Top things to do in Wellesley before summer ends

July 26, 2022 by Duncan Brown Leave a Comment

We’re already a third of the way through summer, and if you’re staying local, there’s plenty to do in Wellesley.

Morses Pond

It’s no secret that it’s hot this summer, and so it’s no surprise that people are looking for a bit of water to jump into. Luckily, Wellesley is home to Morses Pond, which is staffed by lifeguards and is host to many beachy activities beyond just taking a dip. Aside from swimming, there are paddle boards and kayaks that can be rented and taken around anywhere in the pond at the cost of $10 for 30 minutes. On the beach itself there are pavilions that can be rented for events ($5 for resident, $20 for non residents), and beach volleyball is available for some friendly competition. The bathhouse offers bathrooms and changing stalls, and has a vending machine as well.

Wellesley residents can either buy a $10 day pass, or go for a season pass option. Adult season passes are $125, while children (under 16) and seniors can get one for $60. There is also $250 family pass option. If you are not Wellesley resident, there are no day passes available, and season passes run quite a bit steeper—adults are $190, and children/seniors are $90.

MOPO Fishing — Fishing at Morses Pond. Photo credit: Brandon Fitts

The Brook Path & beyond

The Brook Path is a 2.4-mile route that runs through Wellesley, roughly from the High School to the Nehoiden Golf Club. It’s a perfect place to walk, run, or bike on a sunny summer day. The trees provide shade, and there are benches along the path if you need a break or just want to sit outside in nature. The path runs adjacent to Fuller Brook which, if you are persistent and curious, you can discover leads to the Charles River. Fuller Brook has a fish ladder near Hunnewell Elementary School, and during spring migration you can see lots of leaping fish making their way over the little waterfall. The Brook Path is probably the best known and most popular path in town, so if you are looking for seclusion in nature, this might not be the path for you.

Wellesley is rife with trails, perfect for walking or running. Beyond the Brook Path, there exists a system of trails, maintained and mapped by the Wellesley Trails Committee. We have some personal recommendations for which trials are best, particularly in the summer, when heat is a factor.

The Sudbury Path (or blue arrow path) is well shaded and quite secluded, and runs for 4.6 miles. It’s never a very crowded trail, and it offers more physical challenge than the flat and level Brook Path.
The Crosstown Trail is a very long (6.2 miles), very flat path that cuts in and out of the town. We would recommend doing small bits of it at a time if you want to preserve the feeling of walking in nature. That being said, it offers diversity in scenery, and is easy to find parking for. A good place to start, depending on where you’re coming from, is the 900 Worcester St. parking lot near Dale Street.
The Centennial Reservation Trail, as you might guess, runs around Centennial Reservation. This is a popular spot for dog walkers, and is a scenic, hilly path. It’s on the shorter side, but has offshoots that can be explored. It is a little more exposed than the other trials in town, so remember to bring your sunscreen. The trail starts at the Centennial Reservation parking lot off Oakland Street.

fuller brook park brook path summer — Brook Path, Wellesley

Ice cream

Summer was made for ice cream. Or is it the other way around? Either way, Wellesley has delicious options for everyone’s favorite summer treat. Truly’s, a small, local store that usually has a line out the door on summer nights, often changes up their special flavors—dedicated Swellesley fans may recall the Swellesley Swirl flavor once offered—while keeping a unique selection of consistent items. We personally recommend the Cookie D lite soft serve option.

Also in Wellesley Square is J.P Licks. Although part of a chain, J.P. Licks does a good job keeping a local feel to the place by decorating their walls with art from local artists. As for the ice cream itself, there’s have a wide selection of what we would call “fancy” ice cream. This means it’s not just chocolate, it’s chocolate brownie. They don’t have just mint, they have mint cookies and cream. You get the picture. While they do have the more typical flavors, if you’re looking for excitement in your ice cream life, J.P. Licks can serve you well.

Dumpster Diving

The Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility is more than a place to throw away your trash and recyclables. You can also visit two spots to search for the cast-off treasures of Wellesley residents—the give and take section and the books section. Both these parts of the dump are constantly replenished by Wellesley residents looking to de-clutter their homes. From furniture to water guns, there’s little that hasn’t appeared at the RDF at one point or another. It can be a bit hit or miss, but the searching is half the fun.

book swap — Used books area, Wellesley RDF

Live theater

Wellesley Theater Project runs throughout the summer, putting on plays with young actors getting a taste of the theatrical world. Check out Newsies on July 28, 29, or 30. Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a band of teenaged “newsies.” When titans of publishing raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack rallies newsies from across the city to strike against the unfair conditions and fight for what’s right. Based on the 1992 motion picture and inspired by a true story. Ticket information here.

