ken zirkel

Today we had our first big snowfall of the year. Daughter took the dog for a walk.

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We returned once again (our fifth visit?) to one of our favorite spots, Purgatory Chasm State Reservation, this time with a friend of daughter’s to keep us company. It was our guest’s first hike, and she was duly impressed.
Purgatory Chasm is a great little hike, quite challenging in spots and it involves a lot [...]

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The other day, a representative of the Rails to Trails conservancy contacted me because he was doing an online story about the East Bay Bicycle Path. Well, I thought, I should just write my own post on the subject!
For reference, here is my Flickr set of my EBBP photos these views are mostly of the [...]

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During my recent Cape Cod trip, I got up around sunrise one morning to paddle Stage Harbor, which is in Chatham, in the “elbow” of Cape Cod. My reference for this paddle was AMC’s Discover Cape Cod book. I noticed one little error in the book: the paddle put-in for this trip is on the [...]

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I had asked for today off a while back, planning to take a trip to NY. The trip to NY got cancelled for a number of reasons, but since I had the day off anyway, I decided to use the day for a paddle. The book “Day Paddling Narragansett Bay” by Eben Oldmixon suggests Dutch [...]

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Daughter got a new bicycle, and today (July 4) we took it for a spin on the East Bay Bicycle Path, which is one of those marvelous bits of local infrastructure that people tend to take for granted, but which makes living in this area a little more special.
Anyway, I digress. As we were getting [...]

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Today I took my first big sea trip with my kayak. I was planning to stay overnight in Gloucester or Rockport to do some photography, when it occurred to me that I should bring my kayak to see some lighthouses that I can’t normally get to. After talking with with the good folks at North [...]

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A robin’s nest has appeared near our side door. Four blue eggs inside.

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I was dissatisfied with my previous garden irrigation system — a combination of soaker hoses and spray hoses — and I knew I had to expand to include two new raised beds. I was also a bit afraid that the distance differential would create pressure differentials in the beds. So I decided to look around [...]

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My garden plans this year are the most ambitious I’ve ever planned. I’ve got two 3×10 beds (new this year) and two 3×12 beds (previously established). I’ve already got a huge crop of seedlings growing. In fact, I probably planted the tomatoes and pumpkins too early, they are getting to be giants in their little [...]

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