Boston Flora

Month: October 2009

  • Saturday, October 31, 3:30 – 5:30 pm – Clarendon Street Playground Halloween Party

    Join your friends and neighbors for the Annual Halloween Party on Saturday, October 31, from 3:30 – 5:30 pm.  Pizza, drinks, and glow necklaces will be available for purchase.  Entertainment and variety shows will be provided by Jenny the Juggler.Hayrides around the neighborhood, photography by Aurora De Luca, and trick or treating safe house lists will be available as well.

    Marlborough Street between Berkeley and Fairfield Streets, as well as Dartmouth and Clarendon Streets between Commonwealth and Beacon, will be closed to traffic from 3:30 pm – 9:30 pm.  Parked cars may stay there during this time, but they cannot be moved.


    The Clarendon Street Playground Committee needs volunteers to make this event happen.  Please sign up for a 30 minute shift to help with the party.  Email playground@nabbonline.com.  Also, if you wish to be on the safe house list, call the NABB office at 617-247-3961, or email info@nabbonline.com.

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  • Saturday, November 21, 1:30 pm – American Rural Cemeteries: Interpreted through the Lens

    The second of the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Landscape Visions Lecture Series will take place Saturday, November 21, in the Tapestry Room of the Museum, beginning at 1:30 pm.  Alan Ward, landscape architect and principal, Sasaki Associates, will present American Rural Cemeteries: Interpreted Through the Lens. Boston has two iconic garden cemeteries: Mount Auburn and Forest Hills. The Rural Cemetery Movement in America began with the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1831, and spread from there across the country. Often the first designed public landscapes in American communities, rural cemeteries represent major shifts in cemetery landscape concept and form, and continue to resonate with the modern sensibilities they helped shape. Tickets: $15 General Public; $12 Seniors; $5 Members; FREE for Students.  To purchase tickets, log on to www.gardnermuseum.org, or call 617-566-1401. Image: Halcyon Lake in spring, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by Alan Ward.The Landscape Visions Lecture Series is made possible by a bequest from Jeanne Muller Ryan

    Mt Auburn Cemetery Alan Ward lecture

  • Friday, October 23, 6:30 pm – Kyoto: City of Gardens

    For more than 1200 years, the gardens of Kyoto have reflected the cultural characteristics of each successive era of Japanese history.  In this talk on Friday, October 23, beginning at 6:30 pm,  MARC PETER KEANE, landscape designer and historian of Japanese gardens, will discuss the cultural forces — social, religious, economic, artistic, and architectural – that have shaped the gardens of Kyoto from the time of the Tale of Genji (10th century) to the present.  1200 years ago, the Emperor of Japan settled his court in a newly-built city, Heian-kyô, now known as Kyôto. Gardens were built at the residences of the imperial courtiers, and have been built in that city ever since, their design changing over time as the ebb and flow of society replaced one culture with another. Marc Peter Keane, garden historian and specialist in Japanese gardens, will discuss those cultural changes — social, religious, economic, artistic, architectural — and how each new form of Kyoto garden reflects the cultural environment of its time. His talk will include: pond gardens at courtier residences in the Heian-period, medieval gardens of raked sand and stones, tea gardens, and courtyard gardens of urban merchant houses.  Marc Peter Keane lived in Kyoto for 18 years, designing gardens for private individuals, companies and temples, and continues that work now from his studio in Ithaca, New York. His books include Japanese Garden Design (an introduction to the culture and aesthetics of Japanese gardens), Sakuteiki (a translation of the Japan’s oldest gardening treatise), The Art of Setting Stones (eight essays on the meaning of gardens), and the soon-to-be-published, Japanese Tea Gardens.This talk is part of  the Kyoto-Boston 50th Anniversary celebration.  Please rsvp at www.us-japan.org.

    The Japan Society of Boston
    at Showa Boston Institute
    420 Pond St., Boston MA
    Free and open to the public

    http://www.mpkeane.com/sakuteikimd.jpg

  • Tuesday, October 27, 3:30 pm – Reading and Conserving New England: Insights from History and Ecology

    David Foster, of Harvard Forest and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, will speak on Tuesday, October 27 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus Student Union, Cape Cod Lounge, as part of The Environmental Institute’s Fall Lecture Program, which is free and open to the public.

    This talk is based on David’s long-standing conviction that every landscape and region has a history that strongly conditions its current condition and its future dynamics. In this talk he will provide an overview of the ecological insights that emerge from a consideration of the natural and cultural history of New England and then illustrate how this can be applied both to anticipating future conditions and to conservation management, including discussion of the Wildlands and Woodlands vision being developed by scientists associated with the Harvard Forest.

