Taunton Green 2012

Posted on December 14, 2012December 14, 2012 by Dusty Roads

I said I’d get there. It was just a matter of time. The weather hasn’t helped but we finally got a beautiful sunny day so when the sun set the skies were still clear. The perfect night…I thought.
I arrived at the green in the center of Taunton a little before sunset. It was definitely getting colder but you expect that after sunset.
What I didn’t expect was a 20+ degree drop in temperature in less than an hour. Cold as it was the sky was still clear so it was perfect. I began snapping away. I’d only have about an hour before I’d lose the “blue hour”. That’s the time between the afterglow from the sunset and full dark. The sky gets a deep , deep blue and the glowing lights seem to “pop”.

Mother nature isn’t making this easy for me. Now on top of the cold the wind has sprung up and not just a little breeze. The branches on the trees with their hanging lights are really blowing and swaying especially the 40 ft. Christmas tree on the corner of the Green.

The few people strolling the green departed quickly as the winds became blustery. Ready or not it was time to pack up and leave.

Photo of the week~ Week 46

Posted on November 17, 2012November 17, 2012 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

A Colorful Little Shop

Posted on March 26, 2012March 26, 2012 by Dusty Roads

My week 10 Photo of the week was of two cute yellow duckie statues all decked out in a spring display.

Well I thought you might be interested in where I found such a whimsical decoration. I wish I could say I set it up myself but I’m afraid I can’t take credit for it. What actually happened was that I was running errands with my friend Nancy. We had just left Ritz Camera at the Derby Street Shops in Hingham and were headed down RT 53 to Trader Joe’s. Nancy and I spotted the house at the same time. It was kind of hard to miss. It had flowers all over its beautiful wrap-around porch. That splash of color so early in the year (it wasn’t even spring yet) really caught the eye!

Right then we decided to stop in on our way back from Trader Joe’s.

We got back in the mid afternoon. I took some pictures of the house from the parking lot then Nancy suggested we go in. It appeared to be a business and we were curious. We saw the sign, Garden Craft, but weren’t sure what that entailed.

Inside the house was bursting at the seams with silk flowers ands displays. I loved the idea of holiday trees..decorated trees not just for Christmas but for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and even a tree with seashell ornaments.

There were fireplaces in every room and each mantle held a different displays. The lady at the front desk was putting together a floral wreath but stopped for a moment to tell me a little bit about the store.

Garden Craft was formerly in Hanover where they sold not only silk arrangements but also garden and nursery products. They sold off their previous location, discontinued the garden /nursery line and moved the retail operation to this building in 2011. From what she told me they have quite the loyal following for the retail part of the business and the new location is only about 1/2 mile from the old Hanover location even though they had crossed over the town line with the move. They were now in Norwell.

I told her I liked to take pictures and asked if I could photograph some of the things they had in the store. She told me to go ahead and enjoy myself. Nancy was looking for little items so she was happy to give me time to wander around documenting the visual feast surrounding us.

It was great fun wandering around the shop. As these photos illustrate they have a wonderful variety of decorative products and ideas. It’s definitely worth a stop.

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You can find Garden Craft at 427 Washington St, Norwell, Ma. 🙂

Up Date

Posted on December 21, 2011December 21, 2011 by Dusty Roads

Hello Guys and Gals

Sorry I took so long getting an update in here. I still have a few more things to tell you about before we close the door on 2011 but right now I want to bring you up to date on what’s been going on while I’ve been away from these pages.

So we’re all here, Dusty, Editor in Chief Rocky, and Scout our tipster and contributing reporter, Smokey. Of course they are all my various alter egos but don’t spread that around! Talk about multiple personality syndrome!

Since we’ve been away we’ve been hashing about where we’re going with the blog and what we want to accomplish and what is a realistic goal. That was the clincher. We knew we didn’t want this to turn into an on-line diary. The intention was to write a blog that had a travel based theme. It doesn’t matter if the travel is to far away exotic locations or the local zoo. Let’s face it, not everyone lives in New England.

Seemed like a fairly easy goal to meet. Dusty isn’t one to stay put for long but what we didn’t consider was that in addition to the time it takes to visit different places it would also take time to put our thoughts on paper (even virtual paper). Then there’s the need for a job. Yup the real world job that pays the bills and gives us the freedom to go exploring. After all , not too many things are free. Even National Parks have entrance fees and the car needs gas to go.

