Antique Cars

I had some time on my hands on Saturday and decided to visit the Longfellow Grist Mill in Sudbury.
On my way there, I spotted some antique cars parked and decided to pull over.
The place was the Riley's Roast Beef in Nobscot (between Framingham and Sudbury).
ow Nobscot is a town I had never visited before so I could only thank my lucky stars that made me take the route to the grist Mill.

Some really old cars, lost of Fords Chevy's and some British cars too.













Also took the time for some self portraits in the reflections of shiny fenders





Trapped in a Chrome jungle

From there, I headed for yet another visit to the Grist Mills which looked quite different with lush green foliage, but the water itself was brownish.

Pittsfield HABF, Zip Rider and Thomson Falls

all in one day!
Was a nice Saturday, and having been forced to be waken up at 3am by the missus seemed worth it. I don't think I would have made it on my own :D
The plan was to see the morning 6am ascent of the Pittsfield Hot Air Balloon festival in New Hampshire.
The day was again gloomy and overcast and the ascent was delayed.
Finally, one after another the balloons started inflating and took to the skies.
A couple of them also did a "toe-dipping" in the river that flows next to it .. you have to see it to believe it .. the skill involved and its a joy to watch.
We even took a tethered Balloon ride and was a lot of fun. We could only imagine how the actual balloon ride would be.






An Hour Glass. This was the "toe-dipping" part of the balloon flight.
The pilot goes up and then comes down and skims on the surface of the water .. a joy to watch.






A local breakfast place, was charming with counter tabel tops and the Breakfast was perfect diner food .. greasy spoons ahoy!

Once we were done there, we decided to head up north toward Conway and beyond. The plan was for some water action at the Saco river but the overcast day changed our minds and we went on to the next item on the itinerary - Zip Rider at the Wildcat mountain. There was a long wait so we hiked a short distance to the promising Thomson Falls. The incessant rains meant that we would see the falls i all its glory, but the trail was soggy and mucky all the way.
The falls itself is gorgeous, the lower lip of the falls fans out and you can sit very close to the falls .. giving it an intimate feel.
More information on the falls here.
This site has good information about how to get there and tips for photographing the falls.





After heading back from the Falls, it was time for the Zip Rider.
The missus decided to give it a pass, having acute motion sickness, and decied to wit on my review.
I went up the ski chair lifts with a little trepidation, the cost of the Zip rider comes with the bonus of the chair lift which provides some amazing views of the surrounding hills, in particular Mt Washington.
The rider itself was a lot of fun and not at all scary .. will be going back there soon.


Some other knick-knack pics along the way ..

Pastoral Vermont

Pastoral Vermont - that tag fits perfectly.
Had the chance to visit the farms and countryside of Vermont a couple of weekends back as I visited the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Quechee.
I was able to dig up some information about the famous barns that are a must do for photographers.
What I saw certainly lived up to the hype and I most certainly am going back during fall to cover these places again and also cover some new barns and farms.

One of the most famous farms I visited was the Jenne Farms in Reading. It is supposed to be the most photographed barn in Vermont and has also featured in 2 movies, one of them being the famous Forrest Gump!
As mentioned in my prev blog it was overcast and raining at times which made for fog and great atmosphere.

Some pics from there.


Quechee Gorge was Gorge-ous :)
Its known as the Grand Canyon of Vermont and again the foggy atmosphere added so much to the ambiance.
Quechee Gorge and the surrounding area pics.

Quechee Hot Air Balloon festival

I had heard of Hot Air Balloon festivals (HABF) around the New England area and was curious to see how they would be.
After some searching on the net, I found a few promising links and marked my Calendar to remind me of the various events.
The first HABF of the season was in Quechee, Vermont.
I had seen some pics from there of the HABF as well as the Gorge-ous Quechee Gorge.
After making some tentative plans, it turned out that the same weekend some friends were heading out to Martha's Vineyard.
That posed a conundrum as I was not sure what to do.
After much dilly-dallying, decided it was Sat in MVY and Sunday in Quechee.
That didnt go according to plan and unfortunately or fortunately, we headed back from MVY by noon of Saturday.
Headed directly to Vermont and reached there early evening to find the place under dark clouds and intermittent rains.
That was a mixed blessing too.
Because of the weather conditions, it was not great for Ballooning, but it did mean that the already green hillside of Vermont was looking even more Lush and fog and mist enveloped the countryside making it magical.

Headed out early on Sunday morning to catch the Balloon festival and the weather delayed the start.
It finally took off by around 7-ish and it was a sight to behold.
Colorful balloons dotted the hillside and skies and brightened a gloomy morning.
Of course it was not ideal conditions for photography, but we had a great time.
The good thing about HABF is tha they get over pretty early in the day and you have the rest of the day to explore the surrounding regions, in my case, the beautiful farms of Vermont.
I was lucky to see the famous Jenne Farm, Cloudland farm, Lee Farms, Grandma Moses scene all under the magical veil of fog that enhanced the experience a 100 times.
Pics from there soon.

Coming back to HABF, if you liked what you saw in the pics and are curious to visit such an event, there are quite a few around here.
See below for the list that I know of.

1) July 11-13 - Hillsborough HABF, NH
2) July 11-13 - Stoweflake HABF, Stowe, NH
3) July 17-19 - Green River HABF, Greenfield, MA
4) Aug 1-3 - Pittsfield HABF, Pittsfield, NH
5) Aug 15-17 - Great Falls HABF, Great Falls, ME
6) Sept 18-21 - Adirondack HABF, Adirondack, NY

If you need more information, search for these items, else you can contact me and I could share the url's for these events.