after jesse finished with her run, she came over to pick me up so we could go naturing in the south shore area. i was just finishing up with my breakfast of cream of mushroom soup and a fruit elixir. we stopped briefly for coffee and then drove down to norwell, home of the "chuck" norris reservation, touted to be a "jewel" of the trustees of reservations. i navigated and when we finally arrived, the parking lot was already full of cars. we ate broken pieces of a store-bought pastry before getting out of the car to explore the reservation.

is the place in fact a "jewel" of the reservations? i would have to answer yes. although relatively small (129 acres), norris contains tracts of tall tree forest (with the occasional holly), streams that snake through the terrain, some lovely boardwalks, and a sweep of marsh grass that overlooks the north river. as far as wildlife, the place was pretty quiet - although in warmer seasons it has great potential for some really good naturing. we saw a hole in a mushroom-covered tree that looked like it'd be a good candidate for pimp my squirrel's tree hole. in a few spots along the trail, the woodsy streams had overfilled creating large mud puddles.

jesse and i actually walked onto the floating mat of dried marsh grass (designated on the trail map as the scenic outlook). we knew it was floating because if you stepped in a low area, water would seep out of the ground. the swirling patterns resembled some andy goldsworthy project. it reminded jesse of being in holland. too bad the weather was overcasted; with some better lighting, the marshy expanse juxtaposed with the river would make a good view.

after we were done with the norris reservation, we got back into the car and drove up to scituate to see what kind of wildlife we could see by the ocean. what was more of a pressing concern was finding a bathroom. once we arrived in scituate, we drove for a while before we found a convenience store (dad's place) that had a bathroom we could use. i bought a bottle of root beer and a gummi pizza. while paying for my stuff, i looked behind the counter and saw some porno magazines for sale. the weird thing is they were titles i've never heard of before. the cashier caught me looking and i quickly darted my eyes. outside the store, local skater kids were congregating and performing board tricks (this seemed like the only hangout in all of scituate). they eyed us warily as we drove away.

we drove up to strawberry point and parked in the driveway of an empty summer house. by then it was already high tide so there wasn't any beach left, just a narrow strip of ocean rocks and seaweed. on the water we could see some kind of duck bobbing up and down on the rough surf. jesse was armed with my pair of binoculars while i had the telephoto lens on my camera. turns out it was a pair of common eiders (there might've been more in the far distance, though they were too far away to see clearly). it was starting to get cold and beginning to drizzle, so we got back into the car and returned to boston.

once i got back home, i went out to get some groceries. for dinner i baked a cajun-spiced chicken along with spanish rice mixed with sauteed wild mushrooms. the mushrooms i cooked with just some olive oil and butter, and maybe it's wishful thinking, but they do taste a little better than market-bought mushrooms, there's a stronger flavor.