April 2010
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All photos © 2010 Nancy F Little unless otherwise noted.
Professional entries are in large bold in the text.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
"There and Back Again"
It was absolutely WONDERFUL to do a return engagement in Amherst MA for the Community School homeschoolers' group in Amherst. It's a bunch of homeschooling
families who have banded together and are sharing classes and teachers and an education space (a yurt!) on a regular basis, spearheaded and hosted by the seemingly always cheerful Beth Anne Moonstone, a midwife by trade (pictured left with her daughter Jadziah).
A few years ago, I was doing a weekly gym class for this group for several semesters. But today, I was there as "something special" for the last day of winter term. It was a bigger group than before --- close to 20 kids --- with quite a few new faces along with the the "old timers" (including some who are my fans on my Facebook Fan Page!)
We had a gorgeous, warm, sunny day to play on the lawn. At Beth request, I brought my parachute; but first I continued the tradition I started when I was doing gym class: we always started with a game of Tag as a warm up! So when I walked onto the lawn and tagged Beth's older boy Indigo (pictured right) and said, "Tag, you're it!" and he responded with "Really?" I was just a little surprised. "Yes, really," said I... and the games began!
For a group with ages ranging from 5 -15 or so, this group sure was good at playing together. Often, with this wide of an age spread, the smaller kids get left out or run down or hurt by the olders, but with this group, all the kids who wanted to play were included all the way through with respect and attention to safety. (There were, of course, a few mishaps, but that's normal for active children.)
So we played Tag, and then about 45 minutes of Parachute Games. We still had about 15 minutes left, so we played Smaug's Jewels, several versions of Everybody's It, and Buddy Tag to close out the session. Afterwards, I hung around and had a great time talking with the parents and the kids for over half an hour (it's that kind of group).
One very sweet thing that happened: pretty much the moment I arrived, this young boy named Shai (age 5 or 6) kind of latched on to me and was at my side most of the time I was there. He started talking to me as the game of Tag started; he somehow consistently managed to wind up holding on to the edge of the parachute next to me during the Parachute Games; and afterwards was near me as I sat on the lawn swing most of the time I was hanging out afterwards. And then, partway home when I realized I'd forgotten my water bottle and went back to get it, he was right there at my side again from the moment I stepped out of my car, talking to me the whole time until I got back in my vehicle, Shai still talking to me through the open window as I backed out the driveway!
So my thanks to Beth for having me back, to all the students for having such a good time together, and to Shai for being my new friend. What FUN!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
"A 50th and a 60th"
It was a deep pleasure to entertain today at Esther "Es" Hodges 60th and Ruth O'Brian's 50th birthday party in Granby MA. It was a surprise party, too. Their birthdays are only two days apart and each was led to believe that the party was for the other one! Ingenious.
When I got there, about a dozen people were sitting around outside in the sun talking and enjoying each other's company. Turns out there were another dozen inside (where the food was!). So we had the insiders grab a folding chair and join the outsiders for The Party Game Show: an hour of inter-active, social, party games for adults.
As with most groups of this sort, there were all sort of different reactions to each game in succession. In "Who's the Leader?", Ruth guessed the right person on her very first guess! And in "The B.F. Skinner Behavior Modification Game", Es only took about 3 minutes to figure out that the group wanted her to put her thumbs on her nose! There's no pulling the wool over on these ladies! One of the other ladies was constantly claiming "Unfair!" when one group had more people in it than the other. (It really didn't make any difference in the game.) Another kept saying, "I don't get it," in though she was doing everything right. One very tall guy stood in the back the whole time, but participated fully in everything. Several just quietly played along with a smile or a smirk or a quizzical look on their face depending on the game. And the sole grandkid who participated kept announcing: "We're dealing with a 6th grade intelligence here, everyone."
All in all, they said they had a good time at the end of the show, and quite a few people made a point of telling me personally afterwards that is was great to have such FUN with their friends and relatives.
I live for that.
Sunday and Monday, April 4 and 5, 2010
"Our Easter Weekend Together"
Our Easter weekend this year was on Sunday and Monday.
