Hot Wheels for Grown-ups

Hot Wheels for Grown-ups

by | Jan 22, 2010 | Leisure

Over lunch a few weeks ago, a friend of mine confided that a casual relationship he'd been having had gotten serious. He was both embarrassed and thrilled. It had started out so innocently—just for kicks—and he'd never imagined the initial...
Throttling Back

Throttling Back

by | May 18, 2010 | Leisure

A couple of summers back, I cobbled together transportation of a different, hybrid sort. I procured a half-century-old cruiser bicycle, a swank, if particularly heavy, choice. I needed something that could make it through the Meadows section of Northampton that runs...
Child's Play

Child's Play

by | May 20, 2010 | Leisure

As an avid cyclist, I love bike paths and fully support the “rails to trails” movement that is reclaiming abandoned railroad corridors for the purpose of non-motorized travel. Indeed, I have spent many happy hours on bike paths—or rail...
Hitting the Manhan

Hitting the Manhan

by | May 20, 2010 | Leisure

Easthampton’s Manhan Rail Trail offers riders a chance to take in a particularly telling series of tableaux. Ride the trail, and you’ll get a tour of old and new Easthampton. Bike trails often offer seclusion and a close-in tunnel of greenery that...
Quiet Company

Quiet Company

by | May 28, 2010 | Leisure

The great landscape designer Fredrick Law Olmsted referred to it as “furniture”: the broad category of man-made objects—sculptures, benches, bridges and fountains—that appear in otherwise “natural” park settings. Though surely not...