Nearby: World's End

A few weeks ago, I sought World's End to embrace the final days of autumn, when the trees were still alit with color and when sunlight was not as precious as it's now become. World's End, which can be found in the south shore town of Hingham, boasts enchanting carriage trails that run beside sprawling meadows and spectacular shores. According to the Trustees of Reservations, it has an intriguing history of nearly becoming something else, whether it was the site of a housing division designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the UN headquarters, or a nuclear plant. As I wandered for many hours through World's End, I was quite grateful that it remained as it always was, a remarkable landscape touched only by the feet of mesmerized visitors . 

Nearby: The Treasures of Essex

Essex is small, Essex is quaint. Essex is the perfect picture of New England calm, a place in happy union with its natural surroundings, covered by salt marshes and saltboxes. And inside many of those remaining saltboxes are thousands of antiques, some painstakingly curated and others forcibly thrown to exist together. Essex is a quiet place with loud interiors, home to dozens upon dozens of antique shops, each bursting with its own character and the history of its showcased objects. A visitor can spend endless hours strolling from one shop to the next, entering maze upon maze of treasures and tschotskes. It is but an hour's drive-if that-from Boston, and comfortably situated between Ipswich to its north, Hamilton to the west and Gloucester to the southeast. Slowly the picture of the North Shore is becoming clearer to me, as I explore each town on its own basis, appreciating its particular offering one by one. Essex is a place I will eagerly return to, with the knowledge that each time I visit, I will find something new, in the comforting landscape that has not changed much since its beginning. 

A Lady Escapes: Atop Cadillac Mountain in September

In early September I visited my mother in downeast Maine and returned briefly to Mount Desert Island. Here are pictures from atop Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the island and a favorite spot in the hearts of many Mainers. On this day I could have touched the sky for the clouds felt so near. I've delayed in sharing these photographs, but better late than never. Hope you enjoy!