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Monthly Archives: October 2013

Day 15 – Intrepid Women, The Mayflower and A Pig in Boston

Leaving Cape Cod for Boston today, we broke our journey in Plymouth and discovered a statue of The Pilgrim Maiden, symbolic of the ‘intrepid English women’ who made that first journey to these shores.

In the harbour in Plymouth was a replica of TheMayflower. I can’t imagine how scary the journey must have been.

A beautifully trained pig was walking the streets of Boston as we went in search of Barnes and Noble Bookshop. She came to order, crossed the road as told and stopped to chat when asked to.

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Breakfast, Cape Cod National Seashore and Truro

Breakfast by the pool on a warm October morning – just beautiful!

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After that scrumptious start to the day we drove up the coast to discover the Cape Cod National Seashore, finding glorious sandy beaches and a surfless Atlantic and seeing the windswept dunes, the lighthouses, the marram grass and the shorelines that so inspired Edward Hopper.

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It was a pleasure tooto find the tiny town of Truro, named after the city in Cornwall where I grew up.

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And one last lighthouse at Chatham. Tomorrow we go back to Boston, drop off the car and explore that lovely city on foot.

 
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Posted by on October 14, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

Day 13 – The McGranaghans, A Lobster Roll and Nantucket Sound

Having spent the last two weeks enjoying beautiful countryside all over New England, it was as we arrived at West Harwich, Cape Cod, that we both realised how much we were missing the sea. We walked to the beach from our delightful small hotel, The Platinum Pebble, and met a lovely family with whom we shared some good laughs as they redirected us to find our lunch.

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Another walk and we found the lobster shack, Arnie’s, and had a Lobster Roll with fries, sitting looking out over the Atlantic Ocean at Nantucket Sound, listening to the gentle soughing of the waves onto the sand, hearing the gulls, smelling the ozone and enjoying the Autumn sunshine.

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Day 12 – Leaving Litchfield, Gourds and Apples

One last photo in Litchfield before we set off on our longest drive of the trip, 114 miles to our stopover in Rhode Island, just so that we can say we’ve visited all the states in New England!

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At one of our change-driver-stops, we came across a Nursery where the pumpkins and gourds just glowed.

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Here we are choosing one to take home. It cost all of 89cents!

Our next stop for lunch found us sitting under an apple tree on a delightful old bench and collecting windfalls for dessert!

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Tomorrow we head off to Cape Cod!

Thanks so much to all those travelling along with us and leaving lovely comments. Sorry I have no time to read or comment on other blogs but I’m sure you understand.

 
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Posted by on October 12, 2013 in America, Beauty, photography, Postaday2013

 

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Day 11 – Litchfield, Lake Waramaug and a Thrift Shop

Why Litchfield? For the history! Here can be found the Litchfield Law School, the first law school in America, the Litchfield Female Academy, one of a small group of early schools that played a critical role in shaping the educational and economic futures of women, and St Michael’s Church where there is a stained glass window by Tiffany and where the builders carved their own faces into the choir stalls! There were also some crazy modern angels in there.

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We followed our history tour with a picnic and quiet time by Lake Waramaug, watching the herons and enjoying some Autumn colour though the unseasonably warm weather means many leaves have not yet turned.

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On the way home we stopped at a Thrift Shop and chatted to the owners who were just preparing for their opening tomorrow. I found a tiny and delightful duck box, small enough to bring home but the owner, Maria, would not let me buy it! She insisted on it being a gift and a souvenir of my visit to her lovely shop, Born Again. Here she is with her daughter, Madeline, who was helping to get everything ready. Maria restores furniture and paints delightful pictures on it, all too big to bring home!

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Posted by on October 12, 2013 in America, Beauty, History, Postaday2013, travel

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Good Morning

Our good mornings on our road trip around New England have been found in the delightful coffee shops where we have had a coffee, a cookie and a chat.

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Shots Cafe in Lenox, Connecticut

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Bagitos in Montpelier, Vermont

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Crazy Russian Girls Bakery in Bennington, Vermont

We look forward to more Good Mornings on the rest of our road trip through Connecticut, through Rhode Island, to Cape Cod and, for the last three days, in Boston.

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Day 10 – Best Bookshop, Street Art and Sheffield to West Cornwall

From North Adams to Litchfield today, stopping in small quintessential New England towns. We went through Lenox ( with the best bookshop I have ever been in and I have been to many! A warm welcome, the owner, a lovely man, who, like my Dad, knew exactly where to put his hands on a book. Even after Dad had gone blind, a cruel trick on someone who was a reader and a writer, he knew exactly where each of his 3000 books was and would direct me to the shelf, the position and the colour of the spine when he wanted to look something up.)
And where else have you seen a bookshop with a wine bar? The experience we had there was one of the beautiful things – we both came away smiling and with a small gift from the owner so that we would remember him and his bookshop.

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There was some delightful street art here too – an enormous woodpecker in a tree, a couple of dogs in a truck and an owl on some steps.

