A historic walk

This morning was pretty chilly (nearly 22 degrees) but that didn’t stop us from walking around in the woods. Most of the snow is gone but the trail where we walked still has some ice. We were well prepared for our walk since we brought along the cleats that Nancy gave us a while back. The cleats are great and they gave us traction as we walked on the ice (Atenas was the only one sliding but she didn’t mind).

We walked on the old railroad bed. Atenas was running around and enjoyed sniffing around all the new smells that came out since the snow melted. We walked less than a mile when the railroad bed came to an end and we decided to take a right turn. We came across the Old Manse which was built in 1770 by Rev. William Emerson. Rev. Emerson and his family witnessed the fight at the North Bridge which was the opening battle of the American Revolution. We knew we lived in a very historic place, but hadn’t realized we were SO close to where it all began!

The Old Manse:

This bridge is a recent restoration (summer 2005) of the bridge build in 1956. The 1956 bridge is the fifth bridge built there; the original “battle bridge” of 1775 was taken down in 1788.

The North Bridge:

Civil war cannons were melted to create this cast bronze sculpture:

Is spring around the corner?

Locals say that when winter is almost over, we usually get a bad winter storm. Hopefully last Monday’s winter storm was the last one of the season! We shoveled the driveway four times on Monday and were pretty sore the next day. I shoveled a path in our backyard so that Atenas could walk thru it into the back road. The back road rarely has traffic so it is perfect for her to run around and explore the territory.

This morning, Cameron, Atenas and I walked around the crop fields behind our house and into the woods. We walked in what appears to be an old railroad bed and we also crossed a small stream (the sound of running water is so calming). The weather was perfect and most of the snow is thawing out; we ended up with our boots all muddy and wet but it was worth it! We were pretty hungry by the end of our walk and had our traditional Saturday breakfast: pancakes.

Here are some pictures that were taken last Tuesday.

This is the path that I shoveled in our backyard. Atenas was right behind me as I was shoveling; I guess she was anxious to run around in the back road:

This is on our way to the old railroad bed:

The crop fields and our house (in the middle):

On the old railroad bed:

Atenas’s tiny paw prints: