Escape from Summer

Current temperature in downtown Washington - 93 degrees, feels like 102, according to weather.com.  Or 97 degrees per weather underground.  HATING IT.   So, pulling from the archives, celebrating December 2009 snowfall in Becket, MA, in the Berkshires.

flowers of massachusetts

Part two of my Northampton trip pics from a few weeks ago...Smith College, right in the heart of Northampton, has not only a beautiful botanical garden, but there's a peaceful second garden in a different corner of campus, the Capen Garden.  And caught a chipmunk right before he disappeared into a crack in a stone bench!

Sculpture by my friend's uncle, Elliot Offner

mountains of massachusetts

I got back recently from a week in northampton, massachusetts ("Where the coffee is strong and so are the women," according to the downtown parking garage sign (and where parking is 50 cents/hour)).  Did several short, but steep, hikes - one on Pine Cobble Mountain in Williamstown, near the northwest corner of the state; and another on Mount Norwottuck in Amherst.

The days were warm but the nights cooled off quite comfortably.  

View from Pine Cobble, in the Clarksburg State Forest: 

Hiking back down the Pine Cobble trail:

Hiking up the Robert Frost trail in the Mount Holyoke Range:

View of valley from atop Mount Norwottuck:

And heading back along the Metacomet Monadnock Trail: