Almost November but the trees are still gorgeous. I took a drive, with the camera but without the dog, northwest into Concord, Acton and Sudbury. I was looking for either abandoned buildings or open space, but this is metro Boston and everywhere the signs warned “Thickly Settled.”
I tried using Clive to locate potential sites, guided by the dearth of streets and historical road names. “Old Mill Road” was a dead end and sounded promising, but the mill, if it ever existed, was now a rifle range. “Caution Live Ammo” was all I needed to see to turn around.
Eventually I found my open space.
And just off Route 2 I found some cows.
On my way home I spotted a large adult deer grazing just off the road. I hung a U-turn and pulled to the side. It took a few minutes of scrambling to screw on the zoom, and obsessively I spent precious minutes locating the lens hood because I was worried about glare from the low afternoon sun. I ran across the street and hopped over a fence, conscious that everyone driving by could see me. I found a small rise that was clear of brush, lifted the camera to my eye and watched the deer step delicately into the woods, vanishing.