Out in the middle of seemingly nowhere in rural Vermont, I thought this was farm equipment.
Yes, you expect a range of ethnic foods in any big city, and many smaller ones, including the place I call home, now feature a range of international dining options. But when you’re driving mile after mile inhabited mostly by cows, you’re surprised to find anywhere to eat, apart from the occasional convenience store gas station. You know, hot dogs accompanied by potato chips and soda.
This, though, was enough to make me swing around for a second look. As it turned out, they weren’t serving breakfast.
Yes, this is what it turned out to be — a taco stand! My, how America’s mainstream tastes have changed!
The deck of the Chatham Fish Pier is ideal for viewing gray seals in motion.
The town at the elbow of Cape Cod also includes Monomoy Island, an 8-mile-long sand spit that is home to thousands of the seals, as well as great white sharks feeding on them in recent years.
Seeing four at once is common here. Another had just dived where the gulls now flock.
It would be easy to pass by this stonework at the edge of Boston Common. A corner of the State House appears at upper left.
The names of American Civil War heroes are engraved here. The other side, at street level, is Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ extraordinary memorial to their courage.
The rear of the stone structure supporting the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw Memorial and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment is worth a close examination in its own right. Engraved here are the names of the soldiers, most of them from humble beginnings and circumstances, who would otherwise be lost to history if not for their heroic service and sacrifice.
Boston is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.
Just imagine the figures who have spoken here through the course of American history.
Maybe it’s all a reflection of classic proportions, but so much in Peter Faneuil’s historic town hall and marketplace simply feels right ever since it was erected in 1742 and enlarged in 1805 under Charles Bulfinch’s masterful design.
Boston is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.
Novelist Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) was born in this 1774 house owned by her grandparents, which she would inherit from them. The site, sitting in the heart of South Berwick, Maine, just a few miles from us, is now owned by Historic New England and open to the public.
Like many New England houses, additions have kept growing to the original structure.
Not all of New England’s water-powered mills sat along major rivers. This woolen mill in North Berwick, Maine, was founded by Quaker William Hill, beginning in 1862, and made blankets for Union soldiers. The Great Works River itself had been named by earlier Quakers.
The mill has been renovated into residences and offices.
My fondness for old mills, by the way, did prompt a novel, Big Inca.
I didn’t ask the name of the reenactor, lower right. He was proud of his unit, and now stands representing all of them.
Public sculpture typically celebrates famed men or mythological figures, but the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw Memorial and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, which sits across from the State House, is in a league of its own.
Within its unified design, the focus turns to each of the enlisted black soldiers as they resolutely march to battle to free slaves. Every face is unique, sympathetic, tragic, and each body moves with muscle, even anger and justice. If August Saint-Gaudens had created no other work, this masterpiece would have sealed his reputation.
Each face is unique and distinctive.
The urgency and motion compressed into the relatively narrow sculpture is amazing. By the way, as the reenactor pointed out, the artist knew he was placing the canteens on the wrong side of the soldiers. It was a matter of artistic license.
Boston is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.
In the heart of downtown …The Cocheco Millworks stretch through downtown Dover.The Washington Mill complex picks up on the other side of the Cocheco River.
Hard as it is to imagine, Dover once had twice as many mills along the river, plus tanneries and other supporting enterprises.
My fondness for old mills, by the way, did prompt a novel, Big Inca.
