A Walk around Town - Happiness and Contentment

November 18, 2022, noon temperature 44 and sunny with a brisk little breeze. My dog Uma and I have just come back from our morning walk around town, about 4000 steps or 2 miles. I have to credit her with this good new habit because when I would malinger, she will not let me off the hook! And I have grown to really love this slow ramble through the town and the seasons and the years. Some of the things I have seen are the change over of the lawn ornaments with the seasons, all the Halloween stuff is down and only the pumpkins remain for Thanksgiving. There are even two early birds who have put their Christmas lawn ornaments up and I don't blame them one bit. It is freezing cold after Thanksgiving but relatively mild just now and more friendly to hands and face and feet to do the outdoor decor now. My favorites are the 3 dimensional snow men and lit up reindeer. My least favorites are the new popular air pump fabric ones which tend to wilt into what looks like laundry on the lawn.

Each day we pass the school yard and I marvel at the screaming that goes on, high pitched squeals and blood curdling screams. I always think I should record it, I don't know why, just because it is an auditory marvel. They just let go, the kids, and sound out in unself-conscious shrieks. I don't think I ever have, myself.

It is also interesting to see the seasons change the row of 60 to 70 Cherry trees that line the railroad tracks on Station Ave from Kings Highway down to Northmont. In spring they are blushing in pink blossoms, verdent green in summer, fiery red and orange in late autumn and bare until snow comes along to give them lace collars and cuffs. And speaking of trees, there is my favorite the giant Willow Oak that faces the Cherry Trees. It has long slim blades for leaves in summer, large bulging knuckles of roots popping up from the ground covered with iridescent green mold in damp weather and a surprising array of fungi growing in its folds in season. The huge trunk rises in a spiral like coiled rope up up over the rooftops. I have done many paintings of this tree!

It is always amazing to see the things people throw away on Friday, trash day. I have been the beneficiary of this cast off largesse on various occasions: a perfectly nice polite windsor chair that needed only a bit of wood glue on a rung that had sprung loose from its mooring and which now sits in my kitchen, repaired and comfortable in its new home and grateful to have been spared the land fill grave. There is a humble and practical little table with a drawer, a shelf, and wing arms, that can be raised or lowered, that sits in front of my sofa, offering its gratitude for the rescue that saved it from the land fill as well. I have rescued a serviceable book case, a nice wooden desk chair, a small garden table and once, an entire set of garden chairs of the type that had the picket fence post backs. That garden set, sadly, is long gone. Many coats of oxblood red paint kept it serviceable until wood rot finally defeated us.

Most recently I rescued a pine cone Christmas wreath, painted red, which I hope to re-home at the Woodbury Friends Meeting on the back door. If they don't want it, my porch will accept this refugee from a family move. Somehow, I anthropomorphise objets until they almost speak to me; "Save Me" they cry from the curb. Over the summer I rescued a beautiful old weathered wicker basket with an unraveled wicker handle that only needed the wicker parts of the handle removed to reveal a nice solid bent-wood handle beneath. It is on my patio with a plant in it, happy to have a new home and a new life.

It is rare for me to pick up anything these days, however, because I am in the paring down phase of my life. I have everything I need and far more than I want. Trash day offers a cornucopia of astonishing items however, which I am sure the scavengers retrieve before it is too late and the metal teeth of the trash machine grind and swallow them. I have seen entire dining room sets, many many kinds of perfectly useable tables, and even sad little tableaux of what I assume to be the possessions of recently deceased grandmothers and grandfathers, such as a white wicker chair I once saw with a matching white wicker basket filled with colored skeins of yarn and knitting needles. A couple of chintz pillows indented by someone's back and posterior sat forlornly waiting for the person who used to sit and knit to return.

There are flower beds I enjoy visiting as well; around the corner is Mark's joyful half block long bed of seasonal flowers, yellow daisies, purple spears, red roses, all sorts of flowers whose names I don't know. It is a special treat to visit this little garden border every day. There are other trees I like to visit too, three lovely tall young pines, fifteen years old, fragrant and dropping pine cones in season.

I have my favorite houses, too, to visit. and sometimes a neighbor is out. We have watched a neighbor on Northmont for MONTHS, rebuilding the woooden dam that holds his raised lawn. The old wooden frame had rotted and he took it out, sunk new posts in cement, dug out the dirt, installed wooden sheets to hold the dirt back ntil the cement could harden, and I presume he will fill it in again before the snow, but who knows? He built new steps in the meantime.This neighbor has a dog who looks identical to mine, probably another yellow Lab mix. Mine is a husky lab mix of a creamy white that darkens to a pale caramel on her back and ears. She has enormous brown eyes and a large pinkish nose and huge snow shoe paws. We visit other dogs on our way, too, a nice shepherd on Green, and we had two favorite little Boston Terriers we visited daily but they moved this summer.

Happiness really does lie in your own backyard. I try to make it a point to take note of when I feel happy, and I always feel happy after Uma and I have taken our neighborhood walk each day. In fact, before I injured my knee early this week, we had taken to doing two walks a day, our usual morning one when we greet the postal carrier and the trash collectors, and an afternoon walk. As soon as I am recovered completely I plan to go back to two walks a day again. I hope this little ramble inspires you to go out and walk around your town!

Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com