Many apologies for the lack of posts during the last couple of weeks. No, we haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, we've just been "super busy" as the Americans like to say.

Loads has happened since I last posted but before I start to bring you up to date I have to retrace my steps back to our holiday. On reading the blog Barry pointed out that I missed out an important stop on our holiday so I shall attempt to put that right.

En route from Williamstown and the Berkshires towards southern Vermont we stopped at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. MASS MoCA as it is commonly known had been recommended to us by a couple staying at our hotel so we thought we should drop in.

MASS MoCA is in a former industrial mill town called North Adams. The museum is on the site of what was once one of the biggest textile mills in the world employing around 17,000 people. The site is enormous and the exhibits are spread out in a variety of different old warehouses and factory buildings with some exhibits outside.

The exhibit said to be a must-see was The Phoenix by a Chinese artist named Xu Bing. This huge installation is actually two phoenix (what's the plural of phoenix?) constructed entirely from recycled products. The structures are surprisingly beautiful and graceful and were worth the entrance fee on their own. They are going to New York after their time at MASS MoCA so they are high profile works of art. The other exhibit we particularly liked was a series of "totems" which were in the grounds outside and would not have looked out of place in a Dr Who episode.