The late summer sun shines gently through Washington Grove’s canopy of oak, hickory and ash trees.
Three bustling thoroughfares are near the grove, which is part of Cobb’s Hill Park: Culver Road to the west, Highland Avenue to the east, and Monroe Avenue to the south. But in the first few steps down its berm trail on the edge of Cobbs Hill Reservoir, the sounds of traffic melt away. At the bottom of the grove, the chirps of crickets, the hammering of woodpeckers, and occasional call of songbirds overtake the distant city noise.
“If you’re crossing the street, you really have to be on alert,” said Kristy Liddell, the secretary and former president of Friends of Washington Grove. “But out here, if you feel comfortable, and not everybody does at first, but if you get familiar with a space like this, you can really just let go of a lot of internal noise as well.”…