Boston's only polite intersection? Maybe that's what happens when you put an intersection in the middle of a forest. Mike Ball hails the intersection of Enneking, Turtle Pond and Dedham parkways deep in the woods of Stony Brook Reservation, where drivers not only obey the four-way stop but are actually courteous to one another:

... Could it be something in the oxygen from all the foliage? Might some nearby unknown native American burial ground be affecting Bostonians as they arrive at the intersection? Would the bucolic nature of the park all around calm the savages?

The cause is far less important than the mere existence of the magic intersection. ...

If you crouch low, you can almost forget there's a small parking lot right behind you and a road just to your left:

Here's why you should stay off the dock in Stony Brook Reservation's Turtle Pond after a winter storm: You can slip off and drown. State Police homicide investigators report pulling a man's body out of the pond about ten feet from the dock this afternoon. Homicide is not suspected in the death of the older adult male, although an autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

No, we didn't go up to New Hampshire today. We took a walk along the path that meanders through Stony Brook Reservation on the Hyde Park/West Roxbury line, ending up at the dock across Turtle Pond from the one you normally see on Enneking Parkway. For a few seconds, we had some company:

Somebody's sacrificing roosters in Stony Brook Reservation.

I was just going to go out to the store today, but then I saw Anali's calm before the storm photos and decided to detour via Stony Brook Reservation first, to see the forest before it's re-covered in snow again.

Even in the middle of winter, there's a surprising amount of color in the forest:

Rockbalancer photographs the bottom part of a deer's leg in Stony Brook Reservation (along with other, more pleasant things) - which is where West Roxbury, Hyde Park and Roslindale come together:

There was no sign of the rest of the deer.

Hmm: Deer in Boston? Deer in Boston! Coyote in the Arboretum. You don't think the coyote grew tired of roadrunners tiny little yap dogs and swung south in search of more substantial food, like venison?

This was a beautiful morning to just stand on one of the docks at Turtle Pond in West Roxbury and look out, enjoying the subtle fall colors, the chirping birds and crickets, the occasional ripple on the pond's surface.

And then the third grader piped up: "I'm hungry!" And we were off to the grocery store to pick up the milk and eggs that was our real reason for going out.

More photos before I was pulled away:

Stony Brook Reservation is an amazing thing - an actual forest within Boston's city limits. Its trails bring you past rocky outcroppings and valleys carved by glaciers, a large pond and, of course, zillions of trees. There's something particularly serene about walking on the trails during a snowstorm.

More Stony Brook winter photos