From front lawn to Crystal Lake (click to enlarge)
The Path To Crystal Lake
We have continued our habit, formed when we moved here a month ago, of daily pilgrimages to Crystal Lake. The photo above is the view from our front lawn to the lake.
As that perspective makes obvious, we are embedded in a traditional small town neighborhood. The last time I resided in such an environment, I was living in my parents’ home while attending a commuter college. Since then, I’ve dwelt in a trailer park, a couple of condos, two or three rented apartments, a gated community, and, most recently, Heck Of A House. In the latter setting, I was physically separated from the neighbors by acres of woods and brush while in the other locations, I typically had no idea who the neighbors were (and when I did meet some of the folks, that anonymity seemed the standard m.o. among the inhabitants).
Our current neighborhood, in contrast, is the kind of place where folks drop by to welcome newcomers, and the lines of sight all but preclude ignorance of those living nearby. A few days ago in the pre-dawn hours, I glanced out my kitchen window, though the house next door to see a guy at his kitchen window at the address two doors down from mine.
We also have a wall of windows demarcating our living room from the 30 feet of front lawn that ends at the sidewalk. Watching the mail being delivered up close and personal, for example, by the local mailman trekking across our lawn close enough, were it not for the glass in the window, to hand the mail to us is a significant change from our previous home where the mailbox was 0.25 miles away and shielded from our home by a line of trees. In our current home, the delivery of the mail is signaled by the low volume “clunk” of the mailbox closing; in our previous home, we depended on the beeping of wall speakers triggered by an electronic sensor installed on the mailbox.
Thursday in the park with geese (click image to enlarge)
The geese remain rampant.
Lake shore homes (click image to enlarge)
As noted, recent storms had left the lake in subpar condition when I snapped the photos for Local Scenery And (Technically) Wildlife Pix. The views in today’s post, taken in the last day or two, are more representative of the town’s centerpiece.
We Crystal Lakers are a hearty sort of folk (click to enlarge)
