All Good Things Must Come to an End

And Tuesday was my last day in Massachusetts.  It was another beautiful day and we did another batch of roaming here and there and soaking it all up. 

Our first stop was to take pictures of what I've been calling a miniature Stonehenge.  It has an official name which I made a mental note of but my mental notes don't last too long.  Virginia can put the correct name in a comment. :)  Anyway, it's something that I guess a graduating class of UMass set up and it's quite wonderful.  Great big boulders and slabs of stone set out very precisely to capture the sunrise at the summer solstice and, what? - the sunrise at the winter solstice? or the something else at the winter solstice?  I can see I really should have taken notes, but it's all very clearly marked on their signs.  I took pictures of the summer solstice spot because that will be happening June 21 and if anyone wants to see it, be there at dawn. (tee hee).

I'm not positive, but I think the way it works is that as the sun comes up over the horizon, the beam should hit right between the two upright boulders.

And this is the summer solstice sunset, so if you miss the sunrise at dawn, you may be able to catch this one.

Here's a look at the whole setup:

These next two pictures were taken from the second bridge over the Connecticut River.  It does have prettier views than the first bridge from which I took pictures, but I didn't seem to get one that really shows how lovely it is.  But here's what I have:

This one was taken at the edge of the bridge looking down into the river's edge.   That's not mist, it's all the trees and the light of the sky  reflected in the water.

This next picture is of the Summit and, of course, that's where we headed next.

So, all of the following pictures were taken from up on top of the Summit.  The trip up was really something...very narrow road and all we could think was "oh, please, don't anybody be coming down!"  But we made it and it was so beautiful!  While we were up there, there was a bird kind of circling the area and "calling" and someone told Virginia that was a peregrine falcon and that he and his mate had just hatched 3 babies in the past week or so which is pretty exciting because I guess they're somewhat endangered.  Anyway, here are my pictures from "up the Summit".

The bridge in the first two is where I was taking my pictures earlier.  And across the bridge and to the left in the first one is where Va and Larry used to live.

This curve in the river is called the oxbow...and almost dead center right before the horizon is a tiny dark oblong - that's one of the UMass towers near where they live now.

They've really made this a very attractive spot to visit - lots of flowers and plantings, picnic tables, etc.

And this is me using the close up setting on my camera. :)

We did our third hot-dog lunch and decided that it and Stubby's would have to tie for first place.  If Stubby's had let customers put their own mustard and ketchup on (like this third place did), then in my opinion, he would have definitely been in first place.  A little after lunch we decided it was probably as well we wouldn't be doing any more testings cause neither one of us felt real good in the stomach area!  In spite of that, we persevered and next drove to Northhampton to visit a few of the galleries there.  There's one we both love and we spent a fair amount of time ooohing and ahhhing there, then visited two or three others.  Then back into the Thorne Market for something Virginia wanted to pick up and one final "best chocolate chip cookie in the world".  And that proved the point that it doesn't pay to get too greedy.  It was good...but it was pretty much totally different from the first two we split and not as good.

Then back home with me packing up and Virginia working on her French knot rug and really moving along on it - puts me to shame.  She made a pasta salad type dinner with a delicious dressing of olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and chopped up black olives.  I'll be doing that myself before too long, probably.

So, I'm late finishing up the posts for this trip, but that's because I left Wednesday morning, stayed overnight again, and got home yesterday (Thursday) around 3:30.  Thursday's trip was quite pleasant so that made for a nice ending.

Thanks to all who traveled with me!

Monday and Lots of Pictures...

Good grief - it's like being in Florence!!  I took 108 pictures yesterday - couldn't believe it when I uploaded them last night.  But, breathe easy, I'm not posting them all here.  And since what we mostly did yesterday was drive all over the area with me saying "oh, I want a picture of that", I don't have a whole big bunch of talk to throw at you.  So, I'll just get started with the pictures...

Before we left on the day's outing, we were going through all Virginia's artwork that she has still to hang and pondering good places for all of them when I noticed right outside the bedroom window, our turkey fellow and after watching him for a bit along came what we think may be a ladyfriend.  That would be nice cause he always looked sort of dismal just wandering around by himself. 

Then it was off to one of the many strawberry farms to get yet more strawberries.  Virginia had the brilliant idea of getting some on Tuesday for me to take home on Wednesday - they are so good!  We went to a pick your own place (although we didn't pick) and when we pulled off the road beside the strawberry field with another one across the road, the smell of strawberries was wonderful.

Had to post this one so I could sing "Strawberry Fields Forever"...

Then it was on to another hotdog lunch which was way below Stubby's in our opinion.  Twice as expensive and not nearly as good.  We'll do one more tomorrow and then that's all the hot dogs for a while!

Later in the day (I'm having trouble remembering what we did from lunch til later...), we went to a home-made ice cream place which I forgot to take a picture of.  But it was right next door to the farm where the cows live who provided the cream for our treat.  So here they are in all their bovine beauty...