We got up early Sunday morning and took care of stuff we couldn't leave for two days, then packed our bags and coolers and piled it all in the back of my truck before going to hear one of my cousin-in-law Rev Sarah Buteux's wonderful, thought-provoking, inspiring, poignant, gentle but direct, "with it" sermons at the 1st Congregational Church of Hadley. This service also included a delightfully informal children's choir; the always excellent (and color coordinated!) bell choir; a wonderfully modern skit featuring Luke, Matthew, and John discussing their various versions of the Gospel Story; a sing-along with the adult choir; a trumpeter playing along with another choir song; a full church due to what some of my preacher relatives refer to as "C and E Christians" (that's "Christmas and Easter"); and no coffee hour after the service so we could all get right home for our family dinner afterwards.
Nancy and I didn't go right home for our family dinner afterwards, though. We went home and changed out of our Sunday Best before driving 3+ hours north to Nancy's parents' house in E Burke VT for a family dinner up there with the folks and their #3 daughter Wendy and her husband Jon and their kid Chloe(4). It was a great Little
visit, and the meal was yummy, too: baked tofu for the vegans; baked ham and pineapple with raisin sauce for the carnies; mashed potatoes and parsnips (mashed potatosnips?); asparagus; tossed salad, rolls, a variety of olives (black and kalamata), and a few other sundries. YuUuUM!
One delightful little thing happened before the meal that I have to share. We were out on the porch enjoying snacks and each other's company when Chloe's friend Addison and her dad A.J. walked over for a little visit after the regular weekly NEK Ultimate game on the town playing field next door (!) that we'd been watching. So, Chloe and Addison had been playing for a while and were running out of things to do. Chloe was obviously trying to thing of something they could do together. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she said, "Hey! Do you wanna meet my friend Gramma?!"
Precious.
I've added this to the bottom of my Quotes I Love page, by the way.
We spent the night there, and in the morning Nancy was trying to study in their living room, but the parents kept having to talk to her (it is their job, after all), so we packed up the truck well before lunchtime and drove 20 minutes north to her brother Pete's off-the-grid cabin in the woods in Island Pond VT. Pete lives in Michigan now, and we get to use his cabin pretty much any time we want without asking! It's awesome. Thanks Pete!
When we got there, Nancy lit the wood stove (it's still a little chilly in early April only 15 miles from Canada). She got to work while I did some pleasure reading and then did some stuff around the place outside. A few hours later, she'd finished everything she'd brought along, so we took a walk through the woods down to Pete's waterfall.
As McKinley Brook passes through Pete's 70 acres, it drops 45-50 feet at one point in 3 major tiers: the upper falls are about 15', the main falls are a good 30', and the lower falls are another 10' or so.The picture above is looking down over the main falls from above. This picture doesn't really show how terrific it is, but on our walk today, Nancy took some pictures of each of the tiers from below. I hope to be adding them to my A Cascade of Waterfalls! page next to the above photo near the bottom of that page some time soon. Check it in a few days and they might be there.
So at 3:00 on the button --- right on schedule --- we left Pete's and headed home, arriving in time for a late supper courtesy of the Short Order Cook. Thanks Nancy! After supper, we each did some catch-up work before enjoying a nice little chat and tea outside on our huge wrap-around porch (it's not nearly as chilly here) before Nancy hit the hay.
And that was the end of Our Easter Weekend together. We both enjoyed it quite a bit (of course).
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
"Particle Board"
Today is just a Freecyle kind of day. I responded to a bunch of stuff and was the "lucky winner" of 2 out of 3 of the things I asked for. So this afternoon, Nancy came along with me (YAY!) to pick up a bunch of particle board that this really nice lady is ripping out of her basement. So I got about six full sheets of the stuff. She even helped me get it up through her bulkhead and into the back of my truck.
So why would I want a bunch of used particle board? I picked up an old garden shed from Freecycle last Fall. The roof is shingled and a good size, but the walls are like a picket fence: space between the slats, so all sorts of weather would be getting in. I want to put something solid on the inside of the walls to keep our gardening stuff dry.
Now I have to put up the shed.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
"Another Freecycle Day"
Basically, I spent today getting free stuff. It was really only 2 items, one of which regular readers have heard about here several times since last Fall: but still, it was another day of getting free stuff!
