Essex: Summer Sunrises

It’s been a busy summer in the city - with our jobs, with settling into our new home, and with planning for another upcoming year. We’re trying to make good use of our limited time, exploring some beautiful natural places we haven’t seen so far in our new home state.

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August 14, 2021: A brief sunrise shoot in the Harold Parker State Forest. I’ve had my eye on this location for some time, a small parking turnoff where several walking trails meet between two ponds. It turns out to be a fruitful spot; the rising sun coats the nearby pine-covered shores and curving peninsulas in a beautiful golden light. We will plan to return in the winter for snoeshowing.

August 28, 2021: A pre-dawn hike in North Andover, along the shores of Lake Cochichewick. I photograph sunrise over the lake and some of the open southward views from the top of Weir Hill. Afterward, we drive to nearby Smolak Farm for some amazing breakfast sandwiches, apple cider and cider donuts (it’s never too early; if they’re on sale, I’m buying them), and a nice walk around the grounds, spending time with the domesticated deer (watching one buck get its antlers rather stuck in the chicken wire), the resident peacock, and a potbellied big.

Cape Ann: Gloucester

A glorious midsummer’s weekend. While the days are still long, Jane and I drive up north to catch an early sunrise at Good Harbour Beach. We haven’t spent much time exploring Cape Ann’s varied coastline and charming seaside villages, so we make a lovely Saturday morning of it. After photographing a beautiful sunrise in Gloucester, we take a brief stroll in the Coolidge Reservation, photographing summer wildflowers beside Clark Pond and along the beach path to Magnolia Harbour. Our drive home takes us through Manchester-by-the Sea and Beverly Farms. After grabbing brunch at the Early Harvest Diner in Beverly, we return to Brookline in the late morning.

Boston: Urban Wilds

Jane and I have our own little place in the city. After a tumultous year of our lives - almost exactly one year to the day since we made our long drive up from Baltimore with Charlotte in the backseat - we made a much quicker move a few blocks down the street, trading our tiny one-room apartment for a little condo in an old brownstone building on the edge of Brookline just across the Muddy River. With a year under our belts, we rejoice in the little cycles of nature that are re-emerging like old friends: the hydrangeas blooming in showy blue, white, and pink clusters all throughout the city. The lushness of the Emerald Necklace on my morning meander toward the hospital. The rapid and reliable downpour that relieves each muggy summer afternoon. It’s beginning to feel, thankfully, like a familiar place (emphasis on beginning). Our jobs are busy as always, but in between work commitments, our days and nights are filled with little novelties and new beginnings, like installing the window AC, filling the back deck with houseplants, and assembling a king bed from scratch. And all the while, still walking and exploring, eyes and heart open to possibility, trying our very best to understand this thing we’re building, these roots we’re putting down, this place we find ourselves calling home.

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July 5, 2021: A casual holiday ramble on my own, from Brookline straight into the heart of the city along the Emerald Necklace. What felt like an adventure a year ago feels like a routine stroll now. I stop in three bookstores, buying J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine and a collection of poetry by Gary Snyder, before walking all the way to Seaport, and from there along the water up to the North End for lunch.

July 14, 2021: A morning stroll down the other end of the Necklace, to Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum before getting lunch in Jamaica Plain. Off the beaten path, there is a wealth of urban greenery and wild landscape even in the confines of the city.

July 17, 2021: A weekend visit to the Franklin Park Zoo with Jane. Our second visit to the Zoo, and first since August 2009. Surprisingly little has changed; we take some selfies with the animals for old times’ sake, and get our favorite Dippin’ Dots (banana split) to share, just as we did twelve years ago.