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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
We visited the Marginal Way in Ogunquit on an overcast spring weekend. It was given this name because it brings visitors to the “margin” between land and sea.
Continue readingFiled under Blog posts--Easy Walks
Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
Warmer days offer a great excuse to get outdoors (as though we need an excuse). Grass is poking up through the soil. Maple trees are setting out buds that trim the woods’ edges with a reddish hue. My spring favorite, skunk cabbage, unfurls its shiny, rubbery looking shoots on the edge of, and sometimes in the middle of woodland streams and wetlands.
Continue readingFiled under Blog posts--Easy Walks
Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
This blog and my books often make note of my challenges in getting outside. (Total paralysis on my right side from life-saving brain surgery that has partially resolved.) Many of you have your own reasons for seeking out Easy Walks. So… what has made the difference in helping me get outside safely? Family, yes. Friends, yes. People who are willing to drive me to far-flung destinations, yes. However, learning how to best use physical supports to aid me in walking outdoors has been a more challenging quest. Tools I have found useful have varied as my body has healed and become capable of doing more on my own.
Continue readingFiled under Blog posts--Easy Walks, Meditations/Liturgies
Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
This essay is included in My Liturgy of Easy Walks: Reclaiming Hope in a World Turned Upside Down
When I returned home from the hospital after brain surgery in 1993, I did a great deal of sitting. Getting across a room was an effort; reaching the other end of the house to use the bathroom was a major undertaking. I spent a lot of time observing my healthy, active children and visiting with neighbors from my cushioned rocker in our living room.
By my side, ready at a minute’s notice, was the cane I had brought home from the hospital. Ugly stainless steel, four little feet at its base to provide better balance, this cane remained standing even when I could not.
Continue readingFiled under Blog posts--Easy Walks, Meditations/Liturgies
Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
This was our first visit to the eastern shore of Newfoundland. No matter how much research we do, we always find more that surprises us. This is the joy and challenge of traveling to new places.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
A highlight of our trip to Newfoundland was returning to Gros Morne National Park on Newfoundland’s western coast. When visiting a place for the first time we often say, “We need to come back.” Much less often are we able to say, “It’s so good to be back,” especially when referring to more far-flung destinations. At the bottom of this article are links to previous posts on our earlier visit to
Gros Morne.
Filed under Blog posts--Easy Walks
Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
A mild winter’s day seemed just the time to take a day trip to East Haddam, Connecticut to visit Gillette Castle State Park, overlooking the Connecticut River. We had been to this area in the past for a winter boat ride along the river (February and March) in hopes of seeing bald eagles that winter in the area. The river stays open through winter and thus provides ideal hunting for eagles through the winter months. Our first trip favored us with multiple eagle sightings, but on this more recent visit we were not as successful. We caught a glimpse of what looked like an eagle soaring into the clouds overhead, but we’re not bird experts, and the glimpse we got was brief.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
Often outdoor walking locations are “hiding in plain sight.” Locals know about what makes a specific place special. There may be a pull off for a good place to explore, but no sign is posted to assure visitors they have found the right location. The Keystone Arch Bridges trail starts in Chester MA and heads into Middlefield and Becket.
Clear signage has now been posted directing would be visitors where to find parking and get views of the dry laid stone railroad bridges that were built in the early 1840s to carry trains over the Westfield River. For background on the history of these bridges, learn more here. Information signs have been recently placed on Middlefield Road, next to Hebert Cross Road in Chester. Parking for about nine cars is available off road just past the sign.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
Ice can be a huge barrier to getting out in winter. For those of us with mobility challenges (and others) it can keep us inside, missing out on the beauty that is found in colder weather. In general, newly fallen snow is pleasant to walk through. With little snow so far this winter in New England (at least southern New England) we have been able to get out fairly often without the concern of ice. A beautiful spot we revisited recently after a light snow is a Mass Audubon property, Pierpont Meadow in Dudley, MA.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman is a writer who loves the outdoors. Link to all Marjorie’s books.
New England is often an icy, pretty cold place to be in winter. However, the winter, 2022-23 has mostly had little snow, has been relatively warm and thus we have found little or no ice on local trails (at least where I am in south central MA). We generally avoid Cape Cod in summer since that is where everyone else seems to head. Instead, we wait for cooler weather then set out for locations on the Cape within about an hour or two from our home.
A January day with temperatures in the 40s seemed a good time to visit the Cape. I had wanted to visit the Knob, in Woods Hole, MA since I heard about it. This conservation land is part of the Salt Pond Bird Sanctuaries properties. When I had last checked, the trail out to a peninsula in Buzzards Bay had been closed for repairs. I felt sure it was still closed, but the website for this destination indicated the trails were open to the public again. In case this turned out not to be accurate, we made a plan B to stop at the Shining Sea bikeway. (We ended up stopping later at the shoreline access for the bikeway anyway.) Here’s an early fall visit to the bikeway.
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Marjorie Turner Hollman 