In Search of Trader Joe's - Oct. 17th

Trader Joe's sells certain items that are staples of my diet... whole grain tortillas and pizza dough, frozen bell peppers, refried black beans. There is no Trader Joe's in Rutland. In fact, there are no Trader Joe's in the whole of Vermont. Our search for the nearest Trader Joe's took us to Northampton, Mass, a good two and a half hours away. The drive itself was worth it all on its own, though... two and a half hours through the Green Mountains, then the Berkshires, in mid-October, is anything but a trial. Locals tell me the "leaf peepers" pay good money for those tours.

I didn't get any of the photos I wanted. Really, I was just too dazzled by the beauty of it to wrench my brain away from awe and into photo-taking mode. Nevertheless, I snapped a couple from a lookout on a summit in the Berkshires:



We also stopped in Shelburne Falls, Mass, and walked their claim to fame: the "World Famous Bridge of Flowers." Not the sort of thing I usually stop for, I'm glad Jeffrey made me do it.



The shame of it is, the only photos I've taken of dahlias were in Mass. George grows dahlias (though these days he leaves the work up to his son and hired help) -- dahlias are, in fact, George's claim to fame, at least locally, and we were here to witness them in all their glory... but I took not a single photo. These were on the Flower Bridge:


But George's, of course, were much nicer.