First, I got another truckload of dirt for what I'm now calling the Great Backyard Reclamation Project (GBRP). A few more loads and the part behind the bushes will be done... but I'll have to finish the little railroad tie corner on the street end before backfilling there. Then 5 or 6 more loads will do the part in front of the bushes. Then I have to put up the fence, get some grass seed, put up the shed, bury the sump pump hose, build some raised garden beds, and have a huge party!
When I was done with the dirt, I drove to Greenfield and picked up a free phone. A couple days ago, my ancient desk phone just stopped ringing. I'd be sitting there working and suddenly the answering machine would come on; that's the first I knew I had an incoming call: when I heard my own voice answering it!
So today I got a cordless desk phone (pictured right) with built-in answering machine for free! Spent most of an hour setting it up after I got home. Tested it by calling my lovely wife, who was in the kitchen at the time. She suggested that I could have just walked into the kitchen to talk with her, but I would have felt a little silly walking into the kitchen and calling her on the phone while she was right next to me.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
"3 Things"
1. Got up this morning, got dressed, grabbed my shovel, and went and got another load of dirt. Two+ hours of shovelling; 45 minutes of driving. 
GBRP.
2. Got a new (used) copy machine for free through Freecycle.org. (I'm really scoring on Freecycle this month!) My old copy machine has been giving me trouble printing 2-sided copies ever since they changed the toner cartridge. The upgrade is a Minolta EP215. It has more features than my old one, and can take paper up to 11" x 17" --- the old one only took standard 8-1/2 x 11.
3. Saw a pre-screening of Star 
Drooker (pictured right) & P.J. Moynihan's "Salmonboy" film on the story behind the old Fire and Water Cafe in Northampton MA. I basically lived at Fire and Water for four years from 1994 when they opened until I got married in 1998. I was there pretty much every night from early evening until the wee small hours of the morning. The film was not really about the cafe, but rather about the owners' coping with the loss of their first born, Jesse, who only lived 19 days. Jesse was the whole reason why they started Fire and Water: to have a cool place to raise their son. The film is a work-in-progress, and is very intense. After the film, we sat around and gave them all sorts of feedback because the main purpose of these weekly pre-screenings is to get lots of different people's feedback on it before going into "pre-production". So, if you might be interested in participating in this, click the link above.
Friday, April 9, 2010
"Star's Art Opening"
It's another Star day for me. After supper tonight, Nancy and I drove downtown to the brand new Trailside Gallery in Northampton MA to see Star Drooker's (photo above and below) art opening. For about 30 years now, Star has been doing these wonderful Polaroid mosaic portraits. He takes a whole series of Polaroids, and then puts them together in a grid. The photos all line up properly because they're all the same size, but the lines in the images don't exactly line up from photo to photo. The result is a rather unique art experience.
Some of of his portraits have been hanging in his Cafe Evolution in Florence MA for quite a while now, but they're just a little too high and a little too dimly lit there. So it was really nice to see them at the proper height and properly lit in the gallery tonight. It was simply terrific to be able to get up close to them and see all the detail. We also really enjoyed hearing Star talk about his work, the people in the portraits, and the trials and tribulations of being a Polaroid mosaic portrait artist.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
"Almost Done"
This afternoon, I spent about 4-1/2 hours building the little roadside corner of my backyard retaining wall. It's only about 7' long and tapers down quite a bit as it goes into the hillside on the 
south end, so it was a very simple operation... it just took a lot of time.
But I'm so close to being done with the wall construction part of my Great Backyard Reclamation Project (GBRP) that I can almost taste it. All I've got to do bang in four 12" nails (15 mins.) and attach the final cable anchor (45 mins.). So with about an hour of work tomorrow afternoon (it'll probly take more), the building part will be all done, and I'm looking forward to that.
Then I get to finish backfilling it, so it looks like I'm going to be shovelling dirt for the next week or so.
Monday, April 12, 2010
"Another Intense Guild Meeting"
I've been meeting regularly with my performers guild for most of two decades. Some months, The Hats Off Performers Guild meetings could be titled The Hats Off Performers Group Therapy Session. This group is so 
comfortable with each other that we're comfortable airing our fondest hopes, our deepest fears, and our toughest personal problems. One of our members needed time for the latter at our meeting this morning. So we devoted nearly our entire meeting to listening to him spill and then helping him with where he wants to go from here. Whenever we do this, it seems like it pulls our tight little group even closer. I love these guys!