    Bio

    David Foster is an ecologist and author of Thoreau’s Country – Journey through a Transformed Landscape (1999), New England Forests Through Time (2000; both Harvard University Press), Forests in Time – The Environmental Consequences of 1000 years of Change in New England (2004; Yale University Press) and Wildland and Woodlands: A Vision for the Forests of Massachusetts (Harvard University). He has been a faculty member in Biology since 1983 and is Director of the Harvard Forest, Harvard University’s 3500-acre ecological laboratory and classroom in central Massachusetts. David is the Principal Investigator for the Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and involving more than 100 scientists and students investigating the dynamics of New England landscape as a consequence of climate change, human activity, and natural disturbance.

    David has a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Minnesota and has conducted studies in the boreal forests of Labrador, Sweden and Norway and the forests of Puerto Rico, the Yucatan, and Patagonia in addition to his primary research on landscape dynamics in New England. His interests focus on understanding the historical changes in forest ecosystems that result from human and natural disturbance and applying these results to the conservation and management of natural and cultural landscapes. He currently serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy -Massachusetts, Trustees of Reservations, Conservation Research Foundation and Highstead Foundation. As part of his larger conservation work David and a group of Harvard Forest researchers developed Wildlands and Woodlands – A Vision for the Forests of Massachusetts, which lays out an ambitious plan for the protection and conservation of half of the land in the state.At Harvard University David teaches courses on forest ecology and environmental change and directs the graduate program in forest biology. He lives in Shutesbury, Massachusetts with his wife Marianne Jorgensen and their children Christian and Ava.  For more information, log on to www.umass.edu/tei/TEI/LectureFall2009.html.

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  • Thursday, November 12, 5:30 – 7:30 pm – Wild Foraged Wreaths

    The Trustees of Reservations will hold a special workshop at the Long Hill Horticulture Center on Thursday, November 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Using unusual evergreens, blueberry twigs, cones, berries, mosses, bark, and lichens from Long Hill, expert floral designer Bonnie Stafford will lead this botanically inspired workshop. Learn about the natural materials, enjoy the wreath making demonstration, and then create your own exquisite foraged wreath. All materials supplied.  Trustees members $28, non-members $35.  To register, call 978-921-1944, x 4018, or email bzschau@ttor.org.  For directions to Long Hill, log on to www.thetrustees.org.

    http://www.greenunion.co.uk/blog/images/door_wreath.jpg

  • Sunday, November 8, 2 – 3:30 pm – Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being

    Can a pleasant view speed healing? In this lecture on Sunday, November 8 at 2 pm at Trinity Church here in the Back Bay, Dr. Esther Sternberg will present the science of mind-body connections and human perception as it relates to place. Using examples from her book, Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being, to explain the neurobiology of the senses, she will explore how a theme park, concert hall, cathedral, labyrinth, or garden can trigger or reduce stress, induce anxiety or instill peace. Dr. Sternberg will provide clues to how and why we respond to our surroundings that could influence the places we create in the future. Fee $10 Arnold Arboretum members, $15 nonmembers .
    Dr. Esther M. Sternberg, Chief of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior and Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, is internationally recognized for her discoveries in brain-immune interactions and the brain’s stress response on health. Dr. Sternberg is also Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program, NIMH/NIH and Co-Chair of the NIH Intramural Program on Research in Women’s Health. She was on the faculty at Washington University before joining the National Institutes of Health in 1986.
    Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum and Trinity Church in the City of Boston.  To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    St Francis at Trinity Church, Boston by Philocrites.

  • Saturday, November 7 – Sunday, November 8 – Franklin County CiderDays

    CiderDays is a community event celebrating all things apples in Franklin County, Massachusetts.  2009 marks the 15th year of this event and there will be two days of orchard tours, cider making and tastings, workshops, and much more.  This is for all who love apples, fresh or hard cider, apple cuisine, apple orchards, or just being in New England in the fall.  There is a charge for some of the activities but there is no admission for the self-guided tour of the orchards or the Marketplace at the Shelburne Buckland Community Center in Shelburne Falls.  Tickets for CiderDays 2009 are on sale at www.ciderday.org.

