New England MY Way! (photo essay)

I decided to run away today.  I ran down the new deck staircase, drove along the double yellow lines, straight across town, into a small town where I once lived, which still preserves the very essence of what, to me, is still MY New England.  With the boom of technology and the ecomomy in the eighties, my own small town got eaten up alive!  Now there is a McDonald's and a Burger King, even a TJ Maxx, and in the opposite direction there is a Wal Mart. 

Enough about it.  I ran away today and started on Silly-Belly Road...at least that's what WE have always called it!

Lo and behold, there is now a working equestrian center, and this is a view of a rock quarry off in the distance.  Behind that fence you can see an Appaloosa grazing.

The trees here in Mass are changing, everything seems to be glowing, and on top of this hill I feel at peace.

If I turn 360 degrees around while on this hill, there are fields near and far, rolling, and clouds drifting, and horses peacefully grazing...even mountains enticing me from farther away!

Southward the hill rises even higher...

Soho was camera shy, said her owner, who is from the U.K.!  She said for some reason, each time a camera comes near Soho, her ears go down, and here you see her encouraging Soho to put those ears UP!  (Taken with permission).

Soho sounds pretty when she walks...I absorbed the sound of her well-kempt hooves on the pavement as I drove onward toward the downtown area...

This is a very old church or community building on the main drag;  there are various community events here, including a fun family Halloween party each year.

What this building actually IS, and what purpose it once served, continues to be a mystery to me, but it is positively charming.  Even when I lived in this town, when I asked any of the townies what it used to be they usually said, "You know, it was this, I THINK, once, and it has been so long now...I forget."  And so for now I am  happy with the enchantment...

I suppose I could have used this for the Capture This, "Windows" theme?  As I have said before I get in the van and go.  So until now there was no better window, to me, than the ones I have already posted to Capture This!

After I was through marveling over this funky building, I decided to take a drive down my old street, where I once lived on a seven acre farm property.  Long ago, myself and the home owner whose large home I shared had made a cedar-posted fence for our sheep and goats.  We had Shropshires and Angoras, and if I knew how to spell Togenburg goat I would spell it right, but I don't know how to spell it!

At the end of my old road, and along it's entire second half, there are apple orchards!  And boy, were the orchards busy today!

AW,  you all know how I feel about these old stone property lines!  I love 'em!  The sign says CORTLAND, with an arrow, to point the way for apple pickers to find the Cortland Apple trees.

I have a black and white photo of what a mob scene looks like at apple orchards at this time of the year, but there were too many faces of children to blend out, and I certainly did not have time to ask each and every parent if they minded if I USED the photo. ( I keep forgetting to tell you about my First Photography Nightmare Experience!) 

I do have THIS black and white image of the hayride!  I miss the horse hayrides...the REAL hayrides, with the old hay wagons and horses stopping here and there along the trail to well...I don't miss THAT part.  I just miss the traditional apple orchards.  It does seem that this orchard has done a great job of preserving their grounds and buildings, and so how can I complain?

I really just want a HUGE apple pie with nice vanilla ice cream melting on top.  I think I want that for my birthday.  I am an autumn baby!  Oh, and I cannot forget the cider, for goodness, sakes, the cider is so pure apple-licious!  YUM!

I don't know how well you can see the apples on these trees yet I assure you there ARE apples on these trees!

Thanks for stopping to check this out!  I also found a new cemetery, but did not have much time to do anything but admire the fields beyond it.   I will put those photos up separately in normal photo-publishing format and not in a photo essay.