Living well close to home

I got this comment on Wednesday in regard to landlord-tenant relations:

... If the landlord has some kind of landscaping that needs maintenance/gardening/watering he has to do it or be resigned to it not surviving. For your average single family the renter will be taking care of that sort of stuff...

Last week, I took a walk with one of my former clients. She is an avid gardener. She knows her plants. She wanted to walk around to see what was popping up in gardens around town. Since it was early in the year, there wasn’t much. So, we popped into a local municipal park to see if the turtles were sunning themselves. They were! Nice afternoon. All-in-all, this was a pleasant afternoon. It cost us less than a dollar in gas and shoe leather.

Do you participate in any of these “living well” activities:
1. Gardening
2. Walking with friends
3. Using local parks

If you rent, does your landlord let you garden? Who pays for the seeds and plants? At my property, I do the gardening, but I would share it if my tenants wanted to express themselves horticulturally.

Walking with friends can be done by anyone with friends as long as both can walk or travel in a wheelchair or scooter. Have you spent an afternoon on foot this spring?

Local parks are sometimes easy to find, and sometimes not. How do you find them? My favorite activity, before I was a broker, was to go on guided tours of neighborhoods and parks. There are lots of them in the city of Boston. Look for them along the Emerald Necklace and in the North End. Now I have my off-time in the middle of the week, so I explore with friends or on my own.

I think I am like most people in that I go to parks and sites when I have out-of-town guests and not on my own. I suggest that Living Well in Massachusetts includes using the resources that people come to Boston to see. We live here, are we really living as well as we can?

Here are just a few ideas: Boston Harbor Island State Park, Cochituate State Park, Olmsted Park Historical site, Great Meadow,Ames Nowell State Park, Great Brook Farm Park.

Where are your favorite spots? Are you one of the many who live here, but have never walked the entire Freedom Trail?