The Strolling of the Heifers

Linking to My World and Shadow Shots

My last post Homelessness in the U.S, is a serious and sober one. Let's have some fun now, shall we?  :-)

 Last Saturday, The Future Mr. Pagan Sphinx and I awoke early to beautiful morning of sun and a fresh spring breeze. A perfect day to take in the 10th annual Strolling of the Heifers parade (and Slow Living Summit) in nearby Brattleboro, Vermont. It was to be our first time, as previous years we've missed it for one reason or another.

The Strolling of the Heifers celebrates New England small farm tradition, new-age organic farming and, as my friend Susan put it, generous doses of fun and funk! Enjoy!

There is a tradition in Vermont that if you see a cow in the middle of the road, go ahead and milk it. Just make sure you leave enough milk for the next guy.  ;-)

The sign on the back of the cart reads save gas, ride an ass!  :-)

 The first crop of local strawberries is on its way to the markets this week!

Harlow's farm and sugarhouse is a business that was always generous to the kids at my former Vermont school; giving us free tours and great deals on fruit to take home.

 And proud.

 I thought this girl was especially sweet. The heifer, I mean!

 The Dairy Fairy organizes her ring!

Not just for heifers:

Finally, for you foreigners who assume that all Americans are obese, a skinny cow!  ;-)

Blogging 'Round the Globe (Linking to SkyWatch)

An amazing, almost miraculous thing happened around here today. The sun came out for the first time in six days of rain.

Linking to SkyWatch

Electric Kool-Aid

I don't know about you, but I live in a really dynamic community of intellectuals, hippies, queers and weirdos.  Could be the reason that I feel so much at home in The Happy Valley. Because by nature I am a bit shy, I love to be in and among the bands of off-beats. If I'm going to be a silver-haired, lefty nerd with a married gay daughter, I'd rather blend in than stand out. If you know what I mean.  ;-)

All of this to say that occasionally I'd like to post a photo of my beloved Happy Valley that alludes to that free spirit of the Western Massachusetts that I love so much. As my mind meanders around all sorts of connections that I have yet to put into words, I want to call this feature Electric Kool-Aid (Acid Test).
Okay, so we're not quite San Francisco and the 60's are over, but we've created our own brand of pranksters. It works for me.

 In the North Quabin region of Franklin County, there is an annual Fall event that pays homage to garlic, sustainable farming and all-around wackiness - The North Quabin Garlic and Arts Festival.  Rarely timely with my news (cuz hell, I don't have to be if I don't wanna), I'm sharing with you a sampling of photos from last Fall's festival. I hope you enjoy it.

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

 We arrived in the grassy parking lot to the strains of The Beatles Drive My Car. As we were walking to queue up for the shuttle ride up to the festival, we saw that the music was blaring from this funky truck and that a peculiar yellow man was playing to the beat with a sort of...mobile?

Don't ask because I have no idea what any of it meant. Call it Burning Man, Western Massachusetts style! ;-)

 Peace, Love and Understanding,

Pagan Sphinx

Linking to :

Weekend Reflections 
Shadow Shot Sunday
That's My World

Picture for One Moment

We got up to High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary on Saturday and as the windchill must have been in the single digits, we passed on a hike and had pancakes and delicious local maple syrup at Davenport's Maple Farm in Shelburne, Massachusetts.

 In addition to maple sugaring, Davenport's Farm raises cows. There were two calves in pens for the kids to pet. Being kids at heart, we couldn't resist them. This photo is of the shier, more skittish one

Below is The Future Mr. Pagan Sphinx petting the more friendly calf, whose look of ecstasy is priceless!  :-)

Linking to Scenic Sunday and That's My World!

Pagan Sphinx Photo 2011 © All Rights Reserved

Picture for One Moment

Saturday was brisk and windy but beautifully sunny. The-future-Mr.-Pagan-Sphinx (that's a nod to the style of hyphening one's name with one's spouse, era ;-) and I decided we had to go to the bulb show at Smith College Botanical Garden, as it was the last weekend before they closed up the bulb display for the season. We figured the last day would be less crowded but we were wrong. The place was busier than I've ever seen it on any weekend I attended this event in the past. The botanical garden is a small jewel among the laid-back, but busy pace of Northampton. And the view from of the lake from the knoll the greenhouse sits upon, is western Mass at its relaxed best. If you live in western Mass and you don't love Northampton, you have no heart!  :-D

Because it was so crowded, it was hard to take decent photos, let alone get any stand-outs. This is my humble photo offering from the bulb show, which I hope you will enjoy. For some photos of this bulb show that will really knock your socks off, go visit my dear friend The Cunning Runt at Little Bang Theory.  (for those of you who don't know him, CR is The Girls' Dad and my western Massachusetts neighbor to the west, not to mention my blog buddy.  (hi, guy).    :-)  

 

The Girls (and then there are three more girls, besides  ;)

As I look out the window my desk faces at home, a mixture of snow and freezing rain is turning to just rain. It's been coming down since around 9:30 this morning. I'm glad I had a chance to get some color and warmth on Saturday at Smith.  On this first day of the vernal equinox, I wish you....well...better weather than what we're getting around here today! But also love, peace and groovy things.

Pagan Sphinx

Linking to That's My World Tuesday

(fantastic folks from around the world gather in these places virtually to celebrate the beauty and interest that surround us through photos and other creative media)

Picture for One Moment

Taken through the window with the zoom  less than an hour ago. I had a strange dream the night before last that involved an owl in flight (and I did see this one take flight toward the river), a very large horse and a tiger. Is anyone into dream interpretation? Leave your email address in the comment and I won't publish it. It would be cool to describe that dream in as much detail as I can recall, to someone interesting interested in listening to it.

