Welcome to Day 11 of 31 Days of A Sense of Place. Sundays are devoted to field trips, relaxing time spent in one spot so we can visually take in its singular sense of place.

Today, I’m going to take us to Kezar Lake, in Sutton, NH, a 170-acre lake with a maximum depth of 27 feet. It’s got a small wooded beach and picnic area, a launch area for kayaks and canoes, a perfect 3-mile walking path around it (mostly an asphalt tertiary road), and a view of nearby Kearsarge Mountain. It’s home to one loon pair each season, nesting eagles, beavers, and other birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles, plants and fungi.

I walk it a few times per month and see something new every time. I’m not the only one; many people in the area walk around this lake regularly and have come to view it as part of “home.”

I hope you enjoy exploring it with me.

As always, hovering with your cursor over a photo will show a caption, and clicking on it will show an enlarged, captioned version.

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First, the landscape of the lake, from January to December:

25 Jan 2015

3 Feb 2013

9 March 2013

7 April 2014

13 April 2014

14 April 2013

14 April 2013

10 May 2015

11 June 2014

8 July 2013

8 July 2013

8 July 2013

30 July 2014

12 Aug 2012

18 Aug 2014

29 Aug 2013

4 Sept 2015

11 Sept 2013

17 Sept 2014

17 Sept 2015

18 Sept 2012

29 Sept 2012

29 Sept 2012

5 Oct 2014

14 Oct 2014

10 Oct 2014

14 Oct 2014

17 Oct 2013

4 Nov 2014

4 Nov 2014

5 Nov 2013

7 Nov 2014

8 Nov 2011

8 Nov 2011

15 Nov 2012

22 Nov 2014

10 Dec 2013

14 Dec 2012

26 Dec 2014

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The area by the outflow is always interesting. Photos from March to November.

9 March 2013

3 April 2015

16 April 2013

25 May 2015

25 May 2015

14 June 2013

5 July 2014

31 Aug 2015

11 Sept 2013

5 Oct 2014

13 Nov 2011

22 Nov 2014

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The picnic area is mostly wooded, with picnic tables, grills, and not much else — except a view. Photos from March to November.

9 March 2013

16 April 2013

29 April 2013

14 June 2013

5 July 2014

21 July 2014

22 July 2014

12 Aug 2012

16 Aug 2013

27 Aug 2013

10 Oct 2015

5 Nov 2013

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The scenery along the road isn’t shabby, either. Photos from Feb. to December.

tepee in marsh, 3 Feb 2013

31 March 2013

bird’s nest, 31 March 2013

3 April 2015

serviceberry, 10 May 2015

14 May 2013

8 July 2013

8 July 2013

21 July 2014

21 July 2014

19 Aug 2012

19 Aug 2013

26 Aug 2015

29 Aug 2013

29 Aug 2013

1 Sept 2014

1 Sept 2014

1 Sept 2014

29 Sept 2012

29 Sept 2012

3 Oct 2013

3 Oct 2013

6 Oct 2014

5 Oct 2014

6 Oct 2014

14 Oct 2014

27 Oct 2014

4 Nov 2014

5 Nov 2013

6 Nov 2013

8 Nov 2011

12 Nov 2012

10 Dec 2013

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Some of the houses around the lake are seasonal, some year-round. Many are lovely, with extensive gardens. As you can see, I have a particular fondness for one shed. Photos from May to November.

10 May 2015

yellow primula, 10 May 2015

11 June 2014

iris, 14 June 2013

8 July 2013

Crocodile sign, 8 July 2013

12 July 2013

22 July 2014

30 July 2014

27 Aug 2013

1 Sept 2014

28 Sept 2012

28 Sept 2012

29 Sept 2012

17 Oct 2013

4 Nov 2014

Vote Goat, 4 Nov 2014

Osteospermum, 4 Nov 2014

6 Nov 2013

13 Nov 2011

13 Nov 2011

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I’m a devotee of fungi, simply for its beauty and weirdness, though I don’t forage it or eat it. Kezar has great variety of fungi for such a small area. Photos from August to October.