"WALL DONE!"
Okay folks, the wall is done. YAY!
As I reported yesterday, I built the last little section Sunday afternoon. It's that little part on the left in the bottom photo in the strip on the right here.
As soon as I got home from my guild meeting after lunch today, I put on my work shoes and gloves and went right out there to do the last little bits to finish up Phase 1 of this major project.
First I banged in the last four 12" nails, securing that narrow top piece. That did indeed take the estimated 15 minutes as reported yesterday.
Then I installed the final anchor cable, which also took the estimated 45 minutes. One end of the cable is attached to a huge hookeye that goes all the way through the wall (top photo). The other end is attached to a buried anchor that's parallel to the wall (middle photo), in this case a huge heavy truck leafspring that I dug out of my landlord's metal dumpster last Fall. The idea is that if the wall decides to move (they tend to get pushed out by hydrostatic pressure), it will jolly well have to pull a mighty lot of dirt with it! Mine is designed so that if it does start to push out, I can theoretically pull it back in by tightening the bolts where they come through on the outside of the wall.
I'm so thrilled that the construction part of this long project is finally done. d:|D>
In fact, I was so thrilled that when I finished I did not immediately jump into my truck and go get another load of dirt to start filling that corner --- even though there was plenty of time for that.
Nope, instead, I helped Nancy work on our flower borders, pulling weeds from the daylily bed for a while. Then I worked for an hour or so on another on-going outdoor project: the rock garden I'm putting in on the hill along the streetside of our yard. 
Today, I set 9 more rocks on the upper tier. In the photo at left, it's those rocks in the grass towards the right side of the picture all the way to the tall yellowish looking one you can barely see near the center of the photo. After removing the rocks, I dug up all the grass that was in between them and moved it over to that line of dirt along the bottom of the new wall corner that you can see in the bottom image in the photo strip above. That part looks much better now. Then I dug the rocks in, settling them more or less permanently in their new homes. I also had to reset one of the lower ones I put in last Fall because it shifted too much when I stepped on it today. Everyone looks really happy now!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
"Dirt & Water"
When I was getting gas today, the cheery lady behind the counter said, "You always have 
something interesting in the back of your truck." What I had was an old, beat-up exercise bike that I was delivering to my new Freecyle friend Sherrie, whom some of you may recall is the source of the endless supply of dirt that I've been shovelling out of her pasture by the truckload as my retaining wall gradually gets backfilled. It feels great to be able to give something back.
After I finished unloading today's load into my newly built corner of the wall (see yesterday's entry), Nancy & I did our favorite local walk: the Boggy Meadow Road trail to Fitzgerald Lake. The new green smell was exhilarating. Saw a turtle sunning on a rock near the shore. Heard a woodpecker high in the trees. And the fresh air and exercise sure felt good. Ah, Spring!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
"Bliss and Purgatory"
BLISS: Woke up way early (for me) and drove to Whitin Community Center in Northbridge MA for the SMOC Beginning Bridges Kids Fair where I entertained the crowds during this 3-hour indoor family event from 10:00am -1:00 pm. There were information and activity tables lined up around the perimeter of the gym with everything from safety and health info, to craft projects, and Mary Kay products. There were music and movement "classes" for preschoolers and their parents. There was a live petting zoo. Plus a big raffle for about a dozen items.
For the first hour, I stiltwalked the hall doing really High Fives with everyone who was interested, and played catch with a bunch of kids using the free bouncy balls they got from one of the booth tables. Then at the stroke of 11:00, I gathered a crowd on the floor in the middle of the gym and did The Aerial Delights Show for a group of about 65 kids and parents. Then we played Parachute games with a TON of kids, and were joined by about a dozen or so parents near the end. After that, I set up Project: Ribbon Dancer and churned out ribbon dancer for the children for the last hour.
It's been two weeks since I had a gig, so it was especially blissful to be able to work for 3 hours today at such a wonderful event!
PURGATORY: Three miles from Whitin Community Center, right next door in the town of Sutton MA is an amazing 1/4-mile, rock-strewn gash in the earth called Purgatory Chasm in Purgatory Chasm State Reservation.
Several years ago, Nancy and I did a little excursion that ended there, but her ankle was acting up so we didn't actually go into the chasm that day. So I was delighted to discover that it was so close to my gig today.
