Year of the Dragon

Dragon of Moody Bridge Road, Amherst/Hadley Border ~ Photo by Brian LeClair

Happy Year of the Dragon to all who are celebrating!

To mark the occasion, I have plucked this once-in-a-blue-moon capture from our archives. All credit to the photographer, Brian LeClair. Looked at in a certain way, the cloud is clearly a dragon - you can see it's head curving around and looking back toward the lightning bolt, which is in the general vicinity of its tail. (I promise you, this is not a manufactured/ photoshopped image.) 

This was the featured photo for August in the 2017 Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar. Taken along the border of Amherst and Hadley, Brian titled this photo “The Dragon of Moody Bridge Road.”

Nature's Wastefulness

January 24
(All photos by Sharon Vardatira)

January 25

January 27

so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.
It’s been doing that all week:
making beauty,
and throwing it away,
and making more.

    ~ Tony Hoagland, “Color of the Sky”

To capture our wild variations on winter over the past week, I photographed my same North Amherst backyard scene on three different days, from January 24 to today. Borrowing from Mark Twain (and countless others over the years), “If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes." More beauty appears to be on the way tomorrow into Monday!

Intro to Cloudspotting!

Curious about clouds and the wider cloud spotting community? Learn all the basics in this light-hearted zoom presentation I did for Amherst Neighbors back in 2022. Topics include cloudspotting rules and "manifesto," seeing things in the clouds, cloud classifications (in brief), tips for photographing clouds, cloud spotting resources, and more! Enjoy!

Windy Nights

"There's nothing like stories on a windy night when folks have found a warm place in a cold world."

   ~ Stephen King, The Wind Through the Keyhole 

Yup, that feels about right - the wind tonight definitely has a Stephen King vibe about it. Batten down the hatches, friends! 

"Windy Nights" collections of drawings by 4th graders
at Knockanean National School in Clare, Ireland

Dark and Stormy

- By Marianne Ferrer

It was a dark and stormy night....

Painting by visual artist, Marianne Ferrer captures better than any photo the night we are experiencing right now - wind whipping through the tree branches, rain pelting on the roof, snow all about. Good luck sleeping!

Saving the world, one calendar at a time!

2024 Head in the Clouds Amherst Wall Calendar
Cover photo by Richard Getler

According to ChatGPT** (artificial intelligence), these are the top five reasons that buying the 2024 Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar will save the world: 

1.     You can use the wall calendar to predict the future and prevent disaster. Use the daily historical weather facts for Amherst and New England from 1620-2023 to chart weather patterns over time and prepare accordingly. For example, you can stock up on supplies before Route 116 closes for the winter and leaves you trapped in a season-long Snowpocalypse.

 

2.  You can use the calendar to travel back in time and change history. Use the historical facts and figures to build a time machine and visit different eras and places. You can then alter the course of history and make the world a better place. For example, you can stop the Salem witch trials.

 

3.  You can use the wall calendar to communicate with aliens and make friends. The wall calendar features 12 beautiful, full color seasonal photos of Western Massachusetts, along with the names and locations of the clouds. You can use this information to send signals and messages to the extraterrestrial beings who might be observing the Earth. You can then establish contact and friendship with them and learn from their advanced technology and culture. For example, you can use the clouds to spell out “Hello” or “Peace.”

 

4.  You can use the wall calendar to create art and inspire others. The wall calendar is printed on high quality paper and shrink wrapped. You can use this material to create your own art, share your creations with others, and inspire them to do the same. For example, you can cut out the photos and make a collage, or use the shrink wrap to make a transparent sculpture.

 

5.  You can use the wall calendar to start a revolution and overthrow the system. The wall calendar is a fundraiser for the Kestrel Land Trust, a non-profit organization that works to conserve and care for forests, farms, and riverways in the Pioneer Valley. You can use the calendar to mobilize others to fight for the environment and wildlife. For example, use the calendar to cut out a banner or a button and start a movement to challenge the status quo and demand change. 

