Down Rt. 117

I woke up to a foggy Sunday morning,

grabbed my camera and went for a short ride eastward, down Rt. 117 .

Lower Village Cemetery in Stow

St. Bridget's Cemetary, Maynard

St. Bridget's Cemetery, Maynard.

I love the stone wall and the dried leaves that bring out the brown tones in the stones.

Frost tipped grass.

A flock of wild turkeys on a field next to the side of the road in Sudbury.

I wanted to get closer but wasn't brave enough.

An old pickup truck in the field by the intersection of 117 and Sudbury Road.

For years I've been wanting to stop to take a picture.

Lee's Bridge by Sudbury River.

Sudbury River

Private? road just after Lee's Bridge.

Farmer's equipment at Drumlin Farm.

At this point I had to turn around and pick up some bagels

for my family at home.

The early morning was magical.

Even though I was on a major route, it was nice and quiet.

I like how the fog adds a little mystique

and how things in the distance appear colorless.

I wish it was foggy more often.

I don't know about you guys, but even as I found nature to be magical that morning, I have a difficult time finding Christmas spirit without the snow.

Today I made an effort to start making it feel like Christmas is approaching, at least inside the house. I guess I hadn't done much of that. It helped a bit. But I still want snow.

What are you guys doing to get in the mood?

Do you need snow?

Thanksgiving

The turkey is in the oven.

All the sides are prepared as far as they can be.

Keeping it simple this year (Demanding puppy on hands, remember?),

only the traditional must-haves.

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, sweet potato-marshmallow casserole,

corn, cranberries, rolls and butter, apple cider and wine.

Pecan pie and cherry pie with vanilla ice cream.

Did I forget anything?

Oh, gosh, I'm making myself nervous.

Did I?

Doesn't seem like much this year.

The table is set.

We are thankful for most everything.

And, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Which means...

It's about time for a much appropriate Cape Codder.

2 oz vodka

4 oz cranberry juice

splash of lime

lots of ice

Finished it off with a slice of lime and cranberries on a rosemary sprig.

(My, those cranberries look more like kalamata olives, but they are not!)

Cheers and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Apple Country

Things have quieted down here in apple country.

The apple picking season has come to an end.

The lines of cars rolling in on weekend mornings are no longer here.

The crowds of visiting apple pickers, that add a bit of

temporary caos during apple season,

are done picking.

So when I went for a walk

(with permission) on the beautiful hills of

Bolton Spring Farm, I was completely alone.

The walk was very quiet and meditative,

the air was filled with a sweet aroma.

An aroma of apples past its prime that intensified

each time I accidentally stepped on one.

It's a strange, deserted feeling walking alone in the orchard.

Like the feeling you get when you go to the beach on a winter day.

It's the contrast between the noisy and lively, and the quiet, almost sleepy,

that appear so vividly.

I found the quiet and deserted orchard so beautiful,

and the view from the top of the hill was amazing.

I had such a nice, quiet and reflective walk.

Although the PYO* has ended,

there is still plenty for sale at Bolton Spring's farm store.

* PYO = pick your own. Americans looove time saving abbreviations.

Last night I decided to use up some apples by roasting them.

I made paninis with local Nashoba Brooks Bakery's 7 Grain Bread.

I layered roasted apples, brie, walnuts and a little honey

between the slices of bread.

-Yum!

I served the paninis with French onion soup, made with local beer instead of wine.

It tasted very fall:y.

Before I sign out, I also wanted to show,

especially to the locals, what I found

right next to Bolton Spring Farm.

A 1.2 mile path that leads to a lime quarry.

I can't believe that I have driven past this sign for 10 years without noticing it.

That is now on my list of things we can do on a weekend with our family.

I wonder what the quarry looks like...

Last, but not least...

A picture of our puppy Sanders.

As most of you guessed, he is a Boston Terrier.

Right now, our household is upside down

while we are trying to figure out how not to let this little life,

run our lives.

Mostly Maple

The Maple must be one of the most photographed trees in the fall.

It goes through such beautiful change.

A display of color ranging from light greens to yellows,

oranges and the deepest of reds.

This fall, here in New England,

we got to see the trees fully dressed with green leaves

-and covered in snow.

At the same time!

Their branches were not strong enough

to hold the weight of the heavy snow that their grand leaves caught.

As you can see from the left picture below,

the Maples turned to "weeping" Maples.

Many deciduous trees lost branches in the October snow storm.

