what the pilgrims saw

....and where the Wampanoag lived.

As I took Calley for our favorite walk through the Beaver Pond watershed yesterday it dawned on me. Early settlers walked here. Stone walls snake through this dense woods. It's hard to imagine open field here but the walls prove it. Having just repaired one of our stone walls, heaving rocks back in place, I know what hard work this is.

Then I thought about the native people who lived here. Who ran silently over this oak leaf bedded path. Who stalked the birds on this pond. Who caught wild things in this very woods, who slept here.

And they ALL caught turkeys! The offspring of those early birds hold up traffic on Bedford Road now. Commuters speeding to work, who cut through Lincoln to get to Rt. 128 suddenly experience a back up of traffic. Craning their necks out the car window they see the reason. A flock of turkeys is making its way across the road at the top of Lincoln hill taking their own sweet time getting from Flint's Field to Sandy Pond. I can imagine what those drivers are thinking. Here is another reason to curse this town full of conservationists! They don't salt the roads in the winter, are slow to repair pot holes and now there are turkeys everywhere! I like the turkeys as a traffic deterrent. They do a better job than any speed bump for slowing traffic or getting rid of it all together.

I'd like to wrap this up with a neat idea about turkeys, community, stone walls, traffic, waiting together while turkeys cross, coming together to eat turkey. I know there is an idea here but I can't tease it out now. I have to put the turkey in the oven.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.