Get out of town

Weep not that the world changes -- did it keep a stable, changeless state, it were cause indeed to weep.
William Cullen Bryant

Today, in the early afternoon, I said to Nancy, "Let's get out of town!" Well, her face lit up and within five minutes we had figured out that we'd be heading to the William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Cummington, a place neither of us had been, although Nancy had heard about the old growth forest there and had done a drawing of the main house many years ago. Click here for more information about the homestead. It was a beautiful drive, and after a stroll through a sloping meadow, we entered the cool quiet of the woods, following the Rivulet Trail. The stillness there was a richer stillness than I've experienced before in any woods (at least during the first part of the hike), and Nancy was taken with the small white flowers and red berries that dotted the myrtle-like foliage at the foot of these hundreds-of-years-old trees. An hour later, we emerged from the forest a little sweaty, heads swimming with poetry (there are a couple of poems by Bryant there in the woods), and deeply satisfied with our adventure.