Massachusetts in Winter

Visiting the girls at school in Massachusetts is always fun but this year's winter parents' weekend brought some special joys. Campus was sparkling with fresh snow under a brilliant sky.

Memorial Chapel at NMH School

On Saturday we watched Eva compete in a Nordic (skate style) ski race at Notchview in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.  Even in this, her first, season on the Nordic ski team she is a graceful and powerful skier.  With a little more experience I suspect she will learn how much harder she can push herself and how very good she can be.

Skiing at Notchview, Windsor, Massachusetts

Every knitter worth her needles is delighted when someone asks her to teach them to knit so you can imagine my pleasure when the girls asked me to teach them.  To be fair to the girls, they mostly figured it out themselves, relying on a little prior experience and on-line resources.  We stopped at Metaphor Yarns in Shelburne for supplies and were warmly greeted and eagerly assisted by the proprietor, Meta, who helped us choose some non-scratchy yarn for headbands.  As you can see, Isabel is just about finished with hers.

Isabel's headband

I just may have to start one of these myself.  It would be great for Austin's cool, but not cold, winters and a small enough project to carry around in my purse.

Back to New England

Last weekend I made another trip to New England to visit the girls at school.  It was still fall-like in Connecticut with lots of brilliantly colored trees, but bare trees and snow flurries made New Hampshire and Vermont feel like winter.

In need of new quilting needles, I stopped at Pickering Farm Quilt Shop, housed in a restored 18th century barn in Richmond, New Hampshire.

It is right next to a lovely little apple orchard.

Their wonderful collection of traditional and reproduction fabrics were just too temptingly displayed for me to resist picking out some things for my stash.

The girls had classes on Monday so I ventured down the road to Turners Falls where I caught a stunning sunrise at the Gill-Montague Bridge along the Connecticut River.  Turners Falls, developed as a planned industrial community in the 1800s, retains many of its original brick structures which can be seen by strolling through town and along the canal's pedestrian and bike path.

Below the Gill-Montague Bridge

In the afternoon, frustratingly side-lined by a nagging injury, I watched, rather than ran, the Bemis-Forslund Pie Race and had to enjoy the fresh-baked apple pie prizes vicariously.

The 4.3 mile cross-country race is claimed to be the oldest foot race in the country, older even than the Boston Marathon. This year's winner, Mohamed Hussein, bested the previous course record by nine seconds -- two days after having won the New England prep school cross-country championship in a record-setting time.  Clearly  he is a runner to watch. 

Mohamed Hussein

Just as the last runners were finishing, the previously solid grey sky gave way to a bit of sun and a dramatic sunset.  A nice way to end the day.

Memorial Chapel