We’re planning a trip over to Western Mass. next weekend. It’s Memorial Day a week on Monday, so the office is closed. We’re heading over to Stockbridge. We’ve been getting organised by going to the outdoor store to get a rack to carry the bikes on top of the car and various bits and pieces for cycling. The place we’ve found to stay is an old coaching house and we’ve got a suite out the back with a veranda overlooking a river and garden. If it’s sunny Rob and I will cycle, if not, then we can all drink wine and loll about. I wondered why the name Stockbridge seemed familiar, then I remembered it’s a line in the James Taylor song Sweet Baby James:

Now the first of December was covered with snow
And so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Lord, the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go
There’s a song that they sing when they take to the highway
A song that they sing when they take to the sea
A song that they sing of their home in the sky
Maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep
But singing works just fine for me

These 1970s singer songwriters have a tune for every occasion.
Meanwhile, here are some recent photos of our apartment, Rocky Neck up by Gloucester and around Kendall Square.