Driving Around Northfield MA

Yesterday I got the wonderful opportunity to go to a farm in Northfield MA and take a bunch of adorable photos of cows, goats, and Vizlas. It was an amazing experience. Totally worth the sunburn! Afterwards I decided I was in the area anyway, might as well drive around…

I turned off my GPS and took my own instruction, turning down any road I thought might turn into a lingering dirt road. I was immensely rewarded. This are was in the middle of nowhere, a bubble of pristine wilderness between civilization. These roads brought deeper and deeper into the forest and farther from any kind of settlement. It went from houses to hunting camps to absolutely nothing. And then I found a derelict of some sort aside the road. No one was around for miles so I decided what the hell, let’s take a few black and white snaps and maybe poke around a bit. It was a shed, an ordinary shed, filled with ordinary crap you’d normally find in a shed but clearly abandoned for many many years and bizarrely not near any house anywhere. I was slightly concerned I might find a hobo in there but I didn’t, instead I stumbled upon something that made my whole week – it was a river just behind the shed. I decided to explore. I knew this was probably someone’s property but they’d never know and I wouldn’t go far…

This river was only a few inches deep and easy to climb across. There were all sorts of rocks and fallen trees and it was just absolutely gorgeous. Being as it was a VERY hot day it was a wonderful detour as I splashed about and cooled down. The lighting was just right and it threw dappled reflections of the water back onto the trees. It seemed that no matter where I looked there was something even more beautiful with the next blink of my eyes. I must admit I stayed down there playing in the river for quite a while! In that whole time not a single car drove by. In fact upon leaving I didn’t pass any other cars for the many miles it took to get away from this decidedly gorgeous forest.

Eventually I found civilization again and found myself staring into a cemetery. Well, I couldn’t just drive by… so I stopped in. I have no idea what the title of the cemetery was but it was small, had very ordinary marble stones, most from the late 1800’s and was fairly unremarkable except for the gorgeous view of a mountain behind it. As I was driving out I noticed one monument at the entrance and for whatever reason I read it… Somehow I had stumbled upon the grave of a man of science who died in the late 1800’s and was responsible for finding dinosaur footprints in the nearby area. Dinosaur footprints?? I had no idea there were any… and I was super into fossils growing up! Shocked and delighted I wanted to know more. Google said there were more around but where I could see them remained a local mystery. I drove around at random but didn’t find any parks or trails as I went along. Pity. I would have totally found one…

From there I ended up driving by a jungle of some sort so of course I had to pull over and take a few shots of what I can only describe as a sight more befitting of Georgia than New England.

And upon entering Rindge again I decided to stop by yet another lake to take this pretty little snap as well… All and all it was a wonderful day filled with a lot of happy surprises!

***I apologize for any missing photos and galleries as I continue to work getting Catching Marbles fully migrated to a new host. Please come back soon for restored photos and thank you for your patience!***

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

July 18, 2017 0

Church’s Field Trail – Rochester MA

First off – I had an amazing day photographing all sorts of critters for Clover Creek Farm in Rochester MA. It was well worth the two hour drive! And I was already glowing when I got back into the car and decided to go on another adventure. I had driven by Fall Rivers to get here so I decided on my way back I’d swing by and see if I could get a photo of the Lizzie Borden house. I’ve been by it before (though I couldn’t tell you why) and I figured it was possibly interesting enough to merit a blog entry so off I went… but while I was still driving through Rochester I saw a tiny sign aside the road and a three car parking lot promising there was a trail nearby so I stopped on a little detour…

I had ended up in the Church Fields Trail in Rochester Massachusetts. Upon getting out of my car all I could see was a field. Where was the path?? I might not have figured this out if it weren’t for a guy coming up it, across the field, with his adorable boxer puppy. After the usual greetings of, “Hey! Another living soul knows about this place!” I was on my way. It’d been a long time since I had trekked across a grown field. This is a fun activity if you’re a kid but slightly terrifying if you’re an adult as it’s very disorienting and probably absolutely infested with ticks. Still, this path was worn enough I knew I wasn’t going to get lost in the proverbial cornfields.

