Saturday, May 11 – International World Migratory Bird Day

In 1993, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center created International Migratory Bird Day. This educational campaign focused on the Western Hemisphere and celebrates its 25th year in 2018. Since 2007, IMBD has been coordinated by Environment for the Americas (EFTA), a non-profit organization that strives to connect people to bird conservation.

In 2018, EFTA joins the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) to create a single, global bird conservation education campaign, World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). Continuing our tradition with IMBD, WMBD celebrates and brings attention to one of the most important and spectacular events in the Americas – bird migration.

EFTA will continue to coordinate events, programs, and activities in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean at protected areas, refuges, parks, museums, schools, zoos, and more. As many as 700 events and programs are hosted annually to introduce the public to migratory birds and ways to conserve them.

This year commemorates the 25th anniversary of International Migratory Bird Dat, the first Hemisphere-wide celebration of migratory birds. In December, 2017, Environment for the Americas (EFTA) formalized an innovative partnership with the Convention on Migratory Species and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds.

This new alliance will further migratory bird conservation around the globe by creating a worldwide campaign organized around the planet’s major migratory bird corridors, the African-Eurasian, the East Asian-Australasian, and the Americas.

By promoting the same event name, annual conservation theme, and messaging, we combine our voices into a global chorus to boost the urgent need for their conservation. EFTA will continue to focus its efforts on the flyways in the Americas to highlight the need to conserve migratory birds and protect their habitats, which range from Canada to Argentina to the Caribbean.

For a complete listing of events, visit http://www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/events-map

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Friday, May 17, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Writing in the Garden

Writers from Emily Dickinson to Edith Wharton to Eudora Welty have found their gardens to be wellsprings of sensory experience that stimulated their writing. In this May 17 Native Plant Trust two-hour workshop, visit the fields and designed gardens at Nasami Farm in Whately and write spontaneously in response to prompts—verbal or visual cues provided by the workshop leader—inspired by the surroundings. No previous writing experience required. Please bring a notebook, pen or pencil, and water, and dress for the weather. Instructor Jane Roy Brown leads, and the fee is $26 for NPT members, $32 for nonmembers. Register at www.nativeplanttrust.org.

Eudora Welty weeding on steps, courtesy of Eudora Welty Foundation
RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Sunday, May 5, 12:00 noon – 3:00 pm – First Baptist Church Phase One Tower Restoration Project Open House

Completed in 1872, First Baptist Church represents architect H.H. Richardson’s first consistent use of the Romanesque style. First Baptist has assembled a team and raised funds to undertake a first phase of preservation work on its 176-foot tall tower (restoring the roof and making related masonry repairs) as well as completing critical repairs to the sanctuary roof. Archival material about the history and architecture of the church will be on display and the sanctuary will be open for informal tours. At 1:30 pm, project team members will make a brief presentation about the restoration work planned to begin this summer. The Open House takes place Sunday, May 5, from 12 – 3 in Wayland Hall at the First Baptist Church, 110 Commonwealth Avenue.

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Saturday, May 11, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Naturalistic Planting on a Domestic Scale

Developments in ecology and environmental science over the last thirty years have revolutionized the way we think of using perennials in gardens and landscapes.. Whether it’s called “The Dutch Wave”, “The New Perennial Movement”, or something else, creative gardeners and designers have reinvigorated the use and appreciation of herbaceous plantings worldwide. The Highline in New York, the Lurie Garden in Chicago, the Olympic Park Gardens in London and other large recent projects are an inspiration and a stimulus, but how does the average gardener take these big ideas and translate them into a manageable home scale?

In this Hollister House Garden illustrated talk on May 11 at 10 am, Robert Anderson will focus on practical techniques for creating and managing naturalistic plantings at a size that’s feasible for the home gardener, in terms of both labor and expense. Using part of his own garden as the example, he will share failures and successes in the development, over three seasons, of a wet meadow style planting. Robert will discuss site selection and preparation, plant material sources, choices and acquisition, installation tips, and seasonal care.

