Sunday, December 07, 2008
Cherry Hill
All the outdoor Christmas lights switched on for me. Nobody else out there looking at them.
No matter which direction I walked, the wind blew in my face. But I had to get to the supermarket today. I've never timed the walk, it probably feels longer than it is, maybe 15 minutes.
I associate this time of year, late fall- early winter, with gray skies & drizzle, our fifth season; the longer it lasts the shorter the distance to spring. I don't know if the averages bear that out. Got cold early this year.
One block up is what used to be called "Cherry Hill." 100 years ago it was a park & woodland with a small pond, & a middle class neighborhood was growing around some big Victorian houses ( only one remains), occupied, I suppose, by the wealthier merchant burghers of this city. The incline is hardly noticeable, & now there's a tall apt building at the top I wouldn't mind living in, Cherry Hill Tower. On cold windy days one remembers that it is a hill, slightly higher than surrounding streets, as the wind whips around the side of the building from the northwest, blowing out of the large parking lot & down the driveway. It nearly always comes as an unpleasant surprise. It's also where the breeze is on a warm summer evening.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
No matter which direction I walked, the wind blew in my face. But I had to get to the supermarket today. I've never timed the walk, it probably feels longer than it is, maybe 15 minutes.
I associate this time of year, late fall- early winter, with gray skies & drizzle, our fifth season; the longer it lasts the shorter the distance to spring. I don't know if the averages bear that out. Got cold early this year.
One block up is what used to be called "Cherry Hill." 100 years ago it was a park & woodland with a small pond, & a middle class neighborhood was growing around some big Victorian houses ( only one remains), occupied, I suppose, by the wealthier merchant burghers of this city. The incline is hardly noticeable, & now there's a tall apt building at the top I wouldn't mind living in, Cherry Hill Tower. On cold windy days one remembers that it is a hill, slightly higher than surrounding streets, as the wind whips around the side of the building from the northwest, blowing out of the large parking lot & down the driveway. It nearly always comes as an unpleasant surprise. It's also where the breeze is on a warm summer evening.
Labels: Elizabeth NJ, weather