Restaurants

Wellesley offers a wide range of cuisine for the local foodie as well as those who are just plain hungry, and the town has enjoyed a recent infusion of new restaurants.

Increasingly, restaurants in town are branching out with outdoor seating, including the new Tatte in Linden Square, Maugus in Wellesley Hills, and Bocado in Wellesley Square.

Live concerts behind town hall

Live music can be found in Wellesley, behind Town Hall. Summer concerts start at 7pm, and rotate different musicians and bands throughout the summer. The remaining shows for the summer are being performed by The Tom Nutile Big Band on July 27th, and The Rico Bar Band on August 10th. The events are great for people of all ages, and additional entertainment is offered for kids with lawn games spread about the field. Hot dog vendors have also been known to make appearances.

town hall concert reminisants — Concert behind Wellesley Town Hall

Babson Globe

All praise the globe! Stare at it long enough, and it may stare back at you. Located within Babson College, the Babson World Globe has been around for over 60 years, having been completed in 1955. Since then it has been hidden away behind one of the campus halls. However, it has recently been moved to a more central location on campus, and can be more easily found in all its glory. The globe is meant to provide a realistic map of the world, and was initially made as a symbol of the college’s “global presence.” The globe is 25 tons, 28 feet across, and can be seen any time of day, slowly rotating on its pedestal. If you want to see one of the more striking pieces of art in Wellesley, and learn a new country or two while you’re at it, head on over to Babson.

Shopping

There will truly never be a lack of places to go shopping in Wellesley. Saying that you have walked every path, swam in every body of water, and loyally attended all the Summer concerts is believable, but don’t try and tell the Swellesley Report that you’ve shopped in every store in town. Wellesley Square is a good place to start any shopping endeavor. It offers a plethora of clothing stores, along with stores such as Paper Source, Wellesley Books, and many more.

Linden Square has just as much to offer, with stores selling things ranging from makeup to toys. Magic Bean, Bluemercury, Neenas, and others offer a variety of places to explore. Take a break in the Courtyard’s outdoor seating area if you need to take a load off your feet mid-shopping spree.

linden square summer afternoon — The Linden Square Courtyard

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Weston Garden Club tour is a once-in-a-decade celebration

June 15, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Weston Garden Club held its once-every-decade garden tour earlier this month, an expansive event during which eleven club members opened their properties up to the horticultural-loving public. Proceeds from the tour support local conservation and environmental efforts, as well as the Club’s ongoing community educational and beautification projects.

Each of the properties on tour was owned and tended by Weston Garden Club members eager to share what they’ve done with their beautiful outdoor spaces. Some gardens were carefully manicured, others walked more on the wild side, and all were inspirational.

When members aren’t tending and showing off their multi-acre gardens, they’re busy with civic projects. Club members design and maintain the plantings in the historic horse watering trough at the center of town; maintain a section of conservation land; make wreaths and swags for Town buildings every December; plant 250 daffodils by the Town Green steps each fall; provide flowers for the Weston Public Library on a weekly basis; and water, weed, and maintain the Native Plant Garden at Town Hall.

Last time the Weston Garden Club had its tour, back in the aughts, I was up to my eyeballs in my kids’ end-of-year activities and missed the event. Next time the tour comes around in the 2030s, who can say where I’ll be? So when I had the opportunity to attend this tour, I grabbed it. Thanks for the kind invite, Weston gardeners. I enjoyed every minute of the perfect early June weather you thoughtfully arranged for the big day.

All hail the chief

Weston Garden Club president Molly Varnau’s garden included mixed beds of foxglove, allium, salvia, and nepeta, intertwined with a succession of colorful annuals and flowering trees and shrubs. Yew hedges, a birch grove, white pines, and a grand red oak provide year-round structure. Molly and her husband plant, prune , and mow the property themselves. A couple of years ago they created composting bays behind their shed that turn their lawn clippings and autumn’s fallen oak leaves into soil-enriching mulch.

