Author: jmankowsky

Sunrise, Sunset

East Princeton, Massachusetts

Goldrush

There’s a golden world waiting on the MeadowTrail paths at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary.

Approach to the sheep and cow barns.

Bluebird boxes.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 8E9291FA-384D-4ED1-8EB7-69986FF709AA_1_105_c-1.jpeg — Wild Aster

An Apple A Day

It’s apple time in Central Massachusetts. There are over 40 orchards in this area to visit!

Bolton Orchards, Bolton, Massachusetts

Before…

Backyard Music

Last March, I traveled to Backyard Music in Willimantic, Connecticut, to pick up my first handmade folk harp.

(Short audio at the end.)

Willimantic is famous for its frogs, which greet you as you travel across the town’s main bridge.

True to its name, the *Backyard Music* Shop is behind the owner’s colorful Victorian home.

Owner and musical instrument maker, Dave Magnuson, has been creating harps, banjos and dulcimers here for 35 years.

Dave has a wide variety of unique instruments in his shop, both old and new.

An hourglass shaped dulcimer hangs beside a plainer trapezoidal dulcimer. On the far left, a banjo is fashioned from a wooden box.

Dozens of harp necks stand ready to have strings added. Note the circular banjo soundboxes on the far left.

Here’s my new harp. The wooden neck is strung with 22 strings, and the soundboard is made of heavy duty cardboard. I’ve named it Maeve, which means “she who rules”. In Irish Mythology Maeve is a queen.

All harpers learn “Scarborough Fair”. Here’s my early recording of that famous folksong from the Middle Ages. Maeve and I were getting to know each other at that time.

Bountiful Baldwin

Baldwin apples, like these in my yard, date back to Massachusetts in the 1700s.

Kaleidoscope Monarch

The butterfly bush in my yard has attracted the first Monarch Butterfly of the season.

Ten Generations

Members of the Pollard family have been working Ashland Farm since 1730.

Ashland Farms, New Braintree, Massachusetts

Painted Meadow

Photo edits including lower contrasts and higher exposures lend a more ethereal, painterly feeling to this “meadow ramble”.

Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, Princeton, Masachusetts

A Growing Community

My town’s garden allotments are in full swing, despite some difficult weather these past weeks.

Color That Lasts For Weeks

The easy care Tall Phlox in my yard often last until the frost.

Both Old and New

Traditional and modern farming methods blend together at Bemis Farms Nursery in Spencer, Massachusetts.

Sorghum?

This local field is usually planted in corn. However, this year I noticed that the plants are more pointy at the top with closely planted rows, and have copious weeds in between . An internet research leads me to believe it is sorghum, which is used as silage.

WordPress farmers, feel free to comment!