There was a sign at the actual entrance though it didn’t inform me of much. I walked by and into the woods where immediately my breath was taken away. This place was magical. Though the path was wide and well groomed the vegetation around it was wild and untamed. This was a dense forest for sure! I bounced a bit as I walked because I almost felt as if I was on a quest for King Arthur. The only thing that would have made this better would have been a horse to ride and I guess I am not the only one to think so as hoof-prints were clearly visible in the mud. I delighted in taking photos of every gnarled fallen down tree before continuing onward. This path started to break off into other paths and with every Y I became a little more confused. Nothing was marked, at all, but I figured as long as I could remember which way I had come I’d be OK. I left a few breadcrumbs just in case. And then I came across something wonderful. Here in the middle of this enchanted forest was a row of rustic benches overlooking what I think was the entrance to Avalon. It was a sandy-bottomed river, very odd in New England, that had ice tea colored water that got darker as it got deeper until all you could see was the dancing reflections of trees on pitch black water. Immediately I hopped down the shore and splashed about like a small child. It was over eighty degrees out and my hands were greasy from petting a stallion a few minutes before. This little wash-up was perfect! And it was QUIET out here. Despite being very close to a busy roadway you couldn’t hear a single car going by or any people, just the occasional birdsong. This place was absolutely enchanting. I wanted to build a hobbit home on the other embankment and stay here forever. Since I couldn’t do that I instead took out some marbles and started snapping a few photos. I must have been playing out there for quite some time before I decided to make my way back – something I managed to do by remembering various rocks and trees. I also found an adorable mushroom along the way! By the time I got back to the car I felt refreshed enough for the two and a half hours of driving ahead of me (and no.. I never did manage to take a photo of the Lizzie Borden house although I did drive by. Traffic today was utterly insane!)

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

July 18, 2017 0

San Diego Zoo – California

Since we had gone to one of the country’s best aquariums I thought I should go to one of its best zoos. I ended up at the San Diego Zoo. It was already 1PM. I had read somewhere it closed at 9PM so we were good. We parked and went in. It was $40 admission, per person, to get into this place so it better be good!

The place was absolutely clogged with children and strollers. I have to wonder why parents with children young enough to be in strollers, and no older children, would even bother bringing them to the zoo. They’re not going to remember it! But anyways, I was off to see the reptiles and the bugs first because it’s just rude not to remember the little guys. I was rewarded by seeing a number of baby Komodo dragons. They had lots of cute little lizards, even a gila monster, who may or may not have been venomous – several signs nearby contradicted each other on the subject.

Most of the reptiles I’d already seen at that pet store in Houston… The bug house was next. They had cockroaches, a disturbing amount of assassin bugs, I imagine with most unemployed, a windowed bee hive, and some diving beetles, nothing fantastic. I was only impressed by their leaf cutter ant colony. You could see them finding their leaves, cutting them up, dragging them underground, chewing them up into pulp, and growing fungus with them to eat. It was neat. One wonders where you even get such a large leaf cutter ant colony, complete with every type of occupational ant, meaning there must have been a queen in there somewhere… perhaps the one wearing a feather boa.

After a brief hello to the amphibians I was finally off to see something with warm blood. To the mammals!

One of the first things I saw was a fossa, an animal so weird that I was probably the only non-zookeeper to know what the hell it was. It was sleeping on a branch, its lovely chocolate paw pads dangling in mid air. I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled to be on my way to see the tapirs. I’d wanted to see them when I was twelve at the National Zoo. I walked five miles around the park and came to their exhibit almost last only to find they’d been loaned out to another zoo for the summer. It was time to make up for that! And boy did I! They had the biggest tapir there, just wiggling its weird nose and sitting there in the sun. He was so cute and weird! Later on I’d see another tapir laying against the plexiglass, literally an inch away from me. It was awesome. I would have been happy with just these but they also had okapis, animals I’d never heard of (and that’s amazing as I know a LOT of obscure animals) all the usual crowd pullers, and monkeys galore. There were monkeys everywhere. I could care less. I’ve seen enough of the buggars, though I did like their ring tailed lemur male who was running around his cage anxiously meowing, yeah, I said meowing. Apparently they meow like wee kittens. It was adorable.

