Boston Flora

Month: October 2020

  • Wednesday, October 14, 7:00 pm – Seabirds 101: Mariners Superb: Webinar

    Seabirds are among the world’s most remarkable birds.  Possessing an amazing array of specialized adaptations for extended marine existence, as well as manifesting a remarkable variety of breeding and migratory strategies, seabirds have long been a favorite with both birders and research ornithologists.  Some seabirds, such as the great albatrosses, may live for more than half a century and are capable of spending as much as eight or more years at sea without ever touching land.  Other species like the tiny Wilson’s Storm-Petrel virtually travel from one end of the world to the other twice a year.  With a keen olfactory ability, unique adaptations for removing salt from seawater, and a seemingly innate sense for navigating over trackless oceans, seabirds are truly extraordinary mariners.  In this Athol Bird & Nature Club online presentation, Wayne Petersen will discuss seabird classification, feeding, breeding, and migratory strategies, and seabird adaptations. His comments will also focus on the significance of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary to seabirds off the Massachusetts coast and some of the important conservation issues facing seabird populations locally and beyond. 

    Wayne Petersen is Mass Audubon’s Director of the Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBA) program. Wayne has led tours, lectured, and conducted birding workshops across North America for more than 40 years. His tour-leading experiences have taken him from the Arctic to Antarctica, including destinations in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, and also Iceland, Svalbard, 5 African countries, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Australia, and New Zealand.

    The webinar will take place October 14 beginning at 7 pm Eastern Time. Register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xG6hKgigTc-ixGQZAe2cUQ After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

  • Friday, October 23, 5:00 pm – Saturday, October 24, 9:00 am – Camping on the Grand Allee

    Camp on the Grand Allee, the central landscape feature at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, a National Historic Landmark, for a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Enjoy s’mores-making around a campfire at base camp (a/k/a the Casino Complex), a night sleeping under the stars, and waking to magnificent estate and ocean views.

    Bathroom facilities at the Casino Complex will be available. Space is limited to 8 families. Participants must provide their own tent, bedrolls, and cold supper. Cooking on-site is not permitted. An overnight manager will greet guests, prepare a self-contained campfire and s’mores kits for each group, serve morning coffee, and sanitize restrooms between scheduled family visits.

    Pre-registration is required. Trustees members $88 per family, nonmembers $118. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/57353/

  • Mondays, October 19 – November 16, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm – Botanical Watercolor for Beginners and Beyond, Online

    Enjoy painting botanical watercolors in a relaxed atmosphere. This online New York Botanical Garden class is designed for both inexperienced students and those who wish to improve their skills. Lectures and demonstrations are enhanced by individual instruction. Work at your own pace on a variety of pieces. Laura Vogel instructs. NYBG members $345, Nonmembers $379. Register HERE.

  • Tuesday, October 13, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm – Advanced Techniques for Vegetarians: Root Vegetables, Online

    With cooler temperatures comes a whole new world of vegetables to play with, from your everyday potatoes and carrots to knobby celery root and big bunches of beets. It’s all too easy to fall into a same-old roasting routine with root vegetables, though. In this class, we’ll teach you two techniques that make the most of the flavors and textures of colder-weather produce—and neither one demands turning on the oven. First, we’ll use a stovetop low-liquid boil technique to transform the humble parsnip into an addictive side dish that marries its earthiness with floral honey, spicy caraway and fruity cider vinegar. Then, we’ll put a grater to good use as we transform fennel and celery root into a salad that is crunchy, bright and shockingly quick to throw together. The best part? These two techniques are easy to apply to other hardy vegetables. Join us for a class that will change the way you look at root vegetables.

    Bonus: All attendees of this class will receive a one-time $15 coupon to the Milk Street Store after class. This event has limited spots, and you must register in advance via Eventbrite. One sign-up covers one device. Closed Captioning is available for this event.

    Immediately after registering, you will get a confirmation email that contains the Zoom meeting log-in information. One week prior to class (or within 48 hours of registering, if you sign up less than a week in advance), you will receive an email with the ingredients, equipment and prep you’ll need to cook along with us, if you choose.

    After class, you will receive a recording of the event, as well as a packet with recipes and resources that we discuss during the event. If you have any questions about this class, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via cookingschool@177milkstreet.com.

    Payments for Milk Street live stream classes are non-refundable. If you find yourself unable to attend, you may transfer the ticket to someone else, but we are unable to refund fees and all payments are final.

    Proceeds from live stream cooking classes support Milk Street’s non-profit work with The Big Sisters Association. Fee is $24.95. Register at www.177milkstreet.com

  • Saturday, October 10, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – The Luminosity of Leaves

    The beauty of leaves is all around us in the fall. Learn and practice drawing this fantastic foliage and using colored pencils to add their stunning fall colors. A few acorns or seed pods may find their way into your drawings, too! This October 10 Tower Hill Botanic Garden program will be held from 1 – 3 under our open sided outdoor canopy tent. Group size will not exceed current state restrictions (10).

    Carol Schwartz graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute, attending her senior year at Rhode Island School of Design. She earned her MFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford, Connecticut in 2014. Her education equipped her to be diverse and adaptable, with work appearing in 60 picture books and countless magazines, newspapers and advertisements. 

