July 16th 2011: Starting on the 3rd Circle

After taking another 1 week break, I decided to visit the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton. I had not been able to go earlier because the museum is closed on Sundays, and that was the day I visited Clinton the last time. However, since it only opened at 9 am on Saturdays, I decided to visit some other places in Lancaster first. As I was driving towards Lancaster, I happened onto the town common of Boylston on the corner of Main Street and Central Street.

Boylston Town Common

Boylston Public Library

Boylston War Memorial

Driving on to Lancaster, I went to the town common on Thayer Memorial Drive, which has a few historical buildings.

First Church of Christ Parish

Thayer Memorial Library

Lancaster war memorial

Back at the museum in Clinton, I thought that icons referred to Russian celebrities in history of some sort, but today I found out that they stood for something else totally different; rectangular slabs of wood with religious carvings on them. I felt a little cheated at having paid $5 for admission, especially because it was a pretty small museum, but I admit that some of them were pretty artistic, especially those with gold-leaf incorporated into them.

How to make an icon

I got hungry at this point, and decided to try out a new restaurant in Stow, called Nancy's Airfield Cafe. This is a great place for breakfast or brunch, with lovely view of Minute Man Air Field, handmade silk teabags, and great desserts.

Pecan Sticky Toffee Pudding

Biodegradable handmade silk teabag

Fish pond outside Cafe

Stomach full, it was time to get a drink, at the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton. This winery gives very good hourly tours on the weekends from 12-4pm for only $7 a person, and gives 4 complementary wine tastings during the tour, and 2 more of your choice per person at the tasting bar. On top of this, you get to bring the glass you used home.

After buying my ticket, I still had about 40 minutes to kill, so I decided to do my 2 free tastings first. I chose the Strawberry and Peach wines which were pretty good, considering that I don't really drink. I ended up buying a bottle of the peach wine at the end of the day.

Peach and Strawberry Wine

I then decided to walk around and take some pictures. There were a few bees flying around the flowers outside the building, so I decided to practice my picture-taking skills for a bit. If only those bees would stop moving!

Pond outside

The winery

Music Entertainment

Beer Dispenser

Views of a bee

As the tour was about to start, I realized I had lost my receipt which was required for the tour. It was a good thing that I could get the cashier to vouch for me, and the tour started proper at 1pm. I shan't spoil it for everyone who wishes to visit the winery in future, but the tour goes through every single process involved, right from the transportation of fruit into the winery from other farms, the extraction of juices from hard or soft fruits, the fermentation process, the aging and bottling. My education in chemical engineering definitely made each process sound very familiar. Every few steps or so, complementary wine tastings are provided as well.

Some pictures of the equipment used follow, including an interesting setup for champagne where the bottles are inverted to allow for trapping of the carbon dioxide at the bottom of the bottle, and easy extraction of the yeast used from the top when done.

Fruit Conveyor

Hard fruit pressurizer

Soft fruit destemmer

Soft fruit pressurizer

Fermenter

Frozen Fermenter

Bottling Setup

Champagne making setup

Distillation Setup

Complementary wine on the side

My bottle of peach wine
and new glass

There is also a very good restaurant here called J's Restaurant that is owned by the winery as well, although I have yet to eat there.

After having 6 tastings of wine, I drove to my next destination in Stow still sober.While on the way to the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, I found an interesting small corner park on the corner of Great Road and Hartley Road with the war memorial on it.

I parked at the end of White Pond Road (blocked by a gate) to enter the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge.  Before entering, I decided to take a few pictures of Assabet River which I had just crossed.

The route I took, which was mostly in Maynard, is shown below in pink.

I walked down White Pond Road until its intersection with Harry's Way. It was in this area that I happened upon an interesting frog in the middle of the road.

Following Harry's Way all the way down to the visitor center, I saw a few WWII bunkers along the way.

WWII Bunker

At the Visitor's Center, I saw several stuffed animals and decided to take pictures because I could not find the real things out in the wild.

I then turned left onto Winterberry Way, heading back into the refuge by turning left into Taylor Way. While walking back to my car, the terrain on my right was completely marshland, and I also happened upon a rabbit, who became too scared to move as I approached, allowing me to take my time to take pictures.

Back on the road, I visited a few other places in Stow before deciding to head for dinner, including the Union Church of Stow, The Collings Foundation on Barton Road, which organizes airshows nationwide and Lake Boon along Pine Point Road, where I was right next to the water in my car and took pictures from there.

The Collings Foundation

Union Church of Stow

Lake Boon

I decided to end my day of sightseeing in the 3rd circle by heading to Giuseppe's Grille in Northborough for dinner. This place serves great Italian food, and has outdoor seating right next to Solomon Pond.

My Dinner

View of Solomon Pond

After dinner, it was still light out, so I decided to take this opportunity to take a few pictures in my hometown of Shrewsbury. I passed by Ski Ward on my way, which is usually a small skiing area during winter, but currently has tube slides and snowboarding ramps even during the summer months.

Ski Ward

Tubing and Snowboarding in summer

The ski slope

Dean Park on Main Street between General Avenue and Towbridge Lane was my next destination. This is a pretty big park with all sorts of recreational facilities, but also a beautiful pond, Dean Pond, with fountains.

Canadian Geese at Dean Park

Fountain in Dean Pond

With that, I was finally done for the day. Till tomorrow.