Happy New Year!

From my house to yours 

 Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy 2011. 

A New Year's post tomorrow, then back to the Edaville story Jan 2, 2011!

Edaville Railroad, Carver MA

Well, here we are at Edaville Railroad’s Festival of Lights located in Carver Ma. We’ve got a great night for the visit, clear and not too cold. We arrived at about 3:45 . The gates opened at 4pm. Even though it wasn’t dark yet the park had the displays lighted and ready to go. The ticket booths opened promptly at 4pm and we purchased our admission and were soon headed onto the grounds. I should mention here that we received a discount of $2.00/ ticket because I am a AAA member and had my card with me. Go AAA!.
I had been to Edaville many, many years ago and now I’m hearing that this may be the end of the line for the little narrow gauge railroad.

Edaville Railroad is considered a heritage railroad and is thought to be one of the oldest in the United States. It’s a very narrow gauge being only 2 ft (610mm) compared to the 3 ft narrow gauge trains of the American West. The railroad was originally built by Ellis D. Atwood on his cranberry plantation. The name Edaville derives from his initials, EDA.

Atwood obtained his 2 locomotives and most of his passenger and freight cars in 1941.
Edaville ceased operations in 1991 and the equipment was sold off however several railroad enthusiasts fought to resurrect the little railroad and in 1999 the “new” Edaville Railroad opened for business.

Unfortunately the owner of the property has been quietly shopping the land the park sits on for the last couple of months and has recently said the current operators of the park have decided not to renew their lease, prompting him to put the entire parcel on the market. According to the Taunton Daily Gazette the 32 acre section of the property where the parking lot is located has been approved for a 20 lot sub-division. If no one comes forward to acquired the whole parcel, then he will pursue this option which would effectively kill the park.

With this uncertainty hanging over the park, I wanted to be sure to get one last visit in before it was gone.
But enough of this hand wringing. Here you have the history and the current climate this little engine is operating under. It’s enough that a sense of urgency brought me here and in the company of my good friend JR. I’ll get into more detail about our visit in my next post!

　
　
　

Coming up -Edaville Railroad

Let the Sun Shine

Holiday Blizzard 2010

If I was wondering what to write about today Mother Nature certainly gave me plenty. About 18 inches in some places. They are calling the storm that rolled in last night the Holiday Blizzard of 2010. Nice name. works for me.

The storm seems to be winding down although the weather folks seem to think there are a few more bands of snow to come through. The wind has certainly let up and it’s quite warm out. The snow was the heavy, wet kind. Good for snowballs and snowmen but not for shoveling.

The plow was working on our parking lot but they only managed to plow me in. The driver said he needed 2 empty spaces to be able to plow the parking slots. No sign of the neighbors that have the spots on either side of me so it’s shovel time. One of my other neighbors was really nice. He was digging his car out so he helped me move the snow bank the plow had deposited. I dug out around the car and cleaned off the car itself.

According to the weather report it should clear enough to give us a sunset. That’s what’s missing from a sparkly, winter - wonderland look…the sun. I’m hoping they are right and it comes out in the afternoon. Then maybe I can get some card-worthy shots. Or maybe for a calendar.

Speaking of pictures, I heard about a 365 challenge. Curious I checked it out. Basically the challenge is to take at least one picture every day for 365 consecutive days. You can start anytime but once you start, don’t miss a day. I think I’m going to try that. I take a lot of pictures anyway, just not necessarily every day. Be interesting to see if I can stick to that. I’ll create a “365” folder in Flickr and you can track my progress. I am going to start on New Years day to make it easier to keep track.

Well I think I’ll keep this post short but here are some pictures of the snowfall in my neighborhood of Taunton, Ma.

　

Christmas Odds and Ends

Christmas is over and we're having a blizzard. Winds blowing and snow is falling.  After working most of the day and making my way home in the winter madness of slippery roads and crazy drivers, my brain feels like mush.

