I had a later flight from Logan International (8:45 PM) and I had time to burn before heading to the maze of Boston. On a whim I decided to head over to the New Hampshire town of Derry and visit a farm that the poet, and native San Franciscan, Robert Frost lived in from 1900 to 1911.

The farm house was closed for the season, most things start closing down after Columbus Day but the grounds around the white farmhouse were open for exploration.

The three farm building of Robert Frost’s farm. The building are all connected so you can go from building to building without having to brave the frigid winter temps.

I walked through the grounds of the former orchard. Around the farm grounds were placed interpretive signs with some description as well as a Frost Poem printed in it’s entirety. According to a sign near the farm house:

He would call the first five years on this farm, “the core of my writing”. . . Frost called this farm the seedbed for his poetry and his thoughts returned here over and over again in ” the ache of memory,” to harvest poems throughout his life.

Many of his most famous poems were written at the farm and it’s geography certainly inspired the poet.

One the the signs at the fork of a path featuring Frost’s most well know poem, “The Road Not Taken”.

I did a rough sketch with my dark sepia brush pen in my small Aquabook watercolor book of the farm building and the trees around it (featured sketch). I decided to leave the sketch unpainted because I liked the lines of the work, which was done without a pencil. As I tell my students: embrace your mistakes!