Spent about 2 hours exploring, gaping, and totally soaking up this amazing geological formation before heading home.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
"A Nice Little Visit"
Nancy & I had a nice little visit with our friends Don & Barbara up in Bellows Falls VT. We try to get together every few weeks or so at our place or theirs, and this time was at theirs.
As we arrived, the sun suddenly came out after being hidden for days, so we took a vote and it was decided 3-1 that we would go for a little walk in the woods behind their house. Their place is backed up to some sort of conservation land (I think) and we ended up taking a short stroll through the woods and across the dike that's just up the street from their house. It was a little chilly but still a really nice walk together.
Then we went back to their place, had a yummy dinner together, and just hung out for the rest of the evening until it was time for us to go home. It was nice to see them, as always.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
"Double Dirt Dump Day with Tractor!!"
Drove over to Williamsburg to get a load of dirt this morning, and Sherrie --- the owner of the dirt mountain --- was in her driveway loading her car. Turns out she was just about to leave for a little vacation. So as I backed my truck up to the dirt mountain, she waved goodbye from her car.
Then my fondest dirt dream came true: She stopped, climbed out, walked over towards me, and said, "You can use the tractor to load your truck if you want to," all casual like that.
My entire being was suddenly about three feet off the ground! I was absolutely thrilled. I haven't been getting dirt nearly as often as I could just because it is so labor intensive: It takes over 3 hours per load, and most of that is shovelling dirt in at one end and then shovelling it back out again at the other. She just saved me an hour of manual labor per load for the rest of the job! Wowza! It's the best thing that's happened during this entire 3-month (so far) project.
So today, thanks to Sherrie's generosity and trusting nature, I got two loads of dirt for the manual labor price of one!! And about a third less time, too! Wow! THANK YOU SHERRIE! You Rock! 
There's a little video of #3 & 4 here.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
"Double Dirt Dump Day II:
Attack of the Clods"
Well, I'm just so absolutely psyched about using this tractor to load up my truck full of dirt that I did two loads again today! What seemed like it was going to take another month to finish is suddenly possibly going to be done in only a few more days! I've just done four loads in two days --- back in the old days I felt good about doing 2 or 3 loads a week, and 4 was outstanding, so this is fabulous, folks! At this rate, it will only take me 3 or 4 more not-wet days to finish the dirt hauling segment of my Great Backyard Reclamation Project instead of 3 or 4 weeks it would have taken pre-tractor. Wow!
Okay, and if you thought that's cool, how about this?:
As I approached the house in Williamsburg for my second load today, I noticed two little girls jumping on the trampoline in the yard next door. Now I knew that Sherrie's daughter lived there, but I didn't know there were grandkids, too. And what else I didn't know is that I've know Sherrie's daughter and her husband for decades!
Here's what happened: I'm just finishing up and am about to climb in my truck and slowly, slowly, slowly drive away when I see two women coming towards me from across the way and one of them is saying, "Trevor? Is that you? That's Trevor!" Turns out Sherrie's mythical daughter is my old friend Hannah Black whom I've known since the mid-90's when we both began hanging out at the old Fire & Water Cafe in Northampton. I've known her husband Collin even longer: since 1984 when his dad hired me as Assistant Director at 4H Camp Howe in Goshen MA. Collin was 
8-years-old at the time. When he got older, he too began hanging out at Fire & Water. When he picked up flute, we did a lot of jamming together. And those two little girls on the trampoline? Their daughters, Charlotte and Penelope. The second woman, Hannah's sister. Oh, and the third house on the property: Grandma's.
So I had a delightful little catch-up conversation with Hannah, got to meet and interact with her adorable daughters, and am thrilled to know that I've been getting dirt from the mother (-in-law) of two of my favorite people. Yay!
I just absolutely love how small this community is and how
interconnected nearly everyone is... whether they know it or not!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
"Double Dirt Dump Day III:
Revenge of the Filth"
Did two more loads of dirt today! 
The tractor has been a real bear to get started. Sherrie told me it's like that. The second load Tuesday, the battery got warn down so much trying to get started that I ended up hooking up my jumper cables to it. It still took a long time to start, but at least it had enough juice to keep trying. I've had to jump it every time since. I think it doesn't really run long enough to recharge the battery: It only takes about 10 
minutes to fill my truck once the tractor starts, and I know with my truck I was told to run it at least 20 minutes to fully recharge the battery.
