One-of-a-kind Amherst wall calendar available right here!

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, Massachusetts 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, or Simple Gifts Farm Farm Store, located in North Amherst at 1089 North Pleasant Street. Call before you go over just to make sure they have calendars in stock. We do our best to keep our sellers 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

Fall on Bridge

Featured photo for November in the 2017 Head in the Clouds Amherst calendar. Photographer Meg Rosa perfectly captures that peculiar fall occurrence around here (especially in recent years), where some leaves can simultaneously be a confetti of color on the ground while others are still green on the trees and underbrush.

The Case for Atlantic Time

Depressed at the prospect of sunset around 4:30 today (courtesy of our going off Daylight Savings Time last night)?  

Well, you are not alone. Last week, our state’s own Special Commission to Study the Commonwealth’s Time Zone issued a final report of findings and recommendations for the Legislature’s consideration. Based on research into what such a time zone change would mean for Massachusetts, the Commission recommended that Massachusetts could absolutely make a "data-driven case for moving to the Atlantic Time Zone (effectively observing year-round daylight saving time)."  If you are wondering why we couldn’t simply stay on Daylight Savings Time year-round (as this would be the simplest fix), federal law only allows states to opt OUT of Daylight Savings Time. So the only way for Massachusetts to effectively adopt Daylight Savings Time year-round would be to move from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone and then opt out of Daylight Savings Time.

The report did add that such a change should be contingent on the other New England states (possibly also New York) adopting the same strategy. 

I’m all for this move to Atlantic Time, much as I appreciated my extra hour of sleep last night. The graphic above says it all...