see, if you just take the time to look around at all that’s out there!

And then, on a road I’ve been on who knows how many times, I saw this beautiful waterfall, right there on the right, apparently where I’ve never ever looked before. I was stunned to see this, as it’s within sight of Route 1 right beside gorgeous homes in Hampton Falls NH.

I am learning to slow down, slow down in many ways, and to breathe and take in all that’s around me. And seeing these kinds of things during the last 2 days’ of showings has shown me I often don’t see what’s right in front of me. Imagine driving by a waterfall like this and not ever seeing it…….

I have more pictures to share of some of my Portsmouth NH homes roadside discoveries, and I’ll use those in future posts.

What have you seen lately along the road in your recent travels? I’d love to hear about them!

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle,
Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington,
Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery,
Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.

Send me an email or give me a call at 1-888-349-5678 ext 3839.

Portsmouth NH – A Sure Sign of Spring!

Ann Cummings — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:24:47 +0000

Portsmouth NH Farmers’ Markets
Opening May 2nd!

If you live in Portsmouth New Hampshire, then you know one of our favorite signs of spring and summer to come are our Saturday Farmer’s Markets. And here they come!!

The first one this season will be Saturday, May 2nd, and I can’t wait!

The Portsmouth NH Farmer’s Market are put on by the Seacoast Grower’s Association, and we’ll be able to see, sample, and purchase all kinds of locally grown and produced goodies. All the products displayed and sold at our Farmers’ Markets are sold in the booths by the people who’ve grown them and/or made them.

Some of the great things you’ll be able to find throughout the market season will be: locally grown produce, plants and flowers, dairy products, meats, breads, crafts, candles, wines, prepared foods, and more. And as you shop and catch up with neighbors and make new friends, enjoy the variety of musical performances each Saturday.

Come enjoy Saturdays in Portsmouth from May 2nd through late fall!

If you’re interested in buying or selling homes or condos in the Portsmouth NH real estate market, let me know. I love helping people achieve their real estate goals!

Give me a call or send me an email, and let’s get started!!

Servicing the New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle,
Rye, North Hampton, Hampton, Stratham, Exeter, Greenland, Newington,
Dover, Durham and surrounding areas, and the Maine towns of Kittery,
Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, York, and surrounding areas.