Image ... Two Trees. Roxbury, Mass.
Showing posts with label Garden Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garden Journal. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
April 15, 2010
An anonymous Concordian has started a FaceBook page for people who grew up in Concord, Massachsetts ... You know you grew up in Concord when ... My brother Pete turned me on to it. I added a post in the prevalent style.
Living in a cabin deep in the Estabrook Woods off Hugh Cargill Road for several years in my early 20's. Heated with wood, drew water from a well, cooked over a hibachi. What an adventure, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The property belonged to Mike and Anthea Christian, who were fantastic friends and lived half a mile... further up the dirt road. I wandered, walked and skied all those woods.A garden supply store has just opened outside Dudley Square in Roxbury ... Boston Gardener
Image ... Chychy, Sunday best '03. Roxbury, Mass.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
April 11, 2010
An article appeared in this week's Boston Globe (April 5), our hometown newspaper of record, Leary's old house brings flashbacks aplenty about Timothy Leary's early 60's digs in Newton.
The rather slipshod article by James Sullivan coasts on the coattails of a new book, The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Don Lattin. Which I may one day read before I'm on the outside looking in. Anyway, it's now window pane clear that it's high time to tell my own small tale of Tim. Stay tuned, turn on, drop out.
Image ... Wood Blocks. Boston Naval Shipyard.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
April 9, 2010
Isn't this a marvelous mural? I've been riding by it recently following Peter's new secret route from Dot to JP. One of his rare shortcuts which don't make long ways, scaling mountains to follow the way the crow flies. I always prefer the great circle route. Great, no hills. Circle back, the terrain's similar. If crows had to bike they'd do the same.
Image ... Quincy Street Missional Church. Dorchester, Mass.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
April 7, 2010
To celebrate opening day, with a 9-7 win over the Yankees, the entire Fenway went up in flames. I wasn't there, but I've seen many fires in the Fens and this one must have been spectacular.
The fire started on Monday around 7:00 PM in the reeds behind the Duck House on Agassiz Road, an open air office for derelicts and drug dealers. It leapt across the river, set the phragmities on the opposite bank on fire and raced downriver to the Boylston Street bridge consuming everything in its path.
A clerk who works at a store on Boylston Street by Fenway Park described the scene as a towering wall of flames stretching along the length of the lower Fens, obliterating the view of downtown. The traffic went nuts he said, everyone sure that the end of the world was at hand. And the fire engines, dozens of them, couldn't even get through until it was all over.
As I said I've seen, or been in, many fires in the Fens. They are always awesome and terrifying. In the spring the Muddy River is lined with stands of last year's phragmities reeds, 20-foot tall rolled paper tapers, blond bone-dry tinder just waiting to explode. A spark from a cigarette or crack pipe sets them aflame with a sweeping unsuspected violence. The only time I've ever seen a mushroom cloud, the sort that forms after dropping an atom bomb, was over one of these wild fires. That's how violent they are. Plus they can move faster than a race car and turn on a dime.
I was photographing one of these fires, at what I thought was a safe distance, when it suddenly turned and started racing straight toward me. I ran like I've never run before or since and just made it beyond its fiery grasp. Behind me it lept the path along the river, set the community compost pile on fire, then a fallout of papery white ash sifted down.
Fortunately our prevailing winds are from the west or the gardens would have burned long ago. The fire, therefore, often tries to leap the river igniting the stands of reeds on the opposite bank along the Fenway. I remember a fire that was stopped just short of the Boston fire alarm headquarters.
Today the smell of ash, mud and pollen mingled in the air. After weeks of flood we've now had fire. Months of cold and today it hits 90°. The gardens were quiet and deserted. It was a good day.
Image ... Following the fire.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
April 5, 2010
Got my game going for the week and biked to the South End. Met a previous client with a new project then a new prospect; both the nicest people, friendly (neighborly), appreciative of my past performance and/or time and attention, just the sort of people I want to work with.
Took the Orange Line from Mass. Ave. with bike to Stony Brook, then 2 blocks to Brewery Complex. Bike/train, multi-modal rocks, is the model.
Continued Boston Pretzel Bakery project, building lemonade side wagon. Exactly the sort of thing that I used to do, building wagons for stage sets in this very same space for the Opera Company of Boston.
Image ... Bus shelter roof at the Carter School, Boston.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
April 4, 2010
Biked over to Fields Corner to visit A.B. A beautiful place tucked in a tranquil Dot neighborhood. A new area to me. But there are many places I go in Dorchester, once I get off my beaten path of Uphams Corner to the South End, that are entirely new to me. Dorchester is vast, with a dozen-and-a-half distinct neighborhoods, Boston's largest and most populous community. Saw a few photos along the way, but for another day. That's often the way it is, if something is fixed and not moving of course. I'll see something then return when I have time or the light is right. Especially the light. Everything is understood by the light in which it's seen.