  • Thursday, October 15, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Marcus Samuelsson in Conversation with Toni Griffin, Online

    The Harvard Graduate School of Design is pleased to present a series of talks and webinars broadcast to our audiences via Zoom. *This lecture will be ONLINE ONLY. For security reasons, virtual attendees must register. Scroll down to find complete instructions for how to register. On October 15, the Roouse Visiting Artist Lecture will feature Marcus Samuelsson in conversation with Toni Griffin.

    Marcus Samuelsson is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster Harlem, MARCUS Montreal, and Marcus B&P in Newark, NJ. Samuelsson was the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won multiple James Beard Foundation Awards including Best Chef: New York City and Outstanding Personality for No Passport Required on PBS. He is the author of multiple books including The New York Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef and his latest book– The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem. His podcast titled This Moment with Swedish rapper Timbuktu is out now.

    Follow Samuelsson on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @MarcusCooks.

    Toni L. Griffin is the founder of urbanAC, based in New York, specializing in leading complex, trans-disciplinary planning and urban design projects for multi-sector clients in cities with long histories of spatial and social injustice. Recent and current clients include the cities of Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Philadelphia.

    Toni is also Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and leads The Just City Lab, a research platform for developing values-based planning methodologies and tools, including the Just City Index and a framework of indicators and metrics for evaluating public life and urban justice in public plazas.

    Toni is also Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and leads The Just City Lab, a research platform for developing values-based planning methodologies and tools, including the Just City Index and a framework of indicators and metrics for evaluating public life and urban justice in public plazas.

    Register to attend the lecture here. Once you have registered, you will be provided with a link to join the lecture via Zoom. This link will also be emailed to you.

    The event will also be live streamed to the GSD’s YouTube page. Only viewers who are attending the lecture via Zoom will be able to submit questions for the Q+A. Live captioning will be provided during this event. After the event has ended, a transcript will be available upon request.

  • Saturday, October 4 – Sunday, October 11 – Maine’s Fryeburg Fair: Virtual for 2020

    Since the Fryeburg Fair organizers cannot see all of you in person they thought they’d bring the Fair to you virtually. You might ask, What is a virtual fair? It’s like watching the Fair on a device with videos, photos, music and contests covering a wide array of Fair subject matter. Be sure to visit https://www.fryeburgfair.org/p/events/virtual-fair1 and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to receive information, schedules, contest opportunities and how you can participate! Virtual Fair 2020 will run October 4-11. There will be contests, a 4-H auction, a marketplace, entertainment, demonstrations, the works.

  • Thursday, October 8, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Introduction to Designing with Native Plants Webinar

    Although most often associated with natural settings like meadows, forests, and pond edges, native plants can work beautifully in built landscapes. Learn which native plants work best for gardens and what principles of design enhance their aesthetic appeal. This Native Plant Trust online session will take place Thursday, October 8 from 6:30 – 7:30, taught by Anna Fialkoff. $12 for NPT members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/introduction-designing-native-plants/

  • Wednesday, October 7, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Environmental Justice and Heat Islands in Worcester Webinar

    The urban heat island is a phenomenon where urban communities are many degrees hotter than their surrounding rural neighbors. This bubble of hot air can be over 10 degrees hotter, increasing these community’s vulnerability to extreme heat events (temperature above 90-degrees). In the summer of 2020, there have been over 21 days of extreme heat in Worcester with potentially severe health risks and increased energy use. The urban heat island is an environmental ill that is not equitably born; lower income neighborhoods, people of color and English as a second language speakers are disproportionately affected. The unequal distribution of heat in cities is one of many potential environmental injustices that are perpetuated by institutional racist policies like red lining. This Tower Hill Botanical Garden talk on October 7 from 6:30 – 7:30 will examine the causes of the urban heat island effect, examples of environmental injustice in Worcester and potential solutions to create a more environmentally just city. This program will be held virtually. Once you register you will receive a zoom link in the confirmation. This webinar will also be RECORDED and available for 2 months to all registrants.


    Nicholas Geron is a PhD student at the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University. After growing up in Newburyport, MA, he taught high school environmental science in New York City for five years where he became interested in urban forestry. He primarily studied the role of urban forests in mitigating the urban heat island effect and addressing environmental injustice. Nick’s research has ranged from street trees in Elm Park, Downtown and Main South neighborhoods to the Greening the Gateway Cities Program, a statewide tree planting effort. He is interested in how trees are framed as infrastructure, habitat, and property by different stakeholders and how the framing of the urban forest affects its maintenance and growth. When Nick is not measuring trees, he enjoys fishing at Coes Reservoir, ultrarunning and playing very amateur hockey.

    Tower Hill member fee $10, nonmembers $15. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Tuesdays, October 6 – October 27, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Interior Plantscapes, Online

    Florists and floral designers who want long-lasting, gorgeous interior plantings won’t want to miss this unique New York Botanical Garden online class from florist, horticulturist, and indoor plant expert Chris Raimondi. In this class, Chris shares essential horticulture practices for properselection and maintenance of plants used in atria,corporate offices, and for special events. Trimming, pruning, soil testing, pest prevention, cleaning, and more are covered. Sessions meet Tuesdays, October 6 – 27 from 10 – noon. $225 for NYBG members, $245 for nonmembers. Register Here.