my bike back and tuned up to the key of glee (I can't do that myself, always make things worse), so I went out early, before 7:30 (had to walk the dog 1st of course, we have an understanding). and tho bringing the camera impedes, I wanted to go where I had not photo'd. a bit of National Park dedicated to the Battle Road fo 1775. for the past 20 or more years, homes and businesses have been bought up by the Park Service, so that this historic area can be returned to how it looked in seventy five (hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day). so a lot of what was once private land has been opened up to the public. it's a good place to run, bike, ski or walk, farmlands and trees and marshes. the wet places have boardwalks so that you don't get your feets wet. I came thru one time when the purple loosestrife and goldenrod were in bloom, and the colour just about knocked me down. why I'm a painter: I like colour. there's a house along the way that's being restored. it was an inn back in the day, where the good folk of Lincoln rabble roused, and where they gathered when the churchbells rang on April 19th, to kick some British butt. I've listened to the rap of the guides twice. the 1st time the fellow was fairly ordinary and laconic. the 2nd was much more keenly tuned politically, directing his commentary specifically but reasonably against the current regime. his discourse was well-based historically, so there was jimjam to his words. I get excited about this stuff, that sense of the US scrambling with its own intelligence, plus the calming influence of 'simple' farm life, as they have some farm activity going here, including livestock. and just as I came to this place, I noted that my tire was flat. of course I had nothing to take care of it with, nor a cell phone. so I walked the 3-4 miles back home. not a big deal. past the 2nd largest airport in Massachusetts. past the birthplace of Thoreau (not the exact house, I guess, but the site where he was raised), past yard sales galore. I canna find where the leaked is but have since gotten a new tube and furthermore seemingly got the tube in okay. ready for more travail on the road and off it. a few good pictures along the way. note: I don't think I can bring myself to start uploading to Flickr or such. it would cause a flood. I like the pictures within the context of this blog, which I hope isn't a "dramatic-monologue-in-advance", as Tim Peterson suggests blogs are.