Maple Syrup Time

 Hollis, MA

Hollis, MA

Yesterday, Patrick and I visited Turtle Lane Maple Farm in North Andover.  http://www.turtlelanemaplefarm.com/  We found out there that maple syrup and honey were the only sweeteners for New Englanders for a long time.  People planted the sugar maples on their property and the first harvest of the year was sap.  Today I took a rain ride in Hollis and went down a road where one house was built there before Hacienda Esperanza was in business.  These old properties were lined with tapped sugar maples.  A little further down the road I found one property with these plastic jugs.  This weekend was the end of the sap days.  Until next year!

Trackside Grafitti

 Beverly, MA

and weathervanes spotted on the run from North Andover to Beverly

Beverly, MA

Danvers, MA

Stone wall at roadside

North Andover, MA

Nest in Branches

West Boxford, MA

Flag and Shadow

West Boxford, MA

Tee Shirts at Boston Airport

Boston, MA

Night Streets of Old San Juan

CICLOVIA

San Juan, PR

Sweet Open Road

Cieba, PR

Hacienda La Esperanza

Clouds Over Caribbean and Airplane Wing

En Route to San Juan, PR

Backyard Night Stick Trees

West Boxford, MA

Line of Cattails

West Boxford, MA

Backyard Trees and Dipper

West Boxford, MA

Church, Pink Sky, and Roundabout

North Andover, MA

Glimpse of a Swan

Groveland, MA

Bury me under a sugar maple
West Boxford, MA

Birch Bark, Patrick, and Mocha on Little Haystack

Franconia Notch, NH

 view from glissade down Little Haystack

I reunite with Patrick and Mocha after reaching summit of Little Haystack

Finished a phenomenal book today.  Rising From the Plains by John McPhee.  A real must read.

Listened to this compelling story of a man who witnessed the end of the world.   An amazing perspective of life on this planet.  http://themoth.org/posts/stories/fog-of-disbelief

Pipe Shadow

Pfizer Campus, Andover, MA

Trail to Hovey Pond

West Boxford, MA

Phillips Brooks Amid Bare Trees

North Andover, MA

This stately and groomed scene of the North Andover green was a solemn contrast to the snow/sand/salt splattered truck painted with five foot tall bottles of Modelo which lumbered past me through the roundabout (in front of this statue) en route to a bar somewhere.

http://www.crownimportsllc.com/ourbrands/modelo.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Brooks

Tree by small unnamed pond

North Andover, MA

Mocha and the Marsh

West Boxford, MA

Two Chairs

Epping, NH



Cuba RD
Newmarket, NH

Toy Horse Emerges From Snow

 Andover, MA

Kind of how I feel about my bike right now.

Wierd Backyard Trees

West Boxford, MA

Buds and Corporate Wall

Pfizer Campus, Andover, MA

DO NOT PASS BICYCLES NEXT 750 FT

Andover, MA

If you can get to Harvard Square in the next week and see Witness Uganda you must go.  This show is incredible!  http://americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/witness-uganda  I haven't been so excited about a work of art in years. 

Piece of Moon

West Boxford, MA

Cemetery Trees and Snow

Andover, MA

Polar Ginger Ale Burditt Hill Market

Clinton, MA

Nearing the end of the very hilly run through Clinton portion of Stu's 30K

The third garbage poem, Peel

Peel

Thaw.  Melt.
Dirty left behind things emerge from the drifts.
Roadside grime and gritty.
Once this peel was alive, held fruit.
So black it is recognizable only by shape.
The season of rot has arrived.

Last summer I came to this stretch of road.
Blacktop dizzyingly motionless
Grit ground through the pedal stroke.
Dusk seeped purple through the trees.
Came cool and humid.
Suddenly cold, blubber legs shuddered.
Bicycle and I moved like two mystics joined.
Breath, rotation.
We got so slow, my wheels laid down in the dirt and cried.

And what happens when there’s no going on?
Used up and drained out
Who’s to say a husk didn’t fall from my shoulders?
Unwrap its salty self from my ribs
And flutter
For a moment before nestling down in the grass
And waiting for winter.

White Ribbon on Wreath

West Boxford, MA

Three Goats

Newbury, MA