hawk

by

Nature’s Wonderland Just Past Your Doorstop


A little over 15 years ago, after I had my heart attack, I decided it was time to get off my dead ass and exercise. The only thing I could think of was jogging. I found a pond in Wakefield MA, Lake Quannapowitt, that has a path entirely around it and has a length of roughly 2.5 miles. I started out run, walk, run, walk, each day. And each day I did a little better. When I was at the top of my game, so to speak, I was able to jog around that body of water 3 times non-stop. But then I moved and had to find a new location. I actually found two, both in Cambridge, Fresh Pond and the paths along the Charles River and so I began to jog them regularly.

My knees were hurting me so I consulted my doctor who advised me to act my age, that I was not 25 anymore. He was fine with the exercise but jogging had to go and so I join a gym which was good for about a year. But I find gyms boring, really boring. It then occurred to me how much as a child I had loved bicycling. More than once I literally rode a bicycle into the ground. One time the joint at the front fork and the cross bar broke. Anyway, I bought a cheap bike, about $300 and headed off for the Minuteman Railtrail. This pathway starts in Cambridge and travels through Arlington and Lexington and ends just short of Bedford center. The trail itself is roughly ten miles in length and for the most part travels through wooded areas.

While riding the trail I noticed lots of squirrels one of which was totally black and another which was totally white, both rarities. Our local squirrels are of the common gray squirrel variety. And the of course right next to them are the chipmunks.

9031_least_chipmunk_kohl

These guys love to play chicken with you as you ride along and sad to say one was not quite so quick as he thought when I could not avoid him and ran over the little guy. It made me terribly sad.

Another creature I see quite often on this trail is the red tipped hawk.

BD0094_1l

This breed of hawk is common to our area and you see lots of them. But they own the woods along the trail and are fearless creatures. I had one alight on a pole just in front of me as I was moving along, similar to the one above, and stare me down. His obvious power and beauty are breathtaking. I could watch this bird for hours on end as he goes about his business. In flight he is a thing of beauty, barely flapping his wings as he adroitly glides on the air currents, the updrafts and the ambient winds.

One day as I was returning home on the trail I came across a rather large doe. Now I have seen lots of deer in my travel but this one was standing on a small rise a few feet away from the trail, her body parallel to the trail. I stared at her, as she was truly beautiful, and in return she snorted at me as if to say, “what are you looking at?” The picture below is a pretty good representation of just how she looked at me.

untitled

The most surprising creature I ever came across was a wolverine.

1280px-Gulo_gulo_2

Now this guy I did not see along the rail trail but caught him crossing Route 2A in Lincoln MA but yes, I was on my bicycle. I honestly did not know what I had just seen but his fur was much more brownish than the one above and he moved very quickly across that busy highway. What I have found out since about wolverines, having watch a Nat Geo (I think) story on them, is that they are elusive to the extreme and they number only about 200 in the lower 48. Unfortunately, even had I had a camera at the ready it is unlikely I could have gotten a picture of this guy as he quickly disappeared into the brush next to the road. I also found out that a wolverine can claim upwards of 300 square miles of territory. The Nat Geo story said they were thought to be extinct east of the Mississippi until the camera crew found one in Michigan. That may be the only time I will ever see this guy but it was worth the price of admission.

blue heron

The bird above is known as a great blue heron. He has a wing span of roughly 80 inches which translates to about 6 feet 8 inches! There is a marshy area along the rail trail in Lexington and right next to the Lexington land fill when this bird frequents. He is simply gorgeous and I always hope that when I come upon him standing in the swamp that he will decide to take flight and give me a great show.

Other animals I regularly see are cardinals, house cats, beavers, crows and the occasional turtle. The point is, if you ride up and down this path enough you will eventual see many of nature’s creatures in their natural habitat, and that is wonderful, always.

