Bird Sanctuary

The bird sanctuary in East Longmeadow of course has birds...mostly ducks and geese, but the occasional hawk overhead can be seen too. When we went in January of this year it was plenty cold but the birds never seem to notice. I found myself wishing I had brought some bread to feed them but on our way out I saw various people tossing bread to them. They certainly do not go hungry. 

This was a nice surprise to see.....the humpy house of the beaver (that's the Latin name for them). I've been seeing evidence of beaver activity everywhere this past year. But strangely enough I never see the actual animal and I suspect that these 'condo's' I'm seeing are not currently in use. I hope to be proven wrong some day.....and I hope to have a camera in my hand when that happens.

And then we came across this sign that said Mort and Helen Bates Trail. They have a trail named for them! I was jealous...so jealous...until I looked to the right................

And realized THIS was Mort and Helen's trail! And now I'm wondering if Mort and Helen were good swimmers!

We All Fall Down

This barn is on my route to work. I pass it every day. I was very surprised to see it collapsed like this. It didn't look like it was on the verge of collapse. But then is it possible to see something on the verge of collapse or does it always catch us by surprise and make us wonder how and why it happened?  

The barn hasn't been used for anything for years. That was probably a clue. We usually miss the most obvious clues don't we? I always liked this barn. I'm going to miss it when they clear the debris away. Or should I say IF they clear the debris away.

 There are three other buildings that were left to rot on this road. One was a home damaged in one of the big storms we had a few years ago. It was left to collapse too....and then still left for more years before being cleared out. Another home was the victim of fire and stood as a burnt out shell for a while before being leveled and cleared. The last is a home still standing (surprisingly) as a rotted out shell of someone's former life. The old man that lived there has probably passed away. I saw some young men clearing it out...gutting it actually, into a large dumpster. But then there was a for sale sign put up for about 3 weeks and then suddenly taken down. I can only guess why. And my guess would be that the house should really be condemned, not sold. It looks that bad from the outside.