Robert Anderson is a garden designer, consultant and writer from Stuyvesant, NY where he maintains a two acre laboratory garden.Hollister House Garden Members $25. Non-Members $35. Hollister House Garden is located at 300 Nettleton Hollow Road in Washington, Connecticut. Register at https://hollisterhousegarden.org/events/naturalistic-planting-on-a-domestic-scale/

Image result for naturalistic planting in home garden

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Wednesday, May 15, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Wild Edibles at Acton Arboretum

Join wild plants expert Russ Cohen on May 15 from 1 – 4 for a walk through Acton Arboretum, where he highlights over eighty species of edibles! Discover new favorite native edibles, tools to identify them, and appropriate ways to utilize them in your own landscapes. This field trip is sponsored by the Native Plant Trust (formerly the New England Wild Flower Society (and we’ll stop reminding people about this when we think the new name has stuck), and is $36 for members of the NPT, and $41 for nonmembers. Register online at www.nativeplanttrust.org.

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Tuesday, May 7, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – The Portable, Potted Herb Garden

Grow your own culinary herbs, available for snipping from May to November. Nothing enhances meals like the taste of fresh herbs. Create an herb garden that can be moved from place to place to take full advantage of available sunlight. Plant 6 classic culinary herbs in a 14″ container to grow on a sunny porch, patio or doorstep. Please bring an apron and flower scissors to this Massachusetts Horticultural Society class at The Gardens at Elm Bank on May 7 from 1 – 3 if you have them.  

Instructor Betsy Williams teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A life long gardener, herb grower and cook, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and in England. She combines her floral, gardening and cooking skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. An entertaining lecturer, she weaves stories and legends throughout her informative talks and demonstrations.

Her gardens, floral work and retail shop have been featured in many books, national magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The American Gardener, Victoria, Better Homes and Gardens, Country Living Gardner, Colonial Homes, the Herb Companion, and Traditional Homes.

$65 for Mass Hort members, $80 general admission. Registration required at www.masshort.org

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Saturdays, May 4, June 15, July 13, and August 10, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Curator Tour of Wind, Waves and Light

This unconventional Tower Hill Botanic Garden exhibition features large-scale, stainless steel sculptures that move and change with the wind. View the sculptures and learn more about their connections to art, science, and nature. An artist and engineer, George Sherwood creates kinetic sculptures that evoke shimmering leaves, flocks of birds, schools of fish, and waves of light and water.

American sculptor George Sherwood explores aesthetic systems of space, time, and the dynamic relationships of objects in motion. The choreography of each piece is governed by a set of basic movements, facilitated by an arrangement of aerodynamic surfaces connected by rotational points.  His work is usually made of stainless steel, the reflective qualities of which integrate the sculpture into its environment. For his outdoor works, wind speed and direction, shades of light, time of day, precipitation, and seasonal color transform the qualities of light and movement of the sculpture.

An award-winning American sculptor, Sherwood was born and raised in the coastal town of Fairfield, Connecticut. He now lives and works in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and holds degrees in both art and engineering. Sherwood’s initial interest in the art of movement began during the 1970′s. Drawn to and inspired by physical theater groups such as Mummenschanz, Pilobolus, and The Celebration Mime Theatre, he developed a theatrical performance consisting of large animated props, sculptures, and masks that were manipulated by the performers. After earning an engineering degree in the 1980′s he turned his focus to Concept Development for LEGO Futura the Research and Development arm of LEGO. Working with advanced technologies and as a liaison with the MIT Media Lab, he was part of a team that helped developed preliminary concepts leading to the development of Mindstorms and Virtual LEGO construction software. It was during this time that he was introduced to the wind-powered sculpture of George Rickey, a pioneer in kinetic sculpture. A growing passion to create his own sculpture led Sherwood to pursue this as a full-time career.

Sherwood’s work is in permanent collections, including The Currier Museum, The Dana Farber Cancer Institute 20th and 21stcentury Contemporary Art Collection in Boston, The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, The Atlanta Botanical Garden, and the Contemporary Sculpture Path at Forest Hills Educational Trust. Public projects include the city of Salt Lake City, Utah; The Christian Science Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire. Solo exhibitions include the Currier Museum, Manchester, NH (2010); Saint Gauden’s National Historic Site in Cornish, NH; The Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, MA (2010); and Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY. In 2007 he was awarded the Lillian Heller Award for Contemporary Art at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

For more information visit https://www.towerhillbg.org/wind-waves-light-exhibit/

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram