Gray Areas

Raining all day on Sunday I thought I'd set the camera for black and white only, and get some practice in on the world of gray tones, since there wasn't much for color going on anyway...We transported ourselves to a wet and foggy Quabbin Resevoir for a post-lunch walk-around.



Kelly needed to feed the baby before we set out from the car, so I took a quick plunge into the woods nearby looking for stuff to shoot while she took care of business...



Right nearby us was a cool old foundation that I suppose dates back to the pre-flooding era...



...as do some of the gnarlier old trees that had fallen here and there...





By this time Kelly was done feeding baby-girl, and we got the battle stroller set up and rolling in no time.





It's a short walk past a picnic area and down to the water's edge. The reservoir levels are pretty high right now; I've been at this spot before when the water was receded far enough to expose a long wide beach of rocks. I was hoping to be able to step out farther and away from the tree cover for a mega-cool reservoir shot, but it was not to be...



We did luck out heading back up to the car though, when we came upon a family of five or six deer munching at the other side of the meadow we were on...







Kelly headed back to the car with the pea-pod while I tried to carefully inch closer and closer to the now very alert deer, who began themselves inching closer and closer to the nearby woods. I remember reading somewhere that the best way to approach wild animals is to move in a slow, zig-zag, stop and go motion, like a grazing animal would. This takes a lot of patience, at least more than I'm equipped with. So I kind of sped up the process, and soon we were both in the woods, moving, pausing, and staring at each other.



Obviously they were pretty well acclimated to human presence, because I never would have gotten this close to 'wilder' deer outside the Quabbin...



But even these guys had their boundaries, which I apparently crossed; they suddenly leaped away in unison, and disappeared like ghosts into the forest...

Seeing Is Believing

It'd be great if newspapers showed more pictures, I often mumble to myself...they have fine coverage and writing...but never enough pictures. Well, the print version, anyway. How many news readers have actually seen the twice-broken dike in Hadley? The clearing of the old Mountain Park site with it's wetlands issues? The ever-widening, ever costlier sink hole on the Manhan Trail..? This is a job for the internet...

Kelly had her best friend down from Maine visiting for the weekend, so the kid and I were left to our own devices for the whole of Saturday, and decided to take this meme on the road...

We ventured first up to the location of the former Mountain Park, to see the progress being made in the renovation of that historic old site. I've noticed some major clear-cutting that can be seen from the highway whenever I pass by. The park is long gone but it's still a popular recreation area. A lot of people come up through Mt. Tom Ski area entrance road, park on the bridge over I-91, and hike. bike or stroll all over the old Mt. Tom ski/alpine-slide area and even older Mountain Park grounds. There is a gate at the park but it's left open; Presumably the owners are allowing the public to continue to use the grounds while the work is ongoing.

The land is being well cleared of unusable trees and the shattered remnants of whatever buildings still happened to be standing. Even the graffiti-splattered old mini golf course, one of the last recognizable structures that was left of the nearly 100 year old park, is finally gone. An old parking lot pavement still exists, and there are utility poles that still reach into the property. A couple of old foundation slabs can be seen here and there...



Other than that, pretty much all that remains as far as standing structures is the big pavilion.



It's a pretty spacious piece of land, and it's rumored that the site is being set up for an outdoor concert venue (or casino..?) by property/entertainment mogul Eric Suher. It's a great spot for just about any venue, with few if any residential properties nearby, and plenty of rolling acreage over looking South Hadley in the distance.



It also looks like they might be leaving a couple good stands of trees in place...



But down at the bottom of the huge inclined property is what looks like the area that had recently caused the Holyoke conservation commission to force a work stoppage at the site, when trees were cut down too close to -or maybe in- a wetlands buffer zone.





It would be great if in fact the property does come to be a popular venue of some sort (maybe not a casino, but we'll see...) that brings people back to these long-storied hillsides for entertainment once again...

Back in the car for view number two, the Manhan Trail's costly collapse. But first a stop at the Mt. Tom coal-fired power plant on the way, for a quick picture. The plant has been in the news recently for installing all kinds of pollutant-cleaning equipment and further transforming the plant from one of the three dirtiest power generators in Massachusetts into one of the cleanest.



The amounts of mercury and other pollutants being pumped into the air, and subsequently the fish and other wildlife and us, is supposed to diminish significantly...

Ok, on to the Manhan. The hole has gotten a whole lot hole-ier, even since our last couple of visits. As it is now Evil Kneivel would have to think twice about jumping it.



But dare-devils of other stripes happened to show up while I was there. This biker decided to test his luck against the forces of gravity.



And the other bikers that came up showed their resiliency to all obstacles, by huffing around what can not be ridden over.





Hopefully the trail will be repaired by the end of summer as planned. Work is scheduled to begin after this spring's high water levels have receded...

And speaking of high water levels; on to the next as-of-yet-unseen-story: The ailing dike along the Connecticut river in Hadley. This is a favorite stretch of conservation land for Kelly and I, and we often take a detour from the Norwottuck trail to catch the sunset from the edge of the river here. And like at the Manhan, we were surprised to learn that we had been passing over a potential disaster all these times.