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From there we went on to Stockbridge where we admired the Main Street but sadly couldn’t have lunch in the Red Lion, as recommended by Serendipity, because we had no reservations and they had a coach party booked.

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We had a wonderful second helping of Norman Rockwell in the museum here ( seeing his fascinating family tree for the first time) and then went on to Litchfield via Sheffield Covered Bridge and West Cornwall Covered Bridge which amused us as we once lived near Sheffield and now live in Cornwall.

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We are now in our fifth county of New England, Connecticut, so no driving tomorrow, just exploring nearby.

 
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Posted by on October 11, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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The Porches Inn, MASSMoCA and Downstreet Art in North Adams, Day 9

We have had the most fabulous day in North Adams, a once forgotten little town that is being rejuvenated by having the most amazing museum of contemporary art in the whole of America, MASMoCA. It is housed in multiple 19th century factory buildings and is a wonderful and enormous space to house many brilliant exhibitions. I hardly know where to start to tell you about all the beautiful creative stuff we discovered! It was lovely to be allowed to take as many photos as I wished too.

We spent a long time reading some of Tom Phillip’s work, illustrated below. He has taken a Victorian novel and reproduced every page, hiding some words under an illustration and highlighting others so as to create a poem on every page. I loved it though there are almost 1000 pieces so didn’t manage to read many! If you click on the photos, I hope you’ll be able to read the poems. This is an inspiration for me – I really want to try it though referencing other literature and monument opus happenings as he does, I’ll leave to him!

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The most stunning gallery was that containing Phoenix by Xu Bing, a Chinese artist, two huge and magnificent birds made from scrap. My photos do it scant justice so I would urge you to look up the artist and his work. The story of its creation was shown in beautifully illustrated pages and in a video.

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There was so much beautiful art in there that we popped out for lunch and then spent another couple of hours soaking up works by Sol Lewitt, Johnny Carrera, Mark Dion and lastly Jason Middlebrook whose beautiful pieces interpret the landscape.

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We could have done with another whole day here but tomorrow we move on through Massachusetts, leaving our delightful hotel, The Porches, which is made up of six 1890’s houses once the homes of the factory workers who worked in the building which houses the gallery and which we could see from the windows there.

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However, we weren’t finished yet! The town had a street art trail for us to follow.

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That was a very full and different day, even if my feet ache now!

 
 

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Day 8 – Leaving Vermont for Massachusetts

As we returned to our hotel last night there was the most tremendous storm, so much so that as we arrived, we rushed indoors and left some things in the car. Among them was a gift from Shelagh of some of her own hand spun and hand dyed wools and a crocheted pincushion – all so beautiful! Thank you so much. Now I have another new project!

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“Oh, The Places You’ll Go!”. Do you know this delightful piece by Dr Seuss? I’m reminded of it day by day as we travel and discover new places, people and beautiful things.

Today as well as more covered bridges,flowers and fungi, we came across the Norman Rockwell Museum in Arlington where he lived and where I met a lovely old chap who had been one of Rockwell’s models. He showed me the painting done when he was just nineteen. I wish I had taken a photo of him with his painting! The young woman who ran the Museum was so friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic!

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One of the bridges was over the Bennington Falls which were quite dramatic and in another, Chiselville Covered Bridge I discovered some graffiti, some dating from 1949 and some from 1900, and in such beautiful handwriting!

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This beautiful flower, like Cow Parsley, was growing beside the bridge.

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Day 7 – A Day With A Friend In Vermont

Shelagh had planned such a lovely day for us, knowing the things we like – more covered bridges, a small town, a good lunch, meeting some of her friends (and their dogs) and seeing their crafts and all the while getting to know each other better.
We followed perfect instructions to find her home, Wintermere Farm and set off on our tour. We saw a restored bridge, The Cornwall/Salisbury Covered Bridge, one of the longest, and then one of only seven double bridges, The Pulp Mill Covered Bridge. We learned how Maple syrup is made and saw some of the blue pipework coming from taps in the trunks of the Maple trees, taking the sap for making into syrup. Later we saw one of the Sugar Houses where the reducing of the syrup takes place. I wish I could caption my photos but can’t figure out how to on the iPad!

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Bristol was our stop for lunch where we ate in a small restaurant/diner called Snaps and we ate well! We stopped off in a shop and met one of Shelagh’s friends who has a small and well behaved Boxer. Our next stop in the delightful small town was across the wide Main Street where we met painter and wood craftsman, Reed Prescott, whose work we loved. I bought three beautiful buttons, one made of Honeysuckle, one of Black Walnut and one of Maple. I just loved his painted Family Tree and want one like it!

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A short drive took us to meet another friend, Christine Homer, a weaver making the most beautiful scarves and shawls in gorgeous colours. We also met her seven month old Golden Labrador who demonstrated what she had been learning at puppy training classes.

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All in all a beautiful day spent with beautiful people! Thank you so much, Shelagh.

 
 

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