It seemed everyone was either driving like crazy... 50 -60 mph or crawling at 10-15 mph. Put the 2 together and it is a recipe for disaster. I passed several cars that were off the road. Every time I passed one the car in front of me slowed down to a real crawl. It was probably easier to stop at that speed but it wasn't easier to .keep the car moving plus going that slow let the snow build up on the windshield. I finally got to a spot where I could pass them. Drivers like that should just stay home when it snows! They make hazardous driving conditions really dangerous.

Well, that's my rant for the day. He's a few "left over" images I'd like to share.




Lighthouse Holiday decoratins





Elf on a Trapeze



Rocky

Happy Holidays

It was a quiet day at work and now that I'm home I'm wondering how everyone did on the Christmas  Quiz? No matter how I tried , I couldn't figure them all out.  so here they are..the answers you've been waiting for!

Answers
1. Oh Holy Night
2. Jingle Bell Rock
3. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
4. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
5. The Nutcracker Suite
6. Little Drummer Boy
7. Silent Night
8. Deck the Halls
9. Silver Bells
10. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
11. Away in a Manger
12. We Three Kings
13. The Twelve Days of Christmas
14. Go Tell It on the Mountain
15. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
16. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
17. While the Shepherds Guarded Their Flocks By Night
18. I Saw Three Ships
19. Joy to the World
20. Do You Hear What I Hear?
21. Carol of the Bells
22. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
23. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
24. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

My thanks to my sister for sending the quiz to me. It was a good one!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day and Holiday! Best wishes to all!

Merry Christmas

Merry

Christmas

Peace on Earth

Goodwill to All

Here's a little Christmas Quiz: I'll post the answers tomorrow night. Good Luck!

CAN YOU NAME THESE CHRISTMAS SONGS?
1. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas

2. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres

3. Vehicular homicide was committed on Dad's mom by a precipitous darling

4. Wanted in December: top forward incisors

5. The apartment of two psychiatrists

6. The lad is a diminutive percussionist

7. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis

8. Decorate the entryways

9. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element

10. Oh small Israel urban center

11. Far off in a haybin

12. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole

13. Duodecimal enumeration of the passage of the yuletide season

14. Leave and broadcast from an elevation

15. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season

16. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully

17. As the guardians of the woolly animals protected their charges in the dark hours

18. I beheld a trio of nautical vessels moving in this direction

19. Jubilation to the entire terrestrial globe

20. Do you perceive the same vibrations which stimulate my auditory sense organ?

21. A joyful song of reverence relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck

22. Parent was observed osculating a red-coated unshaven teamster

23. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans

24. Rose-colored uncouth dolf is aware of the nature of precipitation, darling

Are you tracking Santa?

http://www.noradsanta.org/

HO HO HO

The Christmas Place

I met a friend at Panera for coffee...actually their really decadent Hot Chocolate and was discussing whether a trip into Boston was in order today. The Frog pond is open for skating and the Holiday lights are on in the Boston Gardens. My friend pointed out that the ice sculptures for First Night haven’t been done yet so it might be better to go in on New Years day. The sculptures should still be there, unless New Year’s Eve is really warm, and all of the other decorations will still be up.

We kicked around some other places to check out and finally settled on The Christmas Place on RT 18 in Attleboro. I had seen their ads popping up on this Blog and was curious about it.

My friend said she had time and would like to go too so off we went.

The Christmas Place is a large store in a warehouse style building. When we pulled in it didn’t look like much but you know the old saying “never judge a book by it’s cover” and that certainly applies here.

As soon as you step inside the magic begins. There is an enormous display window with toy trains and volcanoes and dragons and planes. I’m told it’s a permanent exhibit. As newer pieces come out they are added and the older pieces are retired. When the display was completely dismantled a few years ago for an upgrade it took a full year to put it back in place!

We passed a room full of animated Santa’s and reindeer but decided to pass that by for now and go back to it before we left. Heading straight through shelves of lights and ornaments we followed a sign to “outdoor displays”. Here the outdoor panoramas were set up and activated so you could see how they would look on your lawn. It was a marvelous room.