 

So, what are you waiting for? Purchase your calendar here, and start saving the world immediately! https://etsy.me/3rrMNab

**Yes, this is, in fact, how ChatGPT answered my question, “What are the top five reasons that buying the Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar will save the world?” I was driven to consult with AI because I overstocked 2024 calendars, and my adult son never responded to my pleas for marketing help. (I'm a cloud spotter, not an advertising guru.) I've also been a ChatGPT skeptic, but if it saves the world (or sells more calendars) I might just have to change my mind!

Our Featured Photographers!

Quabbin Reservoir, Belchertown ~ Photo by Mark Lindhult
(Featured photo for October in the 2024 Head in the Clouds Amherst Wall Calendar)

The 2024 Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar, now on sale, features photographs taken by amateur and professional photographers who live in and visit our corner of the world. Each summer, our five-person jury selects the finalists from among all the submissions we receive in response to our spring call for photos.

Our featured photographers are your neighbors and friends - indeed, we're betting you'll recognize at least one name among our 2024 finalists:

• Doug Tanner - January
• James (Jim) Patten - February
• Richard Getler - March & Cover
• Linda Repasky - April
• Sharon Vardatira - May
• Mindy Domb - June
• Joshua Wolfsun - July
• Andy Churchill - August
• Annette Fortier - September
• Mark Lindhult - October
• Jennifer Lynch Murphy - November
• David Sharken - December

While you're musing on which names you recognize, gaze on this iconic fall foliage scene for October 2024, taken by Mark Lindhult. This is Mark's first time appearing in a HITCA calendar! Follow the link to see all the monthly photos (just scroll down the page) or purchase your own 2024 Head in the Clouds Amherst calendar through Etsy.

https://bit.ly/3RGZgl1

##AmherstMA #WesternMA #photography #artcalendar #nature #clouds #weather

Winter on the Amherst Town Common Holiday Card

Excited to announce I will be adding an assortment of greeting cards to the CloudsAmherst EtsyShop over the next few months, starting with this one!

Winter on the Amherst Town Common Holiday Card
Photographer: Joshua Wolfsun

Come experience a snowy December morning on the Amherst Town Common. Daylight has only just broken through the clouds, and the street lamps and holiday lights are casting a golden reflection across the ice. Later in the day, this scene will be filled with people out shopping and dining, but for now, all is quiet. Photographed by Joshua Wolfsun, this image has a dreamy quality, reminiscent of a painting. Folded, the card is 4.6" x 7.2," printed on premium, heavy-weight matte paper. Inside message: May all the seasons of your life be filled with peace and happiness. Shop here: https://etsy.me/48VWjTy

Our First Post (11 years ago this weekend)

The post that launched Head in the Clouds Amherst
October 6, 2012

Going back in the archives to my very first Head in the Clouds Amherst blog post, 11 years ago on what was then "Columbus Day" weekend. Lots has evolved in the past decade - on the upside, tomorrow is now Indigenous Peoples' Day in Massachusetts (did not see that coming back in 2012).

Kevin Flood Accessible Trail, Puffer's Pond ~ North Amherst, MA
Photo by Sharon Vardatira

As for fall foliage, however, while the local trees are definitely changing color, it will be another week or two before the foliage in the Pioneer Valley is more orange and yellow than green. And in terms of "finding peak," it's a much more elusive pursuit nowadays. We still have uniquely beautiful autumns in some years, but with the trees now changing color over a protracted period from late August all the way through November, it's unusual to find one area where all the trees are in full fall colors at the same time. We still go in search of peak, but we're more likely to find it in pockets, a single extraordinary tree or a random cluster of trees that cannot help but steal the show from everything in their vicinity. And, every October, it's still one of my favorite quests!

Have a wonderful weekend and month, everyone, with lots of beautiful "peak" moments along the way.

