The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Ruth A. Wallack Fund, presents Nature Takes Over: Creations are Collaborations with Nature, featuring Bill Harper, AIFD & AAF, International Floral Artist, Lecturer, Author, and Educator, on Tuesday, May 22, beginning at 10 am at Regis College Fine Arts Center in Weston. Tickets are $20, and may be obtained by calling Helga Frazzette at 508-255-6664, or Diane Bullock at 207-361-1818.
Boston University Professor of Anthropology Merry White explores the fascinating role that coffee and cafe society have played in Japanese culture in a lecture on Wednesday, May 9, from 6 – 8 at 808 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. White’s book, Coffee Life in Japan – part ethnography, part memoir – traces the cafe craze from 1888, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, up to the present. Her work examines themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism. Learn how coffee and coffee spaces have played essential roles in the formation of Japanese beliefs about public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure. Hear how the cafe has been a place to encounter new ideas and experiments in thought, behavior, sexuality, dress and taste. Each person attending this event will receive a copy of White’s book. Refreshments will be served. $25. Register online at www.bu.edu/foodandwine.
Jerry Coyne, a professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and author of the seminal book, Why Evolution is True, is one of the world’s most eloquent defenders of evolutionary science in the face of legal, religious, and cultural opposition. In this Wednesday, May 2nd talk beginning at 6 pm, Coyne will explore the multifarious evidence for evolution, why Americans are so resistant to accepting the theory, and what can be done to make the country more evolution-friendly. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free parking available in the 52 Oxford Street garage. Part of the Evolution Matters lecture series. Supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. For more information visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.
Visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Saturday, April 21 at 2 pm for an author talk and book signing by Michael Klare. In his newest book, The Race for What’s Left, Michael Klare, Five College Professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, describes a world facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletion—from oil to coal and natural gas, copper and cobalt, water, and arable land.
Regular admission rates apply. Part of the Cambridge Science Festival. For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.
Ellen Sousa, whose book, The Green Garden, offers a step-by-step way to make your garden more ecologically friendly, will speak at Elm Bank on Thursday, April 12, at 10:00 a.m. She will offer an illustrated talk on earth-friendly gardening in New England.
Ellen enjoys a reputation as a renowned garden coach, working with homeowners who want to make their gardens more natural and welcoming to a variety of inhabitants. Many of those techniques are explained in her book, The Green Garden: a New England Guide to Planning, Planting and Maintaining the Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden, which was reviewed in the January Leaflet. Her ideas are put into practice at her central Massachusetts property, Turkey Hill Brook Farm, where she works with her husband, Robert.
Ellen sets a high but reasonable threshold for her gardens; namely, that they must be sustainable for enjoyment by future generations. They should be beneficial in that they attract the animals and insects that were indigenous to our area before European settlement. Her goal is to gradually reverse the missteps made over a period of centuries. She acknowledges that doing so takes hard work, but that it can be done in small, manageable steps.
But the results are both tangible and rewarding: Turkey Hill Brook Farm won the 2011 New England Wildflower Society’s Katherine T. Taylor Award for Private Gardens. The farm is also a certified Monarch Waystation.
Everyone is welcome to attend the talk. There is no fee and light refreshments will be served. Copies of The Green Garden will be for sale. While no reservation is required, Librarian Maureen Horn says it would be helpful to have an idea of how many people to expect. You can call or email her at 617-933-4912 or MHorn@Masshort.org.
There’s nothing better than settling into a nice, warm, home-cooked meal at the kitchen table. Kathy Gunst takes us into her own kitchen, introducing us to the flavors of fresh, seasonal Maine ingredients prepared in simple and inspiring ways. With essays conveying the mood of each month, Gunst gives readers a sense of Maine food and life. She follows each essay with a handful of recipes incorporating the seasonal ingredient or theme. Hear her speak on Wednesday, April 11, beginning at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge.
Gunst lives in South Berwick, Maine. She is the author of thirteen cookbooks; her most recent books include Stonewall Kitchen Breakfast, Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations, Stonewall Kitchen Grilling, and Stonewall Kitchen Appetizers. She is also the “Resident Chef” for WBUR’s award winning show, Here and Now, heard on over 60 public radio stations nationwide. She has received two James Beard award nominations for her radio work. For more information call 617-491-2220, or email ellen@portersquarebooks.com.
The New England Wild Flower Society will sponsor the Northern Gardening Symposium on Saturday, April 14, from 9 – 2 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Vermont, cosponsored by The Fells, Hardy Plant Club, Friends of the Hort Farm, and Master Gardeners. The morning session features landscape designer Judith Irven speaking on “A Sense of Place: Gardens that Celebrate the Natural Landscape.â€Â New England’s spectacular rural landscape — with its mountains, farms and canopied forest – can inspire gardens that echo this wider world. Landscape architect Ann Milovsoroff then presents “Gardens around the World,†an exploration of contemporary garden design trends gathered from public, private, and exhibition gardens around the world. See images that delight, entice and provide ideas for northern New England gardens. After lunch, there will be a presentation by nationally recognized taxonomist and botanist Arthur Haines on the reasons for and stories behind his newly published Flora Novae Angliae. Fee is $40 for members of the sponsoring organizations, or $47 for non-members. To register, visit www.newfs.org, or telephone 508-877-7630.
Join the MFA for an Art in Bloom floral demonstration and lecture with British floral designer Paula Pryke, who, as we detailed above, is known world-wide for her cutting-edge, innovative floristry. Her Master Classes are small and are priced accordingly, but you may see her demonstrate her skills while she lectures at the modest price of $35 on Monday, April 30, from 10:30 – 12:30.  She has run an internationally renowned flower school since 1994 and has written 14 best-selling books on flowers; her newest book, Flowers Every Day, was published in February 2012. Book signing in Museum bookstore and shop immediately follows lecture (no ticket required for book signing). Buy tickets now at www.mfa.org.
A leading scholar in the field of landscape architecture, Charles Waldheim, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Consulting Curator of Landscape, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, will speak about the role of landscape in defining our communities on Wednesday, April 11, beginning at 7 pm. Mr. Waldheim is also the editor of The Landscape Urbanism Reader.
Tickets: $15 members of Trinity/Arnold Arboretum, $20 general admission, available at www.arboretum.harvard.edu or by phone or in person at The Shop at Trinity 617.536.0944 x225. The lecture will take place at the Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street, Roslindale, MA 02131. Questions: Kathy Acerbo-Bachmann 617.536.0944 x217 or kacerbobachmann@trinitychurchboston.org.
This lecture is part of the Garden & Spirit Lecture Series, co-sponsored by Trinity Church, Boston and The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
Discover why many of the world’s top scientists have devoted their careers to the study of social insects in Learning From Insects: How Our World is Shaped by Bees, Ants, and Other Social Insects, a dialogue and booksigning with Thomas Seeley, Biology Professor at Cornell, and Bernd Heinrich, Profession Emeritus at the University of Vermont, on Tuesday, April 3, at 6:00 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge. Moderated by Professor Naomi Pierce, Curator of Lepidoptera in the MCZ at Harvard. The speakers will discuss their research and why it’s critical that we study and learn from insects.
Following the presentation, there will be reception and book signing in the Museum’s galleries. Cosponsored with Harvard University Press. Free and open to the public. Free parking available in the 52 Oxford Street garage. For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.
