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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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?” […]