2024 Head in the Clouds Amherst Wall Calendar Now Available!

Calendar Cover ~ Photo by Richard Getler

GIVE THE GIFT OF A NEW YEAR 

 with the all new

2024 Head in the Clouds  Amherst Wall Calendar

Order online for delivery by mail

$20.00 per calendar

Free shipping with a purchase of 2 calendars or more

Proceeds* to benefit the

Open the calendar on 2024, and treat yourself and your loved ones to the changing seasons of one of the most beautiful corners of the world, from the farmlands to the rivers, lakes, hills and trails of Western Massachusetts.

• 12 beautiful, seasonal photos of Amherst and the Pioneer Valley by residents and visitors (scroll below to view all pages)
• Over 200 daily entries highlighting astronomical, historical, weather, and meteorological events in Amherst and New England from 1620-2023
• 17" X 11" (full size when open)
• Saddle stitch binding
• High quality coated gloss, heavyweight paper
• Shrink wrapped

Purchase ONLINE at ETSY: https://etsy.me/3rrMNab

Also available for in-person purchase at:

Amherst Books, located in downtown Amherst at 8 Main Street on the Common. Phone: (800) 503-5865. Amherst Books is a locally owned, independent bookshop. In addition to our calendar, they carry new and used books, including an amazing selection of poetry, literature, philosophy, small press titles, literary journals. 

Local Pick-Up. For questions, special requests, and to arrange for pick up in North Amherst (payment via Venmo or check), please email Sharon at CloudsAmherst[@]gmail[.]com. 

Our Head in the Clouds Amherst Wall Calendar is the perfect gift for cloud spotters, nature lovers, photographers, artists and writers, students here and abroad, locals, and former residents longing for a taste of home. This calendar will have them (and you) falling in love with Western Massachusetts month after month. And this is a gift that will keep giving all year round.  

Calendar Cover - Bay Road, Hadley
Photo by Richard Getler

Inside Front Pages
The Tyranny of Blue Sky Thinking - by Sharon Vardatira

Jennison Road Marsh, Wendell - Photo by Doug Tanner 

Hampshire College, Amherst - Photo by James Patten

Bay Road, Hadley - Photo by Richard Getler

Quabbin Reservoir, Belchertown - Photo by Linda Repasky

Amherst College - Photo by Sharon Vardatira

Somewhere in Hampshire County - Photo by Mindy Domb

Farm Fields, Hadley - Photo by Joshua Wolfsun

University Drive, Amherst - Photo by Andy Churchill

Ames Pond Nature Retreat, Kestrel Land Trust, Shutesbury
Photo by Annette Fortier

Quabbin Reservoir, Belchertown - Photo by Mark Lindhult

Silvio O. Conte National Fish & Wildlife Refuge, Hadley
Photo by Jennifer Lynch Murphy

Leverett Pond (aka Echo Lake), Leverett
Photo by David Sharken

Back of Calendar

How to celebrate Cloud Appreciation Day on September 15! (Yes, YOU!)

Clouds over Hadley Farms
Photo by Sharon Vardatira

Be a cloudspotter for a day! Wherever you are in the world, please join me on Friday September 15 for Cloud Appreciation Day, by submitting an image of your sky to the Cloud Appreciation Society’s Memory Cloud Atlas. (Must be submitted on the day.) Simple, free - and fun. And while you're there, you can travel around the world (just click on the map) and see the view from distant locations. It's my absolute favorite day of the year! Register here to be reminded https://www.memorycloudatlas.org/

#cloudappreciationday

"Never mind, it's all under water now."

Photo: Mountain View Farm looks like they were heading
for a beautiful crop of peppers before the flood.

Re-posting this from Simple Gifts Farm in North Amherst. It's been a season (and the season is hardly over).

