Join us for this spooktacular celebration, where wild creatures and Halloween fun come together, at the Franklin Park Zoo on October 26 & 27. Wander through our animal habitats and collect terrifyingly tasty treats on our trick-or-treat trail, and get creative at our arts and craft stations. Be sure to bring your own treat bags. Keep an eye out—some of our animals might be getting into the spirit too! And don’t forget to show off your Halloween style in our kids’ costume contest!
SUSTAINABLE SWEETS
This Halloween (and every day) look for candy made with certified sustainable palm oil. Palm oil plantations are wiping out animal habitats, and from snacks to soap, palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet. Check out Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s palm-oil friendly candy guide(opens as a PDF) for some sustainably sweet treats for your tricksters.
The Fall-o-Ween Festival invites you find your way out of the Haunted Fun House Maze, hop on the train, and make your way over to our glow in the dark play space for some nighttime fun featuring LED illuminated swings, seesaws, cornhole and lots more, on October 18 starting at 5 pm at the Boston Common Parade Ground at the corner of Beacon and Charles Streets on the Boston Common.
Adults and children are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes and participate in a wide range of free, fun, and spooky family-friendly activities. Free. The Fall-o-Ween Children’s Festival is presented by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with the Skating Club of Boston. Key sponsors are HP Hood LLC and more to be announced. Additional support is provided by LEGO® Discovery Center Boston and more to be announced.
Through an exploration of drama, diaries, novels and magazines, this Gardens Trust Wednesday five part series will examine how writers have used gardens and plants to evoke memories, capture ideas of taste and fashion, satirize attitudes, champion social change and give deeper meaning to the world. The chosen authors cover almost four centuries of literature and, through examining their words, we can gain new understandings of the roles, meanings and emotive power of historic landscapes and horticulture. This ticket link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gardens-and-the-written-word-tickets-930348275737 is for the entire series of 5 talks, or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links on that page. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25). All purchases are handled through Eventbrite.
Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 1 week afterwards. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 weeks.
On Wednesday, October 23, Dr. Laura Meyer will speak on Jane Austen. 2017 marked two hundred years since the death of Jane Austen, at the age of 41, on 18 July 1817. Just like the English landscape garden, her novels have become one of Britain’s greatest cultural exports and made her one of the world’s most celebrated authors. Austen is justly famous for her sharp social satire, however, as this lecture will demonstrate, she was also highly attuned to the shifting sensibilities surrounding landscape.
Nature and landscape – whether real or imagined – and her characters response to these inform all of Austen’s novels, from Pride & Prejudice’s wickedly funny take on the Picturesque, to the lampooning of Humphry Repton in Mansfield Park. She was, after all, a writer who recognized that ‘to sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment’.
Dr Laura Mayer is an independent lecturer, writer and researcher, with an MA in Garden History and a PhD in eighteenth-century patronage. She has published extensively – particularly on Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and Jane Austen’s contemporary, Humphry Repton – and works as a consultant for the National Trust and Land & Heritage. Laura shares Elizabeth Bennett’s appreciation of Gilpin’s Picturesque, as well as her talent for tramping about a garden inappropriately shod. She lectures regularly for Cambridge University Botanic Gardens and has been known to pen the odd limerick about Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Boston University’s Departments of Arts & Sciences and Pardee School of Global Studies, invite you to an exhibition and cooking demonstration at the Boston University Food Studies Program, 808 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, on October 11 from 9 am- 1:30 pm. Many of the finest pieces of art from Mesoamerica can only be seen outside of the region, in museums and private collections of North America, Europe and East Asia. Chocolate researchers Jose Lopez Ganem (Boston University), Dr. Carla D. Martin (Harvard University), and Dr. Kathryn Sampeck (University of Reading) of the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI) are on a mission to change this. Over the past year, the FCCI team has worked to secure the repatriation of more than 50 antique Mesoamerican pieces in collaboration with the governments of Mexico and Central America. In advance of the return of these pieces to their countries of origin, come view these examples of priceless cultural heritage, celebrate their impact on the history of cacao and chocolate, and taste traditional cacao and chocolate recipes.
BU Food Studies faculty Dr. Karen Metheny and Jose Lopez Ganem will present a snapshot on the intersection of Food Studies, Archeology, and Cacao and Chocolate, followed by traditional indigenous chef Estela Calzada demonstration of Pre-Hispanic cuisine; featuring dishes with nopales, grasshoppers, corn, squash seeds and blossoms, and cacao. This portion of the event will run from 10 AM to 1 PM. Due to the size of the space, a limited number of tickets will be available. You must have a ticket to attend. Free. Tickets available on Eventbrite HERE.