We also didn’t factor in the needs of friends and family and even sometimes our need to just have some “down time”. And that was where we were when we took our sabbatical.

There are some things on Dusty’ s plate for 2012 (we’ll be making the announcement at the appropriate time right here) that are exciting but are going to be time-consuming . The last thing we want is to turn out a boring page just for the sake of posting something. So what we’re leading up to saying is that we’re going to cut back on the number of posts per week. To parody the expression…If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all…our motto will be ..If we can’t say something interesting, we won’t post anything that day …

One of the bloggers I follow has a “Wordless Wednesday” and we love it. The camera is our passion even more than travel. We used to travel and taking pictures was a way to create a record of the trip but more and more the purpose of the trip is to get the pictures so our emphasis has clearly changed. We always used photos a lot in our posts but you may see some “wordless” ones popping up now and again here. My thanks to Homestead Ramblings for the awesome idea!

Last week Dusty came down with a bear of a cold! It had such a kick that she was stuck in the recliner for 3 days. She couldn’t even sleep in bed at night because the minute she lay flat she would start to cough. Anyway, this has delayed quite a few excursions she had planned and the tree (oh how excited Smokey and Rocky are over the tree)has not been set up yet. Hopefully we’ll get that done this week so everyone can see how much help Rocky and Smokey can be at times like this. ( Update, after a visit to the Doctor Dusty is on antibiotics and told that she is recovering from a fine bout of pneumonia. Prognosis excellent and it’s only slowed her down a little.)

In the meantime, we’ve sprinkled a few pictures of the Taunton Green in all its seasonal glory throughout this post. We hope you’ll enjoy them and we hope you’ll keep coming back often even though we won’t be here every day.

‘Tis the Season

Posted on November 21, 2011November 21, 2011 by Dusty Roads

Well I guess if you can’t beat ’em you join ’em. Thanksgiving is getting closer but still hasn’t arrived yet the carols are winging their way over the airwaves, tree lightnings are taking place nightly, Holiday Parades are stopping traffic and one city is even celebrating the honor of having the first “Mall Santa.”

I guess unless I want to earn the reputation of being Scrooge or the Grinch or just a run of the mill curmudgeon I’d best stop my Bah Humbugging and get with the program. I don’t want the song title to change from Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer to Dusty got Run over by a Reindeer because I couldn’t get in the spirit of the Holiday Season before Thanksgiving.

As I was mulling this decision over I heard on the news that Jordan’s Furniture of Avon, MA (Home of MOM, the Motion Odyssey Movie) had once again set up their Enchanted Village display. This is unique because it is an animated display of antique figures.

Originally commissioned by the Jordan Marsh Company in 1958 the display was a cornerstone of the holidays in the downtown crossing section of Boston right up until 1972 when Jordan Marsh closed the display.

From 1972 until 1990 the display was conspicuously absent but finally after 18 years, the figures were resurrected and the Enchanted Village was once again a part of the Boston Holiday Scene.

But a blissful happy ending was not to be. In 1998 Macy’s purchased Jordan Marsh and the display was sold to the City of Boston for use on City Hall Plaza but due to lack of funding the display was moved to the Hynes Convention Center. By 2006 the city had stopped displaying the Village altogether. It would appear that like so many small villages the Enchanted Village would be doomed to obscurity. In 2009 the Village was put on the auction block. The end was surely in sight!

But like the very best Christmas story or Fairy Tale a savior came riding to the rescue in the person of Elliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture.

The Mantra of all the Jordan’s Furniture stores has always been to provide the customer with entertainment while making shopping in their stores fun.

The remainder of the Enchanted Village could not have found a better home. The 59 surviving mechanical figures have been lovingly restored and are displayed right in the store in Avon each year during the holidays. They even went so far as to install snow machines so that artificial snow drifts down as you stroll through the little Village.

Photographers greet you as you enter and at a 2nd station within the village so that you have the opportunity to purchase a memento of your visit. Traditional recipe Blueberry muffins are available for purchase near the entrance and exit of the display.

The Enchanted Village is free. Yes that’s right FREE! But if you have a little extra to spend you can take in a laser show or an abbreviated 3D experience on MOM featuring the Polar Express. Not a bad way to spend a morning or afternoon to get into the spirit of the holidays.