Monday, January 2, 2012

It Takes a Village

We now live in Newton, a city of 85,000 people within thirteen different villages.  Our village is West Newton, but others are just minutes away as I discovered when I took a yoga class on Saturday morning.  Though it was only a five minute drive to the studio, it's actually in the village of Newtonville.  This system can be quite confusing!

Maisie and I took a little walk today to (and through) what is considered the West Newton town center.  We passed lots and lots of pretty houses on tree-lined New England-y streets along the way. 

The picturesque setting was only briefly interrupted by the presence of a sad, deflated Santa Claus.

It took us less than ten minutes to reach the main drag. After scoping out the courthouse and police station, I noticed that this giant church is also home to a Jewish Reconstructionist synagogue.  Interesting...

Next, we saw some cute little shops as well as the area's only independent movie theater.

There are several other stores on this street, and plenty of restaurants too (including Italian, BBQ and a deli).  This French bistro seems to be the fanciest option, with an ever changing menu featuring local ingredients.

This building previously housed the Railroad Hotel, originally built as a place where stagecoach riders could stop and spend the night.  It later served the same purpose for the railroad line to Boston and back.

I started to realize how much history there is around here when we walked past another historical site, this very old (and kinda creepy) graveyard down the street from my house.

Maisie didn't care about any of that, of course.  She just wanted to thoroughly sniff out every single tree.

And every fire hydrant.

And every leaf in the grass.

But I tried to focus on the new scenery.  I think there is beauty to be found here, if you look for it.

p.s.  for more frequent Maisie updates and pics, please "like" our Facebook page if you haven't yet!

3 comments:

sprinkles said...

The church and that house in the last picture are beautiful!

Happy New Year!

Two Grad Students and a Pittie said...

So exciting! Cant wait to see more of the new place!

Unknown said...

Have I told you that our town has only 1,200 residents? I think even that is stretching it. I can't imagine 85,000! To look at the pictures though, it seems to have a small town feel to it. We love visiting historical buildings :)