Jane and I have our own little place in the city. After a tumultous year of our lives - almost exactly one year to the day since we made our long drive up from Baltimore with Charlotte in the backseat - we made a much quicker move a few blocks down the street, trading our tiny one-room apartment for a little condo in an old brownstone building on the edge of Brookline just across the Muddy River. With a year under our belts, we rejoice in the little cycles of nature that are re-emerging like old friends: the hydrangeas blooming in showy blue, white, and pink clusters all throughout the city. The lushness of the Emerald Necklace on my morning meander toward the hospital. The rapid and reliable downpour that relieves each muggy summer afternoon. It’s beginning to feel, thankfully, like a familiar place (emphasis on beginning). Our jobs are busy as always, but in between work commitments, our days and nights are filled with little novelties and new beginnings, like installing the window AC, filling the back deck with houseplants, and assembling a king bed from scratch. And all the while, still walking and exploring, eyes and heart open to possibility, trying our very best to understand this thing we’re building, these roots we’re putting down, this place we find ourselves calling home.
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July 5, 2021: A casual holiday ramble on my own, from Brookline straight into the heart of the city along the Emerald Necklace. What felt like an adventure a year ago feels like a routine stroll now. I stop in three bookstores, buying J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine and a collection of poetry by Gary Snyder, before walking all the way to Seaport, and from there along the water up to the North End for lunch.
July 14, 2021: A morning stroll down the other end of the Necklace, to Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum before getting lunch in Jamaica Plain. Off the beaten path, there is a wealth of urban greenery and wild landscape even in the confines of the city.
July 17, 2021: A weekend visit to the Franklin Park Zoo with Jane. Our second visit to the Zoo, and first since August 2009. Surprisingly little has changed; we take some selfies with the animals for old times’ sake, and get our favorite Dippin’ Dots (banana split) to share, just as we did twelve years ago.
