Autumn is my favorite season

I feel so fortunate to finally live in an area of Boston in which one can appropriately appreciate the joys of autumn. The park is lovely, of course, but most people here don't see it in their daily lives. I, however, am lucky enough to walk down a tree-lined bike path every morning on my way to work. I know i have remarked on the luxury before, detailing the happy dogs and dog owners playing with one another, the parents walking their babies. It is a beautiful place to enjoy the lush green leaves of the summer, and now the bright but soft yellow of autumn. The rich combination of browns, reds, yellows, and greens greets me with a wide mouth to a narrowing path that envelopes me with a canopy of shelter from the rain and bright sun. I love trees.

It always makes me nostalgic for the woods of Maine in autumn. But at least i live near something that can make me nostalgic.

Fortunately, we also live within a 13 minute drive of the Middlesex Fellsway, a 2000+ acre nature preserve/park where doggies and their owners go to play. There is a big gorgeous green clearing where most of them hang out. But off the beaten path are mountain bike trails that would make you swear you were in the middle of nowhere, were it not for the occasional sound of 93. For the most part, you simply hear the breeze rustle through the trees, the Canadian geese flying or resting overhead, the chipmunks and squirrels dashing from limb to limb, and a distant duck washing in the reservoir. As daN and i walked with our hands in our pockets (would have been hand it hand were it not for the welcome briskness in the air, even on a warm day like yesterday), the sun filtered through the leaves, flickering in patterns familiar but undiscernable and echanting dances, ancient and precious.

As the paths junctured and diverged, we even got a little lost, wandering amidst hills, rocky streams, the most amazing smell of combination forest -- the clearing, full smell of conifers with the organic smell of passing decidicous trees. I hiked up and down, across, through winding paths along which we encountered wonders all the way.

We were gone about two hours, just before the sun threatened to dip below the horizon and lick the dew of evening. My legs were a little sore, but my feet were not, since they got the rare chance to walk on actual earth, where different parts of the sole were challenged at every step. My feet needed it, and my soul did too.