    Some highlights include workshops, talks and tastings from beginner through advanced for cider makers, home orchardists, and cider afficionados at various locations throughout the weekend.  Saturday, November 7, from 8 – 11, enjoy an Apple Pancake Breakfast at the Second Congregational Church, Court Square in Greenfield.  The Cider Salon, with tastings of a dozen or so ciders from around the country, takes place at the White Church Community Center in Old Deerfield on Saturday (you need a ticket for this one.)  The CiderDay Harvest Supper features Chef Paul Correnty, who will create a savory fall feast featuring apples, cider and other locally grown foods.  The dinner will be held in the Blue & White Society Room at the PVNA Teachers’ Center, 10 Memorial Street in Old Deerfield (another ticketed event.)  New Salem Orchards hosts its Apple Festival with child-friendly apple pressing, live alpacas, cider donuts, caramel apples, hot squash/cider soup, roasted hot dogs over a bonfire, apples, sweet cider, sun-cooked preserves and more on both Saturday and Sunday.  Claude Jolicouer gives a talk about cider varieties for the commercial orchard on Saturday at a location to be announced.  Organic orchardist Michael Phillips wassails apple trees at New Salem Orchards on Saturday from 1 – 2 pm.  Michael is also leading an orchard walk at Clarkdale Fruit Farms on Sunday from 1 – 2 pm.  Terry Maloney from West County Cider and Steve Wood from Farnum Hill Cider will conduct From Apple to Bottle on Sunday at the White Church Community Center (tickets required.)  Apples from the Slow Food Ark is a lecture on Sunday, also at the White Church Community Center, led by Ben Watson (not the New England Patriot) and Tom Burford – tickets needed for this one, too.  Formaggio’s South End pairs with Ben Watson later on Sunday for a Cider and Cheese Pairing (buy tickets for this one – it will be spectacular), and The Marketplace at Shelburne Buckland Community Center in Shelburne Falls will host local artisans and producers, food vendors, and, of course, apples.  For directions and more information, log on to www.ciderday.org.

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  • Friday, November 6, 10 a.m. – Beginning Orchid Growing Clinic

    Historic New England is sponsoring a Beginning Orchid Growing Clinic at the Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham, Massachusetts on Friday, November 6, beginning at 10 a.m.  Learn the essentials of growing orchids, including requirements of growing media, light, water, temperature, and fertilization. With their long-lasting and showy blooms, orchids are one of the most beautiful and dramatic of all flowering plants. This popular course is taught by Lyman Estate horticulturist Lynn Ackerman, an accomplished orchid grower and member of the Orchid Society.  Admission fee is $35.  Contact Susanna Crampton at scrampton@historicnewengland.org, or call her at 781-891-4882 to register.  For more information, log on to www.historicnewengland.org.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fv8msJy4PhQ/SdnR7GZ2adI/AAAAAAAAANg/UDh3VQJt9R4/s400/OrangeOrchid.jpg

  • Saturday, October 24, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Greater Boston Food Bank Open House Celebration

    Do you know the  Food Bank feeds 83,000 people each week? Come to the open house on Saturday, October 24, from 10 – 2, and learn, get involved, and get inspired.  The event will take place at the Yawkey Distribution Center of the Greater Boston Food Bank, 70 South Bay Avenue in Boston.

    To achieve its mission, The Food Bank feeds more than 320,000 people annually in nine counties in eastern Massachusetts. They’re poor to middle-class people who can’t make ends meet. They’re our friends, neighbors, and colleagues. The Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and one of the largest food banks in the country. It distributes more than 30 million pounds of food and grocery products annually to a network of nearly 600 member hunger-relief agencies. It is a trusted and efficient resource for these local food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless and residential shelters, youth programs, senior centers, and day-care centers, providing the food they need to feed the hungry.

    Bring a non-perishable item to participate in their food drive.  There will be limited complimentary parking on site.  For directions, and to let the good folks who work there know you’re coming, log on to www.gbfb.org/openhouse/.

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  • Saturday, October 31 – Sunday, November 1 – Boston Vegetarian Food Festival

    The Boston Vegetarian Society presents The 14th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival on Sunday, October 31 from 10 am – 6 pm and Sunday, November 1, from 10 am – 4 pm, at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center, 1350 Tremont Street, with a subway stop directly across the street.  Free admission, free parking, and free food sampling!  The burgeoning success and popularity of this Festival has led the organizers to expand the Festival to a two day event.  The Festival brings together an amazing array of vegetarian natural food providers, top national speakers and chefs, and educational exhibitors in a fun and welcoming environment.  You’ll have the chance to talk directly to food producers, learn the newest items in the marketplace, taste food samples, shop at show special discounts, or simply learn what vegetarian foods are available and where you can find them.

    Whether you are a longtime vegetarian or vegan, or someone simply wanting to add more healthy and delicious foods to your meal repertoire, or if you are just curious what it’s all about, you are welcome here.  You can also learn of ways to benefit the environment, help animals, and enhance your health and well being.  Speakers last year included Sarah Kramer, author of How It All Vegan! , The Garden of Vegan, and La Dolce Vegan, and Danielle Nierenberg, a leading expert on animal agriculture and sustainability.  Danielle is a Senior Fellow with the Worldwatch Institute and has authored significant reports addressing the damaging effects of factory farming on the environment, human health, and communities.  You may also hear jae steele (who abjures capital letters along with meat), a Toronto-based registered holistic nutritionist and the author of Get it Ripe – a fresh take on vegan cooking and living.  T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., is a giant in the field of nutrition research, and author of The China Study, a comprehensive study of the connection between diet and disease.  The list of 2009 speakers includes Emilie Hardman, author of The Conscious Kitchen, and more information can be obtained on the website www.bostonveg.org/foodfest.