I passed by an Asian Leopard Cat enclosure and man, now I know why my Bengal cat (a house cat Asian leopard cat hybrid) smells so bad. That exhibit alone smelled worse than the whole zoo combined. After this I met a pissy mongoose. Now mongeese eat cobras for breakfast, they’re not an animal you want to be on the wrong side of. This one noted the camera was right against the bars of its cage and it charged, hissing violently and baring its teeth. It nearly grabbed the lens cap with its paws. It was a quick little beastie!

I was really hungry so I decided to get something to eat before checking out the last leg of the zoo. Though it was supper time all the little cafes were closed or closing. Annoyed I left to check out the walk-through aviary, the big one, as I’d already been through the hummingbird aviary and the budgie aviary. It was very neat and had all sorts of African pigeons and weird birds. Then a keeper showed up and told us she was supposed to lock up half an hour ago and I shouldn’t be here. So I left… and when I reached the main paths I realized the whole zoo was empty. A single gorilla watched me, obviously having waited to go indoors he probably was watching me thinking, “Every day there is at least one group of these fools.” It was creepy, like something out of a horror movie, no one was anywhere. When I got closer to the exit I started seeing more weary travelers, all with similar expressions. I found the Jeep really easy after this! It was sitting cold and lonely in the parking lot wondering where on earth I’d went to.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

June 6, 2011 0

Old Spring Town Texas

So I decided to go to Houston because there was a store there called The Little Dutch Girl and a pet shop I’d found. I went to the Little Dutch Girl first, because buying one of those might be useful. Just kidding! Don’t buy children, it’s wrong. Anyway, it was situated in the middle of this little strip mall called Old Towne Spring. It was adorable. They had a little German shop, a little Dutch shop, and across from them was The Texan Shop, like “HEY! YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE LOCALS!”

I entered the Little Dutch Girl and was greeted first by a whole wall full of licorice. This I’ll never understand. I can’t imagine any licorice could possibly taste different from another. It’s really fowl stuff… but then there was a small section that went to dry foods and a little fridge with cheese. The rest of the shop was touristy things… wooden shoes, windmills, and blue chinaware.

Today I was looking for candy flakes, the kind you put on toast. I don’t know what they are really called, but they are these little flavored flakes you put on bread and eat. I got some chocolate and some fruit flavored and couldn’t pass up the Stroopwafels. It’s really funny because I decided after eating one that my own home-made versions somehow had surpassed this. Perhaps because I spent four months perfecting an intensely simple recipe.

When the woman at the register rung up these choices she smiled in a sort of strange way, perhaps reflecting on the fact these were odd items, not usually bought by tourists but rather by someone whose eaten them before. I guess I’ll never know.

There was a little German shop next to the little Dutch shop (surprise surprise.) It was cute, though it didn’t please the realists here. Apparently nut crackers, cuckoo clocks, and everything else here wasn’t actually a German thing… I couldn’t care less… As far as I am concerned Germans had me at, “Hey look! An ADORABLE roundy car that allows you to punch people!” Funny enough there wasn’t any VW memorabilia. Shame.

I stopped at a little fried food place. Out of morbid curiosity I got a fried Snickers bar. The fried Snickers bar was rather disappointing. The melty gooey part was wonderful, the batter wasn’t so much. I had to peel it off like I do my fried fish.

I left after this but appreciated this artistic and adorable little enclave of creative spirits, where people walked around wearing full jeans and sweaters as I melted into a puddle.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 28, 2011 0