Massachusetts #1

OK. Photos are downloaded so here I go. On July 2 I got the train to Charles de Gaulle airport and after one of the most shambolic queueing systems I have come across I caught an Icelandair plane to Reykjavik. So I have now been to Iceland. Sort of! I am sure there are very good reasons to live there and indeed I am also sure that many people love it very much. However, from the air anyway, it was bleak, barren, drear, grey... We had left 45 minutes late from Paris so I didn't have very long to wait for my next flight. The reason we were late, incidentally, was because it was just like a madhouse at the airport. The pilot said he had never in his whole career as a pilot seen Charles de Gaulle airport so busy. So, leg 2. I sat beside a couple of nice chaps, which was just as well as our row of seats and one other were the only rows where the TVs didn't work! It was also quite exciting looking out of the window and seeing Greenland and icebergs. And then we flew over Canada which was really interesting and gave me quite a thrill. Amazing stuff.
And so to Boston. Kathy and Roger were there to meet me and off we went to Rutland, a small town about an hour away. I settled into their lovely house and it was time for bed! (Photo #1 is of Kathy in front of their house.)
On the Friday we went to a Warehouse kind of shop called Sams, and we also went to Shrewbury to another shop. We were getting things for the barbecue at night and also having a wee look round to see what we could see. :-) Then Kathy took me to Sterling which is the home of Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Yes, the nursery rhyme was based on real people and events! Years ago, the town of Sterling erected a lamb statue to celebrate the birthplace of Mary Sawyer. In 1815, Mary was followed to the schoolhouse by her pet lamb. Her classmate, John Roulston, wrote the poem. In fact, a town in New Hampshire claims that a poet from their town really wrote the rhyme. I am not especially bothered one way or the other, but anyway, I have seen the lamb statue!
That night Kathy and Roger hosted a barbecue for the neighbours to celebrate July 4th. (On July 3rd. Because that's when the town fireworks were on!) Being that time of the year, by the way, there were American flags and loads of bunting everywhere. It looked great!


We had just got going with the barbecue when rain started pouring down with a vengeance. We moved inside, but were a bit worried that the fireworks might have been cancelled. Fortunately it all cleared up, and we had the bonus of a most incredibly beautiful rainbow. Two complete rainbows in fact, one inside the other. My photos just doesn't do it justice.
It was stunning.

So then we walked cross the road with our deckchairs and sat and watched the wonderful fireworks display which we could see above Kathy and Roger's house. And so ended Friday.