Some trees even split in half.

(100s of thousands lost their power due to trees falling on to power lines.)

We have a Norwegian Maple in our front yard

that my husband planted about five years ago.

Several times during the snow storm,

we went outside to shake the branches off.

Our work paid off.

I am happy to say that the Maple didn't loose a single limb.

And neither did our beautiful birch.

Phew!

Also during that crazy October weather weekend,

my husband left the house early one morning

and came back with a puppy.

My question to you is...

Can you guess what kind of puppy dog we now are happy (and tired) owners to?

One hint, the bread has a New England city as part of its name.

Happy Halloween?

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Finally, Halloween!

The kids have been so excited and the waiting has been long.

It's the same thing every year, you think you've got it down.

You decorate your yard, buy your pumpkins, and carve your pumpkins.

You watch scary movies.

And you go from store to store to find the perfect(?)

Halloween costumes and scary masks.

You load up on Halloween candy to make sure yo don't run out.

You make scary treats, mostly sweet.

You decorate the house, inside and out with all that scary stuff.

That's what you do.

And we had done all that.

We were sooooo ready.

And then...(the sound of a record being scratched)

This happens.

A major snow storm (IN OCTOBER!!!).

The storm brought down lots of trees and power lines in our little town.

And most other areas in New England too, for that matter.

I heard reports of snow totals up to 32 inches (not here).

They cancelled school today, and tomorrow too.

It felt more like Merry Christmas than Happy Halloween with all the snow.

Then today, on Halloween,

we get a phone call from the town saying that Halloween is cancelled.

You said what???

You cancelled Halloween?

You can do that?

Not me, not us.

Our street never lost power.

The boys and I went "trick or treating" anyways

and did end up having ourselves a very Happy Halloween.

My Yard Turned Graveyard

I leave the house for one hour.

And this is what I come back to.

My yard turned graveyard.

Charming turned alarming,

spooky

and

bone chilling.

Eerie stones and bones everywhere.

It is today one week until Halloween night.

A night both scary and sweet.

My boys can't wait to "Trick or Treat".

Today...

...is Thanksgiving Day.

About the turkey,

• the wild turkey is native to Mexico and northern United States
• they have great hearing, but no visible ears
• they have great vision (but not at night) and see in color
• domestic turkeys cannot fly
• wild ones can fly, but only for a short distance
• wild turykeys spend the night in a tree (how do they keep from falling down?)
• they can drown if they look up while it's raining (really?)
• they're heads change color when they get excited (me too)
• Sesame Street's Big Bird has a suit made of yellow-died turkey feathers
• male turkey is called a Tom, the female is called a hen
• as male turkeys get older, they start fighting a lot, and may even attack humans
• male turkeys grow a beard (of longer feathers) on their chest (like humans, except for humans calle it chest hair)
• very few hens grow the beard (just like very few female humans grow chest hair, Thank goodness!)

Acording to the Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten on Thanksgiving Day, and right now my husband is preparing ours.

To all my fellow bloggers, American or not,

have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Above facts(?) are from following websites:

http://10000birds.com/turkeyfacts.htm

http://home.aristotle.net/Thanksgiving/turkey_facts.asp

http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/thanks/tkyinfo.html

The picture is from Wikipedia

Boston Common and the Public Garden

Blogging has obviously been on the shelf while I've had family visiting. I haven't shared much. But I wanted to share some of todays pictures from Boston. It was such a beautiful day, cold, crisp and sunny.

Boston Common and Public Garden are adjacent to each other and provide 75 acres of green space in the heart of Boston.

The Common with its wide open lawns are always full of activity, great for people watching.

I LOVE people watching.

Today, the Frog Pond ice skating opened for the season.

I didn't skate, but I watched.


The Public Garden on the other hand is more formal and ornamental. Very beautiful.

It is particularly beautiful in the summer time when the flower beds are exploding with color and nice form.


Here is a curious tree that caught my attention. One of its branches is kind of "resting" on the ground.


City squirrels are always fun for the kids (and me) because they are not shy at all. They'll come right up to you, hoping you'll have some treat for them. I'm guessing they'll have no trouble surviving winter, they're pretty fat compared to the squirrels in my yard.

Oooh, and I must share, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw cherry looking blossoms on a tree. In the middle of NOVEMBER???

Thanks to the Gardens labeling I found out that it is an Autumn Cherry Tree. Cool!


Well, that's it for now. Over and out...