I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up Coniston, written by Winston Churchill. Published in 1906, it starts out with a love story between two characters, Jethro Bass and Cynthia Ware. But the novel, set in Croydon, quickly moves into life in small-town New Hampshire, the business of politics, and growing pains for residents and politicians alike as times change. I was fascinated with the book; I read it in three days.

Coniston is fiction, but apparently historians know who all the characters are. (Jethro Bass was based on Croydon’s own Ruel Durkee.) I liked it because I could try to figure out locations – Brampton was probably Grantham, for example – and use landmarks described by Churchill to “see” how New Hampshire must have looked in the late 1800s. If the fiction on the New York Times bestseller list isn’t capturing your interest, go online and try to find an old copy of Coniston. I think you’ll enjoy it.

   Imagine having five fireplaces in your home. That’s a lot of wood cutting and stacking. Then you have to bring it in the house, feed the fires (in their respective rooms), clean out the soot after a fire has died down, restart the fire…it’s a full time job! Well, at the Samuel Morse house in Croydon – now the home of the Croydon Historical Society – there are five fireplaces: three downstairs and two upstairs. Bert Smith and I were figuring that the family probably burned 50 to 60 cords of wood a year. I have a woodstove and a fireplace in my home, and we keep the woodstove going during the day on colder days. (The fireplace is more ornamental than practical.) So although the price of fuel has increased, I’m not going to complain too much. It’s better than trudging outside to bring in wood to keep five fireplaces going!

What is 3 feet tall and 24 feet long and absolutely impossible to photograph? Chip Evan’s mural hanging above the fireplace in the dining hall at Camp Coniston in Croydon.

Chip and Coniston campers worked on the one-of-a-kind mural last year, and the result is outstanding. Four panels depict the camp throughout the seasons. (Chip, who lives nearby, took about 50 different photos at different times of the year.) Kids painted themselves in, choosing the colors of their shirts and even a location: one camper wanted to be climbing the tower! It sounds like a fun project for the kids at Camp Coniston, and something they’ll remember for a lifetime.

I tried to take a few photos of the mural, but really it is impossible for a non-pro. I can’t capture how the sky (and the water) reflects the seasons, or how the brilliant colors of fall fade to brown and later ease into the cool white of winter. You’ll have to go to Chip’s Web site at www.evanspaintings.com to see a portion of the mural (fall) or support Camp Coniston (www.coniston.org) by buying a print.