these bastards are inescapable.  Now they've all morphed into the cocoons

 And now the infernal moths.  The males flit about while the white females stay on the trees and wait for the males.

The females lay their eggs in a sac of brown webbing that'll hatch into ever more gypsy moths in the spring

Once that's done they die

Fightin' The Power while The Town Fades Away

       All over Pascoag, bright yellow lawn signs are springing up in ever greater numbers. People want no part of a new power plant in town.  Its understandable, there is one large gas powered plant hidden in the northern woods, and although the northeast's energy bills are some of the highest in the country, there is no guarantee that this proposed gasline and the power plant will benefit the town or region in any substantial way. Its a sure bet that any additional tax revenue will be quickly spent on projects that will benefit government employees, and their unions.
       Meanwhile, State Rep Keable has donned kimono and does a kabuki to prove to his constituents that he tried. I believe, based on much empirical evidence, that its a done deal.  The hearings, the protests, the angst are all for naught. Too much has been invested already by very powerful concerns. Too much groundwork has been done. The legislation proposed by Mr Keable has little chance of passing because of the precedent it would set.  If there is one thing the government of the people of Rhode Island does NOT want, its giving the people a voice.  The "opposition", such as it is,has drawn abutting property owners, "environmentalists" who're basically opposed to any by the move by the "fossil fuel industry" to keep energy at affordable prices. Relying the the "settled science"  (and pseudo-religion) of "Global Climate Change", they advocate for "Renewable Energy Sources",
ignoring the growing body of evidence that wind farms  and solar fields do great harm to the environment in very subtle ways. The microwaves that flood our immediate environs and keep us all connected have been connected to various maladies arising in wildlife. Whatever.

But Burrillville faces a much greater threat to it's identity.  More about that later.

Stone Ghosts Of Long Gone Worlds

       

        Long gone

     Forgotten, rendered obsolete by changing times.

Shaped for some long forgotten reason.

       Old Weird Pascoag........

Granite

   As the Industrial Revolution in The United States crept north up the (comparatively*) Mighty Blackstone River, following the visionary tactic of Samuel Slater, smaller entrepreneurs were harnessing the smaller tributaries, building water-powered mills further north and to the east and west.  With the mills came the mill towns. Pascoag is a mill town.
       Pascoag was carved out of granite.  It is spiked with granite ledges and glacially deposited boulders, a perfect spot to build mills.  Granite quarries dot the landscape.  Most are small, barely perceptible for what they are in the encroaching woodlands.

 Many have been destroyed as Pascoag has grown over the yrs. And of course there are a couple of rather large ones, (by Pascoag's standards).


 These quarries and the surrounding forests supplied much of the building materials for the mills, as well as bridges and banks.  The banks have long since been replaced but many bridges remain

 Quarrying was difficult dangerous work in the mid-late 1800's, and it was labor intensive.  But as noted, granite & limestone were abundant & ready sources of building material.

...........Running right through the heart of town a river runs.....and hidden from view in the overgrown underbrush lies the reminders of what once was........

 For Pascoag was once an industrial powerhouse, turning out fine woolen and worsted fabrics that were in global demand.  The readily available building materials and steady running water made it a fine locale for the mills that blossomed like dandelions around the river...

and the inevitable Mill Villages

The click-clacking looms could be heard throughout town, the railroad made several trips a week to Northern Rhode Island and nearby Mass. to fetch the choice woolens and bring them to the shipping ports for destinations that seemed like wild dreams to the millworkers and their families.

...And now....Those mighty mills are gone.....the remnants of which dot the landscape, hiding in a century's growth, right in the heart of town....