16-April-99 Photo Shoot
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The first decent shot I got was on Lake Street, after leaving the post office, taking a left onto Walnut and a quick right past the rapid transit station and then a right on Lake.
Newton is full of houses close to 100 years old, from the days when families were bigger and when people sat on the front porch and talked to neighbors walking by. Many are painted very carefully, but this one is particularly nice.
Here's where the bridge over the rapid transit tracks is being rebuilt. I'm already past the “No Admittance - Hard Hat Zone” signs and didn't want to get any closer. Just to the left is the parking lot for the Crystal Lake bath house, the changing rooms for the city swimming area. One of the construction guys said that the job has to be finished by Memorial Day so the Rec Department can open the beach then.
If we hadn't turned right to update ourselves about the construction we would have been right next to Crystal Lake, and we get to go along the lake for almost half a mile. There are two small park areas along the shore and rapid transit tracks along the eastern side, but most of the lakefront is people's back yards. Honest, we're on my way to work. It's not the shortest route but on a bike you avoid the busy streets as much as you can. I love cycling along water, even here where are houses between me and most of Crystal Lake.
We cross Beacon Street -- it goes through the Newton Centre business district and then all the way to the State House, seven miles farther -- and continue past Mason-Rice. It's one of three elementary schools on my route. When I leave a little earlier than this I get to say hello to lots of school crossing guards.
Past Mason-Rice we turn right onto Homer Street. This is the way I think forsythia should grow, throwing sprays of color with wild abandon, like a yellow skyrocket or a bottle of champagne opened too quickly.
We cross Commonwealth Avenue on Cedar Street. This picture is looking back across it. The Public Garden, where people made way for ducklings, is at the end of Comm Ave about seven or eight miles (the street curves more than Beacon) to the left. Those are indeed big expensive houses, even for Newton.
This corner is where I've watched the Boston Marathon for the past several years. Monday when I come home from work it will be littered with hundreds of paper cups. Newton has plenty of expensive cars, but this is a little atypical. Volvos are more common than Continentals. At this point, Comm Ave has three lanes. The one closest to us, the carriage lane, is separated from the other two by a little green strip that's a good place for jogging.
The skunk cabbage in Edmands Park is uncurled and just looks like big green leaves now. The dogtooth violet leaves were up on Tuesday.
Looking back the way we came, the brook opens into a little marshy area off to the left. The trail we coasted down is in the middle of the picture.
Humpty Dumpty sits on a wall at Cabot School, a block from where we leave Edmands Park. There's a stairway between him and the wall behind.
That was the end of the roll of film. We have the length of the Cabot playground, the Lewis Terrace bridge over the Mass Pike, the length of Adams Street, and one more block to do before I'm at work.