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.
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