Boston Flora

Month: November 2009

  • Commonwealth Avenue Mall Lights

    Join your neighbors and friends in lighting the Mall again this year.  Funded entirely by donations, it is the neighborhood’s gift to the City.  Donations are currently being solicited, large or small.  Make checks payable to Committee to Light Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and mail them to the Back Bay Association, 234 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA 02116.  Donations may also be made online at www.BackBayLights.com.  The Committee to Light Commonwealth Avenue Mall works with the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee of The Friends of the Public Garden and with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department.

    http://images32.fotki.com/v1062/photos/4/439289/4731905/IMG_6749-vi.jpg

  • Thursday, November 20, 6-10 pm – Methuen Festival of Trees Premier Opening Celebration

    On Thursday, November 20, from 6 – 10 pm, join celebrity hosts Matt Siegel of KISS 108 and Billy Costa of NECN’s TV Diner at the gala opening night celebration of Methuen’s Festival of Trees.  You are cordially invited to experience the Taste of the Festival.  Many of the area’s finest restaurants will offer their specialty dishes to the guests.  Tickets to this sumptuous event are $50 each.  For tickets and venue information, call 978-685-8878, or email info@methuenfestivaloftrees.com.

    The Festival of Trees, an annual event, was begun to fund the restoration of the Tenney Gatehouse. It is a magical event held annually by the Methuen Festival of Trees, Inc., to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season. The Festival is dedicated to the richness and history of our community by developing partnerships with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Methuen, the Methuen Historic District Commission, the Methuen Historical Society, and the people and organizations of Methuen. The proceeds from the Festival of Trees provide funding to preserve our heritage and the monuments that make Methuen so unique.

    Visitors are invited to attend the Festival and view the 200+ trees donated by individuals, businesses, organizations, and school groups from Methuen and several Merrimack Valley communities.  The Festival opens November 21 and runs through December 5 (closed Thanksgiving Day).  Hours vary, so check www.methuenfestivaloftrees.com for a complete schedule.  Admission is $8 for adults, children 12 and under FREE.  Directions from Boston: Take Route 93 N, Exit 46 – go 3/4 of the way around the rotary. Bear right on to 113 W toward Dracut. Follow the signs to the Festival of Trees.  The image below shows a tree created by the Methuen Garden Club for a previous Festival entitled “Scents of the Season.”

    http://www.methuengardenclub.org/images/Festival%20of%20Trees%202007.jpg

  • Saturday, November 21, 10:00 am – Gifts from the Garden

    Come to Old Sturbridge Village on Saturday, November 21, beginning at 10 am, for another in its Garden Thyme programs.  Roberta McQuaid will conduct a class entitled “Gifts from the Garden.”  Who doesn’t love a homemade gift?  Use the next month to get busy crafting simple, garden inspired gifts, including teas, sachets, potpourris, and the like.  Meet at the Visitor Center, and you will be led to the setting of this workshop.  For more information, log on to www.osv.org.

    http://distractible.org//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/chunky-potpourri-includes-whole-orange-star-anise-cloves-bayleaves-and-cinnamon-bark-.jpg

  • Tuesday, November 24, 1:00 – 2:30 pm – E.O. Wilson: Darwin and the Frontiers of Evolution

    On Tuesday, November 24, beginning at 1 pm (the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species) a panel of scientists led by E.O. Wilson and Everett Mendelsohn will discuss Darwin’s legacy and talk about the frontiers of evolutionary and molecular biology, hosted by the Reading Odyssey and the Darwin Facebook Project.  Sponsors include National Geographic, Citrix Online and their HiDef Conferencing Division, Campaign Monitor, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, National Center for Science Education, Squarespace, Creation the Movie, and the New York Academy of Sciences.  The live lecture is free, although only 84 tickets remain as of today, so you may reserve your tickets at http://darwinlecture4.eventbrite.com.

    Now here’s even better news:  you may watch it as a free webcast (1,870 spaces), a teleconference if you are so set up (171 spaces), or a Skype pass (161 spaces).  The deadline for signing up is November 17 for the live lecture, and November 21 for the teleconference free pass or Skype free pass.  You may sign up for the webcast right up to the end on November 24.

    You may know E.O. Wilson as perhaps the most famous ant researcher of modern times, and the mentor of gardening guru Roger Swain.  This event will be a truly special and stimulating celebration of Darwin.

  • Thursday, November 12, 3 – 8 pm, and Friday, November 13, 10 am – 4 pm – Mother Caroline Academy & Education Center Special Holiday Sale

    Garden Club of the Back Bay member Sue Hazard, along with Marianne Pawliki, invite you to a Special Holiday Sale with proceeds benefiting Mother Caroline Academy & Education Center (www.mcaec.org).  Exhibitors will include TBH (perennial botanical designs), Trillion (estate and contemporary jewelry), the Janet Egan Collection (silk jackets and tunics, and the Bali Bags featured below) and much, much more.  The times are Thursday, November 12, between 3 – 8 pm and Friday, November 13, between 10 – 4 pm, at 23 Marlborough Street, Boston, between Arlington and Berkeley Streets, 3rd and 4th floor.  To respond, or for more information, call 617-427-1177, or email sghaz@verizon.net.

