Foliage between clouds

October Weekend, Charlemont MA
Photo by Brittany Sinclair

Friend of Head in the Clouds Amherst, Brittany Sinclair, snapped this beautiful, iconic fall scene from the hammock behind her house in Charlemont MA. Ah, New England!

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (tomorrow, actual rain)

Raindrops on Window
Photo by S. Vardatira

A strong cold front will slowly move through New England as we get into the Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon timeframe. The front will be accompanied by heavy rainfall and the potential for convective showers and even isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms – think strong, potentially damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

2018 Head in the Clouds Amherst Wall Calendar Now Available!

Click on photo to enlarge - and scroll below for a view of all the months
Actual calendar photos and daily entries are high resolution images

If you are looking for a unique Amherst gift that will keep giving all year round, look no further than our new Head in the Clouds Amherst 2018 Wall Calendar. This year's calendar features:

• 12 beautiful, seasonal photos taken in Amherst by twelve different local photographers (scroll below for their names). 
• Over 100 daily entries highlighting: 
• Astronomical events visible from Amherst with the naked eye (full moon, new moon, meteor showers, and more!) 
• Anniversaries of catastrophic weather events that occurred in Amherst and New England between 1660 and 2017
• Pivotal dates in Amherst history
• Pivotal dates in the history of meteorology
• Major U.S. holidays
• Major religious holidays

This is that perfect gift for Amherst residents, tourists, college students here and away, writers and poets, nature lovers, and Amherst natives living abroad and longing for a taste of home. This calendar will have them (and you) falling in love with Amherst month after month. Full size when open is 17" high and 11" wide. 

You now have two options for purchasing online: 

1. MAIL ORDER: $19 per calendar, which includes postage and handling. Click on this PayPal button:

Purchase here for delivery by mail:

2. LOCAL PICK UP: $15 per calendar. Click on this PayPal button:
(With this option, you will avoid built-in postage costs by picking up your calendars in North Amherst - directions to the pick-up location will be emailed to you after you complete your purchase).

Purchase here for local pick up:

You can also purchase our calendar at Hastings, located in downtown Amherst at 45 South Pleasant Street on the Common. Call before you go over just to make sure they have calendars in stock. We do our best to keep Hastings supplied, but it's not unusual for them to run out several times during a season - if they don't have any, let us know.

For questions or special requests (including arranging for pick up in Amherst), please email Sharon at CloudsAmherst[@]gmail[.]com. 
The [at] and [dot] are done to keep email addresses from being collected by spammers and harvesting robots. You just have to replace them for [@] and [.] when you write your e-mail.

Calendar Cover
Photo by Joshua Wolfsun

Snow Cow
Atkins North, North Amherst ~ Photo by Sharon Vardatira

Looking North from Rattlesnake Knob
Mount Holyoke Range, Amherst ~ Photo by Elisa Campbell

Tenderness at the Duck Pond
UMass Amherst ~ Photo by Ellen Finkelstein

Amherst Light
Town Hall, Amherst ~ Photo by John Snyder

Early Spring Morning at Bramble Hill Farm
Amherst ~ Photo by Meg Wright

Summer Glow
The Old Landfill, Amherst ~ Photo by Meg Rosa

A Thoughtful Heron at Puffer's Dam
Puffer's Pond, North Amherst ~ Photo by Anna-Beth Winograd

Dream
Mount Pollux, South Amherst ~ Photo by Ben Harper

Autumn at Cherry Hill
North Amherst ~ Photo by David Sharken

Autumn Light
Wentworth Farm, Amherst ~ Photo by Mindy Domb

A Foggy Start
South Amherst ~ Photo by James Patten

Quiet Dawn on the Common
Amherst Center ~ Photo by Joshua Wolfsun

"The soul wants it all"

Dan and Elaine and the snowman on top of Triple Divide Pass in Glacier National Park.
Water on Dan's side flows into the Atlantic. On Elaine's side, it drops into Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean.

Dan and Elaine - my brother and his wife, and friends and occasional Colorado contributors to Head in the Clouds Amherst - complete the last leg of their thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail (3,000 miles, 6 months!), passing through Glacier National Park. They are wrapped in clouds, calf-deep in snow (and ecstatic about that), have a close encounter with a grizzly, and build a snowman on top of Triple Divide Pass. And there's so much more. Follow along with their latest blog post, this one by Elaine. A hike summary will follow once they've had a chance to process everything. (I, for one, am curious about the transition back to civilization. It's gotta be tough.)

They're already planning their next adventure, of course. As Elaine puts it, We are not satisfied – I think the desire for adventure was a small flame, and we just poured gasoline on it. More, more – more wild, more mountains, more rivers, more vastness. The soul wants it all.

Cloud Sculpture

Detail of London Fog (2017) by Fujiko Nakaya, at the Tate Modern, London, UK,
taken by Cloud Appreciation Society member Nic Cooper, as his wife turned into a cloud.

In April of this year, Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya produced a cloud sculpture in the heart of London. Using a combination of water vapor, lights and sound, her outdoor exhibit was a modernist take on the familiar Stratus cloud (yes, that’s the cloud cover we have this morning, although ours is not ground-level). The artist herself explained that “People love the feel of fog on their skin, immersed, wet and cold, but gentle and soothing. It’s a primary experience.”

Credit: Cloud Appreciation Society

Update from Caguas, Puerto Rico

Storm damage in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Photo: AP

The unraveling situation in Puerto Rico hits close to home as Meg Rosa (Amherst resident and longtime Head in the Clouds Amherst contributor and photographer) shares a most welcome update from her extended family in Puerto Rico, who they had not heard from - since Maria struck - until this weekend. Meg reports,

They can only get a cell signal in Caguas. They have cut their way out of San Lorenzo and are able to get around that way. They have water from the hospital. You can’t get in to where they are. The thing they asked for was a chainsaw. They can’t get anywhere without having to cut through downed trees. We are going to figure out how to get a chainsaw to them. Some post offices are open, we just need to figure out which one, and then figure out when that would arrive so they can try to make their way there. They have been collecting rain water and they have livestock left for food. Their house is still there, but the house my husband's parents lived in is completely gone. The other grandparents lost all the wooden portion of their house, about half the house, the bedrooms. The house where many of the uncles live has lost their roof. We still haven’t heard from my husband's mom’s sister and daughters. There is no way to get in to where they are. The trees are everywhere. Everyone is helping each other out. No violence or theft where they are. Cutting through the trees is the main focus right now. We are so grateful for that phone call!

Take a moment to drink in this beautiful, beautiful day here in New England. And, then, if you can, please take another moment to make a donation or help out the Puerto Rico relief effort in some other way.

Heron on Puffer's Pond Dam

Featured photo for October in the 2017 Head in the Clouds Amherst calendar. This incredible autumn tableau was captured at Puffer's Pond by photographer Anna-Beth Winograd. Here's hoping we see color like that again this year. And until then, just gaze at this photo from time to time to satisfy that longing for brilliant fall foliage.