November Gold

We've been lucky so far with any real winter conditions kept at bay; and the mild temps allowed us to take a couple late afternoon rides recently. By 'late afternoon' these days, we're talking 3-ish to 5-ish until daylight savings comes back around...

But for now that's where the 'Golden Hour' can be found...



Hatfield the other day was providing some nice warm scenery right about that time, as we rolled through...





I don't know if it's the rich floodplain soil around this area, but there is still a surprising amount of rich, dark greenery in the fields here...



The Old Mill Bed & Breakfast, being just that, -an old mill- is ideally located over some falls which constantly provide that relaxing sound of running, falling water...



A few days before that Hatfield ride, we had taken a walk on the Amherst end of the Norwottuck, during a similar nearly-sunset time frame.



This time it was over wetlands.





These wetlands are always beautiful, in all times of year. While many tenacious plants along the trail side hold on to their energy collecting leaves as long as they can,



...the dead trees over the beaver-induced wetlands are always bare and compellingly stark...



...especially as the sun recedes...



It was pretty quiet on that warm afternoon, but not a woodpecker or beaver or heron was to be seen...





I imagine the birds and other wildlife were out taking advantage of the temps to get some extracurricular food hunting in. These guys stuck close to home though...



And we decided it was time to get close to home ourselves...

Low Overhead

Leafless, but pretty mild for late November.



It was a fine afternoon for a quick drive through Mt. Tom State Park, for a quick overview of a newly bark-heavy valley...



There are several lookouts along the park road to stop and take in the burg just below, that is, the town of Easthampton.



The downtown area is easily distinguishable for it's former town hall-turned arts center, peeking up above the branches.





The town's former 19th century mill/factory complexes stretch for miles and are the other most noticable feature from above. Some parts of the old textile and rubber mills have been restored and put to very good use, particularly the Eastworks building, with shops, restaurants and a newly transplanted RMV office. Other projects at the old blown out buildings haven't had as much fortune, like a recently failed LBGT-geared condo project.



On the way back, I stopped at another lofty lookout by the Soldiers' Home, for a look at Holyoke's prominent red bricked buildings glowing in the setting sun. Here's another town, like many in the valley, with tons of old industrial factory space just begging to be restored and put back to good use.



Holyoke has had some success already with factory renovations, including some recently created office and arts space in the former manufacturing areas, and the ongoing development of a new walk/bike ways along a section of the factory canals. But the big hope in the wings right now is the projected renovations and installation of a major computer complex in one of the former factories. This multimillion dollar project could be a huge development for the city. One of the reasons for it's consideration was the factory area's cheap electricity; many of the buildings generate their own with water turbines straight from the canals.

Ideal.

Meadowyards

The fog was hanging low over the Holyoke range on this rainy Friday afternoon, and I took a drive out towards the Meadows section of Northampton for a better look.



Unfortunately by the time I got out there and successfully negotiated through or around the massive puddles that lay along the dirt paths through the meadows, the fog had mostly risen again, leaving me out in the middle of the wide open farm land with little except overcast-overcastiness to observe.



But one curious thing I did notice on the way out there was an unusual abundance of man-made debris piles. Maybe the cornstalks and leafy greenery had hidden much of it during the summer, or maybe it's new, but here and there were small piles of...junk.

In one spot rocks, junk and debris was piled up and shaped into some kind of zen-balancing-formation...



...and in another place, bandanas and a small flag accompanied tire irons and smashed bottles in some bizarre lonely tribute to a recent nightime festivity, out here in the middle of nowhere...



Further on, there was more; here a few tires and a garbage bag.



A couple couches over here and oh, and some siding over there.





None of the dumpings were too large or too concentrated in any one area, compared to what I've seen in other un-monitored sections of woods or field; but they were just big and numerous enough to make you want to curse whoever was so lazy, drunk, and/or stupid as to drive all the way out here just to make such an annoying little mess for someone else to clean up.

To wit:

Shrubbery stumps..?



...really...stumps.



...or how about some video cassettes to round out the absurdity.



Is there any rhyme or reason to drive out to a farm field to toss this, when any trash barrel or dumpster would do?

Combine this kind of idiocy with all the other bad juju that's been happening out in this area, (a few mysterious deaths occuring nearby, and drug busts), and it might just be enough for the powers that be to bring the hammer down; shutting off these wonderful, wide open fields to more innocent Joe and Jane Publics.

That would be it for all the hunters...



...sky gazers...



...joggers, dog walkers, bird watchers and peace seekers.



All this wide open acreage would be soley for the farmer and his corn, as they'd probably prefer it anyway...



But, for the rest of us...

Football- With All The Trimmings

Having followed the Longmeadow Lancers more or less throughout this football season, we had to see their game vs. equally potent rival East Longmeadow Spartans, for the AA conference championship. Parking lots were brimming over, the stands were full, and the field was ringed with onlookers on this Thanksgiving morning.







Longmeadow got ahead first, scoring two touchdowns to lead for all of the first quarter, until East Lonmeadow came back with a TD early in the 2nd.



The plays were well executed, and each of these two nearly undefeated teams pulled out all the stops to try to bring home the AA championship.





Support staff worked feverishly behind the scenes to keep their respective teams running smoothly...



The first half cruised by quickly and during half time the kid and I found an opening in the bleachers, where sat ourselves right behind the band members. This gave us a good insight into the inner workings of the all-important, moral-boosting musical component of the game.



The band was pretty good and surprisingly well led by a couple of the students, rather than faculty. The cheerleaders worked perfectly in sync with whatever ditty they chose to put out.

The second half resumed, and the play got grittier...





The Spartans scored again to close the gap, but Longmeadow responded with another TD of their own. The Spartans suffered a couple of setbacks in the third, including a turnover in the Lancers' favor...



...and an important, close-but-failed fourth down conversion, that was close enough to bring out the chains.





Still the Spartans hung in there; playing great defence throughout the 4th until finally scoring again in with about 4 minutes remaining. Then they followed that score with a successful, crucial onside kick, keeping them alive as the Spartans' side of the field erupted in cheers.



But the high point of the game was to come in the final seconds.



The Spartans were now down by 2 points, and had worked their way to easy field goal range for an almost definite win. But then they were pushed back several yards on third down with a sack on a seemingly totally unnecessary pass play. This brought out the field goal kicker for a now questionably long 45 yarder...

Everyone was on their feet for this one.



This kick was a good one, straight on...



...but just missed.



The Lancers had won.





It was a hard-earned win, in a close game between two well-matched teams.



Good Thanksgiving stuff.

It was time to go home, and enjoy the rest of the holiday...