!09Morning2

Shep Jones Lane is Long Island’s last unpaved road. It ultimately leads to the beach at Stony Brook Harbor. Simon's (formerly Emmet's) fields are adjacent to the Nature Conservancy in the Village of Head of the Harbor and its trails are open to both hiking and horseback riding. The Simon Family has preserved this land as open space in the tradition of its original settlers, the Emmets, who had planted many wonderful specimen and fruit trees throughout the area.

The first image is Joe Reboli’s 1979 painting " Simon’s Fields". The second image is of Van Gogh's "The Mulberry Tree", 1889; the third image is Van Gogh's "Peach Tree in Bloom" or "Study in Mauve", 1888; the fourth image is of a group of Eastern Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana); the sixth is a Red Tailed Hawk atop one of the Red Cedars; the seventh is a Screech Owl perched in a Shep Jones Lane tree; the eighth is a view looking across one of Simon's fields; the ninth photo shows a Great Horned Owl who was constantly being harassed by our neighborhood crows; the tenth photo shows a beautiful bloom of flowers on one of the Peach Trees planted by the Emmets; the eleventh shows mulberries (Morus alba) ripening next to a trail; the twelfth image shows some branches of a fruiting Wild Cherry Tree. The next image is of Stony Brook Harbor and part of the huge flock of Mute Swans that winter there each year. The fourteenth is a photo of a very old Red Cedar in one of the fields adjacent to Shep Jones Lane and the last image is looking north on Shep Jones.

In the Morning

                We walk worn Trails through Simon’s Field,
                O’er Oak-bound Paths that do not yield,
                Gray Foxes’ Dens, in Woods, concealed;
                Wild Flowers bursting from their Shield,
                Of last Year's Leaves and Acorns peeled;
                Nature’s Conservancy revealed.

                Red Cedars, gnarled; White Pines or Beech,
                For nesting Owls, Great Horned and Screech;
                Though Shep Jones Lane lets Horsemen reach,
                Mulberries, Cherries, Emmet’s Peach;
                Black Lab Pups romp; Sand Dunes to breach,
                Old Stony Brook’s safe harbored Beach!

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