And, of course, there were a few chickens, the barnyard cat, and a wee little fellow somewhat awed by the whole scene...

Gosh, they look sort of like the strawberries, don't they?

Then it was off to Skinner Mountain for a view from the top.  It was really probably too hazy and gray a day to be taking pictures, but it was the day we had and they didn't turn out too badly.  They'll at least give you an idea of the wonderful scenery everywhere!!

A little sneak pic of Virginia studying a plaque on a tree and how's that for a pile of rock!?

And a couple of shots of "the forest primeval"...

This was a memorial to an army plane that crashed into the mountain in 1945.  That's a propellor beside the stone...

The fence up above is the road we are on down below.  And I thought the roads of West Virginia were twisty and steep!

Moving on to our next stop, we passed this sign that shows different flood levels of the Connecticut River during bad floods and a huricane.

Then we drove on to one of the two bridges that cross the river in the area we've been driving around all week cause I wanted to get a picture from a bridge before I leave.  We're going to try the other bridge tomorrow because turns out it has the best view.  But I took a couple here anyway. :)

And this last picture is of the old railroad bridge we were on when we took the two pictures above.  It has been boarded over and is the start of an eight-mile hiking/biking/roller skating(!) path that ends up at a Whole Foods Grocery Store!!  Next time I'll have Virginia drop me off at the bridge and pick me up later at the store.  Wouldn't that be something?

So, there - I didn't post all 108 pictures but hopefully what I posted provides even further proof of the beauty of Western Massachusetts.  I have one more day left and I spect that once again, we will be seeing some beautiful sights.  Plus which, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny!

Short and Sweet - Shelburne Falls on Sunday

Shelburne Falls is where Va and Larry used to live.  January and I visited them once while they were living there and both loved it.  And each time I've been here for a visit, we always end up going back.  It's a beautiful little village and I'm going to let the pictures I took prove it!

Close but not quite there yet - this looks like a pretty tourist-y place and I'm sure they get a fair amount of business from tourists, but their "stuff" seems like very nice quality and it's where Va buys her mocassins that she likes to wear around the house.  I almost talked myself into a pair of soft leather loafer type shoes that seemed like they might be good for walking, but decided I'd wait a bit for that.

Same place - their teepee and a totem pole type thing laying on the ground.  Don't know what the item on the left is.

One fantastic house...

Two fantastic house...

Teensy, weensy house but delightful...

And probably my favorite - all you miniaturists out there - get to work!!!

There are any number of beautiful houses in the village but I really couldn't take a picture of every single one - we would never have got back home.

One of the prettiest scenes in Shelburne Falls is the Bridge of Flowers...

From the street looking down the length of the bridge...

This is looking at it from the bridge that is now used for traffic...

And this is the entrance to the bridge, now used just for walking.

Lots of wonderful shops also - especially galleries.  I didn't take pictures of those, but they're always pleasant to browse in. Also there is the Salmon (yes, that's correct - there used to be a lot of salmon in the river there) Falls Artisans' Showroom which is wonderful to visit and makes one wish one was a lot richer than one is (at least this one).

We did some other running around Sunday, but this was the highlight of the day.  This and our stop for lunch at Stubby's - one of those shiny silvery small trailer type things that was right past the moccasin store.  We decided yesterday that we'd just maybe have a hot dog for lunch all the remaining days that I'm here (we both have a real affection for them) so yesterday was Stubby's and it was good.  I hadn't thought that it would be served on those New England style buns but of course it was and I love them!  And cheap?!!  Yes!!!

And one last picture - we stopped at the Lady Killigrew Cafe again on the way home to take another look at the used book store and this time I got a nice picture - this one is of the back of the building where there are stairs down to the night-time restaurant which overlooks a waterfall that at this time of year is really a good one.

More tomorrow (although just like in Florence I seem to be running at least a day behind).

Look What We Saw Friday Evening!

So, Friday evening we were sitting in the living room with the French doors open all quietly reading or working on our little rugs and such when there was a whoosh outside and Larry said "that sounded like a hot air balloon".  I went to look and sure enough, there were two of them in the sky.  Ran for my camera and by the time I got back, there were three of them.  I couldn't seem to stop taking pictures and I lost exact count of how many we saw, but I know it was more than 10 - I'm thinking either 12 or 13.  Each one different.  I wish they had come closer and lower but they were still beautiful to see.  I had never seen an all white one before and I guess because of that, I'd have to say that it was my favorite.  It was luminous...here they are  and there's a bunch...I took multiple shots of each balloon or group of balloons but am taking pity on you and not posting them all. :)  Sorry the pictures aren't better - I tried closeups several times and that made for blurrier pictures.  But you'll get an idea of what fun it was watching them appear in ones and twos...

One poor balloon was all by itself and looked to be aiming for the sun so I couldn't get a picture of him.  Sure hope he landed somewhere - he kept going up higher and higher...