Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours.

In case I don't see you today, let me just take a minute, before the day before Thanksgiving (good) chaos begins, to wish you and all of yours a very Happy Thanksgiving. May it be full of an endless supply of good family, good food, and good fun.

Safe travels, & may the most comfortable couch in the house be yours when that inevitable food coma ensues.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankgiving Desserts & Go Mimi & Michelle!

I realize my holiday window displays won't deter anyone from their annual pilgrimages with the kids to the Macy's windows, but in general I try to give it my best shot, given the usual fairly burnt out from the full summer run mood I'm in when they start to hit. I also realize Thanksgiving is more about being thankful, getting together with family and friends, and eating until the button on your jeans pops off and hits the dog in the side of the face than being about window displays anyway. It's a tough place to be for a holiday window display, being sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, the grand-daddies of display holidays.

So I suppose I shouldn't be defensive about the feeblest of Thanksgiving window displays I have to offer, as witnessed in the shot you just saw.


Less time for window dressing (like that segway?), more time to make all the frozen dessert delights your relatives have now come to expect from you on T-day...



Pumpkin Pie, Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake, the surprise fall hit, apple pie, rum raisin, and the many other special and regular favorites are ready and waiting for you to drop in and say 'I'll take a hand-packed quart of...'

For those really daring, next up, just in time for the T-day sweeps, Eggnog Pumpkin Pie ice cream. Come on, I dare ya.

And if you're really planning ahead, why not give a call (413)-529-2929 now and order up your favorite ice cream pie or ice cream cake. Deer Trax, Cookies n' Fudge, Cashew Turtle, Skybar, and as many other specials as I can think of this weekend.. Pumpkin Pie, Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake, Hazelnut Cappuccino Fudge. Do I need to go on?


If you're just looking for ice cream to scoop next to Gram's apple pie or Aunt Betty's pecan pie, just drop on by for some handpacked. The wednesday before Thanksgiving is always busy, so don't hesitate to call ahead, and we can pack 'em up and have 'em ready for you when get here.


You can always check out the current flavors list here.


And you're always welcome to stop by for gourmet chocolates, penny candy, fresh organic coffee beans from Indigo Roasters, and perhaps a bit of sweet pumpkin spice tea from the TeaGuys.


Hungry yet?


Here are our Thanksgiving week hours:

Monday: 12-5
Tuesday: 12-8:30
Wednesday: 11-8:30
Thursday: closed.
Friday: 12-9 pm
Saturday: 12-9 pm.


A final note before I end this little infomercial blog entry. Best of luck to Mimi Henault and Michelle Rousseau this weekend in the Junior Miss competition. There are only 2 Easthampton High young women entered, and wouldn't you know, they both are part of the Mt. Tom's scoop team.

(Apologies to Michelle, seems I don't have portrait of her to share here...)



Go get 'em!

Jelly Fish, M&M paintings, and Chocolates.

This weekend brings us to the 2nd Saturday of the month, and with that, another exciting ArtWalk Easthampton evening. Just hung yesterday here at Mt. Tom's, an inspiring photography/painting combo show featuring the works of photographer Rob Colclaser and his wife Allison, painter. Stop by for a look at some amazing images and beautiful paintings.

While you're out, check out the rest of the ArtWalk venues. 5 - 8pm.

I hope you can stop by for a coffee, a bit of chocolate, say a hello to the artists, and enjoy their show.



While I'm here, a big thanks to Torrie, Carleigh's mom, for the cool thank you for the birthday party at Mt. Tom's photo collage. Nice...



Good weekend to you.

Don't Leave your dishes in the sinkhole & other shots about town.

As I mentioned in the last ICD entry, the giant sinkhole that took out a fifty foot wide swath of the Manhan Rail Trail last year has been fixed. As you probably noticed, yesterday was a pretty sweet day. Nearly 70 in November, can't complain about that. Perfect day for a bike ride on the again fully intact trail. Above is a shot of what was until recently, the biggest sinkhole Easthampton's ever seen. Here are a couple more of the fix. I'm guessing if the rail trail is again attacked by a giant sinkhole, this would probably be the safest place on the 4.2 mile stretch to be.