So my second run today, instead of trying to get it started for 10 minutes and then hooking up the jumper cables, I just drove right up to it, hooked up the jumpers first thing, revved the engine for 3 or 4 minutes, and --- miracle of miracles! --- it started up FIRST TRY!!
I'm doing it that way from now on.
But I got so grubby today that I had to put every single thing I was wearing in the laundry when I was done... "Revenge of the Filth" indeed!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
"Three Tres Enjoyable Things"
So today was a very full day.
First I took care of some business at home for a couple hours.
Then I drove to Shelburne Falls where I entertained a whole bunch of mostly first-grade boys with my Outdoor Special at Clayton McCloud's 7th birthday party for an 
hour and a half. It was a great group in a great location. Their yard is seemingly several acres with a small pond, huge rocks to climb on, HUGE (and I mean REALLY HUGE) clusters of huge forsythia (not at all like the tiny one in the photo) and evergreen bushes all over the place, hills and dales, ups and downs, lots of places where you can't be seen... and that's just the part in the front of the house! It sure seems like a 7-year-old boy's paradise --- at least this group of mostly 7-year-old boys sure were having a blast running around the place when I arrived. And Clayton was one of the nicest, best behaved kids there, too!
Okay, here's a little tidbit to give you a clue about what the yard there is like: While I was doing my Aerial Delights Show at the beginning of the party, all 15 or so kids in front of me were sitting or standing on top of this very large flat 3' tall rock; all the adults were about 5 yards uphill to my left lounging on the lawn or standing on the driveway, close enough to watch the show (and the kids) and far away enough to talk without detracting from the show; and anyone pulling into the driveway to drop of their kid a little late, could see the adults bu
t not me and the kids unless the drove all the way up to where the adults were.
After the party, I met my lovely wife at the "world famous" Bridge of Flowers (pictured right) just down the road in Shelburne Falls. First we walked across the street to McCusker's Market so I could get a little lunch (avocado sandwich and a fudge bar -- yum!). And then we slowly strolled across the bridge and took in all the colors, smells, and ambiance that this place has in spades. I always try to only look at the stuff on one side of the path on the way across the bridge so I can look at the stuff on the other side of the path on the walk back.
This being early Spring, the Bridge of Flowers has lots of tulips in bloom. My favorite today (and it's different every time we're there) were the places where there were these large solid orange tulips and the same thing only in yellow right next to each other. There were lots of other kinds of flowers in bloom, too, and all of them were gorgeous. We haven't been here this early in the season for a while, so it was nice to see this wonderful destination spot in April.
So after we'd ambled back across (I did look at the other side!), we walked across the big old car bridge that's right next to it and went 
into a little antique store right next to the bridge on the other side that Nancy'd noticed on the way in. It was a small shop packed tightly with a wonderful assortment of stuff. There was one old toy I really wanted, but unfortunately it was in really good shape and cost $125, so I didn't buy it.
Then we walked the downtown shops circuit of the Shelburne side of Shelburne Falls (it straddles the Shelburn/Buckland town line) ending with a stroll down a poorly marked side street to the geologically awesome Glacial Potholes (pictured left). They've built a dam just above them with a sluice gate all the way at the far end, and today the water flow was just so much larger than I've ever seen it before. This, too, might have something to do with being here earlier in the season than usual: this could still be snow melt from the hills.
We did a little shopping at McCusker's before returned home for another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and after I did the dishes, I jumped in my car and drove to P.A.C.E. Theater in 
Sunday, April 25, 2010
"Another Full Day"
Only like an hour after I got up this morning, I packed my gear into my truck and drove to Lake Park in Worcester MA for the Autism Resource Center of Central MA's 10th Annual Walk-a-thon. There's a big huge gravel 
track there with hundreds and hundreds of people walking around it for about three hours. And all around the track and inside the oval are all sorts of booths and activities and stations offering various things for those who aren't walking.
