Evensong

Another Sunday, another evensong. This one shared with members of the choir from St. John's Lutheran Church in Stamford, Connecticut. 

According to Wikipedia, evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. It is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline. Old English speakers translated the Latin word vesperas as æfensang, which became 'evensong' in modern English. The term is typically used in reference to the Anglican daily office's evening liturgy.

Jack Slade

Enjoying reading Ron Chernow's Mark Twain, including this excerpt:

"In Roughing It, he [Sam Clemens] would tell how he was intrigued by colorful legends about Jack Slade, a stagecoach agent in the Rocky Mountains, reputed to be a homicidal maniac. He wrote that Slade liked to postpone murderous vengeance against enemies 'just as a school-boy saves up a cake, and made the pleasure go as far as it would by gloating over the anticipation.' Since rumor had it that Slade had killed twenty-six people, Twain allegedly sought him out on the ninth day of his journey west, but found a quiet, affable man, not a monster. When the coffee was running out, Slade offered to refill Sam's cup instead of his own, but Sam 'politely declined. I was afraid he had not killed anybody that morning, and might be needing a diversion.'" (Chernow, p. 74)

Trail Bites

A recent return to the Greensprings Interpretive Trail revealed higher than usual water levels in the swamp and . . . a correspondingly high number of bug bites. Ouch!

Last Call

Something decidedly appropriate about reading Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition while enjoying a cup of tea. Curious the relationships between prohibition and abolitionism, brewers and distillers, as well as between the temperance and suffragist movements.

Wingin' It

Over the North Atlantic

Over Frankford, New Jersey

Breeze Airways

 

This was my first experience flying Breeze Airways. I booked it primarily because it offered a direct flight from Hartford, Connecticut to Richmond, Virginia, and most definitely not because I would have to get up at 3:30 a.m. in order to get to Bradley International Airport in time for the 7 a.m. departure. 

Would I fly Breeze again? Definitely. Even if I had to get up again at 3:30 a.m., mostly because of my prevous experiences with connecting flights. Like the flights from Richmond to Philadelphia and Philadelphia to Hartford. No complimentary snacks, but there was plenty of room for my carry-on bag and briefcase. 

Leverett Trail

Leverett Trail

Blueberry Patch

 

 

Ah, this is what people are after! 

 

 

 

Milkweed

No, this isn't why people hike the Leverett Triail, at least not the principle reason. This is just -- I think -- Common Milkweed, of which there is an abundance along that part of the trail that empties out onto what remains of the Teawaddle Hill Farm. As is true of the milkweed growing at York River State Park near my home, it's a dining favorite of the Monarch butterfly, among other species.

Shhh!

Shhh! This is supposed to be a secret. Only a discerning few know the true destination of many of the folks who hike the Leverett Trail. I'll let you in on the secret only on condition that you tell no one I told you about it. :-)

Garden Wall

Just a parting shot from another one of Naumkaeg's lovely gardens.

Chinese Temple Garden

Naumkaeg

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Linden Garden

Naumkaeg

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Gardens

I've read that Naumkaeg's gardens and landscaped grounds were first designed in the late 1880s by Nathan Barrett, then transformed and expanded between 1926 and 1956 by Fletcher Steele and Mabel Choate.

Study

Linda, the other day, commented on the staff that would be required to keep Naumkaeg, with its 44 rooms, clean. Well, in addition, to hiring people to do that, he also employed a secretary (note the desk in the foreground) and, eventually, a butler and footman. I'm told he employed the latter after a visit to some of the great homes in England.

Library

Naumkaeg

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Dining Room

  

 

A number of visitors touring Naumkaeg's dining room commented rather unfavorably on the dark green bamboo-like wallpaper. I confess, I hadn't noticed it. Being a tea drinker, my eye was drawn instead toward the number of tea pots on the stand to the right. Fantastic! But where were the teacups??? Nary a one in sight. Hmm. . .

Afternoon Garden

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservatio, the Afternoon Garden, complete with its Venetian poles  was Fletcher Steele's first landscape project at the Naumkeag estate in the Berkshires. The  boxwood hedges were shaped to resemble an Oriental rug.

Blue Steps

 

(View from below)

One of the first features people see upon visiting Naumkaeg, depending on how they approach the house, are its iconic Blue Steps. According to the Library of American Landscape History, Fletcher Steele "used industrial materials—cast concrete and metal pipe—and the Italian Renaissance form of the water staircase, planted with lithe white birches that uncannily mimic the stair railings."

 

(View from above)

Naumkaeg

 

According to Wikipedia, "Naumkeag is the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate and Caroline Dutcher Sterling Choate, located at 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The estate's centerpiece is a 44-room, Shingle Style country house designed principally by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White, and constructed in 1885 and 1886." I stopped by for a visit shortly after attending the BSO's rehearsal at Tanglewood.

Tanglewood

Spent a lovely several hours in the Berkshires attending one of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's (BS0) rehearsals at Tanglewood. Recorded just a snippet of Yefim Bronfman "practicing" Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 with the BSO while lounging on the lawn in the shade of a tree and snacking on crackers and cheese.