Weston Garden Club tour — Weston Garden Club president Molly Varnau

100+ year old Colonial house, 3.5 acres

When the homeowners bought the property twelve years ago, they found one acre of beautiful plantings and specimen trees, and 2.5 acres of poison ivy and thorny raspberries running wild. What a difference 12 years makes. The Weston Garden Club member and a friend do all the gardening with the help of an arborist. The property features huge rock outcrops, rock walls, a varied terrain, a fern walk through the woods, a lovely gazebo, a spiral garden, an old storage building, stone pathways and stairs, and masses of plantings.

This garden has a wild side

Established plantings and perennial gardens surround this gardener’s property including tree peonies, wisteria, azaleas, and flowering bulbs. The front is a beautiful and manicured space. Out back visitors can walk on the wild side as they are treated to a panoramic view of a wildlife sanctuary, which includes a tranquil pond. From their elevated deck vantage point, the homeowners often spot egrets, hawks, geese, and swans.

Weston Garden Tour, house #5 — Carefully clipped vine on the side of the house gives way to….

Working with the terrain

There are a couple of ways to deal with an uneven lot when building a home. One way is to chop down all the trees, bring in the bulldozer, and level every “inconvenient” rise and hillock from one edge of the property to the next. Or you could work with the land, as one member did, and create a garden in harmony with the natural slopes of the terrain. Embracing the shade of the mature trees led the gardener to explore and plant a beautiful world of trilliums, woodland peonies, primroses, jack-in-the-pulpits, and Welsh poppies. A vegetable garden has been planted to take advantage of the sunniest spot on the property, a place where tomatoes, kale, lettuce, and more thrive.

Weston Garden Club, #10 — Vegetables are grown in raised garden beds.

How to join in the fun

Not that I’m trying to siphon members away from Wellesley’s four garden clubs (I’m a proud sustaining member of the Wellesley Gardeners’ Guild, after all), but you don’t have to be a Weston resident to join the Weston Garden Club. You just have have an interest in gardening, attend meetings, serve on a committee, sign up for watering duty, pay your dues, and agree to a few other things (don’t worry, no hazing is involved).

Wellesley hike: Guernsey Sanctuary, the Sabrina Lake area

June 14, 2022 by Deborah Brown 3 Comments

On the Wellesley/Needham line, off a street lined with some of Wellesley’s most beautiful mansions, a parking area just large enough for a few cars grants easy access to the 25-acre Guernsey Sanctuary. The trailhead is so much a part of its woodland surroundings that I blew by it, even though I’ve visited the beauty spot many times over the years. To reach the dirt lot from Dover Road in Wellesley, turn down Livingston Road. Livingston Road turns into Winding River Road, and near the Wellesley/Needham line is where you’ll find the parking area. Pro tip: when the house numbers reach the 150s/160s, slow down. You’re there. If you pass the yellow “no salt zone” sign on the right, and the yellow fire hydrant on the left, you’ve gone too far.

Now that we have that figured out, let’s take an easy one-mile, 45-minute woodland hike along tranquil paths softened with the needles of hundreds of towering pine trees, and lined with early-spring wildflowers and ferns; walk along Sabrina Lake, a man-made 18-acre body of water; and cross the bridge, an Eagle Scout project, to explore Oak Island.

Start your hike at the entrance point that’s on the same side of the road as the parking lot. At the Guernsey Sanctuary sign, bear right and look for a short wooden bridge that spans a currently dried-up brook bed.

Guernsey Sanctuary, Wellesley — The Wellesley Conservation Council since 2020 has gone by the name the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust. The Land Trust is a frugal organization, so the plan is to change the signs around town as existing signs deteriorate.

From the bridge, step directly onto the stump rounds if it’s muddy or if you’d just like to have a bit of fun hopping from one round to the next. The “tree cookies,” as they’re sometimes called, were in 2020 sliced by Wellesley Conservation Land Trust volunteers from the trunks of fallen trees, and strategically placed as a nature-based solution to the mucky conditions that are often part of a Guernsey Sanctuary hike. Because the walking path rings a marsh, all it takes is a little rain to turn parts of the trail into a mud slick. The addition of the tree cookies encourages hikers to keep to the path instead of veering off-trail and trampling ecologically sensitive areas in an effort to keep footwear mud-free.

Shortly after the bridge, at the “Guidelines for Sanctuary & trail use” sign, go right. Soon after that you’ll pass a sanctuary access point in Needham at the end of the Locust Lane cul de sac in Needham.

