Our Annual Trip to Nashoba

Last Sunday we had our annual trip to the Brews and Bluegrass Festival at the Nashoba Valley Winery. It was Maura’s ninth trip to a Nashoba fall festival. Her first was when she was only two months old. As every year, we had a good time, though unlike last year it was just the three of us at the festival. That was just fine. We have fun either way. The less than perfect weather we had didn’t put much of a damper on our trip either. There were a few showers but we’ve been to festivals at Nashoba when the weather was far worse.


The Brews and Bluegrass festival has something for the whole family, which is one of the reasons we go every year. I think the highlight for me was the beer. I had a wonderful bourbon barrel porter. It was a really good take on a beer style I really love. I wish I’d picked up a six pack to enjoy later but the lines were long and I wanted to save a bit of money. It was popular and a limited edition so I don’t expect they have any left.

Maura had a good time getting her face painted and guessing the number of candy corns in a jar. I suppose she guessed wrong since we haven't been notified that she won. We all enjoyed our lunch and the caramel covered cider donuts we had for desert. We also had a good time stomping our feet to the bluegrass music provided by Southern Rail. They’ve played the festival for several years now and I always enjoy hearing them play. I can’t claim to know much about bluegrass but I do enjoy it when I hear it. Maura and Jennifer seemed to be enjoying it, too. Maura got both of her parents dancing a bit to the music they played on the PA between live sets. When the band played live I watched. I find mandolin and banjo picking fascinating to see as well as listen to.

While the festival itself was fun as always (and we’ll be back next year) the trip had its share of hardship. On the way to the festival we got stuck in traffic for half an hour because of construction on route 128 around Dedham. The traffic jam wasn’t the result of particularly heavy traffic but instead resulted from poor planning as traffic got shifted first one way and then the other and lanes were closed seemingly at random. We had worse trouble on the way home. The clutch failed on our Toyota when we pulled off the highway to pick up some dinner from the Whole Foods Market in Dedham. Things could have been much worse. We made it home thanks to a ride from our friend Andrew Tittler and the car was back in working order in time for the next weekend. Fortunately we have two but rarely need to drive both at once, so we can get by.

A Visit to Drumlin Farm

Last Sunday we took advantage of gorgeous fall weather to pay a visit to Massachusetts Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Sanctuary in Lincoln, Massachusetts. The sanctuary has a small working farm operated for the benefit of both people and the numerous bird species that thrive in and around farm fields but do less well in woodlands or suburbia. The farm raises a variety of vegetables and also keeps chickens, cows, goats, pigs and sheep. The barns and coops are open to the public and well-done signage makes the visit educational but education is not the only purpose for the animals. Eggs are collected, cows and goats are milked, sheep are sheared and pigs go to market to end up as pork chops and sausages. The sanctuary has woodland as well as farmland and there are wild as well as domestic animals on display. The wild animals come from the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts and are animals that were rescued but cannot be returned to the wild because they cannot fend for themselves either because of injuries or being habituated to human contact.


We made our visit to Drumlin Farms during the Harvest Festival. Jennifer thought Maura would enjoy it and of course she did. So did her parents. Besides exploring the farm and seeing the animals we ate cider donuts, drank hot cider and took a hayride around the vegetable fields. Maura made a pumpkin kite to take home as a souvenir and before we left we picked up a pumpkin and a goose necked gourd to make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. We had wonderful sunny weather that was warm enough, but not unseasonable and the trees were beginning to show their fall colors, reminding us how few good weekends we are likely to have before our New England winter arrives and we spend most of the next four months inside.