 Pagan Sphinx Photo 2011 © All Rights Reserved

Happy Birthday John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American painter, and a leading portrait painter of his era.

One of my favorite American painters, only two of the selections featured below are my own photos.The others are culled from various sources on the 'net and represent paintings I've actually seen up-close and personal at their respective permanent museums.  I felt really lucky when I realized this!  :-)

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

  1887

 Tate Britain

Fumee d'ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris) 

1880

 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA

 Madame X

(Virginie Avegno Gautreau)

1884

 The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

1882

 Boston Museum of Fine Arts

 Pagan Sphinx Photo 2010 © All Rights Reserved

Note:The large, grand vases portrayed in the painting above are also displayed in the same room and I was able to photograph them. I also photographed the painting below. Unlike my attempts to photograph the portrait of the two little girls playing, this one below didn't give me nearly as much trouble.

Pagan Sphinx Photo 2010 © All Rights Reserved

 Mrs. Fiske Warren and her daughter Rachel

1903

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Picture for One Moment - Sky Watch - Blogging 'Round the Globe

Hello, Welcome!  In the new decade, I'm committed  to being...how shall we say...hospitable?    hehe. Not an easy task for a sphinx.  ;-)

Picture for one Moment and Blogging 'Round the Globe are my own little titles to head-up things I post, and not to be confused with the massive appeal of SkyWatch, which is truly global. Go take a look and hang on to your berets because you are in for a whirlwind tour of international skies!

The photo below is a result of a solo photo excursion I took last Sunday - a drive, with several stops. My timing was good for a bit of a sunset. Nothing dramatic in terms of a sunset, but when you add Mount Sugarloaf, it's a pretty impressive view. 

I touched the photo up a bit but only to see if I could capture it a bit more as I recall seeing it. Or maybe it was just my rose-colored glasses.  ;-)

Pagan Sphinx Photo 2011 © All Rights Reserved

 This is South Sugarloaf (The original Native American name for the mountain is Wequamps (or Wequomps)

Here is a bit of information about Mt. Sugarload Reservation:

Mt. Sugarloaf offers a commanding view of the Connecticut River, the Pioneer Valley, and the Pelham and Berkshire Hills. Consisting of two peaks, North and South Sugarloaf, the Reservation offers picnicking, scenic viewing and hiking. An auto road winds to the summit, making South Sugarloaf Mountain accessible by private automobiles. Available on the summit is a pavilion for scenic viewing and picnicking.

Mt. Sugarloaf, composed of a prominent sandstone rock called Sugarloaf Arkose, is a fine example of the Connecticut Valley's geological history. From its summit can be seen some of the best scenic views of the broad agricultural landscape of the Connecticut River Valley. More here.

And a song for you, too.  A much listened-to piece of angst from my youth. If you've lived a little, you know how that goes, right?   ;-)

SkyWatch Friday

Linking to a lot of Photo Memes

Our end-of-the-year trip to Mass MoCA

Up the Mohawk Trail from Greenfield up through the foothills over the Berkshires and into the town of North Adams, home of the Mass MoCA - the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Above is the Sign, Signs contribution

In the Building 5 Gallery:

Above images:

Katharina Grosse: One Floor Up More Highly

 Tobias Putrih

Re-Projection:  Hoosac

2010

And coming on January 4, a new photo meme called Signs Signs, hosted by Lesley, to which I will be linking. 

 Alyson Shotz

The Geometry of Light

2010

What is the red thing behind the door in the photo above, you ask?

Orly Genger (b. 1979, New York)

Big Boss, 2009–2010
Rope, paint

Created with 100 miles of knotted rope Orly Genger’s installation commands the space
with a towering wall that bursts through the architecture and falls into a riotous spill
of material. Forcing viewers to rethink their path, the distinct elements articulate
the structural potential and strength of the rope as well as its softer side. Genger’s
work often grapples with a male-dominated history of sculpture and with the legacy
of artists such as Tony Smith and Richard Serra. Hand-working her industrial material
in an adapted crochet stitch, Genger introduces a traditionally female-identified
craft process into an artistic idiom associated with a certain muscular bravado. Yet
Genger’s own process — which has her wrestling with large amounts of the heavy
material — is overtly physical. (Images of body-builders are pinned to Genger’s studio
wall). The “Big Boss” of the title might refer to the labor the rope demands of Genger,
or perhaps to her mastery over the material. Painting the rope a vivid red, the artist
matches the material’s presence with an equally forceful color.

Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen

(b. 1979, Portland, Maine, and b. 1976, Little Falls, Minnesota)
White Stag

2009–2010

Paper, wood

Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen have been working with paper since their
first collaboration in 2005. The versatility of the material — which can be flat or
volumetric, smooth or textured, buoyant or heavy — allow the artists a wide range of
possibilities for their large-scale installations which they describe as “investigations
of the uncertain territory between imagined and physical space.” At MASS MoCA the
duo has responded to the museum’s industrial, brick architecture with its imagined
opposite: a fantastical, old growth forest fashioned from twisted, crumpled, and
draped rolls of paper. The ghostly image of the decaying natural landscape, however,
mirrors in some way the fading industrial landscape embodied by the museum’s
repurposed factory spaces. Spanning two floors, the installation appears to grow from
one gallery to the next, joining the separate spaces and providing viewers a different
perspective on the labyrinthine building.

My World

Weekend Reflections

Ruby Tuesday

Signs Signs

Window Views and Doors