There is a rail trail in every state of the lower 48 and I highly recommend that you find one which suits you and travel it as much as you can. You should be both surprised and amazed at the woodland creatures you will come across in your travels. And that is a trip worth all the time and effort you can give it.

by

It Is Another Day in Paradise


Tomorrow is my birthday.  I will be 63.  I really do not like this getting older, but what then are the alternatives?  There is one really good thing about getting older, your perspective improves greatly.

When I was young, a teenager and early 20s, I felt the constant desire to be on the move.  I constantly desired to be going somewhere, doing something, seeing things.  For the most part that was a good thing.  I followed through on those desires and saw a lot of the world as it was.  I experienced many countries and many different people.  But the problem with youth is an almost complete lack of perspective.

When I was young I thought the town I grew up in was hopelessly boring.  It never occurred to me that even if that were true, and it was, that might actually be a good thing and something to be taken advantage of.  Boston attracted me but I never got further than the very entertainment areas.  That sort of visiting other places did not follow me as the years went on, fortunately.  One of the foolish feelings of youth is a sort of immortality, death is far away and not to be concerned with.  Because of that feeling I did not fear wandering into some of the more suspect areas of foreign cities without a worry in the world.  Nothing ever happened to me, fortunately, and the experiences did offer me views of life as it exists on many different levels.

The years passed and my traveling slowed down.  I slowed down too.  Slowing down, it turns out, is an extremely good thing.  People should do it more often!  It gave me the opportunity to consider everything I had done, everywhere I had been, everyone I had ever encountered.  No, I do not have a perfect memory for all my travels.  But I do remember large portions of them.  They allow me to smile.

A lot of places I have visited I would not want to live.  Not because they were dirty or ugly, unfriendly or poor, but because my spirit would  be too confined, too restricted, too limited.  Beirut is an absolutely wonderful city with extremely friendly people but it is not a place I could live for very long.  Part of the attraction to such a city is its being exotic but that is the very reason it would not be good for me.  It exists outside my comfort zone.

What does all of this have to do with paradise?  Quite simply, paradise is where you find it.  I cannot say I am very enamoured with where I am living right now but I am not far removed from much beauty and pleasure either.  I can get there quite easily by putting myself out just a little bit.

My cat is a bit of paradise too.  She is perfect, graceful, soft, beautiful.  She likes me just as I am and I her.  Consider what a gift it is to have an animal that does not mind co-existing with humans.  Most animals find us unbearable.  We have trespassed into what was formerly entirely theirs but there is nothing they can do about it.  There is a red-tailed hawk which nests on the side of a building very close to here.  From my 14th floor vantage point I can see her soaring effortlessly on the currents of air.  Such beauty is surely reserved for paradise, is it not?

Spring will be on us in a few days.  The leaves coming into bloom has always been a wonderous sight.  They emerge, as if by magic, for what looks to be dead sticks, first into flowers and then into leaves.  How did nature figure out how to do such a thing?

We will soon enter into the season of thunderstorms.  I have always called them nature’s light show.  When I lived in El Paso, I liked to go up the side of the Franklin Mountains and watch the thunderstorms as they moved across the desert below.  Even here in Cambridge, my window on the world allow me a great view of the magnificent bolts of lightning as the streak through the clouds to the earth below.

Only in paradise can you get entertainment daily and it costs nothing save the time you take to enjoy it.  While walking in the rain recently with a friend I commented on how I love a rainy day.  The rain, water of course, is one of the basics of life.  How can you possibly dislike something that is responsible for your very being?

Some years ago I was calling a friend’s house and I would frequently get his answering machine.  His message started “It’s another glorious day in paradise.”  At first I found his message totally annoying.  But that was only because I had not taken the time to consider the truthfulness of it.  Now I have and I invite everyone to consider it as well.  We do live in paradise.  It is here for us to enjoy.  But the only way to enjoy it is to recognize it.  I submit that paradise is all around us.  Do not look any further.  It has found you and now you need to find it.