Weltanschauung Experience

Yesterday’s sunshine and temp of 72 degrees called our creaky knees and aerobically deficient bodies outside.
A good thing, too, since now that our nights are plunging into the 40s, all I can think about is putting on socks and making soup. (Full disclosure, last week I socked away a vat each of beef vegetable and chicken noodle in the big freezer downstairs.)

          The days, though, are still beautiful. In the afternoon, once everything’s warmed up, you could almost convince yourself that it’s summer, as long as you divert your eyes from that one early branch with its orange leaves. 

          It’s a bit of a drive, but we chose the bike path in Northampton. It’s a good straight one, even if the beginning is a gradual sneaky hill that can rattle the resolve of someone (who will remain nameless) whose only biking skill is coasting. 

          Northampton is a Mecca for alternative life styles and creative thinking, and so I was delighted, but not surprised, by this rest stop we found halfway down the path. 

It was a big handcrafted stone bench tucked into a glade of bushes and offered any number of conveniences. 

 

You could freshen your tires 

   and recycle

your traveling

trash. 

Apparently, you could even make a phone call,

   but don't forget to contribute to the 

  general effort. 

 

And typical of Northampton, this was a haven welcoming to all: