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!