FLOOD DAMAGE RELIEF EFFORTS

At about 7:30 on Monday morning, David from Stone Soup Farm sent out an email to the Pioneer Valley Farmers list-serve entitled "Help us Save Our Garlic."  The Connecticut River was rising, swollen with water coming downstream from Vermont in addition to the 3-4 inches that fell in the Western Mass, and David was hoping some of their farmer friends could come and help them get their garlic harvested before the flood buried it.  Within a couple of hours, the heart-breaking second email came through: "Never Mind, it's all under water now.  It rose faster than I thought it would."  As the week has gone on, we have learned of more of our fellow farmers that have lost most to all of their crops in the flooding.  Mountain View had 45 acres of vegetables in Northampton that are all gone.  Natural Roots and Song Sparrow Farm lost their entire vegetable crop.  Farmer Dave has been doing a side job getting fields ready to plant at the All Farmers site in Springfield, and he was still unable to get to the field as of Wednesday, because it was all underwater.  We are feeling that maybe it's not so bad to grow on the sandpit soil that we have here in North Amherst.  My life as a farmer has centered around problem solving, persistence, optimism, and continuing to just put one foot in front of the other.  I find it hard to imagine having that perspective in the face of a total loss such as these people have suffered. MDAR estimates that at least 75 farms have been affected, and at least 1,000 acres.

Linked below are opportunities to donate to some of our farmer friends that have been flooded; please do what you can to support them.  

• Natural Roots Farm: https://gofund.me/d0f53dd2
• Grow Food Northampton: https://www.growfoodnorthampton.org/ways-to-help-with-flood-recovery/
• Song Sparrow Farm: https://www.gofundme.com/f/song-sparrow-farm-flood-recovery-fund
• Mountain View Farm: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mountain-view-farm-flood-damage-fund
• Stone Soup Farm: https://www.stonesoupfarmcoop.com/

Yellow Tuesday & Scarlet Sunset

The Scarlet Sunset
by Joseph Mallord William Turner, c. 1830-40

"Yesterday Boston was shrouded, and nature's gloom soon infusing itself into the hearts of all made it a day long to be remembered.

About 7 O'Clock in the morning the golden pall shrouded the city in its embrace, and the weird unreal appearance continued throughout the day. As one approached a doorway from within and glanced out upon the sidewalk and street, it was difficult to dispel the illusion that an extensive conflagration was raging near, and that it was the yellow, gleaming light from the burning houses that produced the singular effect. 

At all events it was strangely unreal lights when the sun should have been shining—twilight at noonday. A quietness seemed to pervade the streets, the girls that kept the peanut stands ceased for a while their efforts to dispose of their wares, the fruiters stood motionless beside their heap of golden peaches and grapes, and even the impressible newsboy took on a more subbed tone.

[Boston] Common Looked Sombre and Dear as one glanced down the long vistas formed by arching boughs, and entering beneath their shade, a solemn stillness prevailed that seemed almost foreboding in its intensity. As the houses wore on business men seemed to have little heart in their work, and as soon as the imperative labors of the day were completed started for home, seeming to think that the most desirable place for them if nature had got so out of humor. 

Although other causes have been known to produce the same effects, the juried aspect which all things assumed yesterday was undoubtedly caused by smokes from the immense forest fire racing to it north and west the past week or two. The smoke, caught in the fog, hanged like a golden canopy over the city, requiring a storm or high wind to disperse it. This startling and almost ghastly appearance of the heavens, although strange, portended another storm, wind or hurricane, being caused simply by a smoke cloud. The only storm in this part of the country."

Excerpted from The Boston Globe, September 7, 1881 (Yellow Tuesday) 

Summer Solstice Time Travel

Summer Solstice at the UMass Sunwheel - Amherst MA
Photo by Sharon Vardatira

As we wade through day after day of weirdly cool, hazy, smoke-laden skies, just keep in mind that June is upon us, and one of these mornings we will wake up to a day exactly like this – mackerel sky, with wafting white cumulus clouds against a blue sky. And, in the meantime, anyone who has the 2023 Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar is seeing this photo all month long. One of the perks of creating the calendar is always including one of my own photos – I captured this scene at the UMass Sunwheel (our own local Stonehenge) on Summer Solstice a few years back. I was seeking an “Outlander” back-in-time experience. Seemed like the perfect summer place and day for time travel.