  • Friday, November 13, 5:30 pm – Urban Farming

    Slow Food Boston will sponsor an evening called “Urban Farming Discussion with Two Experts” on Friday, November 13 beginning at 5:30 pm at the Fort Point Artists Community Store, 12 Farnsworth Street in Boston.  You may reserve your spaces by logging on to www.slowfoodboston.com/events.cfm.
    Novella Carpenter lives in Oakland. I mean, really IN Oakland. As in downtown. But that certainly hasn’t stopped her from farming – and she has now written a memoir chronicling the transformation of her backyard from bare land to full-blown animal & veggie paradise!

    The book, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, is newly released, and Slow Food Boston coaxed Novella out of sunny California to cool New England to read from it and talk more about her experiences. By doing so, they hope you will be inspired to make a little more out of available space on rooftops, outside windowsills or in yards.

    In order to tie Novella’s work back to local issues, they’ve invited Belmont resident (& resident chicken expert) Joan Teebagy to join Novella. More people are opting to raise their own hens for eggs, and Joan teaches classes on the subject at Codman Farms in Lincoln. But be sure to check your town laws! As many of you may have read, there is an on-going battle in Arlington about residents rights to keep backyard chickens.

    So come on Friday, November 13th at 5:30pm.  There will be some light nibbles, a little cider, and then enjoy the reading & discussions that commence. Advance RSVPs and a $10 donation to the Slow Food fund that supports local agriculture are duly requested!

    Directions:
    Made in Fort Point, the FPAC Store is located at 12 Farnsworth St, just off Congress Street and next to the new Flour Bakery.

    The gallery space is a 5 to 10 minute walk from the South Station Red Line T, or the Court House stop on the Silver Line. There is also street parking in the area.

    http://civileats.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/farmcity.jpg

  • Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, 12 noon – 5 pm – Schon and Schon

    Nancy Schon is a great friend of the City of Boston and the Boston Parks Department.  You are invited to a special exhibit of the artwork of Nancy and Ellen Schon on Saturday, November 21 or Sunday, November 22, from noon – 5 pm, at 291 Otis Street, West Newton, Massachusetts.  Please visit www.schon.com and www.ellenschon.com for more information about these fine artists.

  • Tuesday, November 17, 7:00 pm – Responsible Gardening for the 21st Century: The Sustainable Landscape

    The Maynard Community Gardeners host noted landscape historian and designer Marie Stella for a discussion on Responsible Gardening for the 21st Century: The Sustainable Landscape.

    Ms. Stella teaches in the Graduate program at The Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and currently is an adjunct faculty instructor in landscape design at The New York Botanical Garden, and Tower Hill Botanical Garden. She also lectures frequently and leads local and foreign Garden History Tours.  She will be speaking to The Garden Club of the Back Bay in March, in a program co-sponsored by The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and the New England Wildflower Society, but this lecture will be on a different topic, so attending on November 17 will not be repetitive.

    Her design firm, Kirin Farm Enterprises specializes in environmental landscapes and in initiatives to foster the preservation of open space.

    Her latest design project is a Platinum certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) home and sustainable landscape.

    This lecture is free and open to the public.  For more information, log on to www.maynardgardeners.org, or email info@maynardgardners.org.

    Marie Stella

  • Thursday, November 19, 12:15 pm – Girls’ Night Out in the 1890s

    On a hot July day in 1891, four wealthy women set off for ten days of “roughing it” on Great Brewster Island and kept a diary of their summer adventure on their “enchanted isle.”  Now in the collection of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, the diary is a snapshot of a time when the Harbor Islands played a prominent role in the lives of Boston-area residents.  Author Stephanie Schorow introduces us to the “Scribe, Autocrat, Aristocrat and Acrobat” and their delightful get away.

    Stephanie Schorow is a long-time Boston-area reporter and writer. If she’s not working on a book project, she’s hammering away at articles for a host of publications and institutions, including the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, Lifescript.com, MIT, Harvard and many others. She writes on health issues, history topics and cultural trends. She reviews restaurants for Globe North and music reviews for the Chicago Blues Guide. She also writes and takes photographs for travel features.

    Ms. Schorow is the author of the nonfiction book, The Crime of the Century: How the Brink’s Robbers Stole Millions and the Hearts of Boston, published in February 2008 by Commonwealth Editions. Her book on the Boston Harbor Islands, East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Islands, was published in July 2008 by The History Press.

    $5 admission. The talk will take place at the Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, on Thursday, November 19 beginning at 12:15 pm.  For more information, call 617-482-6439, or log on to www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org.

    http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v374/205/27/34357578499/n34357578499_1070919_7626.jpg

  • Saturday, November 14, 9:30 am – 1:30 pm – The Road to Copenhagen: Mini Conference on Global Climate Change

    The Cambridge Forum will sponsor The Road to Copenhagen: Mini Conference on Global Climate Change, Saturday, November 14 beginning at 9:30 am at the First Parish Church, 3 Church Street in Cambridge.  U.S. Congressman Ed Markey reflects on his ground-breaking legislation outlining the nation’s plan to reduce carbon emissions.  The latest data on polar ice melt and sea level change will be outlined.  A group of researchers, political leaders, and local advocates join in the discussion.

    As governments, scientists, and environmentalists prepare for the Copenhagen meetings to hammer out the next international agreements on global climate change, Cambridge Forum brings together a group of researchers,political leaders, and local advocates to discuss the issues that will be on the table in Copenhagen. Public health experts discuss the impact of warming on food production and movement of diseases. How is this global data relevant to local environmental groups? How can local groups co-ordinate their work, share best practices, and have a broader impact?

    For more information, log on to www.cambridgeforum.org.

    http://papundits.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/ed_markey.jpg