The Friends of the North End Library are holding a Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 3, from 11 – 1 at the North End Library (where else?), 25 Parmenter Street in Boston. There will be music, great food, and a raffle. Free.
Month: November 2016
-
Holiday Wreaths – Black Friday
You may be doing a little online shopping today, and while we can’t promise you immense savings on holiday wreath purchases (this is a fundraiser, people!), we can promise you immense savings on time. We will deliver your beautiful wreath right to your home in Back Bay, Beacon Hill, or the South End on Wednesday or Thursday, December 7 or 8, during three convenient time slots of your choosing. Or pick it up, ready to go, at The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street, during either of those two days. Click on https://bostonflora.com/shop/ to get in before our deadline kicks in. Photo by Debbie Roberts.
-
Saturday, December 3, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm – Concord Holiday House Tour
On Saturday, December 3, 2016 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., a selection of Concord’s most beautiful private homes will be professionally decorated in the holiday spirit by local and Boston-based interior designers. Guests will be welcomed inside the front doors of these gracious private residences to visit the charming ground floor rooms. From Colonial to Victorian to Shingle Style and more, each house will be decorated in a different holiday theme. The Concord Museum welcomes you to spend the day in Concord, a small town with a big history, and enjoy the elegant streets, charming cafés and shops, as well as the many historic homes.
The Guild of Volunteers is organizing this event as a benefit for the education initiatives of the Museum. The 2016 House Tour Co-Chairs are Kim Picullel, Colleen Van Houten, and Sarah Walton. Tickets may be purchased online, at the Museum, or by phone. Tickets and maps must be picked up at the Museum the day of the tour.
Advanced discount tickets through December 1: $40 Museum Members, $45 Non-Members. December 2 or day of: $45 Members, $50 Non-Members. Purchase tickets at http://www.concordmuseum.org/special-events-house-tour.php
-
Tuesday, December 6, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Landscape Lighting
On Tuesday, December 6 from 4 – 5:30 at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, Joe Biagioni will review the equipment available to stage your own landscape lighting. Homeowners can be quite successful with what is available on the market, and Joe will explain what is needed and how to use it in your landscape.
Joe Biagioni of Arbor Alliance in Douglas, MA is a senior arborist; he has worked in and around the tree business over 25 years. He has also taught courses for Clark University and Tower Hill, for local organizations, and for Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The cost of the lecture is $12 for Mass Hort members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.masshort.org/adult-education
-
Saturday, December 3, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Alternative Winter Bulbs: Creating an Indoor Sanctuary
Taylor Johnston of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will lead a workshop at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Saturday, December 3 from 1 – 2:30 pm (snow date December 10) on Alternative Winter Bulbs: Creating an Indoor Sanctuary. Gain insight into the lesser-known South African indoor bulbs, such as Veltheimia, Lachenalia (pictured), and Oxalis species. You’ll get to pot up a specimen bulb for home or holiday gift. Tower Hill member price $50, nonmembers $65. Register online at http://www.towerhillbg.org or call 508-869-6111, ext 124.
-
Thursday, December 1, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Historical Ethnobotany of Southern New England: Recovering and Repatriating Indigenous Plant Knowledge
Even though most of the history and knowledge of the Native peoples of southern New England has been “lost”, a rich body of plant lore was preserved and has been passed down to their descendants. This New England Wild Flower Society class will focus on a preliminary analysis of biocultural diversity in New England, including information on 309 plant species gleaned from ethnographic, historical, and archaeological sources. The instructor is Manuel Lizarralde, Professor of Ethnobotany at Connecticut College, and the date is December 1 from 7 – 8:30 at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. $14 for NEWFS members, $16 for nonmembers. Register online at www.newenglandwild.org.
-
Sunday, December 4, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm – Boxwood and Baubles Centerpiece
Betsy Williams will help you make a fresh boxwood and fragrant evergreen centerpiece accented with berries, glass balls, glittery cones and holiday ribbons. All materials will be included in the fee (Tower Hill Botanic Garden members $75, nonmembers $90). The class will be held at Tower Hill on Sunday, December 4 from 12:30 – 2. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org or call 508-869-6111, ext. 124. Image from www.lucillesfloralsoffishkill.com.
-
Thursday, December 1, 6:00 pm – From the Granite Garden to West Philadelphia (with a nod to the Fens): Restoring Nature & Communities
The Friends of the Public Garden and the Friends of Fairsted will host a lecture on December 1 at the Wheelock College Brookline Campus, 43 Hawes Street on the corner of Hawes and Monmouth Streets in Brookline beginning at 6 pm. Anne Whiston Spirn has raised awareness of the segregation of ecology from urban planning ever since her publication of The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design in 1984. For thirty years, Spirn has directed the West Philadelphia Landscape Project, an award-winning program dedicated to restoring nature, rebuilding inner-city communities, and empowering youth. She will describe this research-in-action, its impact on Philadelphia’s planning policies, and its lessons for more equitable and sustainable communities. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Call 617-566-1689, ext 265, or visit http://friendsoffairsted.org/programs/register/
-
Sunday, December 11, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm – Holiday House Tour
The Nichols House Museum invites you to its annual Holiday House Tour on Sunday, December 11 from 12 – 4. Visit rarely viewed Beacon Hill houses festively decorated for the season. Included in the ticket price is a holiday reception from 3 – 5 at the King’s Chapel Parish House, 64 Beacon Street (and when you’re there, look for our Club’s beautifully decorated holiday wreaths.) Tickets are $100 ($75 tax deductible) if purchased in advance, $120 if purchased the day of tour. Please make checks payable to the Nichols House Museum and mail to 55 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, MA 02108. You may also purchase tickets online at http://www.nicholshousemuseum.org. No photography of home interiors, please. For additional information call 617-227-6993, or email info@nicholshousemuseum.org.
-
Wednesday, November 30, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Six Ice Ages in One Billion Years, Climate Change, and Boston’s Earthquake Problem
Our planet has experienced six ice ages in the last billion years. The first two at about 800 and 600 million years ago may have covered all or most of the earth in ice and is referred to as the “Snowball Earth.” The most recent Pleistocene ice age, perhaps not done, involved over 16 glacial cooling and warming events over the past 2.5 million years.
Geologist James Lawford Anderson of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University will speak on Wednesday, November 30 from 7 – 8:30 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, about various ice ages, today’s climate, and end his lecture with Boston’s glacially-influenced earthquake problem. $5, free for Arnold Arboretum members and students. Register at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277. Image from www.air-worldwide.com.
