14. Medway Cemetery Crawl

Week 14 10/26/15

What better way to recognize the week of Halloween and All Saints Day than with a cemetery crawl. As far as we are aware, Medway has three cemeteries. First visit was St. Josephs Cemetery on Oakland Street. The "population" of this cemetery has grown a lot since the time when I pushed Ben's stroller here every day. We saw many stones marking classmates, neighbors, teachers etc. The layout is regulated to a grid with named lanes. 

Next was the Oakland Cemetery which (unlike St. Joseph Cemetery) is not on Oakland Street. Paul had never walked around this one. It is wooded and has markers dating to the 1800's. The layout is circular. 

Here Paul looks at the marker of the final resting place for the mother of our Heather.

Finally we visited the Evergreen Cemetery where my father was recently laid to rest. Mom and I will soon pick out a headstone for the Hoags which will include nearby graves for my grandparents Alden and Helen.

Helen Garratt Hoag 1892 - 1972

Paul cleaning the marker for Alden Bomer Hoag 1897 - 1983

Here is the oldest part of the cemetery. Graves here are very well tended. Many have been restored. The oldest one we found this day was from the 1750's.

Here is the stone for Aaron Wight who build my parent's house in 1800.

On a previous visit I had found the grave for Thaddeus Lovering who built our house in 1780. This time, neither of us could spot it, even though I had a good idea of where it was. It was late in the day and shadows made it hard to read the stones.

The next day, I returned to Evergreen Cemetery and found Thaddeus Lovering right away! Here is is stone.

His wife was Rachel.

13. Atwood heritage day

Week 13 10/16/15

We wanted to get together with Paul's brother Charlie, and what better spot then Erving MA at their childhood summer stomping grounds. We started with breakfast and a planning session at the Rail Yard Diner. Then we left one car at the top of the trail and drove to our starting point at the low elevation end.

A portion of our hike coincided with the Metacomet Monadnock trail - up to a ridge over Millers River.

The weather was nice, cool and breezy with good visibility. Here is a pretty waterfall near the start of our trip. This is also near the point where we took a wrong turn and had to retrace our steps. Even though these guys have been here many times, they claim the trails might be different now. Charlie also says he prefers feeling a bit lost. Uh huh. 

We skipped the turnoff to Hermit Cave. Why are landmarks named after hermits called "hermit" rather than the person's name? Maybe it sounds more romantic.

Here are they guys having lunch at the overlook. Paul and I had a modified Dave Hoag hiking meal (crackers, cheddar, sardines, and apple). No sardines for me though. Dad would have had Triskets and Crackerbarrel cheese instead of stoned wheat thins, an orange rather than an apple and finally a chocolate bar. Always. And part of the entertainment is to peel the orange with only one piece if possible.

Charlie's packed lunch was Chinese takeout!

This spot was a bit precarious over the river, as we looked for somewhere to take a group photo with the timer.

And a group photo including the photographer. We look cold. If anyone finds these red knit gloves, send them to me.

We recovered our car across the street from the Atwood/Wait family house where summer vacations were spent. No photo of the house here, which is now in the hands of strangers. Paul and Charlie remember no electricity or plumbing, but lots of things to do and freedom to explore.

Some of the Wait cousins own the back fields. Here is a house that Charlie says was built by their cousins for when they come to the area. The RV must belong to one of them also. Nobody was around, though. This is on the edge of a beautiful field surrounded by forest.

12. Boston Museum of Science

Week 12 10/15/15

We seem to be alternating between outdoor and "civilized" outings. 

Neither of us had been to this museum in many years so it was time for a trip. We found most of the exhibits geared toward schoolchildren - lots of buttons to push, computer screens and cards to flip. We skipped many of them. The text and lectures seemed very simplified in most cases. During one animal show (a Screaming Hairy Armadillo) which took place after the kids left on their buses, the demonstrator apologized for her talk, saying it was prepared for a child audience. I'm sure many children get a lot out of it, but it was sad to see others just pushing buttons and not taking any interest in the content, or else interacting with their cell phones.  

We enjoyed the new Human Life exhibit (but at the same time, kind of missed the old one) and the exhibit of the museum's own history which included some cases that were of the "cabinet of curiosity" type - crowded with interesting juxtapositions that leave one with unanswered questions.

Here I am with one of the old dioramas we both remembered from so long ago. We appreciated the quality of the curved murals in the backgrounds. This one is sort of like our back yard, complete with groundhogs.

11. Perfect fall day

Week 11 10/7/15

Paul and I visited several spots on this day so it took a while to get the facts together. Here we parked at a small Sudbury Valley Trustees reservation called Black Cat farm and then wandered into Wayland's Sedge Meadow conservation restriction land. It's hard to tell in this small photo, but he is admiring a crabapple tree.

Next was Walbach farm which is home base for Sudbury Valley Trustees. They have a nice house which we didn't enter, and a program of events each season. We saw several sycamore trees in the woods, but not in the photos below. We liked the trails.

Here we have a photo of one of several plantings of sweet fern (we think) at the summit of Round Hill, another Sudbury Valley Trustees spot. There is a community garden adjacent. 

We ate our picnic at Great Woods National Wildlife Refuge. We'll come back with a canoe another day, which is a trip Paul took with his brother Phil several years ago. 

Final stop was Brue's woods (SVT), a small reservation which is apparently used frequently by the adjacent public school. No photo here.

10. The Big E - Cream puff in the rain

Week 10 9/30/15

Eastern States Exposition

Neither of us had ever seen the Big E. I wanted to go to an agricultural fair this fall so we opted for the biggest one around. Some of the animals were on hand - llamas, alpacas and sheep. I guess the horses and pigs arrive later. Here are a few healthy-looking llamas. We watched some of their friends in the competition ring.

Not to be outdone -- the vegetable kingdom. Paul poses with some prizewinning squash.

We enjoyed both the New England states displays and the historic buildings at Storrowtown Village. The village buildings were mostly in the era of our house, and one farmhouse was very close in many ways. Someone suggested coming back to Storrowtown Village in early December for a holiday display.

The "signature treat" of this fair is cream puffs. We decided to skip the deep fried cheesecake.