A few more random shots from my ride...


The Ferry Street haunted house could use a little stimulus money...


Maybe someday I'll be able to dig back through my inventory of local shots and be able to use this one as a 'before shot'...



Or is it the Manhan Cat Trail?...


The old factory footbridge, now just an interesting photo opp on Lower Mill Pond...



There are still a few reminders of the trail's original use to be found along the trail...


I had a bit more daylight and couldn't resist the temptation to wander around the edge of the Nashawannuck mud flats...

A few interesting bits to be seen...

Apologies to those who live, or have lived, in Millwaukee. I'm fairly certain this isn't their best...

I opted not to dig underneath this brick and risk the chance of actually finding out what died on that date. Intriguing though...

Soas to not end on such a down note, here's another curious discovery...

Hope you're enjoying this balmy little indian summer, leaves be darned.

Manhan Rail Trail is whole once again.

You may remember the scene above from just over a year ago. Our shiny, almost new railtrail was shortened by about a mile when a giant sinkhole swallowed up a fifty foot across stretch near the Rt. 5 end of the Manhan Rail trail. This happened back in September of 2008 (seems like only yesterday), and the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail are happy to announce the hole has been filled, and all is well with the trail once again. As the article says, it wasn't cheap, but it was still a lot less costly than some of the early numbers that were thrown around..

You can read the story here.

To commemorate the 'made all better' trail, the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail have announced a little ceremony to commemorate the fix. Here's the info:

Sinkhole Repair Ribbon Cutting Celebration

A ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the repair of the washed out rail trail will be held at the site of the former sinkhole on Sunday, November 8 at 1:00 PM. Access to the site off East St. is available through the Pascommuck Trust roadside property (between Fort Hill Road and Route 5). From the Pascommuck Trust area, walk down the short hiking trail to the ceremony.

I don't have a shot of the finished job, so instead I thought I'd include another favorite from my rail trail collection...

Congrats and thanks to all the hardworking volunteers over at the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail and key city hall folks for securing the funds and making it happen. The Manhan Rail Trail is a shiny feather in Easthampton's cap, and it's great that it's back in full operation. Nicely done.

Butter Pecan? You must be a Gemini.

As I usually preface when I actually talk about ice cream here in the Diary of Ice Cream, I'm actually going to mention something about ice cream here. At barely 46 degrees, it may not feel like perfect ice cream weather, but it's at least warm enough to talk about it.

Came across this story I thought all you ice cream enthusiasts might enjoy. Check it out to see if your own favorite ice cream flavor fits what the zodiac is predicting.

I scream. You Scream. All signs scream for ice cream.


Feel free to switch the various ice cream purveyors with (hopefully) your favorite, Mt. Tom's. And if this finds you hankerin' for a fresh scoop, we've got all the fall flavors going in full force right now - Pumpkin Pie, Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Pie, Double-dark Chocolate Chunk (not really a Fall flavor but still a great one), and many more.

Another helpful hint... It's never too early to place your order for those homemade pumpkin ice cream pies your family now expects you to bring to Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks...

Just Vote.

I learned early in my entrepreneurial career that biz and politics do not make kind bedfellows. Or is it strange bedfellows. Heck, I forget. In any event, I just voted for the person I think is best to lead our little hamlet for the next couple years, and if you haven't already done the same, I highly recommend you make your away to your local polling place and put down your bet for our next mayor and councilors (all the school committee folk are guaranteed a seat unless there's one giant write-in candidate I suppose) before the polls close this evening.

Like I've said, I'm not going to endorse a particular candidate, but I will say it's been an interesting election season this time around, one that no matter who wins, has been good for the city. It should be an interesting day...

Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying these first few days of November. It seems we are well past peak leaf peeping, but there are still a few bold and colorful trees to be had...

And it's also interesting to see the subtle collision of Fall and Winter holidays that starts to take place around this time. I happened to notice this yesterday. If there was a set of indian corn hanging on the door or a paper turkey in the window, we'd have all the end of year holidays covered...

No need to spend too much time here this morning. I'll leave you to your Tuesday morning TPR reports and perhaps a quick break to visit your local polling place of choice.

Just Vote!