Pictorial Parade

From Around the Valley

I'm been busy the last few days, but even if I can't write my camera is always close at hand. Here's a potpourri of stuff:

The Amherst Resevoir this afternoon.



Hampshire College barncat.



This waterfall is located on the townline between Montague and Sunderland.



The reason I was in Montague was to visit the Bookmill.



Located as part of the Bookmill complex is a branch of Northampton's Turn It Up records.



The restoration of the front of Northampton's Academy of Music appears to be complete. Looking good!



Pumpkins for sale at Northampton's Stop and Shop.



Pumpkins for sale at Northampton's Serios. That picture of a woman in the window is someone (the owner?) who I remember used to always sit in front of Serios and when she died they put her picture in the entrance so that she could continue sitting there posthumously.



The pond in the back of Springfield's Saint Michael's Cemetery showing the old Picknelly Estate, which is now a daycare center for MassMutual.



An entrance to a crypt in Saint Michael's.



The playground of Springfield's World Famous Thomas M. Balliet Elementary School. At least now it has grass, when I was a kid it was a rocky dustbowl.



A time capsule now abandoned by the closing of the original Balliet.



Balliet totem of a sort that was put up at schools all over the city in the 80's. I wonder which politician's relative in the cement business cashed in on making those worthless things.



Look at how badly designed this strip mall on Boston Road in Springfield is from an environmental perspective. I can remember when I was a kid how it was all woods here before they cut down all the trees to put in a Topps Department Store and a Shoprite. It is set so far back from the road that there's all this dead space where no one parks. Those trees died for nothing.



The environmental crimes against Springfield are surpassed only by the political ones.

Today's Video

Goldwater is a new Northampton band. The name may refer to a famous Arizona Senator, or some kind of musical alchemy or maybe they just call themselves that because every band needs a name. Here's Goldwater playing in Hamp last weekend.