Hydnellum fungus, 12 Aug2014

Amanita flavoconia fungus, 12 Aug 2014

underside Lactarius fungus, 12 Aug 2014

underside Russula fungus, 12 Aug 2014

Suillus pictus (painted bolete) fungus, 12 Aug 2014

Suillus americanus fungi, 18 Aug 2014

maybe Tricholoma fungus, 18 Aug 2014

Scleroderma citrinum fungus, 18 Aug 2014

maybe Boletinellus merulioides fungus, 25 Aug 2014

27 Aug 2013

Amanita muscaria fungus, 1 Sept 2014

Armillaria (honey) fungus, 1 Sept 2014

large Amanita muscaria fungus, 1 Sept 2014

fungus with mold, 17 Sept 2015

28 Sept 2012

29 Sept 2012

fairy ring, 29 Sept 2012

6 Oct 2014

Armillaria (honey) fungus, 14 Oct 2014

Armillaria (honey) fungus, 14 Oct 2015

maybe Hypholoma capnoides (conifer tuft) fungi, 27 Oct 2014

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I’ve identified a lot of new-to-me plants in my 5 years walking this (near) circle around the lake, and found familiar flowers and berries here as well. Photos from May to October.

colts foot bloom, 6 May 2014

hobblebush bloom 10 May 2015

elderberry, 10 May 2015

azalea, 15 May 2013

daisies, 14 June 2013

Gaultheria procumbens (wintergreen), 14 June 2013

lupine, 14 June 2013

mountain laurel, 14 June 2013

rosa rugosa, 14 June 2013

Trifolium arvense (Rabbits Foot Clover) , 30 July 2014

ferns, 22 July 2014

Cephalanthus occidentalis (Buttonbush), 30 July 2014

colony of Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe), 5 Aug 2014

wild mint, 12 Aug 2014

Clintonia, 12 Aug 2014

evening primrose, 12 Aug 2014

Joe Pye weed, 18 Aug 2014

hobblebush berries, 21 Aug 2015

Cornus amomum (silky dogwood), 25 Aug 2014

St. John’s wort, 29 Aug 2013

false Solomon’s Seal, 1 Sept 2014

mountain ash with berries, 1 Sept 2014

asters, 1 Sept 2014

thistle, 1 Sept 2014

viburnum berries, 4 Sept 2015

white baneberry, 4 Sept 2015

rose hips, 15 Sept 2015

huckleberry, 29 Sept 2012

Indian cucumber root, 5 Oct 2014

Euonymus Europaeus, 27 Oct 2014

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And the wildlife! Unfortunately, so many of the animals I come across are dead, almost all killed by car: porcupine, birds, snakes, frogs, caterpillars, voles, snapping turtles, dragonflies. I won’t post those here. And so far I haven’t gotten a good photo of a loon or eagle, though I see them quite often. Photos from March to November.

chippie, 9 March 2013

robin, 3 April 2015

The Infant (Archiearis Infans), 5 April 2013

wolf spider (?) on road, 5 April 2013

moth (?), 10 April 2014

hooded merganser, 6 May 2014

chippie, 10 May 2015

cowbird (one of a pair) 10 May 2015

wolf spider with egg sac, 3 June 2014

loon looking away, 11 June 2014

admiral butterfly, 14 June 2013

six-spotted tiger beetle, 14 June 2013

admiral butterfly, 16 June 2014

bee bumblebee on rogusa rose, 11 July 2014

Canada geese and goslings, 22 July 2014

Canada geese, 18 Aug 2014

small garter snake, 31 Aug 2015

(Colias philodice) clouded sulphur butterfly, 1 Sept 2014

Pelecinus polyturator wasp, 4 Sept 2015

chippie, 4 Sept 2015

Acronicta americana (American dagger moth) caterpillar, 9 Sept 2014

blue heron, 15 Sept 2014

fish, 17 Sept 2014

northern pine sphinx (Lapara bombycoides) caterpillar, 17 Sept 2015

blue heron, 17 Sept 2015

painted turtle, 17 Sept 2014

dusky hooded owlet moth caterpillar (Cucullia intermedia), 17 Sept 2015

woolly bear, 5 Oct 2014

common merganser, 5 Oct 2014

loon, 5 Oct 2014

red squirrel, 20 Oct 2014

chippie, 4 Nov 2014

red squirrel, 8 Nov 2011

Canada geese, 14 Nov 2014

two pairs of ducks, 15 Nov 2012

goldfinch with berries, 15 Nov 2012

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“There are some delightful places in this world which have a sensual charm for the eyes. One loves them with a physical love. We people who are attracted by the countryside cherish fond memories of certain springs, certain woods, certain ponds, certain hills, which have become familiar sights and can touch our hearts like happy events.

Sometimes indeed the memory goes back towards a forest glade, or a spot on a river bank or an orchard in blossom, glimpsed only once on a happy day, but preserved in our heart.” ― Guy de Maupassant, Selected Short Stories

I’m grateful to have this place as part of my place.

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Thanks for checking in. Be sure to see what the other 31 Dayers are writing about.This project is a bit like Wallace Stevens’ poem Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird, in that I’m writing about a sense of place from vantage points that may not obviously connect with each other. I’m not going to attempt to tie them together. In the end, these 31 days of looking at a sense of place may overlap, contradict, form a whole, or collapse like a flan in a cupboard, as Eddie Izzard would say. That remains to be seen. Thanks for stopping by.