Already it’s November. The nights grow longer, the weather grows cooler. I am reluctant to pull out my winter coat, but I know that these crisp days will soon yield to chilly ones. When I step outside, the cold air’s bite makes me want to spend as much time as I can outdoors, before my […]
The Winter Solstice: Bringing Light To The Darkness
Bare winter trees. It’s 4 p.m., and as I look into the trees outside my office window, I see nothing but darkness. The sun has not yet set, but heavy thunderclouds conceal what weak light remains in the dull December sky. Another fleeting late autumn day has passed. In these weeks approaching the Winter Solstice, […]
A New View From The Mountaintop
Mount Norwottuck Five and a half years ago, my friend Ted led me on a hike up Norwottuck, a small mountain in Massachusetts’s Holyoke Range. I had climbed Norwottuck many times before — the trailhead was across the street from my college dorm — but with Ted I experienced the mountain in a different way. […]
Good Friends Save The Day
The North River at Couch Beach. Our canoe trip on the North River began smoothly enough: it was a sunny, unseasonably warm October day, with fall foliage at its peak. We had the rising tide in our favor, and the wind seemed mild. Launching from the Union Street Bridge, we headed upstream. There were twenty […]
Musings of a Creek Paddler
It’s early October, a Sunday morning, and I am paddling my kayak in a narrow creek near the mouth of the North River. The tide is high, buoying me up so that I can see far across the estuary. The woods of Marshfield Hills, with foliage just beginning to turn, provide a colorful backdrop. Meadows […]
Thoughts from Fourth Cliff
The view from Fourth Cliff. It’s 7:30 AM, and I am standing on a second floor balcony at the top of Humarock’s Fourth Cliff. The beach is a hundred foot drop below me: I can see for miles in either direction along the coastline. Scituate’s jagged line of cliffs fans out to the north, while […]
Looking Down at the Stars
Imagine this. You are outdoors on a late summer night, well past twelve. For the first time all season, the breeze is crisp, offering the first indication of autumn’s steady approach. Bundled in extra layers, you lie on your back and gaze up at the stars. The darkness of the new moon makes the constellations […]
Her Life’s Work
A young woman kneels by the riverbank, brush in hand, putting the finishing touches on a small wooden boat. She has been working on this project for years, spending time each day in her shop at the river’s edge, slowly assembling a vessel that will be exclusively her own. The boat is nearly complete. It […]
The River Girl
Looking downstream from the rope swing tree at Fox Hill Shipyard in Norwell. I spent ten days this July house-sitting in Norwell, not far from the North River. The house itself was an ideal retreat: tucked into the woods and surrounded by wildflower gardens, it featured a large screened porch, which stayed cool, even on […]
A Shift in Perspective
The North River mouth, as viewed from above. In Walden, Thoreau asked “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” While we may never be able to understand, on any deep level, what the world looks like to another person, we can however shift our […]