Bookstore confidential

One of the coolest things about small town western New England is the prevalence of used bookstores – they are everywhere. Every town seems to have one, usually housed in an old farmhouse, church building, or other historical structure.

This past weekend we ventured to the out-of-the-way village of Montague, MA to check out a place called The Bookmill (tag line: “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find”). It’s a very cool, picturesque used bookstore, accompanied by a roomy café and a restaurant, built in a mid-1800’s grist mill on the edge of the Sawmill River. We didn’t bring a camera, but I found a few pictures online and am posting them here to give you a sense of the place.

The book selection is reasonable and well laid out, but there’s something about the place/location (or maybe subliminal messages piped through the sound system) that encourages one to spend an afternoon browsing, wandering the grounds, watching the falls, and having coffee or perhaps a glass of wine or ale. If you want to write the next great American novel but have had trouble getting started, the café might be optimal place to shake off that writer’s block…

- jbc

Our new neighbors

We have a large pond in our backyard and we've been getting to know some of the residents. The largest inhabitants are two critters we eventually identified as muskrats. The first time we saw one we were standing on the bridge watching it swim towards us. I pointed to it, which startled it, and it quickly flipped over, making a large splash. Jay and I screeched and jumped towards each other--if there had been a chair on the dock we would have jumped up on it. We kept watching for it to come back, leaning forward on our toes in case it decided to leap out of the water and come at us like a Monty Python rabbit, but we didn't see it again that day. After diligently watching for a few weeks, we finally got a picture of one of them--we have named them Dwight and Angela, but can't yet tell them apart.



After getting a picture of Dwight (or Angela) we spotted a few frogs--the croaking keeps us up at night, but as you can see from the picture of Jay below, the pond is a peaceful little place, so we don't mind.

Big hitter, the Lama...

It has been a hopping busy week here in Western Mass. It’s finals week at Smith, and UMass will be wrapping up its school year next week, so Heidi is 'knee deep in the hoopla', as the song goes.

Another cause for excitement: Smith and Hampshire Colleges are currently hosting a visit by the Dalai Lama. Yep, spiritual and political leader of Tibet, Nobel Peace Prize winner, etc. Wow! He spoke to the gathered campus communities yesterday, and Heidi and I were both able to attend. The college’s indoor track facility was packed, and the speech was broadcast throughout the area. A thought-provoking, passionate, and often humorous speaker, who spoke in English but occasionally asked his translator for help with particular words, he has an infectious chuckle that had the whole audience smiling throughout. Very cool, indeed.

Sorry, we didn’t get pictures of him– tight security, no cameras allowed – but the campus itself was spruced up in anticipation of his visit with a large archway and Tibetan peace flags all over. He’s still around today, speaking with groups from the valley’s relatively sizeable Tibetan community.





Sitting out on the lawn at Smith, enjoying the great weather and Thai take-out (there is no Tibetan food to be had in the Valley!)

- jbc