Curmudgeon and I live in an owner-built post and beam house on 33 acres of trees and rock (south slope) in Nottingham, New Hampshire, USA. We're 40 minutes to Portsmouth and our home pub, The Press Room, about the same commute time to the Atlantic Ocean anywhere on New Hampshire's short 16 mile coastline. We're midway (uphill) between the Seacoast and the state capitol, Concord; about 90 miles from Boston, Massachusetts; and 75 miles from South Portland, Maine. (Hmm...about 35 miles from Barry Finn, 4 miles from Jeri.) I've only been here since 1981 -- Tom built the house in '76. He's the true Yankee; I'm a displaced Milwaukean.

Nottingham has a population of about 4400 and the chief business in "downtown" Nottingham is a convenience store/gas station/pizza place called Liar's Paradise (from the optimistic fishermen who used to hang out on the benches out front). It also used to house the post office, but that spun off about 20 years ago into its own establishment which finally offered home delivery. Nottingham is also the home of Cedar Waters nudist camp. Cool Cravings, the local ice cream place on Rte. 4 (bumper sticker: "Pray for me, I drive Rte. 4"), sports a sign that says:
            Ice Cream
Lobster Rolls    Hot Dogs
    Loam & Gravel

In 1722 the town was granted to 101 petitioners from Seacoast towns between Boston and Portsmouth who wanted to settle a tract of land north of Exeter. The petitioners asked that the town be named New Boston, but Governor Shute gave it the name Nottingham, in honor of Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham. The Earl was a close friend of Colonial Governors Shute and Dudley of Massachusetts when New Hampshire was under that province's jurisdiction. The original grant was considerably larger than now, but Deerfield separated from Nottingham in 1766, and Northwood separated in 1773.

If you check out Nottingham on satellite photos, almost all you see are trees -- and Pawtuckaway Lake.