Technically speaking

If you can’t fathom so much as a casual stroll without fiddling with your phone, the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust has you covered. The Trust in 2019 brought technology to the Guernsey Trail with the addition of QR-codes at strategic spots along the one-mile circular trail. Support for the project was provided by the Wellesley Turkey Trot Foundation, and naturalists Bill Geizentanner of Wellesley and Ted Elliman of Sherborn, who conducted a botanical inventory of the area and identified 72 specimens and special places along the trail to be featured. Each of these features has a QR-code metal marker that identifies common and scientific names of the selected specimens and places, as well as information about various plants, trees, and water features along the trail. I tried out a few of the markers. Sometimes the QR codes worked for me, sometimes not. Success likely varies based on individual phone coverage.

Looking up from my phone I was rewarded, after an easy climb to the top of a slight rise, by a view of Sabrina Lake. (Landmark: a white house with a red roof sits directly across this narrow part of the lake.) The 18-acre privately owned body of water is approximately 1/2 mile long from north to south. Its deepest point is 10 feet, roughly in the center of the pond.

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Taking a loop around Wellesley Town Hall duck pond trail

June 3, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Spring and summer are great time to take a spin around the duck pond trail at Wellesley Town Hall.

You can access the trail from the Town Hall driveway off of Rte. 16 and via the Crosstown Trail, part of Wellesley’s extensive trails system.

A good place to start is at the new footbridge (opened in 2020), where I was greeted by a gaggle of geese and a clutter of way too many town signs. While geese have taken over the duck pond, I did in fact later see a couple of mallards swimming during my loop around the water. Fortunately, I saw no coyotes this time.

The trail is surrounded by green and getting greener, with flowering plants along the way.

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Mobility in Wellesley: walking, jogging, and biking

June 1, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment

The following is a guest column by Allison Burson, Natural Resources Commission and Mobility Committee and Steve Park, Trails Committee. This is the final in a series of guest columns for “May is Mobility Month” about transportation actions in Wellesley that will support the town’s Sustainability Mobility Plan and Climate Action Plan. Previous columns have addressed public transportation with MBTA train and T services, the MWRTA Catch Connect micro transit and enhanced bus service, and personal transportation actions we can use for daily trips to school that improve traffic congestion, help combat climate change and provide lifelong health benefits.

One of the many benefits of living in Wellesley is being able to step outside and enjoy a walk on some of our lovely town trails. As members of the Trails Committee, we have been thrilled to see so many residents of all ages out walking, jogging and enjoying our trails, walking in their neighborhoods, kids walking and biking to school, and people cycling and walking for errands, exercise and leisure.

Wellesley is so human in scale that in a short time, it’s not difficult to find your way to destinations on foot and bike after quick glances at a map. And Wellesley is so scenic, the best part of this traveling this way is discovering a new garden, hidden street, or picturesque hideaway you may not have known about before.

Try our trails

In our community, we’re lucky to have 28 miles of marked trails and 18 more miles of unmarked trails. The Crosstown Trail, Sudbury Path, and Fuller Brook Park follow a generally east-west route across town. Along the route are two business districts, two libraries, and multiple train stations. Do you and your family have quiet options to walk to school, a library, the drug store, or a doctor? Spring is a great time to consider changing usual transportation behavior and taking steps, literally, to link sidewalks and trails to get to your destination.

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Building fairy houses & watching birds in Wellesley

May 30, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Conservation Land Trust has taken advantage of the recent good spring weather to encourage locals to get outside and enjoy nature.

Trolls & Fairies

The annual Troll and Fairy House, which happens every spring at Pickle Point Sanctuary duringWellesley’s Wonderful Weekend, gave the children a choice of a tree where they could use their imaginations and build their own Troll or Fairy House using the natural materials gathered along their walk.

Photos courtesy of Jim Barr.

Spring bird walk

Separately, the land trust led one of its spring bird walks recently at Morses Pond.

Among the finds:

A killdeer at Morses Pond on her nest. Photos courtesy of Michael Tobin.

wclt bird walk — Elissa Landre gives participants some tips before getting started

Open Gardens at Cronk’s Rocky Woodland in Wellesley

May 5, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Conservation Land Trust invites you to join your neighbors for Open Gardens at Cronk’s Rocky Woodland

Saturday, May 7, 2-4pm

20 Crown Ridge R., Wellesley

Come enjoy the spring flowers among music, and explore the moss-covered Hansel and Gretel cottage. Learn how you can help Cronk’s continue as the wildflower garden that Gertrude Cronk established in the 1930s for all our neighborhoods to enjoy.