Just time for a quick post today.  I thought I should summarize how I’ve done at NaBloPoMo. I technically did not meet the letter of the event rule – there was one day that I did not manage to post, as I tried to upload a photo from my phone and was unable to do … Read more

As I mentioned briefly in my first post this month, I went to Las Vegas for a convention for work (the same conference I went to in 2011).  The trip out there was uneventful, and I made it to the hotel fine. The hotel I and my co-workers were staying in this time was the … Read more

In mid-October, a new hiking trail on newly conserved land was opened here in Hadley.  The Trustees of Reservations, a private non-profit, purchased the property to protect it from development, and are now making it available for the public to enjoy.  Mount Warner (a reasonably-sized hill in the north part of Hadley) is the location … Read more

So our power was out last night, through most of the night, but it came back on just before 6:00am and stayed on.  This was fortunate, as there was a lot of cooking planned for today. The snow on the trees did look pretty in the sunlight this morning (click to enlarge): It appeared that … Read more

We’ve had a bit of a snowstorm come through today – the first snow to stick this season.  Here’s how things looked when we were starting to shovel: Things were otherwise fine until I was defrosting some soup for dinner (to feed us and guests who were about to arrive to stay a few days), … Read more

So I posted a few weeks back about the 2 flowers that bloomed this year on our night-blooming sirius plant.  It seems that it had not finished at that time with producing flowers.  While I was vacationing abroad in September, 6 more flowers began to grow on the same plant!  Now, none of those got … Read more

As I seem to do just about once a year, I went for a bike ride last Memorial Day weekend that included riding through the Quabbin Reservoir reservation. What I have not done every time is ride up the long hill to the observation tower there, but I did so this time. Here are views … Read more

Another post involving pictures from this past spring – this time from early May.  Around that time, a few bird nests got built on and around our front porch. There were some finches who initially were determined to build a nest inside a light fixture on the porch, but every time they tried to bring … Read more

In this case the still life was the bird.  Back in the late spring, I looked out on the deck one day and saw a mourning dove just hanging out.  It was, in fact, a juvenile dove (you can tell it’s not a full adult because it’s all gray, and not the slightly brown color … Read more

After flying from Heathrow to Keflavik, Iceland, I prepared for an overnight stay in the terminal, as my next flight was at 10:30am.  I sat down near a power outlet with my laptop, but though I could get my laptop on the airport wi-fi, I could not connect to the Internet.  For some reason, it … Read more