A Mofo of a Sycamore.

During an adventure to the Montague Book Mill with Llama today, we spotted this tree off Rt 47 just past Sunderland center. According to the plaque placed in front of this tree, it was alive and growing when the Constitution was being signed in 1787. It is thought to be the largest Sycamore tree east of the Mississippi River. The trunk circumference has been measured at 25' and the height is roughly 110'. Here are some other noted Sycamores around New England.

Below, the Sunderland Sycamore looking up and Jim and Llama below that looking at.
There's a new TURN IT UP! store at the book mill. Wylie Smith who was the heart and soul of For The Record in Amherst for 30 years is the proprietor. The store is really good lookin' and the stock is inscrutable as one would expect from Mr. Smith. I forgot to take a picture of him in the store so instead I will show you what I bought.
I used to own a ton of pianist Bill Evans music back before I lost my record collection in a fire of sorts. I never read up on him and only know a bit about his history. I listen to a lot of jazz ignorantly, unlike rock of which I'm a minor scholar. I know he had a heroin habit and was a huge influence on the contemporary pianist Brad Mehldau. I could always rely on him to improve my mood, or at least lay down a score for it with the drop of a needle. Even the sadder stuff. Especially the sadder stuff. Aside from that, he has one of my favorite album covers of all time, Undercurrents, which is of a woman floating in the water at Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida. The image by fashion photographer Toni Frissell was published in Harper's Bazaar in December 1947. Click it for a nice high res version. I sourced the photo from the webiste Shorpy, who's slogan is "Always Something Interesting." Shorpy is an amazing archive of historical photos. So, of course, is the Library of Congress Digital Collection.