Ticks!

I've read that ticks are a growing problem here in western Massachusetts as well as many other places around the United States. I didn't discover any after hiking this trail, but only days later, I did pull one off of my ankle after hiking another trail. You really can't be too careful. 

Enfield Look Out

Yeah, okay. I know it doesn't look like that much. But that's because the town of Enfield was flooded to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir. It used to occupy the land just below that hill (Mt. Ram?) in the center background. A branch of the reservoir actually stretches between those trees in the foreground and the hill beyond. This map does a great job at explaining what you're seeing.

Hairy Parchment?

I'm still not able to positively identify more than probably a handful of mushrooms, if even that many.

What I have learned to do, however, is to pay close--well, closer--attention to the details surrounding said mushrooms. In the case of the mushroom shown above, I 'm pretty sure that it's attached to the what remains of a deciduous tree. That alone, I understand, whittles down the possibilities. Now, as to whether it is actually a Hairy Parchment mushroom, who knows? It certainly share a number of its characteristics. Spotted along the Enfield Lookout Trail near Ware, Massachusetts.

DCR

No matter how long or short the trail, I find that I am almost always relieved to know that I'm still on the right path because there have been times when, unbeknownst to myself, I have somehow managed to go astray, either because there was no sign or--God forbid!--the sign's directions were not entirely clear or, in fact, in some cases, even misleading. All of which is to say, my hat's off to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and its good works!

Ferns

Enfield Lookout Trail

Ware, Massachusetts

???

Enfield Lookout Trail, Ware, Massachusetts

I'm always curious about the stuff I find lying on forest floors. In this case, I couldn't quite figure out what this was. I found it on the trail along with almost countless fallen acorns. Any guesses as to what it might be?

Enfield Lookout Trail

After hiking the length of Winsor Dam and back, I decided to hike the Enfield Lookout Trail. Enfield was one of the towns flooded to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir. 

Winsor Dam

 

Nothing quite prepares you for the size of Winsor Dam. 2640 ft (805 m) long, 35 feet wide (10.7 m), with a maximum bottom width of 1100 ft (335 m), it's breathtaking. 

 

 

Built to help create one of the largest unfiltered water supplies in the United States, the 412 billion gallon reservoir covers 39 square miles with 181 miles of shoreline.

 

Nothing I did with my iPhone camera could adequately capture it's vast dimensions. But in this last photo, if you expand it, you might just be able to make out the form of someone hiking in the shadow of the trees along the trail in the center right.

  

The Beneski

Fascinating to think about and to actually see artifacts related to the natural history of western Massachusetts and the earth. That's what makes a visit to the Beneski Natural History Museum at Amherst College such a treat. Thousands of these objects are on display here, while thousands more are stored away for use by both students and faculty around the world.

Cross Path Road

I know that visually this probably is not the most interesting photo. I was just curious about the street's name as it--ahem--crosses the Norwottuck Rail Trail in Hadley, Massachusetts. I mean, it's pretty straightforward as street names go. Sort of like Main Street or High Street. There's a street near me called Center Street, which I suppose got it's name from the fact that it runs smack dab down the "center" of a subdivision, even though it is--if I might say so--rather tangential to everything else around it, now that I think about it. 

What about the street names near you? Got any zingers? :-)

Bridge

I've photographed this bridge many times over the past few years. The last time was last year on the Fourth of July. It's become something of a go-to destination every time I visit this region.

According to Wikipedia, the "Norwottuck Rail Trail Bridge is an eight-span steel lattice truss bridge. It crosses Elwell Island in the middle of the river, providing no access to the island in an attempt to keep the island otherwise untouched. Riding over the bridge shows eight spans, with two of them over Elwell Island. It was built by the R. F. Hawkins Ironworks Company. The bridge was redesigned by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. of Watertown, rebuilt by MassHighway, and opened in 1992 to bicycle and foot traffic as part of the Norwottuck Rail Trail."

View of the Connecticut River and Elwell Island

Fly or Drive

Honestly, I debated long and hard about whether to fly or drive to Massachusetts this year. I drove last year after several years of flying. What finally convinced me to fly again this year was the convenience. I REALLY like to hike every day, up to five miles or more a day. But driving to Massachusetts almost certainly meant spending more time in the car rather than on the trail. The cost, I figured, was about the same. What's more, by flying, I was able to fly AND hike in the same day, even with the unexpected delay this time in getting out of Richmond. On this particular trip, I was able to hike again one of my very favorite sections of the Norwottuck Rail Trail (above).

Close Call!

It was a really close call. My plane landed in Philly shortly after 11:30am. I thought the gate where my next plane was waiting was right next door. Nope! Turned out it was on the far side of the adjacent terminal. Oh jeez! 

So I basically power walked to the next gate and arrived just in time to find that all the other passengers already boarded and the plane on the tarmac primed for flight. Sheesh! 

Still, I made it. Moments later, as soon as I was safely settled into my seat, we were barreling down the runway on our way to Hartford, Connecticut.

Flying over Freehold, New Jersey. That's the Atlantic in the background.