The dike was found to be cracking last summer, and repairs were started. But before the repairs were completed, the dike collapsed. It's now in the process of being earnestly and expensively re-repaired. It's an important job with not much time left, as a potential flooding of much of the area would happen if the river rose to dangerous levels, as it sometimes threatens to do in the spring time...

Since we're in the area, one last thing on the way home; the building of the massive Lowe's Home Improvement building, adjacent to the Long Hollow Bison Farm on route 9 in Hadley.



A huge project being built on one of the last green patches along route 9, despite much concern from Hadley residents, and unfortunately being carried out at a time of plummeting home building/renovation markets...



A project being eyed warily by the neighbors...

Passenger Seat

Work at the Carew St. water main break continues, with several old sections of pipe being removed and replaced with sturdy new sections...



I presume this section of water line, or one very similar, is the 24" culprit that had cracked open and raised all the havoc...



Clean water on tap is one of the greatest and one of the most taken for granted benefits of the developed world. I remember going to a concert a few years ago by the band Cake, who were fresh from a tour of the planet. In between songs, the lead singer stopped to talk about how just simply having clean water was so incredibly important and so incredibly rare in most of the world. Even rarer, was to have it at the turn of a faucet. He finished the short speech by leading the crowd with three hearty cheers...for the spigot. It came off like he meant it too; funny but thought provoking at the same time. I also remember reading in a book on modern warfare where one strategist said that any country no matter how great and powerful can be brought to it's knees in just three days by simply controlling or destroying it's water supplies, since no one can live more than three days without water.

So let's hear it for the mighty spigot.

My pro-photographer sister came by this week to take some pictures of the pea-pod for some baby announcement cards she's making to send out to friends and family.



Her website is on the blog-roll on the right, Carrington Creative Photography, should anyone need to avail themselves of her services...

We scooted north on Sunday looking for a mobile to suspend over the little girl's bassinet, and somehow ended up in the Greenfield/Montague section of the valley. I rode shotgun, and shot up the countryside en route...





We stopped for lunch in Greenfield and checked out a store called the Magical Child, before heading over the river into the old mill town village of Turners Falls, in the town of Montague...



We didn't find any children's stores there, but we did come across an odd little childrens' sculpture park.



On one corner are two old doors from a fire station adorned with painted styrofoam disks created by local elementary school kids, and there's an optomistic looking stryrofoam face watching over the park from a nearby rock.



The rest of the little park has sculptures created from old bicycle parts, perhaps in keeping with the new canal-side trail (pdf map here) that's just been completed right nearby. I think they are sculpted to resemble plants and animals, and maybe dinosaurs.





Some of the sculptures are looking pretty down and out, some having apparently been worn down by the past winter snows,



and some apparently by vandals.



It's an odd little park, in an odd little village; but it represents one of the seedlings being planted here as part of a slowly growing arts community replacing a long defunct mill-town environment. The new trail, a new performance theater, and a new contemporary photography museum are part of the small waves being quietly generated, hoping to create a new chapter in this village's long history. Here's a good Boson Globe article about the village's past and future...



We will be checking the village out more this summer, at the very least the canal-side trail again. For now it was time to head back, with great skyscape views from the passenger seat....

Green Means Go

We went back for our 2nd look at Holyoke's thirty fourth annual St. Patrick's Day 10k Road Race. At first, we found the sidewalks spectator-less; only rows of empty lawn chairs set up for Sunday's parade, and normal auto traffic flowing by. But taking took a short walk down South Street to investigate, we were relieved to see a small band of green people, who assured us with an "Oh Yeah..!" when we asked if the race was going to come by...



Swinging back up to our original viewing spot on the corner of South and Northampton streets, we took up our own posts as things were starting to take shape: Police officers had begun to assemble at the nearby intersections, and a State Trooper helicopter zoomed back and forth low overhead...



People were now trickling in from all directions and taking up positions all along the sidewalk. Camera-equipped folk had also arrived and began scouting for optimal angles...



Finally, at 1 o'clock, the police stepped off of the curbs and began redirecting traffic; confirming that the race was on...The local auto traffic disappeared and was replaced by a small convoy of race-related pickup trucks that came rolling up South Street.



An announcer on the back of one pickup blared race facts over a PA system, and said that there were over 4000 participants in this year's event...



Then, off in the distance could be heard cheering and rooting, and the lead elements of the race could be seen making there way up...



A small group of lead runners briskly trotted past, making it look easy...



They rounded the corner, and then, hot on their heels...



...came a river of people.



It was indeed 4000 runners, if not much more....





Last year's race was pretty big, but this definitely seemed like a much bigger turn out.



They just kept coming. It's hard to believe it was only 4000 participants. Here's a couple quick clips for an idea...





And like last time, there was no shortage of stand-outs and odd-balls, in the sea of humanity...













The big banana marked the trailing elements of the pack, and we headed back to the car.

Those who can't run, support: on the way back we noticed this little self-appointed rally section, who participated in the event by practically screaming themselves hoarse, cheering on the runners...



The 10k Road Race is a real community event...



...and a great prelude to the big parade on Sunday...