Perfect Moments

The sun warm on the skin, the air chilled, the wind strong and steady, only a few people out and about at low tide - a great moment to appreciate the natural world here in southeast Massachusetts.

To me, it is a special feeling to have the warm sun and the cool wind on one's skin - a singularly great thing - except that's really two things isn't it?

And I'm particularly fond of golden light on a late afternoon in fall.

And long shadows tilting through a forest, chipmunks scampering, the aromatic scent of pine trees and the soft give of their needles underfoot.

Sunday Drive, Southeast Massachusetts, USA

There is something special, even timeless, about taking a beautiful drive on a two-lane country road in southeast Massachusetts. And it doesn't really  matter whether it is on a Sunday or not. The roads I especially like are particularly beautiful and typical for this area.

Southeast Massachusetts offers four distinct and intense seasons that leave no doubt about each of their main features:
Summer - warm, wet, lush, green.
Fall - crisp, breezy, a riot of color. 
Winter - bright, cold, nor'easters, snow and wind.
Spring - explosion of new life, color, and growth.

What a treat to start the car, roll down the windows, crank up the music, and cruise on lightly traveled roads at 25-30 mph through mixed oak, maple, and pine forests alongside natural wetlands while the music provides a soundtrack to my life. It's like being twenty-something again with my first car when the world was fresh and new and the possibilities in life were endless. (Except nowadays it's more comfortable than a used 1966 Volkswagen beetle with high mileage and a hole in the floorboard behind the front seat.....)

Plymouth County and its half million people are dotted all along the southeast coast of Massachusetts from south of Boston to the north of Cape Cod. Unlike when traveling in many foreign countries, in theory in the United States, each pedestrian has the right-of-way when crossing in a posted crosswalk - but I still look both ways and step out cautiously.

Spring, Southeast Massachusetts, USA

Southeast Massachusetts is a beautiful place on our planet.

A house by the sea .....

....and wild turkeys running free.....

....and skittering rabbits attempting to flee....

...and freshwater ponds by the thousands.....

....and saltwater beaches by the hundreds....

....and old, graceful bridges....

....and four distinct seasons .....

....and sadly, a bright blue teddy bear tied fast to the handlebars and abandoned by a young human friend, left alone to whatever may come.

Random Sights, Southeast Massachusetts, USA

Random sights along the southeast coast of Massachusetts between Plymouth and Sandwich.

This is how we try to fix bluff erosion - lots of money and lots of rocks and lots of time, painstakingly building a rock wall to hold back the sea.

Southeast Massachusetts, USA

A New England summer is short-lived but when it's happening, nature celebrates with an explosion of color.  From the early morning before sunrise........

.....to the actual sunrise

....to flowers overflowing shopping center light poles

....to curbside planters

.....New England is awash in color, climaxing with the grand finale every Fall.