Scenic Sunday and Mellow Yellow Monday

A Tour of historic Amherst, Massachusetts

I'm linking to Brenda's Mellow Yellow Monday meme and linking my first entry to Aisha's Scenic Sunday meme, as well. Look for more information on these photo memes at the end of the post.

Downtown Amherst is a quintessential American college town. With one private college, Amherst College and a large state university, UMass Amherst, the downtown is bustling with students, professors, young families, artists and musicians. The atmosphere is busy but really friendly and peaceful. On this day, all types of people of all racial, religious and ethnic stripe, were going about their day. Some where relaxing and catching sun on the expansive town common, others sitting on the park benches that line North Pleasant Street.

Outside the center, lies the giant metropolis that is UMass, which is surrounded by rolling hills, farmland and woods. As I turned the corner from North Pleasant Street to Main, I stopped (finally) to take this photograph.

"First rate men and women will not and cannot work under conditions fixed by those who are afraid of ideas."

~American historian Henry Steele Commanger and life-long town resident of Amherst,
Massachusetts.

This ceramic plaque hands on the brick facade of a building at the top of Main Street, in Amherst. Would like to take a walk down Main Street with me on a sunny, spring day?

After the Chinese Restaurant, there is a little square with a fountain and stone benches. Adjacent to it is a small park with benches and space for residents to sit on the lawn and read or sunbathe and for children to run.

click on all photos to enlarge

Toward upper Main Street, another park: a sort of tribute to the American poets Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Here the poets sit among flowering trees and daffodil beds.
Just a little way down, there is the Emily Dickinson Homestead and Museum and The Evergreens, Emily's brother Austin's home. It looked like the photo above just last week when I visited but on this day...

the area was sectioned off with construction fencing and the front lawn was being dug up. I notice last week that many of the stately trees in front had been cut down. I'm not sure what's going on.

Here is the backyard of the Dickinson house, including a corner of the garden...

with these fantastically red tulips,
these beauties - are they a variety of tulip?

and of course Emily's garden would not be complete without a bumble bee or two.
click to enlarge