Friday, October 30, 2009

Restoration Successfully Completed, the Paddock Street Bridge Re-opened to Great Fanfare - Fancy News.


Our very own Steel Truss Bridge, a rare parallelogram example at that, originally built by the Boston Bridge Works Company in the heady airs of 1929, has been smartly refurbished and now sports a fine glossy coat of black paint and a spanking-new road surface complete with reflective lines in a kind of "safety orange-y yellow", in the opinion of Bongo, who knows about these things.

"Any Color As Long As It Is Black!"

Contrary to the nay sayers, Springfield, Vermont's Paddock Street Bridge is a beauty and pays for itself everytime it presents it's crisp angles as a background to the changing seasons in the surrounding wood, reminding us of a time not too far away when trains roamed.


Springfield, Vermont, Official Home of the Simpsons, is proud of this industrial artifact, which has become a National Historic Landmark - another Jewel in the Crown of the Upper Valley.




Hey, wait a minute ... !

Monday, October 26, 2009

BOO! Hallowe'en Hits the Precision Valley - Springfield Vermont is Haunted!

Goblins are out for sure, summoned by the goulish lights of Pumpkins hollowed out and carved to send a message of fright and terror!


Vaya Miedo! Ha llegado una fiesta de gran terror!!! Hallowe'en en New England es lo mas espantoso posible!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Fancy News - Fancy Trees!

Autumn, even the Springfield, Vermont, Recycling Center, a fine place to visit any day, is especially resplendent in the warm light cast through the stand of Maples ruddy with Autumn's special blush.


And what a day it was today, the lush moist atmosphere was intoxicating the last days of full arborial color explosions (it rained all day), interesting to be sure, but, while waiting on a small task at the recycling center, one observed citizen after citizen exclaiming pleased surprise and great relief to hear from the very obliging attendent the fine and fancy news that henceforth the Recycle Center will finally accept a wider range of plastics, from every numbered type including 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - and yes - even 7!

The attendant was happy to recite the Good News over and over, luxuriating in the repetition of the passage that included comments to the effect that "And we don't sort it here anymore either, it goes to the vendor just like this!" As ever, all plastics brought for recycling must be rinsed and have no tops on, but this change is applauded loudly (in a Vermontlische way) by all. One citizen was clearly heard to exclaim "Hurray! No more sorting plastics and throwing away half of them anyway!! Yay!"

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Success in the hunt for the perfect small sprig of Winterberry.


The Winterberry makes it's appearance, and with it, memories of Winters Past come back to say hello.


We went to one of our favorite farms the other day, to Beth's to see the new flock of chooks, on Greely Road here in Springfield, Vermont, famous for beautiful eggs with the most vibrant and colorful yokes around.

Bongo also insisted on a new chicken drawing for the blackboard outside.



Happier chickens would be hard to find, and the day was glorious to boot, but what a pleasure to have a short conversation with a neighbor we hadn't met yet.


Bongo was most interested in the fruited branch ported about most tenderly by the newly met neighbor, and when asked, she identified it's place in her personal mythology, and it's gathering up as being part of the suite of things one did in the Late Fall when she and her sister were girls here abouts, long ago, in the Vermont we all seek to find on a walk in the woods in October.



Her father called this the Winter Berry. It is one of the things that the birds feed on if they winter over, a point of connection with nature and magic, and mighty delicious looking in the eyes of Bongo.