Out and About in Fall, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

The color starts slowly - like this vine creeping up a tree trunk.

Or the deer in the yard foraging for some fading greenery to eat.

An old house getting ready to meet another winter - it's already seen more than a hundred of them.

The last few kayaks will soon  be removed from the beach for the winter.

On this typical country lane in Manomet - barely a touch of fall color visible.

The beach now often looks lonely and empty.

A pod opens and casts its seeds airborne.

Along the bluff, the curve of Cape Cod Bay is visible at left. Yep, the days are getting shorter, the temperatures colder, and soon, a beautiful white blanket will cover it all.

Beach Walk, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

Another day, another walk - achieving my daily goal of 10,000 steps requires focus and planning. Fall is a special time in New England.  A chill is in the air, the tourists have gone home, the beaches are nearly deserted - it's a great time to stop for a moment and stare out to sea and just be. You can't see it in this photo but, the Pilgrim Tower in Provincetown was visible twenty miles away across the bay on this beautiful day.

A quiet beach path with only a few steps down to the sand.

Two long-time friends pause for a portrait. The air may be cool but the toes still relish a walk in the sand.

A Beach Walk in Early Fall, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

Long pants and a light jacket - it definitely isn't summer anymore.

I got a fancy cellphone  - a "smart" phone they call it - and the instructions said the built-in camera had the capability to make "front-facing selfies." I don't think it works correctly. I faced front in this pose and took some pictures but all it shows is my back! I don't think that's very smart.

As an "old" man, I have occasional thoughtful observations (not about selfies, though) - why do we as a society see fear and obstacles instead of wonder and possibility? Is that our true nature or the result of cultural conditioning?  I'm working on seeing the wonder - the magic of flight, for starters.

This big rock seemed like it needed some little rocks on top so I obliged.

A small boat is parked above the tide line ready to transport its owner out to sea. 

A tiny couple walking at low tide - Manomet Point is in the distance.

Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

"The Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival is Boston’s biggest block party—a free, annual outdoor concert open to the public that has delighted hundreds of thousands of music lovers over the years with its host of jazz, Latin, blues, funk, and groove performances, along with an array of food vendors and free activities for kids. Each year, the festival is the place to be in Boston on the last Saturday in September as the community comes together in a bond forged in the joy of great live music." (Source: Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival website).

It was perfect fall weather for the event this year.  Above, one of the three stages is in a park beside Columbus Avenue. A few of Boston's Back Bay skyscrapers are visible in the background.

This six-block stretch of Columbus Avenue in the South End is closed to automobile traffic and becomes pedestrians-only for the duration of the event.

There are plenty of vendors lining the roadway selling food, drink, products, and services.

But the people are clearly here for the music - tens of thousands of them as the afternoon progressed, sometimes pressing shoulder to shoulder in front of the stages.

This is one of the two stages erected at opposite ends of the closed street.

It is a party atmosphere  - all about music, fun, food, family, and friends

The following images are random portraits of some of the performers.

Depending on where you stood or walked, the three stages of music sometimes flowed and blended into each other.

This always popular percussion band also made an appearance walking through the crowd with their driving beat.  Their sound make it feel like my chest wall was flexing to the beat like an old fashioned paper cone speaker.

I met these Boston police officers who were willing to mug for a photo.  It got me thinking about how thousands of regular folks can hang out in peace with very little law enforcement presence visible - happy, friendly regular people getting along with each other is the default here - not the typical picture the mainstream press is fond of promoting on the news.  Why do humans seem to like bad news so much? 

Anyway, it looks like a great duty assignment for these officers - no wonder they're smiling and happy.  They get to spend their workshift with thousands of friendly, music-loving neighbors out on a sunny, fall day to hear the magic of live music outdoors created by extraordinarily talented musicians.

These musicians have spent their entire lives passionately pursuing their craft and art - and it sounds like it!  I'm already looking forward to next year.

Kudos to Boston's own Berklee College of Music for producing this event.

The Cranberry Harvest, Landers Farms, Ellisville, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

It is a practice that plays out annually in thousands of sandy bogs in southeastern Massachusetts at this time of year - the cranberry harvest. The State of Massachusetts is second only to Wisconsin for total cranberry production within the United States.  For most of the year, we drive by countless bogs visible from the roadways.  The bogs seem still, no visible change is apparent, it's not like a corn field where the stalks grow noticeably higher all summer - but come fall, the bogs see a flurry of activity as the crop is harvested.  If harvesting using the the wet-harvest method, the bogs are flooded for just that purpose.

I had the opportunity with the Plymouth Digital Photographers Club to visit and observe one such harvest recently at one of the bogs owned by the Landers Farms. 

This is the view from atop the suction/vacuum truck.  It wouldn't fit in the frame so I had to tilt the camera. But I'm getting ahead of myself..........

It all started with Beau. Before the trucks arrived to load the berries, Beau expressed interest in the dry harvest method which uses the comb-like scoops shown above to separate the berries from the vines.

Beau was insistent that his incisors were the model for the tines in the scoop and demonstrated that point to us. But we are here today to observe the wet-harvest method so, Beau, better luck next year. 

The process began long before I arrived -  flooding the bogs, then running a tractor-like machine down the rows to separate the berries from the vines so they will float to the surface.  Then, using the machine above, a floating boom is unrolled and carried through the water to encircle the berries to create a corral.

The harvest crew does a lot of raking, pushing, and pulling to get the berries tightly corralled and ready to be vacuumed/suctioned out of the bog and into a transport truck.

For two months or so, this crew travels from bog to bog, farm to farm, spending their days, rain or shine, wading through knee/thigh-deep water to harvest the crop.

Beautiful outdoor spaces like this become their daily workplace.

But t-shirt weather is coming to an end soon as the season progresses.

Anchoring the inlet head of the vacuum/suction hose.

Nice rabbit ears.

It looked like difficult and physical work dragging the boom and slogging through deep water.

Eventually, the berries are tightly corralled and ready to be picked up.  The red truck at right above will move next to the bog and the crew will hook up the vacuum/suction hose.

Part of the crew took a moment to pose for a picture.

The berries are ready, the vacuum/suction truck is positioned, and the crew enjoys lunch on the hillside while waiting for the transport truck to arrive to haul away the berries.

Making shadow puppets is another way to wait for the truck to arrive - if you are a clever old man like me. 

Eventually, the 18-wheeler transport truck arrives and the pumping begins.

This truck will hold about 500 barrels of berries - not quite enough capacity to hold all that was within the boom - another truck will have to come back later today or tomorrow to finish.

The transport truck is almost full after pumping most of the berries from this four acre bog.

A good crop and a perfect fall day draws to a close.  Everyone is done work except for Beau.........

......he continues to "inspect" the cranberries - either that or maybe someone put a dog biscuit in the box?........