Dover Point

Spring is back! This morning, mild and breezy, the promise of a warm sun and blue skies.

The past few days spent in Dover, NH, close to fresh seafood and shimmering bay waters, fruit trees in full bloom, intermittent sun and spring showers. A drive to the bay area of town, where the original settlers cleared forests for farming and stayed close to the waters for fishing. A part of town touched by the long reach of the ocean, a spit of land resting in tidal waters, remnants of fishing and farming now barely visible. Along the road, patches of  farmland and sea between residential and commercial sprawl, a lone farm surrounded by development, fields now fallow, farm market shuttered. The farm, established in 1623, America’s oldest family-owned, eleven generations of farming coming to an end. As industry replaced farming and fishing, residents moved up the river to harness the Cochecho Falls to power the mills, leaving Dover Point stranded. What remains – a pocket park of green, with bay vistas, a hint of the seacoast to the east, a bridge and highway under construction and renovation. Hope that the land, protected by a conservation easement, will not be developed into strip malls, that access to the seacoast will be preserved.