Summer Stroll

      Now that I could move again without grabbing the nearest object to stand frozen in agony until the back spasm ended, I decided it was high time to try going for a walk. 

     Nothing too ambitious, just a stroll through town to get those forgotten body parts moving again. Otherwise, after so much time sitting - actually, lying - around waiting for my back to mend, I was afraid I would start resembling too many of those soft white foods that probably got me here in the first place. 

          I’ve provided you with a travelogue of one of my walking routes before (Small Town Stroll) , so I thought this time I’d give you a glimpse of the other end of town. 

          Living off of a steep hill means that I usually drive before I walk. I always park at the big church on Main Street and then decide which direction looks good that day.

          I plugged in my audio book, adjusted my sunglasses, and off I went.

 

          Much of the route down Main Street is lined with big white frame houses, many pre-Revolutionary. 

   

       I passed Gazebo Park, a patch of land where the Garden Club offers cuttings from local yards in the early spring. 

          I veered off course to cut by the small shopping area (actually just a pizza shop, a hairdresser, a dentist and a bank) tucked off of Main Street, and our library hidden off to the right, 

 

so I could stroll through the other small memorial park that sits right in the center of town. 

 

         

      

 Then comes the Village Store, less store than coffee shop, 

where weighty problems – local, international, and just plain silly – are debated every morning by the regulars. It also sees a steady stream of young mothers with strollers, ladies having lunch, and waves of kids from the private academy a stone’s throw away. 

 

     

     Soon I pass the Atheneum, where artifacts and memorabilia from the history of our town are stored and displayed. You can snag some great cookies there when the Art League has a display, and in winter the mulled cider is definitely worth a stop.

          And then I’m on the campus of the academy, a day and boarding prep school for both US and a large number of students from overseas. 

 

You can see the evidence of this in the memorial bricks each graduating class adds to the walls on campus.  I always wonder what the school will do when they run out of wall.

  

 

         

  

     The rest of my route takes me around the academy playing fields and then back up to Main.

          I returned to my car, and before going home, followed the street to my favorite farm stand in the whole world for corn grown just yards away and picked that morning. 

        Locals know to just weigh

and bag up what we want and leave the money, but this time the producer himself was there.
          A summer afternoon walk and fresh corn for dinner. 
          Hard to beat that.