Not really lazy per se, just recreational. The garden is humming along and the plants are doing their thing. There will be a flurry of activity when it comes time to harvest, but for not it is just a bit of weeding and watering. I don’t spend much time building in the shop during the summer, so all in all, I’ve been relaxing with other activities. Sitting and reading on the beach has taken a healthy piece of my time (O.K., that is kind of lazy), but mostly I’ve been working on rehabbing my right Achilles tendon, which I had surgically repaired about three and a half months ago. Today I started back to trail running, and for my return to the trails I chose one of my favorite place: Appleton Farms. Beautiful rolling terrain mixing pasture, meadow, wetland, and wood. Oh, and Jersey cows.
Appleton is one of my favorite places, probably because the rolling pastures remind me a bit of home, or at least what home used to look like. I started at the visitor center and ran past Briar Hill where part of the herd of Jerseys had taken shelter from the heat beneath a tree. The hill itself was covered in a blanket of Queen Anne’s Lace, considered an invasive, nonnative weed by some, but a regular fixture of the New England countryside nevertheless.
I ran along the dirt farm road between the Great Pasture and The Plains before turning to the west and heading up slope along the Great Pasture toward a low stone fence the marks the boundary between open ground and the wooded Grass Rides. Along the way I was treated to a field of goldenrod (Solidago) and Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium fistulosa) in full bloom.
I turned south and followed the stone fence up slope until I crested Pigeon Hill, the highest point of the property that offers a stunning view of the farm and beyond. It is also the site of one of the four stone monuments placed in memory of members of the Appleton Family. The granite pillars are the decorative pinnacles from the top of the former Gore Hall at Harvard University which was demolished in 1912 to make way for the new library. The four pillars were gifted to the Appleton family. The pillar at the top of Pigeon Hill was placed in memory of Francis R. Appleton, Jr. (1885-1974).
Heading down from Pigeon Hill I entered back into the wooded trails that comprise the Grass Rides. Passing through low wetlands the trail emerges into a clearing called Round Point where I came upon another pinnacle from Gore Hall. This was the first to be erected in memory of an Appleton Family member, in this case, Charles L. Appleton who died of pneumonia just a few years after returning from active service in the first world war.
After circling back through the Grass Rides I retraced my steps past Pidgeon Hill, along the stone fence, through the Great Pasture and back along Briar Hill. Perhaps not a Lazy Day, but certainly one of joy and discovery. I’ll be back soon to find the other two pinnacles.
Grow, Build, Restore 