The river down the road – Photo: Garry Armstrong
Photo: Garry Armstrong
We’ve finally got some color in the trees, but … well … so far, no great shakes. Maybe this weekend? That’s what the weather people are saying. But really, we are guessing. The problem is that it is hot again and this very warm weather does not encourage the trees to fire up.
Photo: Marilyn Armstrong
Photo: Marilyn Armstrong
Instead of going where we usually go — one of the dams or parks nearby — we drove around the block. I sometimes forget there’s a river a few acres behind our house. It’s a tributary, but I don’t know its name.
Maple tree by the picture window – Photo: Marilyn Armstrong
The river runs along the road — whatever its name is — which you could get to faster (in theory) by walking from our house straight through the woods. The odds favor anyone trying to walk through the woods breaking an ankle in the process, so we take the longer route. We drive.
Photo: Marilyn Armstrong
Cornfield – Photo: Garry Armstrong
I am not also not sure we would find our way through the woods. It is surprisingly easy to get lost there. I used to walk there in the early spring, before the leaves came out because I could see the pointy white peak of my tepee from pretty far away. It was up on the ridge above the woods, so it was easy to see.
Marilyn and friendly cow – Photo: Garry Armstrong
Shooting the river – Photo: Marilyn Armstrong
Garry took my camera instead of his. Which isn’t a problem since they are essentially the same, but mine has a fixed focal length lens on it most of the time. He couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t “telephoto.” Until he realized it wasn’t his camera.
I should put labels on things.
Photo: Garry Armstrong
We took a lot of pictures and I haven’t even half processed them. I’m hoping we get better foliage shots in the weeks to come, but these are pretty if unspectacular.
Photo: Marilyn Armstrong
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Categories: #animals, #Photography, Autumn, Blackstone Valley, farm, New England
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Finally I see you have autumn! love the maple- and love the farm photos. Beautiful!
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So there we were in the car, pulling out of the driveway, and Garry says: “So. Where d’you want to go?”
And I say: “No idea.”
And HE says: “Well, left or right? I need a direction.”
So I say, “Okay, let’s go visit the farm. You know, make a right on Chestnut?”
“You mean at the firehouse.”
“Uh huh.”
“Then keep driving until you see the farm and make a right. ”
“Right.”
So we went to the farm and it was very pretty 😀 The cows are friendly and there’s a stream and the reservoir and trees. I’ve got about 200 more pictures, too.
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Nothing like a farm for a photo shoot!!! and so lucky to live so close to one 🙂
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Surprisingly, the name is Bacon Brook!
I’da thought Beef Brook would have been more apt.? 😉
Looks lovely and like you had a great day – sometimes the best places are those close to home!
Who needs the rest of the world and all it’s disasters when you have all that to enjoy? 😉
love
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Actually I think it was the Ironstone Reservoir and its outlet because that’s where the farm is. Bacon Brook — and I have never heard ANYONE call it that even though that’s what it says on the map — is down towards the golf course. I only know this because of the pictures we took and the area looks much more like a pond (or in this case, reservoir) than a river or brook. It’s pretty wide there and there’s a place to swim with a pontoon and everything, so the water has to be pretty clean because they won’t let you swim most places.
There is a section that everyone calls Aldrich Creek and I think that’s what is apparently named Bacon Brook. It run more or less along Aldrich all the way down into Rhode Island.
Good navigating!
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Thank you! – I guess that’s what i get for believing what i read on Google! 😉
Actually – i did see a separate part called Aldrich Brook that ends just N of Aldrich Road. It joined with Card Machine Brook(??) and became Bacon on down to the Blackstone, doesn’t cross the border into R I though? – or so Google would have one believe! 😉
The locals know best! 😉
love
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Those names are hilarious. Maybe someone gave them those names, but no one has ever used them. Everyone knows the Blackstone and the Mumford (that’s the big one in Uxbridge), and some of us know Aldrich (because it runs along our road) … but those others? Someone made them up for Google. I am SURE there is NO Card Machine Brook anywhere in the valley. They are just pulling your leg. There is a Chocolog Stream or Brook too. If you look, we are networked with rivers, streams, brooks, reservoirs, and ponds. Literally everywhere (definition of a water shed!). Many of them don’t have a name. They are just the stream that connects that pond to the big river. We also have (unmentioned) a good many tiny to large canals running every which way … all of which used to service factories and mills that have been gone 100 years or more. Many of them aren’t even near a road, at least not a paved one. Maybe there were paved roads there … once … but not in a long, long time.