Image ... Detail of sculpture on the Northeastern University campus.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
April 2, 2010
Take an in-depth guided tour of the Carter School Sensory Garden Outdoor Classroom (SGOC) in Boston with Roger Swain host of The Victory Garden, the designer, landscape architect David Berarducci and principal Marianne Kopaczynski. Requires Real Player.
The Mexican Wild tomatoes, started from seed on January 19, are just starting to set flowers, 10 weeks after planting. They may need to be potted up. Still another month or so at the earliest before transplanting outdoors.
Working on integrating Garden Gitl TV into the magazine. Somehow GGTV got off to a rough start with us. Redoing the index, background color, navBars, episode pages, descriptions, advertising, etc. to bring it all up to the current graphic and editorial standards. It was tangled. I'll never let things get like this again!
Heading downtown for a meeting. Stopping by the garden.
Garden Bridge. The Fens, Boston.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
April 1. 2010
Uploaded new cover, the April Fools image with the domino that scared Christopher Walken, at least when worn by Meg. Not to say that Meg's scary. Although CW sure seems so.
Programmed a cool Bongo set last night, Sort of Blue, delving into the blues side of Boston jazz. This is a set theme that I'll redo again and again. Johnny Hodges, Serge Chaloff, Charlie Mariano, Dave McKenna and Phil Woods - I mean, what's not to like? Listening to the whole set again, which I seldom, no make that never, do.
Duke's Blues is nuts, easily swinging out of the gate harder than anything I've ever heard. Compare this to the next cut. TLC introduces St. Louis Blues with a drum solo and the band takes like forever to get down to business. Which is cool, I guess. A little musical journey through the tune. Herbie Hancock on piano, a pupil of Madam Chaloff, I believe, Serge's mother and a famed Boston teacher of many greats. Too much fancy soloing in modern music, showboating, rather than intricate ensemble interplay. Legacy of the beboppers? And when did a Jew's harp (which takes out the tune) become a jazz instrument? Too cute by ten octaves.
Biking downtown this PM for an appointment. I'll stop by the garden, but I'm fearing the worst. Probably won't even be able to get in the gate after all the flooding from 13 inches of rain in the past month (a new soggy record). Taking pictures.
Image ... Stork Club. The Starlight Room, Boston.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Bongo in Squaresville . 7 | Sort of Blue
Johnny Hodges - Duke's Blues, 1952
Terri Lyne Carrongton, Herbie Hancock - St. Louis Blues
Phil Woods, Dizzy Gillespie - Goodbye Mr. Evans
Donal Fox - In rehearsal
Rebecca Parris - That Old Black Magic
Rebecca Parriis - All of You
Charlie Mariano - Django
Dave McKenna - Serenade in Blue
Serge Chaloff - Stairway to the Stars
Herb Pomeroy, Donna Byrne - Ill Wind
Image ... Bongo in Squaresville.
Monday, March 29, 2010
March 30, 2010
cafeRa describes this picture as follows. WordLingo, my online translator, couldn't even begin to parse it. So here goes.
森美術館の アイ.ウェイウェイ展、驚いてばかり。あんなにおもしろい展覧会は久しぶりでした。北京オリンピックの鳥の巣を設計した一人でもある、中国人の現代アート。11月8日まで。いつてないひとは、ぜひ、More rain from another lashing nor'easter. Perfect for indoor projects. Working in Jamaica Plain at the Brewery Complex for the Boston Pretzel Bakery. Today we're (or maybe just me) building a wagon with old fashioned wooden wagon wheels. I've built some strange stuff in my time. And right there too. The space, now subdivided maybe four or five times, used to be the scene shop of the Opera Company of Boston where I worked as a builder, pattern maker (my specialty), painter, stagehand (at the Orpheum Theatre downtown) and general all around dog's body. I got to stand offstage in the wings with Beverly Sills night after night then watch her sing from a few feet away. My favorite of her roles was Juliet with Tatiana Troyanos playing Romeo. She was about three times as big as he, I mean she.
Whittier in Snowbound has a line, if I remember correctly, about the tremendous 'privacy of the storm'. This isn't snow, thank god or we'd be up to our tits in it, but there's some sort of similar feeling. And it's rather nice. Lying in bed safe and snug, anway, watching the roaring beast through the windows. Until you have to go out in it.
Image ... Bicycles, Bejing.
March 29, 2010
Google's Blogger-in-Chief says in today's Globe that speed is the ultimate app, or something similarly tech-generic. But BlogSpot's creeped down to a crawl since its recent renovations, taking forever to load for editing. It used to be good to go in a flash, but now it spins its wheels.
Day of rain with a few more forecast. In Jamaica Plain, hooked up with A Far Cry and Lovewhip. Programmed a dance set for Radio Roofscape climaxing with the latter. The Gaga of JP. About as politically incorrect as it gets, fun but whipsmart.
Image ... Flying washer. The Starlight Room, Beacon Hill, Boston.
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