Summer’s Awakening in Concord

red columbine

| Dave Witherbee

The start of summer is a wonderful time of year here in Concord, with vegetation flourishing, birds and wildlife busily thriving, and warm, comfortable days inviting us outdoors. As we wander the trails and conserved lands or boat along our Wild & Scenic Rivers, we make a point of keeping our eyes open, because there is so much to see.

coyote

| Dave Witherbee

lady slipper

| Dave Witherbee

albino turkey

| Dave Witherbee

fawn in ferns

| Dave Witherbee

Parks & Nature Things to See & Do

KEYWORDS photo essay

Dave Witherbee

An Open Space for Generations: Heywood Meadow

A Referendum on Independence

The road to American independence took time to complete, and Massachusetts, despite its reputation as a vanguard state, was not always in the lead. In 1775, even after the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, most Patriot leaders were still seeking restoration of colonial rights within the British empire. Thomas Paine broke the logjam with the publication of Common Sense early the next year. The instant best-seller argued the case for separation by appealing to economic and political self-interest, emotional resentment of a brutal and oppressive king, and a utopian vision of America as “an asylum for mankind.”

A Hawthorne Homecoming

Two white horses pulled the hearse into Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a top-hatted driver at the reins. A band of mourners followed on foot as they made their way toward Authors’ Ridge.Except for the bright sunshine, this scene wouldn’t seem out of place in a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. But it happened a mere twenty years ago, on June 26, 2006. That was the day Hawthorne and his wife and daughter were reunited after his death separated them 142 years earlier.

Summer’s Awakening in Concord

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