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Tag Archives: Norman Rockwell

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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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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