BLAZING NEW TRAILS

On the day I moved to my new home, everything went beautifully, calmly and quickly, EXCEPT for a disaster of epic proportions requiring me to replace my entire bed....there is no way to describe how much I loved that bed....my haven, always welcoming me to its place of healing and luxurious comfort. After son Jason, friend Jake, and LM got all my belongings in to my new space, we had to hurry off to the bedding store so I could quickly choose from the paltry items they had in stock, in order for me to have a place to sleep that night.  Barely clinging to my sanity, I tenaciously held all the pain in my throat as I followed Jason in his truck.  Ever alert to the natural world for a place of solace, I spotted the signs for Lyman Reserve along the way, and thought, aha, a place to heal. I had been imaging long walks in a wooded setting as a way to soothe my soul as I settle in to my new life. Lyman Reserve has been just the place to heal, discover and energize!  We've (LM and I) already walked one half, and to our delight, it took us to a lovely salt-water bay that we already knew well from the other side.  The photo above shows the house on the site, that belonged for so many generations in the Lyman family as a "camp" for fishing trips.  It has beautiful Georgian lines and we look forward to an open-house inside in November of this year!

A lovely old barn and out-buildings at the left rear of the house. The front is adorned with quite a nice collection of birdhouses.

The view from the back of the house

Behind the barn is a little brackish pond

At my first glance down the trail behind the barn, tears of joy filled my eyes, as this was just what my healing mind needed.

Hmmmmm....who lives in there??

The warm sun created the most beautifully scented pathway to the bay.

Scalloped mushrooms!

Coming to the bay

Tis the season for rose hips

Some lingering rosa rugosa added their lovely scent to the sea-scented air.

As we walked around the point to make our return, we had this lovely view back to the path.

Lovely lichen....heralding, dare I say, Fall.

Back to the path....all ours on this beautiful day. We will most certainly be back to walk the rest of the trails in this most special place.

Property History

Named for water tinted red by the iron-rich soil near its source, Red Brook has been used by humans for nearly two millennia. Archaeological studies indicate that the area was an important encampment for Wampanoags some 1,800 years ago. Those who camped at Red Brook used clay cooking pots, sharpened stone blades, and ate seafood, deer meat, and other game.

European settlers had different uses for the land. Pitch pine was processed into tar, herring and alewife were caught during their spring runs, and bogs were mined for iron ore then planted with cranberries. The land was finally settled by Uriah Nickerson in the 1830s. The Lyman house, located across the street from the parking lot, was built in 1840 by the Nickerson family.

The Theodore Lyman Reserve honors the naturalist who, in 1867, first experienced Red Brook during a site visit for the Massachusetts Board of Inland Fisheries. For the next 30 years, Theodore Lyman III (1833 – 1897) worked to protect Red Brook by purchasing parcels of land on both sides from source to mouth. He eventually acquired a total of 638 acres, and for six generations the Lyman family used the area as a fishing camp, drawn by the “salters” that still run this course. In 2001, the Lyman family generously donated the entire Red Brook property to ensure its protection in perpetuity.

Lyman’s legacy is preserved in the form of the 638-acre Red Brook Reserve, which is comprised of the 210-acre Trustees reservation, and the 428-acre Red Brook Wildlife Management Area, supervised by the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Management for the entire reserve is overseen by The Trustees, Mass DFW, and our conservation partner, Trout Unlimited.

Property Acquisition History
Gift of the Lyman family in 2001.
  http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/southeast-ma/lyman-reserve.html

Thanks for joining us on this special afternoon.....we have been having such fun exploring new places to walk and soothe our souls. And, by the way, I did find a new bed that day, and after a few nights being "Princess and the Pea" (believe me, I heartily mumbled and complained about how it could never compare with its predecessor).......I now love the new set-up and look forward to my nights.

Sending you love and peace!!