Anyone who thinks Wellfleet is only worthwhile in the summer should think again. Even on cloudy days, it’s possible to walk through the National Seashore and be overwhelmed by nature. Sven and I went to Dyer Pond today, traveling a route we had never taken before. Why? Simply because I did not know it was possible to walk all the way around our favorite pond. This fall Madelyn Atwood, one of our summer neighbors, showed me the path her parents, Ruth and Martin Clapp, had showed her, and now I have shared it with Sven. The pine needles underfoot made him remember how much he misses jogging. “I will have to recommend this to some of our guests,” he commented as we paused to take in a cozy cottage, closed for the winter and still with snow covering the north-facing slope. From this vantage point, we could look across the pond and imagine ourselves in summer splashing in the water.
On a bench, the owner had left five shells, picked up at the ocean. Around the icy cove at the northern rim, I saw tracks of ice skates, which will, no doubt, remain until a thaw. Once Sven swam across and met a turtle on the way. In walking the Wellfleet woods, it’s possible to imagine all the people who went before and were awed by the same beauty: native Americans, who first created some of the paths, writers like Edmund Wilson or Dwight Macdonald, nature lovers, my parents and our other neighbors, perhaps even
Robert Finch, in search of inspiration for Cape Cod Notebook on Cape & Islands Radio. I really enjoyed his tale of dancing with his shadow at Horseleech Pond, broadcast earlier this month and recommend it to blog readers. How very fortunate we all are to live in this special place called Wellfleet!
Anyone who thinks Wellfleet is only worthwhile in the summer should think again. Even on cloudy days, it’s possible to walk through the National Seashore and be overwhelmed by nature. Sven and I went to Dyer Pond today, traveling a route we had never taken before. Why? Simply because I did not know it was possible to walk all the way around our favorite pond. This fall Madelyn Atwood, one of our summer neighbors, showed me the path her parents, Ruth and Martin Clapp, had showed her, and now I have shared it with Sven. The pine needles underfoot made him remember how much he misses jogging. “I will have to recommend this to some of our guests,” he commented as we paused to take in a cozy cottage, closed for the winter and still with snow covering the north-facing slope. From this vantage point, we could look across the pond and imagine ourselves in summer splashing in the water. 
On a bench, the owner had left five shells, picked up at the ocean. Around the icy cove at the northern rim, I saw tracks of ice skates, which will, no doubt, remain until a thaw. Once Sven swam across and met a turtle on the way. In walking the Wellfleet woods, it’s possible to imagine all the people who went before and were awed by the same beauty: native Americans, who first created some of the paths, writers like Edmund Wilson or Dwight Macdonald, nature lovers, my parents and our other neighbors, perhaps even Robert Finch, in search of inspiration for Cape Cod Notebook on Cape & Islands Radio. I really enjoyed his tale of dancing with his shadow at Horseleech Pond, broadcast earlier this month and recommend it to blog readers. How very fortunate we all are to live in this special place called Wellfleet!
