Who are our favorite customers? Well, all customers are naturally our favorite customers, since their purchases help support our tree work in the neighborhood, planting, pruning, inoculating, and advocating. But we hold a special place in our hearts for those who tell the decorator “Do whatever you want and surprise me.” Here is an example of what can happen then.
Regina Gardner Milan spent a year of discovery at the Arnold Arboretum. Botanical jewels of each season–early larches, spring blossoms, fall acorns, autumn leaves–are captured in her exquisite paintings. Nature holds a spellbinding allure to Milan, who finds that observing nature often produces scenes of larger-than-life beauty. The Arboretum’s exhibition magnifies nature’s productions, fully illuminating the elegance of plant life as small as a seed pod. This show captures the wonder of the Arboretum in those larger-than-life images.
Milan received a Certificate of Botanical Illustration with distinction from the Society of Botanical Artists in London, England, where she also received the President’s Award. She has exhibited in many juried shows throughout the US and world, including the 2016 New England Society of Botanical Artists’ show at the Arnold Arboretum. She teaches graphic design as an Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and is president of MILAN concept & design, a graphic design firm she founded in 1988.
Ms. Milan’s paintings may be viewed in the Hunnewell Building of the Arboretum through February 3. Please visit https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/art-shows/ for more information.
Somehow we know we are going to regret this posting, because all you dog lovers out there are going to want this ribbon next year and we have absolutely no way to guarantee it will be available. We did have it this year, however, and the decorator made a quick trip to the convenience store for some Milk Bone dog biscuits, which she sprayed gold, as an extra enhancement to this wreath. To say it was a season favorite is an understatement.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will present a Landscape Lecture on Thursday, March 14 at 7 pm in Calderwood Hall. The lecture is currently sold out but to put your name on a wait list call 617-278-5156, Wednesday through Monday, 11 – 4:30.
The evening begins with a screening of Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf, followed by Piet Oudolf and Thomas Piper in conversation with Charles Waldheim.
Piet Oudolf is an internationally recognized Dutch garden designer, plantsman, and author. Oudolf is a leading figure of the “New Perennial” movement. He practices a naturalistic approach to gardening using bold drifts of perennials and grasses chosen at least as much for their structure as for their color.
Thomas Piper is an award-winning non-fiction filmmaker, focusing on design and contemporary art. Five Seasons won the Polly Krakora Award for Artistry in Film at the 2018 DC Environmental Film Festival. In 2008, his film Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments won best Film for Television at the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal.
Patrons are invited to a private reception with Piet Oudolf following the screening.
Years ago we moved our Wreath Project from the basement of Margaret Pokorny’s home to The First Lutheran Church of Boston, and were welcomed effusively by Pastor Ingo Dutzmann and his congregation. The Church is the most perfect venue for us, combining a locked outer courtyard space to keep our wreaths fresh and safe, a large basement workshop for decorating, and a functioning kitchen for feeding our members. The Pastor has been a fixture during our four day workshop, smiling, good humored, and an endless source of corny jokes. We learned this year that he is retiring and we hope he will return as Pastor Emeritus or visiting clergy during Decembers, so we may again enjoy his company. The Church website describes him here: Pastor Ingo Dutzmann has been the senior Pastor at First Lutheran Church of Boston for over 20 years and has a great heart for Jesus, his congregation, and the people of Boston. Whether he’s preaching law and gospel to folks both big and small, taking visitors out for lunch, counseling the distraught, or just making bad puns to lighten the mood during Bible study, Pastor takes his responsibility to proclaim Jesus seriously. Pastor has a wonderful wife, Daria, four children, and two grandchildren. After the gas explosion and fire which destroyed their home in 2015 (but, God be praised, spared all who lived there), Pastor has continued to serve the church and LCEF with even greater compassion for the suffering, while looking for a new earthly abode. Their new home in Maine is one way in which Pastor is looking ahead to his retirement, planned for May 2019 (save the date for a celebration of his many years of faithful service on May 18)! Hopefully his new location will help satisfy his lifelong passion for snow, in which he delights. Pastor also delights in the fact that he has never once canceled Sunday services for snow, and to this day is pleased that parishioners have shown up to our downtown Boston location on cross country skis. Below is a picture of the wreath we made for him this year along with a picture of him with wreath co-chair Margaret Pokorny. Pastor, we wish you well!
This three part New England Wild Flower Society introduction to conservation biology and biodiversity with Nancy Eyster-Smith covers the factors that make a species vulnerable to extinction and the strategies and tools that can be used to protect plants and ecosystems. The course explores the interdisciplinary nature of conservation biology through readings, group exercises, and video clips. Participants receive a bibliography of resources for further study. Classes will be held at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on January 10, 17, and 24 from 10 – 3:30. Bring a bag lunch. $254 for NEWFS members, $300 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.newenglandwild.org/learn/our-programs/conservation-biology
One of the most special aspects of Wreath Week is seeing old friends who travel back to Boston to assist with the project. Wreath Week is our second most lucrative fund raising effort, next to the spring benefit, but it didn’t start that way. In the early 1990’s we began decorating to bond with each other, get to know neighbors and have some hands-on decorating fun. Even when members move, they return, staying in inns, clubs, hotels, and on family couches. This year we had help from Florida, New Hampshire, Cape Cod, and Connecticut (the Berkshires). The beautiful indoor wreath below was done by a resident of Martha’s Vineyard. It is one of a matched pair.
The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History will screen a PBS original nature documentary, Christmas in Yellowstone, on Wednesday, December 19 at 11:30 am.As snow falls and Christmas lights glow in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a holiday season of a different sort settles over the great winter world of Yellowstone National Park, designated America’s first national park in 1872 and one of the greatest expanses of unspoiled nature and wildlife anywhere on Earth! NATURE follows in the snowy footprints of Yellowstone’s red foxes, spies on the predatory warfare of wolves and elk, and climbs into the den of a grizzly bear that gives birth to two cubs while deep in hibernation.
In addition to the stunning footage of landscapes and wildlife, trail alongside author and photographer Tom Murphy, who has been coming to Yellowstone for the past 26 winters, camping and photographing amid the silence and solitude of the park. And go behind the scenes with filmmaker Shane Moore to find out how he kept up with Murphy during a harrowing trek, reminiscent of the legendary John Colter’s first journey into the park nearly two hundred years ago.
Join us for a breathtaking look at wintertime deep within America’s first national park. Free with Museum Admission. For more information please call: 508-896-3867, ext. 133
A heartwarming story: a man walked into the First Lutheran Church courtyard during wreath week, in some confusion. He thought he had come to The Perkins School for the Blind, and apparently had been dropped off, but instead of being on N. Beacon Street in Watertown, he was on Berkeley Street in Boston. It was night, it was cold, and he clearly needed help. Garden Club member Maureen O’Hara, assisting with deliveries, decided to spring into action and after figuring out what must have happened, got on her phone, summoned an Uber, put the man into the car and got him to his destination safely. We all hope to find such a good person in our lives, at moments of calamity. Thank you, Maureen. The wreath below mirrors the beauty of your actions.
Join the Armenian Heritage Foundation on Sunday, December 16 at 4:30 pm at the Armenian Heritage Park on The Greenway for Boston’s newest holiday tradition, the Candlelit Labyrinth Walk. Meet and greet, tie a ribbon on the wishing tree, and enjoy luscious pastries and hot chocolate hosted by Jana Grill and Bakery. Free, but rsvp appreciated at hello@ArmenianHeritagePark.org.
