Ruby Tuesday – A Subdued Autumn. October 27, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: Autumn, Ruby Tuesday!
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This autumn has been uncharacteristically un-ruby. I mean, there are patches of reddishness around, but I’m not seeing as many sugar-maple-red landscapes, the ones which truly exemplify the potential Rubiliciousness of a Berkshires autumn day.
Nonetheless, it’s Tuesday, so here’s my best effort in this subdued season.
Powerlines in Shelburne, I think:
The town line’s a bit vague through there.
Yeah, the colors were a bit subdued, but the light was occasionally right enough to break out the box. Like at this old house by the dam at Puffer’s Pond, north of Amherst:
That oak branch is a structural miracle, much more so in person, where its sixty feet of wind-tossed weight has twisted and waved for a century.
Of course, there have been patches of brilliance, even Rubiliciousness, if I may be so bold. Distressed maples, like these flooded specimens in a swamp in Florida, gave it up to the Color Gods:
Even the ferns went a bit red as they prepared to call it a year and fold up shop.
And then there was the occasional stray throwback to the Days of Color, to my childhood, when every autumn struck me dumb with wonder. The skies would pile high with clouds while the farms below blazed in a seasonal Swan Song:
Seems like we used to have more of that.
But now it’s less boisterous, more measured. Here’s a view of the Connecticut river flowing southward between Sunderland on the left and Deerfield and Whately on the right, taken from the tower on Mount Sugarloaf:
The ruby-clad walker right of center doesn’t really show up at this resolution, but trust me he’s there.
Well that’s all I got for ruby, or at least reddish.
‘Till next week, I mean. 😉
Visit Mary over at Work of the Poet for more of this rubilicious meme!
Mount Greylock. October 21, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: Mount Greylock
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Several views, garnered over the last few days.
First, a view of our proudest peak in sunlight and shadow:
…and through a stand of autumn-ravaged birches:
Last Friday we had our first snow of the season, which disappeared from the roadways early on but lingered on high for long enough to snap a picture:
…And lastly, a cheery shot taken from Adams’ Bellevue Cemetery:
A salute to our highest peak!
A Retro Ruby Tuesday. October 20, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Politics and Society.Tags: Big Boy, Ruby Tuesday!
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When my brother and I were little kid my parents would occasionally take us out to eat on a Friday or Saturday night, and because we were a real 1960s American family, we went to one of those sit-down burger franchises, where the food was fried and, if you didn’t know any better, great for the price.
One of the family-friendly places we frequented (you know, vinyl bench seating so you can mop up after the little monsters leave,) was called Abdow’s Big Boy, with an extensive burger menu for Dad, though mine opted for their Fried Clams every time, some predictably bland white-fish dish like scrod for Mom, who wasn’t overly adventurous as eaters go, and an extensive kids’ menu so Mom and Dad could enjoy their meal without all the bitching.
And outside the place, on the Route 33 rotary in Chicopee, was a monument to Big Boy himself, a fiberglass likeness which I remember as being gigantically rotund, like a cautionary tale told in code not quite decipherable to a young child. Somehow the distended abdomen made me distrust Big Boy’s bright smile and Irish eyes.
I hadn’t seen Big Boy in decades, I don’t know how many.
Until just this past weekend. On the banks of a pond in way rural Shutesbury:
Poor Big Boy. He’s been holding that ridiculously large burger for what, maybe fifty years now (I said I was little!) If that were me, I’d be in tears, with the way my shoulders work.
Plus it’s gone a bit green, and I don’t think he’s gonna sell it.
Anyway, this may be my most incongruous Ruby Tuesday ever. I mean, what’s congruous about Big Boy on the bank of a backwoods pond?
Thanks to Mary over at Work of the Poet for this Ruby meme. 🙂
Rivers. October 19, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: fall foliage, rivers
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Rivers in autumn. Dark, mysterious, wreathed in color, heavy with the sweet scent of decay, with tannic swirls along their descending paths to the sea.
The Chickley in Charlemont:
…and farther up in Hawley, my former neighbor to the south:
The South River in my new home, Conway, sulking its way down valley on a dark day:
The Cold in Florida, shrouded in morning mist:
…And at their mouths, collecting them, shepherding them to the sea, the Connecticut, here looking down river into Hadley, where the college crew teams practice:
…and there looking up river into Montague, placid, swirling to a slow beat:
Water of life, rivers of time, inescapable and precious.
Long may they flow.
Phall Pholiage Photos (With A Hat-Tip To Phydo.) October 15, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: foliage, local towns
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Pardon, if you will, my Ph imbalance; it’s just one of the many imbalances I’m dealing with these days.
This year’s foliage season seems to have peaked while Susan and I were fully engaged in moving in together, and thus went largely undocumented. It’s a time thing, you know?
Anyway, I snapped an occasional picture, and since it’s been such a while since I blogged, they’ve piled up to the extent that I might reasonably be judged to have “been there,” when in fact I’ve been speeding past this phase of my life on the way to somewhere else.
So here they are, unceremoniously dumped before tomorrow’s forecast of snow renders them irrelevant.
A calm stretch of the Deerfield river, with the Bridge of Flowers in the distance:
Ferns gone by in the high country of Monroe:
A farmscape in nearby Cheshire, where affluent suburbia crowds a traditionally agricultural valley:
A late-greening field in the high hills of the intentionally misnamed Florida, which has a growing season which makes the blink of an eye look like stop-action photography:
The same farm on a different day, from a different angle:
Hey, I got a million of ’em. Guess I’ll have to come back soon to finish ( or at least further) this dump.
Later then,
Ralph
A Cameo Appearance. October 15, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Love and Death.Tags: cameo appearance, developing illnesses
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Back, though briefly. Still moving/settling in, and dealing with mounting health complications for both of us.
So there’s not much time to blog, and somewhat less to visit you at your respective homes – sorry. And really, I mean that. I miss you all. But given the present situation, blogging has become a “want to,” and as such it’s on the back burner.
I’ll be dumping some autumn photos shortly, on the eve of our first forecast snow (in the middle of October, fer Chrissake!)
Stay tuned, and humor us with prayers if they come naturally. Seems likely that we’re gonna need them.
Peace,
Ralph
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