Back in the main store we passed rows of mangers and crèches until the store opened up again to a Fudge shop and café. The decorations were beautiful with simulated dripping icicles!

This was located next to Santa Claus which was the only place we couldn’t take pictures. That’s because they offer photos with Santa for a very reasonable price. The Santa was quite authentic looking too!

More shelves of sparkling ornaments followed and there was an elf doing a trapeze act on the ceiling!

Ornaments gave way to garlands of all types and then we were at the back of the store and the Christmas Tree Room. Beautiful!

So much to see , so little time.

We back tracked back to the room we’d skipped. It was great saving it for last because it was filled with animated figures that did not disappoint!

While I waited for my friend to check out, I chatted with one of the employees. She said the store has been opening annually since 1983. They open in mid October and stay open until Christmas Eve. No after Christmas sales here. This year they are closing at 6pm on Christmas Eve and won’t reopen until mid October of 2011.

It’s a great place to visit even if you don’t need any decorations but if you are looking for that special ornament or string of lights for your porch, I’d make this my first stop.

This is not a paid advertisement J They don’t even know I’m sharing this!

Nice Night In Taunton

We didn't get the 2 feet of snow that the news says they got on Cape Cod but we did get a "dusting". It's warm this evening. A perfect night for a stroll through the neighborhood and a closer look at the light displays. Some of the neighbors really go all out. Others are much more traditional with few lights but festive wreaths and evergreen boughs.

Since I am walking in the dark, I'll post the lights for you and save the evergreen decorations for another post.

Here's my most recent offering.

Winter in New England

For those of you who follow my blog, you may recall a recent post titled "Why I don't travel in December". In that post I explained about the "Snow Gods" and how whenever I travel in December, we end up with a blizzard. Well, it wasn't me this time. It is a friend of mine from Atlanta. He is planning to drive up to spend the holidays with his family in New Hampshire. We were going to hook up at some point after the Holiday weekend and now..here it is..snow! The weatherman says  Cape Cod may end up with over 2 ft before it stops.

Even a holiday attraction, Edaville Railroad in Carver, Ma has closed for the day "Due to the weather".

So far Taunton hasn't gotten too much...just enough to look really pretty but when I went outside the sidewalks were very slippery.

My friends have been checking in off and on all day reporting the roads conditions...not good. They are reporting the roads are slippery and  there are fender benders everywhere.

Since my plans to explore some more Holiday sights and post the pictures here has been side tracked because of the storm, I thought I'd walk around the neighborhood and take pictures of the neighbors' displays. Some are really elaborate but even the neighbors turned off the lights! So no new pictures tonight.

Maybe the snow will be clinging to the trees in the morning and I will be able to show off the neighborhood in  a blanket of white!

Hats off to the Snow Gods..they did it again !

Adieu LaSalette...Until next year

LaSalette is certainly beautiful  and I never had a chance to get the carousel or the trolley but there is next year to look forward to.  So I will leave you with 3 final images before it's on to the next. So many Holiday Displays...so little time!



My Personal favorite.."Reflections"



LaSalette once again

 With over 300,000 lights it is hard to choose what to share. I have a few more I would like to show you over the next couple of days.



One of the 3 Kings



Nativity Scenes at LaSalatte

This being a shrine, it is not surprising that there is a decidedly religious gist to the lights and ornaments.
In keeping with that the Shrine at LaSalette has a wonderful collection of Nativity Scenes and creches from many places around the world. This is a great display to check out when you need a break from the cold. Allow plenty of time because although the space is small, there are so many different examples to see that you don't want to be rushed.

It was quite crowed when I was there so my chance to get pictures was very limited but you can get an idea of the layout. Some of the displays are overflowing and most are protected by at least some glass.  I also have the current outside Nativity scene and the display of their original Nativity from 1953.

I hope you  enjoy them.




Inside display





Outside Display



Original Nativity Scene





from 1953