Last night Leslee and I went for a walk at Mount Auburn Cemetery, just as we did almost exactly one year ago. Mount Auburn is a pedestrian paradise, with wide, meandering roads and little traffic: a perfect place to take in the fresh air.
In the spring, Mount Auburn is in full bloom, with birds buzzing or whistling from the trees, turtles sunning themselves on the banks of quiet ponds, and chipmunks darting through shaded undergrowth. Last night, Leslee and I saw an orchard oriole we would have walked past if a couple hadn’t been standing on the path, aiming their phone at a bird singing almost invisibly from a willow tree. “The app says orchard oriole,” they explained, and the bird called to mind a Baltimore oriole Leslee and I had seen at Mount Auburn in May, 2017.
Apparently Leslee and I meet at Mount Auburn for a placid walk almost every May, after I’m done teaching but need a break from grading. Every year, it’s a welcome respite to take a leisurely stroll among flowers…and this year, after another semester of pandemic teaching, it’s a relief to visit the cemetery as a survivor, not an occupant. In this age of airborne illness, walking in the fresh air feels healthy, healing, and restorative. I’m looking forward to doing more of it.
CLICK HERE to view more photos from yesterday’s walk at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Enjoy!
Hoarded Ordinaries 
May 13, 2022 at 12:46 am
Good to know you’re OK and strolling about. Congrats on surviving another semester! That line about the 2017 Baltimore oriole made me think you’d sighted an escaped baseball player, though I guess that’d be an Oriole, not an oriole.
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May 13, 2022 at 8:25 am
I made a similar joke on Facebook at the time: “While the Orioles are playing ball at Fenway Park, the orioles are fly-catching at Mount Auburn Cemetery.”
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