You know, what looks like “card machine” brook might just be noting that there is an ATM over there.
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It might not be all that far fetched!? Mills used to have machines that were controlled by punched cards. Jacquard invented his loom back in 1804 that used them first i think?
Maybe there was such a machine in your neck of the woods (watershed) once? 🙂
love
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Possible, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t name a waterway after it. All our waterways are named after the Indians we killed off, or mill owners. All the roads are named either after mill owners, or a church. Mostly, mill owners. Oh, and the Taft family — one of them was a U.S. President — Uxbridge’s claim to fame. And we don’t have a lot of roads, either. All the towns are either named after something from nature … or a mill owner.
And I forgot — some towns are named “mill” something. Millville, Milton, Millis, Milford. Whitinsville (Whitins family). Aldrich street (Aldrich family). Taft school (obviously Taft). Etc. There were so many mills in this valley, they were literally wall to wall in the 1800s. It is hard to imagine how industrialized this place was in the mid to late 1800s right up through the 19 teens.
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I’d heard of Taft! but did not know much about him or that he was a ‘local’ 😉 I just read a quote of his that seems apt:
We are all imperfect – we cannot expect perfect government.
I guess no-one actually expects their government to be perfect – we just think their should be a heck of a lot less corruption and partisan stupidity. personally i think government would be better served with each side trying to work with the other for the betterment of the nation than backstabbing and blaming the other for their ‘negative’ stance.
Of course, with humpty trumpty all bets are off.
love.
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I’m pretty sure EVERYONE agrees with you. Here. Everywhere. It doesn’t work that way, but it is supposed to.
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I swear they are just making up those names!
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I think Garry and I have a thing about “cows” I’ll send you some cow pics later.
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These were wonderfully friendly cows. I wished I’d had something for them to munch on.
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They seemed to have enough already – you want them to get fat or sumfink? 😉
love
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They LOVE apples.
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I think I’ve died and gone to heaven! Your photography is astounding, brilliant, and oh so beautiful! OMG I would have enjoyed being there in person to see each of these. I can’t thank you enough for sharing them with all of us. Totally completely enjoyed!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you. It is funny how rarely we go down that road. Maybe because it is SO close to home. It is literally around the block. And it is an amazing farm. If you had to design a perfect farm, this would be it.
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Your “middle of nowhere” environment is very pretty — some fall color, a river, a cornfield — what more could you want!
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This is a pretty place to live. Now that the mills and factories are gone and the river is not a cesspool of toxins. If only the rest of the world were as pretty!
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My eyes are waking up a little slowly this week — now they’re awake, I especially LOVE the first shot of the river with all the various reflections, and the maple tree outside your window..
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Garry got some amazing shots this week! It probably helped that he was using my camera. The lens on that camera is much better than average.
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I love that first shot, with the various reflections and the leaves sitting on the clear, still water — not a combination one sees often, especially in a photo!
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It’s coming gradually. Don’t know if we’ll get the intense colours this year.
Leslie
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I don’t think so. It’s too warm. It was in the mid 80s yesterday and will be today, too. Cool at night at least and we are getting some color now. Just not a really great autumn this year.
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I think that’s they way it’s going to be here too, Marilyn.
Leslie
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Too warm. We haven’t had that freezing snap at night. It’s lovely out there, but not spectacular. Our woods is all bright yellow and looks like the trees have interior lights. Very pretty to look at.
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There is a change taking place but not as dynamic as some years.
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The same here with Autumn, but now it is making a quick change as the weather is getting colder and the leaves are falling thick and fast. You have docile cows, I wouldn’t risk touching ours on the head, they can get irritated.
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These cows are treated like pets. They graze in the field by the river and people herd them in and out and milk them by hand. They have a stream and when it’s hot, they wade in the water. They are incredibly friendly. And they have horns. They don’t remove them, but they clip them … like fingernails. Oh, and the babies have a big pen and people are invited in to pet them. It’s an absolutely gorgeous farm, too.
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Ma & Pa Armstrong — quality time with their “moo” kids.
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That was one very friendly cow 🙂 AND he didn’t bark at me.
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It got very warm again yesterday and today. Almost 80 — very hot for October. It’s still cool at night, but it is very summery. I think this is just not going to be one of our “great” autumns. We’ll have something, but not what we hoped for.
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