It is so beautiful and peaceful here. We had breakfast at the guest house and then went to the farmer's market in Williamstown, where we bought local ham, fennel pollen goat's cheese, fresh tomatoes, bottled pickled green beans, honeycrisp apples, and blackberry/raspberry/rhubarb jam, aiming to have dinner at home tonight with soughdough bread and red wine. I think we will be the only ones picnicking here, enjoying the lovely house and the views.
We spoke with a mother and daughter at breakfast. The mother is a psychologist from New York visiting her daughter who is attending the Williams College in town. It is typical of many of the small liberal arts colleges in America. Only 600 in her "class" (ie her year) so that means fewer than 2000 undergrad students all together, learning in a beautiful setting of amazing buildings (it feels like a movie set of a perfect New England town). We visited "The Clark", a privately endowed institute of art on the edge of town, with a world class art collection, especially of French impressionists - plus just a few by Turner, Constable, della Francesca, Ghirlandaio, Memling etc etc... You can see all their holdings online, all paid for by the Singer Sewing Machine magnate who bought a lot of the collection and then built the gallery for them.
But Geoff was most impressed not by the art but the beautiful modern extension and the landscape. You can see this in his photos today.