In her American Horticultural Society online talk on October 9 at 7 pm Eastern, Zoë Schlanger will dive into the fascinating realm of plant behavior research, where scientists are uncovering just how complex and capable plants really are. Plants can process information, make wise choices, and adapt to the ever-changing environment in incredibly specific ways. They can communicate, remember, recognize their relatives, and manipulate other species to their benefit. Using insights from her book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, Zoë will introduce us to the scientists—and the plant species—who are reshaping our ideas about intelligence, consciousness, and the agency of nonhuman life. $15 for AHS members, $20 for non-members. Register at www.ahsgardening.org
Zoë Schlanger is currently a staff reporter at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Time, Newsweek, The Nation,Quartz, and on NPR among other major outlets, and is cited in the 2022 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. A recipient of a 2017 National Association of Science Writers’ reporting award, she is often a guest speaker in schools and universities. Zoë graduated with a B.A. from New York University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and The Light Eaters is her first book.
Did you know that Southwark once had a zoo? That for a short spell Britain’s first ecological park was built within a stone’s throw of Tower Bridge? Or that one of the capital’s most celebrated botanical gardens now lies beneath the platforms of Waterloo station? The Garden Museum’s next exhibition Lost Gardens of London from October 23 – March 2 will reveal the secret history of some of London’s most beguiling forgotten gardens.
Thousands of gardens have vanished across London over the past five hundred years – ranging from princely pleasure grounds and private botanical gardens, to humble allotments and defunct squares, artists’ gardens, eccentric private menageries and the ecological parks of the twentieth century. Guest curated by landscape architect and historian Dr Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Lost Gardens of London will explore this legacy and reveal tantalizing glimpses of some of the rich and varied gardens that once embellished the metropolis.
Paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and maps will bring these lost gardens to life, depicting changing trends and fashions in gardening while exploring London’s enduring love affair with nature, and how green spaces have always been a vital part of life in the capital.
In every borough, parks, gardens and green open spaces have succumbed to new roads, street-widenings, railway encroachments and new buildings, or have simply been swallowed up by suburbia. Accompanying public programmes will explore how the remaining green spaces that may be taken for granted in London today have survived thanks to protests, community action and legal protections being put in place. The exhibition is a timely reminder of the vulnerability of urban gardens and access to nature.
Lost Gardens of London coincides with a new book by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan of the same name, to be published by the Modern Art Press (and distributed by Yale University Press) in October 2024.
If you are traveling to Great Britain this coming year, put this exhibition on your itinerary. The Museum is located on Lambeth Palace Road in London. https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/visit/
The Till Wave Gallery, 264 Arlington Street in Watertown, in collaboration with NOFA and the Massachusetts Pollinator Network, have mounted an exhibit entitled New England Pollinators, which will run through November 22. The Gallery hours are Wednesdays, 12:00 noon – 6:00 pm, and Saturdays, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. The opening reception takes place September 26, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm, so do stop by if you are available.
Immerse yourself in the enchanting realm of ‘Fairies Aglow’ on September 19 at 6 at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill where you’ll craft spellbinding cocktails inspired by the elusive charm of la fee verte, or the “Green Fairy”. Delightful mocktail options also available. Adults only. $70 for NEBG members, $80 for nonmembers. Register at www.nebg.org
A curious home bartender at heart, Instructor Meredith Powell honed her mixology and teaching skills as the Beverage Director at Orange Door Kitchen where she launched a popular cocktail education program and managed the bar for private parties and public events. Her approach to craft cocktails is accessible, flavor-driven, and spirited, combining practical know-how with a light-hearted attitude about mixing drinks at home. Meredith is an interior designer, supper club hostess and fitness devotee when she is not behind the bar. She lives in Acton with her husband, Chris, and two dogs.
There has never been a better time to join The Garden Club of the Back Bay. The Club’s initial meeting of the year will be a field trip to Newport, Rhode Island, to visit a member’s historic home and private arboretum. This is a members only event, but membership is a click away at https://bostonflora.com/ Complete information of the outing will be provided upon confirmation of membership.
We mourn the passing of a true Boston hero, Henry Lee. His Boston Globe obituary is HERE. Last year The Friends of the Public Garden set up The Henry Lee Fund for Boston Parks in his honor.
