Weekend in the country

Friday, Violet and I went out west to visit colleges. We visited Mount Holyoke first and luckily were able to get on a tour of the campus. It was raining but the place is lovely. Same idea as Bryn Mawr with the lovely architecture. Violet was put off by the tiny town, but liked the school. She would be a blue lion if she goes right away. Next we drove to Amherst, passing Amherst college, and visiting UMass. It has grown into it's own city and she was not interested at all. Still it was good to view another style of college experience. We then went to our hotel in Hadley, which was much nicer than expected We ordered sushi from a place in Amherst and did a little walk about in the dark in the rain. We watched Dear Evan Hansen on the TV and relaxed. In the morning, we went to Smith in Northampton, and she was happy to be in a larger city. Again, we went on a tour through the campus. It felt large and complicated with many architectural styles represented. These schools do so much for the students, so much support and community building.We sat and had warm drinks and looked out at the pond. Next we went downtown to explore and eat lunch.It was fun to see so many businesses are still there, but much has changed. Hadley exploded into strip mall and box stores, obscuring all the lovely farmland. We had burritos and stepped into Thorne's which is much the same. I looked into Paul & Elizabeth's. We went to a cool bookstore, then headed back to South Hadley to see it in the sun. We drove around, visited the book store and cafe and then headed back to Boston. We also drove over to the house I lived in on Columbus Ave. It's painted yellow now. I think it was red. Doesn't look like much from the street, but I know how beautiful the woodwork is inside and the views. Such a fine, strange time.

I would like to live out there. I miss woods and fields and hills. It was relaxing in a deep way to drive on those back roads.

Back in Brookline. The weather has been terribly warm but is expected to return to seasonable soon. Rainy today but it will clear enough for a walk. Looking forward to Thanksgiving when we will all be here together again.