Today we took a trip to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Preserve in Concord. Congress closed it of course. But the anti-authoritarian Zak gene kicked in and we hopped the chain. This is a place we used to go during our courtship, and baby Leda has been there in her baby-jogger <3. This is a sizable chunk of wetlands, with a flat trail around and across it. Kristine mentioned the blueness of the sky, the color a few fallen leaves — sort of noticing the natural beauty in a way Leda did at age 1, though not being in a stroller, Kristine was not able to kick her foot up and down with approval.
You can observe in the background that there is very little color foliage so far. So all leaf-peepers who cam to Boston don't have much to cheer about. There are also bugs and what I assume are little toads chirping, so Mother Nature is definitely nowhere near settling down for a winter nap. Wonder why that could be.
Being a holiday, there was a lot of good people-watching from our seats outside the downtown Peets .. swarms of teens milling around Bertucci's pizza and the like. There is a walking/running/biking trail which connects all these town centers on a retired rail bed … Nancy Mack enjoyed the Minuteman Trail during her time in Lexington, so it’s probably fair to say the Chipman Trail has New England roots.
Seize Joy 
For Dr. Sunshine….I’d love to take credit for the Lexington Trail, but I had nothing to do with it. Only the Chipman Trail and Downtown Riverwalk in Pullman. We lived in Lexington for a year and loved the conservation lands in each direction. It was a new walk every day, almost. Thanks for pumping me up (my head’s about ready for those MRI machines), but I must correct your factoid that I worked on trails in Massachusetts.
S’wonderful to see you outside. I was thinking of you today as I walked from the church to the music building. The sky was a wonderful blue and it was literally raining leaves. I was thinking about surprising gifts, wondering why we find such endless charm in the autumn colors, why nature (or God) chose to create such a glorious end to the summer and wishing you could be out walking in it. What a delight to discover that you were!
So glad to hear you escaped the hospital room and got to jump the chain to visit the wetlands.
The trees outside the studio are lovely yellow and the sky is bright Palouse blue. Some nice bright red bushes around town, too. Hope the colors are still here to welcome you home.