Author: Loree Burns

My last two entries in the Images from Home series are all about relaxing here at the Burns homestead. It is, after all, Independence Day weekend … and there shall be lots of celebrating and relaxing.

One of our favorite places to relax and celebrate is around this campfire pit.

Can you guess what three ingredients we stack on the flat stump in the foreground? Here are your clues:

One ingredient is white and squisy;

One ingredient is tan and crumbly;

One ingredient is brown and heavenly.

May your July Fourth celebrations be full of family and friends … and s’mores!

Around the corner and across the street from our house, there is a nondescript dirt trail that leads to one of my favorite places in this town of ours: the Central Massachusetts Rail Trail.

Our section of the trail stretches two plus miles and is just a small part of a 104 mile railroad line that once connected Boston to Northampton. The hope is to someday connect all of Massachusetts with this recreational throughway, but for now individual communities along the old railway’s length are working to dig out and open up the bits they can. Where we live, the Central Mass Rail Trail is tirelessly supported and cared for by an amazing grassroots organization called Wachusett Greenways. They rock.

I took this photo on Tuesday evening, which was stormy here. It is unusual for the path to be this deserted … but it was dreamy to have the silent woods to ourselves.

Two more days of Images from Home to come … be sure to visit Cindy Lord’s blog for a <a href=http://cynthialord.livejournal.com/423718.html target=_blankcomplete list of authors and illustrators who are sharing the places they call home online.

Today’s Image From Home is of the Quinapoxet, a clear, swift river that runs near our house. In the happy months (for me, that’s spring, summer, and fall!), we tromp along its banks regularly in search of frogs, water striders, trout, Great Blue Heron, or quiet moments to cool our feet.

The Quinapoxet feeds the mighty Wachusett Reservoir, and so there is no swimming allowed. Toe-dipping, however, is another story altogether. The river runs alongside our stretch of the Central Massachusetts Rail Trail, which I’ll show you tomorrow, and which explains why my toe-dipper is sporting a Pink Princess helmet.

My sister recently relocated to our town, a fact that both thrills and frightens me. She and I haven’t lived within shouting distance of each other since our teenage years, and those years were passed mostly, um, shouting at each other. And now, two decades later, we attend the same public library. In fact, my kids and I were at the library when Auntie K registered for her FIRST EVER library card.

My sister rocks.

So does my library.

Bigelow Tavern is another West Boylston landmark. It was built in the 1770s and has served as an inn, a private dwelling, a turkey farm, and, most recently, home of our Historical Society. As I was attempting a straightforward shot of the place yesterday, I spotted a darling sparrow singing atop the street sign you see in the image. (The sparrow is there, too, if you look closely. Can you see him?) I instinctually lifted my camera to catch him on film and the image you see here is what I saw in my viewfinder. Something about it satisfies me more than the starightforward building shots I took. This is where I live, folks. A place that is home to old taverns and old churches and young sparrows and spent lilac bushes … and me.

You can read more about Bigelow Tavern here, where you’ll also see some (straightforward!) then-and-now images of the building itself.