One of cool things about this event is that the walkers are organized in teams of people rallied around a specific child who has autism. All the teams have names like Help for Jose, Walking with Wanda, Miles of Smiles, Molly's Friends, Team Aurbach, and We Love Denny! Each team sets up at a specific area around the track, so as you're circling you see all the groups' set-ups, signs, and support people. Team members tend to walk together on the track as a group, too. So there's very much of a group consciousness and team spirit running through everything.
This is my third year in a row at this wonderful event, and I must say: It just keeps getting better. This year, there was a huge raffle with a ton of items; live demos on stage by the local dojos and dance studios; two huge "bounce house" style inflatable slides; a live concert by a local rock band; a nice picnic lunch served; a gift shop(!); spinal testing booth; bins full of ice and free bottles of water ranged all around the track; and a whole bunch of other stuff I just don't remember. Oh yes, and the was a 5K run in the morning, too. And it's all a fundraiser that raises thousands of dollars.
So all told, this is one terrific event and I love being a part of it.
Got home shortly after 6:30. My lovely wife was just finishing up prepping food to take with us to Amar's monthly Live Foods 
Potluck. We love Amar (pictured right) and we love her potlucks! After supper (but before dessert!) I got to lead a few games with the people that didn't leave right after the meal. First we played Imaginary Ball Toss, where we toss around an imaginary ball that keeps changing into different things! Then we tossed real objects in Group Juggling: coordinated effort kept 8-12 objects moving through the air all at once. Afterwards, everyone agreed that this month's games were great FUN!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
"Sachem Head" 
We wanted to do some food shopping at Green Fields Market and The Barn in Greenfield MA this afternoon for our annual May Day family camp out in Hardwick MA this weekend, but one of our favorite short hikes is in Greenfield, so we also allowed time for that.
Highland Park and Rocky Mountain Park in Greenfield are two long narrow parks that abut each other end-to-end on opposite sides of Mountain Rd on the eastern edge of town. Rocky Mountain Park includes the popular Poets Seat Tower and a set of sparsely used lower trails (because there's a road up to the tower). Right across the street from the lower parking lot at the bottom of the tower road is a little-known trail we've hiked a lot.
It's a winding, up and down, very rocky path that involves a bit of a scramble in a few places as it wends it's way across Pocumtuck Ridge. A little under a mile's walk, at the far end of the ridge, the trail suddenly plunges down a very very steep side of the mountain.
Fortunately for us, our goal is always Sachem Head, about 10' before that plunge! It's a lookout point with a viewing platform and an unobstructed view in three and a half directions. The picture at left is right before the lookout point. The viewing platform is just beyond the tree at the top of the photo.
There's two other approaches to Sachem Head, but both involve climbing up that precipitous part of the trail I just mentioned, so we pretty much always take the ridge trail from Mountain Rd.
Today, it was very very windy, so we didn't stay long --- the wind was just too much. But the view was stupendous as always --- but it sure was nice to hike with Nancy for a couple miles today.
Friday, April 30, 2010
MayPole Day One: Arrivals"
Yesterday, Nancy & I spent several hours packing up to go tent camping at our annual May Day weekend family camp-out event in Hardwick MA. And then this morning, we got up in good time, packed the food into the coolers, took care of all the other last minute details, and were on the road well before noon.
Just over an hour later, we were busy setting up our campsite on the eastern edge of the field right next to the path to the outhouse in the woods. A few families were there already, so as soon as we finished pitching our tent, putting up the screen house we use for a kitchen, and getting everything else all set up, we were out by the cook fires catching up with old friends.
Hardwick is a very rural town just east of the Quabbin Reservoir pretty much smack dab in the middle of the state. And this event is in a fairly secluded part of town, too. We're camping out in two big adjoining fields with a stream running perpendicular between them. There's cook fires at the far end of each field. And the upper field has a path into the 
woods that can take you up a hill or down to the pond. The place is also right next to a dairy farm, so we often hear the cows lowing from the field next door... especially at night. MOOOOOOO!
More people filtered in as the day wore on, especially after supper. Most of the regulars at this event have been attending for decades, so most of the people have known most of the people for a long time. Some of us (me) don't remember anyone's name, of course, but I still know all these people... and have for decades.
Everyone cooks over open fires in the fire circles. And that's also one of the places folks hang out after dark. Tonight, as there often is, there was an impromptu music jam around the fire in the upper field that went on until about 2:00am. It's one of my all-time favorites! Yay!