Dispensation from Heaven

Great Brook Farm State Park, Massachusetts   

We have felt that we almost alone hereabouts practiced this noble art;
though, to tell the truth,
at least if their own assertions are to be received,
most of my townsmen would fain walk sometimes, as I do, but they cannot.

No wealth can buy the requisite leisure,
freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession.

It comes only by the grace of God.
It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker...

HENRY D. THOREAU, Walking

Of Looks and Peeks

Estabrook Woods, Concord, Massachusetts   

The name comes from Thoreau who, in June of 1853 in his journal,
   reflected on the area, and proposed the name Estabrook Country for IT.

Rarely talked about in public,
 this piece of land is owned by the stewards of the woods to protect IT as a nature preserve.

And here I am,
  with the thoughts on a thoroughly revealing message from the Estabrook Council:

   Visiting most of Estabrook Woods is a privilege and not a right. 

 

A Point of View

Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, Massachusetts   

 I can see Wachusett from the Drumlin in Lincoln.
 Not that far away from Fair Heaven Hill,
  from where Thoreau looked at the mountain and contemplated about that blue rim of the earth.

 The times have changed but the mountain still stands as the lookout of the state.
 The point where many come for the views of distant places.
 
 To the south, north, west, and east. It is all there when the skies are blue.
 
 And then there is a sudden desire to climb to the top and look around... 

Coloring

Charles W. Ward Reservation, Andover, Massachusetts

How beautiful,
when a whole tree is like one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices,
every leaf, from lowest limb to topmost spire, all aglow,
especially if you look toward the sun!

What more remarkable object can there be in the landscape?...

If such a phenomenon occurred but once,
it would be handed down by tradition to posterity, and get into the mythology at last...

HENRY D. THOREAU, Autumnal Tints