It was a near thing whether I went on this one–we got a half foot of snow yesterday, temps were expected to top out around 25 today, and it was a new group and a new place for me. On the other hand, I had been looking forward to going for most of the week, and wimping out seemed like it would make a poor start to the year.
It was a nice drive up. Boston’s North Shore is ridiculously attractive in many places. Towns look like the setting for a Hallmark movie, dignified Colonial four-square architecture heavily frosted with new snow, many of them still with Christmas decorations. Shivering in the parking lot while waiting for the group to assemble, I wondered if I should have restricted myself to driving around. Then we climbed over the dune to the beach, and I decided that I didn’t care if my hands were already numb.
Crane Beach, Ipswich, MA
After a bit we curved away from the beach onto one of the dune trails, and it was less cold. We wound up and down for several miles, and through places where the snow had bowed nearby branches into a low tunnel. There was so much glare, it was hard to tell what I was taking pictures of, but I tried.
Although I have still been bothered by the lingering effects of my newfound allergy, it has been a good week. I’ve knitted most of a shawl, read some Solnit, and gotten more or less back into the routines of work and school. This weekend is going to involve getting down to cases with editing again.
R Jean Stevenson 