It was not a day for taking pictures of birds. It has been pouring all day. Even at midday, it was dark outside.
I have taken so many pictures over the past month, there were more than enough pictures to make a post for today. On this dark and dreary day, it seemed a good time for bright birds. And it was almost warm enough for flowers, though the meteorologists assure us that cold weather is fast approaching.
This warm day is just that. A day of warm rain … on the winter solstice.
Squared Hairy WoodpeckerSquared two Hairy Woodpeckers and a WarblerSquare impressionist birds at the feeder – Two Warblers and a Chickadee
Time in my hand again, this time the gold watch. Also an Elgin, but not an Elgin-Waltham. I get confused about who owned which company and when. Companies bought each other, consolidated. It is very confusing.
Garry posted the last piece on Facebook in the hope of finding an actual hobbyist who might be able to repair one or both of the watches. This gold one probably needs a new spring, a new crystal, and a good cleanup. It used to run, but finally just died. Old age, I guess.
Gold Elgin. Small and light with engraving on the back.
I had two left pocket watches I kept of the many I used to own. This one is a solid gold Elgin. It’s much lighter and smaller than the silver one. It no longer runs and it’s very dirty. I’m sure the spring is gone, probably overwound once too often. Even when these watches were much newer, you had to be very careful how you handled them. They were, at their best, fragile.
Engraved gold pocket watch
The only caretakers left are hobbyists. The “pros” change batteries. The people who “take care of watches” know nothing about them. If it doesn’t have a battery, they are lost.
I love the feel of a pocket watch. This one is more delicate and might have been for a woman. It is also engraved.
Time in your hand? I used to collect old pocket watches, but over the years, I’ve given many of them away to people who could afford to repair them.
It’s very hard to find anyone who can fix a watch these days.
It seems like clockmakers have disappeared along with buggy whip manufacturers. And also, buggies.
Elgin (Waltham) silver railroad pocket watch
I have two left I just couldn’t let go. The one showing here is a solid silver Elgin-Waltham railroad watch. Big, silver, heavy, it actually runs … but it needs a new crystal and I have no idea where to find one. So if anyone just happens to know a hobby watchmaker, let me know.
The railroad man’s watch
The only caretakers left are hobbyists. The “pros” change batteries. The people who “take care of watches” know nothing about them. If it doesn’t have a battery, they are lost.
I love the feel of a big, heavy pocket watch. This one feels so delicious in my hand, I didn’t want to put it away. I polished it up and put it in a pouch to keep it clean.
The interval between the fullness of a bud and the opening of the blossom is a time for the season. The Christmas cactus continues to bloom and our time is cactus time!
As I watch the changing cactus, I realize that before there were clocks, there was the growth of the soil, the height of the corn, the flowing, and drying of waters. The movement of sun and moon as the seasons change.
This is all around us. Every breath we take is a tiny piece of our life.
All the old mills had clock towers and this is an old mill valley. You can’t always read the faces clearly. Some are too high up and sometimes, my eyes aren’t all that great.
I assume it was to remind people to show up to work on time. Or they just liked clocks.
None of the mills are mills anymore. Some are senior centers. A few are mini-shopping malls. The wooden ones have mostly burned to the ground. The prettier ones have become Senior Residences.
The brick one is now the Senior Center in Northbridge. It used to be a place for hobbyists to display their wares. There’s a dam directly behind it and adjacent to it is Whitin’s pond, where the swans live.
The stone one is a senior housing area and it is absolutely beautiful!
Before we had calendars, the moon was our calendar.
The month was new when the moon was new and was growing old when the moon began to wane. At month’s end, all was dark.
Full moons have names, too.
We know that the Harvest Moon comes at the time of the harvest and that the Wolf Moon follows a month (moonth) later. The moon makes our seas rise and fall — and makes us loony.
This was the full Harvest Moon on the first day of Autumn, September 2016.
Buy a new car? Get a free lunch. Miss Mendon is a restored 1950s Worcester dining car, so where else should it live except in the middle of Worcester County, Massachusetts?
It has become a part of the big collection of collectibles on the huge site of Imperial Automotive. We’ve bought our last three cars there and have never had any reason to not go back again.
They have a great selection of cars, new and used, but also, a highly entertaining shopping area. It includes antiques, and all kinds of shops, places to eat and a quality repair area.
Oh, and a really excellent car washing place. It’s so much better than any other one in our area, it’s a no-brainer where to take your car to be washed.
Lunch at Miss Mendon – and the day we got our new car – Photo: Garry ArmstrongPhoto: Garry Armstrong
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