Ashfield Farms

The sky was overcast as I set up to paint from the edge of route 116 in Ashfield, MA.

The trees were just beginning to turn colors and the the late summer greens were still bright in the meadows.

The farms along this route are over 100 years old with great big barns, stone walls and large mature sugar maples.

The farms are clustered in this valley and from above look as if they are a little village or neighboorhood of Ashfield itself which is very rural. There must have been a lot of ash trees around here originally or they might still be here .

The sky would get bright and the sun would almost come out . The colors were so bright with the leaves changing that it didn't feel like an overcast day. Fall in new England is like this - it never feels gray until the leaves drop.

This farm had a huge barn that was very old. They have a small herd of Belted Galloways. The pastures were liberally sprinkled with the favorite crop around here - boulders; that get pushed to the surface every spring.