magid

I find it too easy to stay home when I don’t have particular reasons to leave the house, but I’m trying to resist this. It took until late afternoon for me to get out, though. I headed out Brattle St.; it’s where I defaulted to walking during the early days of the pandemic, because it’s very pretty with all the historic houses, plus the trees and other greenery make it feel more spacious. This afternoon felt similar because there was so little traffic, likely not only because of the holiday but also due to the cold winds blowing.

The houses were pretty in their Christmas decorations, which tended towards little white fairy lights, swags of fresh greenery along fences, and various bows and wreaths, very understated compared to some. I was surprised to note three houses for sale on Brattle St. just between Longfellow House and Fayerweather St. That seems like a lot of turnover at once.

I found what I thought might be a foreign coin (the color was too brassy to be US currency), but turned out to be a vacuum token. I couldn’t figure it out until I got home and thought to check the obverse: apparently carwashes can have vacuum tokens.

I visited one of the biggest trees I know of in Cambridge, at 12 Reservoir St. It’s gorgeous (but not on the city’s map of trees***, because it’s on private land, not public).

I saw turkeys twice: the first was a pair on Sparks St., while the second was a group of 15 on Craigie St. It seemed to me that they were all hens, no males at all. Happily, they went about their own business without interacting with the humans nearby.

I went down Berkeley St., which gave me the chance to visit one of my favorite historical markers, at the house where the future Thai Princess Mother Sangwan Talapat lived from September 1919 to April 1920. It’s fifth on this list of the Massachusetts Trail of Thai Royalty.

And then home in the gloaming, thinking about my options for lunch.

* I know it should be Newtonmas**, but given his achievements, ‘mass’ feels more appropriate. (It would’ve been even more appropriate had I managed to walk to Newton, though.)

** Clara Barton was also born on December 25, but no one uses Bartonmas/Bartonmass (she grew up in MA, even, having been born in North Oxford). (More about her accomplishments from Wikipedia.)

*** This is from the city’s open data sets, which includes a whole lot of information, even including lists and maintenance of public art and sidewalk poetry.