Boston Flora

Tag: Boston Globe

  • Monday, April 18, 7:00 pm – Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse

    In a work rich in maritime lore and brimming with original historical detail, Eric Jay Dolin, the best-selling author of Leviathan, presents the most comprehensive history of American lighthouses ever written, telling the story of America through the prism of its beloved coastal sentinels. Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America’s lighthouse system, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation’s hardscrabble coastlines. In rollicking detail, Dolin treats readers to a memorable cast of characters including the penny-pinching Treasury official Stephen Pleasonton, who hamstrung the country’s efforts to adopt the revolutionary Fresnel Lens, and presents tales both humorous and harrowing of soldiers, saboteurs, ruthless egg collectors, and most importantly, the light-keepers themselves. Richly supplemented with over 100 photographs and illustrations throughout, Brilliant Beacons is the most original history of American lighthouses in many decades. Mr. Dolin will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on Monday, April 18 at 7 pm, followed by a book signing.

    Eric Jay Dolin is the author of Leviathan: The History of Whaling In America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, and also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History; and Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. He is also the author of When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail. A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his Ph.D. in environmental policy, he lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

  • From the Archives: Front Yard Demonstration Gardens

    From the Archives: Front Yard Demonstration Gardens

    In January, 1973, The Garden Club decided to replant one-half block in the Back Bay to use as a front yard demonstration. The area chosen was the north side of Beacon Street, between Fairfield and Gloucester Streets. The planting date was set for May, 1973, and the plan included selling the Club’s window boxes.

    The Boston Globe reported that five gardens were planted, and low maintenance shrubs and trees were chosen in consultation from Joseph Hudak of Olmsted Associates. Crabapples and cherry trees were picked because they bloomed for several weeks, were wide spreading to relieve the height of the town houses, and had shallow root systems, solving the problem of buried oil tanks. Dundee juniper, Japanese yew, Kaempferi azaleas were included, which thrive in sun and partial shad and are resistant to auto fumes.

    Pictured below are Sue Norris (left), Mrs. Charles Normandin, and John Relyea, in the dirt!

    Beacon Planting

    Save

  • Thursdays, July 23 – August 6, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Garden Writing Workshop: The Heart of Story

    The writer Eudora Welty found her garden to be a wellspring of sensory experience that nourished her writing. She observed that when stimulated by fragrance, the sounds of insects and birds and the colors and textures of plants, our minds take flight, and stories and memories bubble to the surface. Writing in a garden provides an opportunity to tap this rich inspiration, whether the topic is the garden itself, a personal memory or a story born of the imagination. In this series taking place on three consecutive Thursdays, July 23 – August 6, participants will visit different garden spaces at Berkshire Botanical Garden and write spontaneously in response to prompts—verbal or visual cues provided by the workshop lead- er—inspired by the natural surroundings. Writers will hone their abilities to observe, stay focused and respond from their hearts. This workshop is designed to be a safe, guided experience for aspiring and experienced writers alike. Participants can enroll in one, two or all three of the sessions. Each session will focus on a different topic: (1) Memoir and Garden Memories; (2) Establishing Sense of Place; (3) Writing with All Your Senses.  BBG Members $135; Nonmembers $145. Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org. What to bring: Come prepared to spend two hours outdoors, including moderate walking. For example, the instructor usually carries a small tote or backpack containing a notebook, pen or pencil, water bottle, light rain jacket or umbrella, sunhat, sunscreen and bug repellent. In inclement weather, the workshop will take place indoors.

    Instructor Jane Roy Brown is an award-winning writer, editor and workshop leader who lives in Conway, MA. In January 2012, Jane founded “The Heart of Story: Writing Stories of Our Lives,” a suite of workshops designed to facilitate memoir writing for adults at all levels of experience. Jane is coauthor of One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place (University Press of Mississippi, 2011), the winner of the 2012 Eudora Welty Book Award. Her writing has appeared in numerous periodicals, including The Christian Science Monitor, Garden Design, Horticulture and Preservation. She is a contributing editor for Landscape Architecture, the national magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and was a regular contributor to the Boston Globe travel section from 2001–2013.

  • Tuesday, June 16 – Opening Celebration of Wandering Sheep

    The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy announces a new temporary exhibit, Wandering Sheep, which will be installed the first week of June, 2015, with the opening celebration (call 617-292-0020 for times) in Chinatown Park on Tuesday, June 16.  Korean born artist Kyu Seok Oh’s animals will be installed on various platforms around the Park.  Constructed of molded, handmade paper, the sculpture will be the third in Oh’s sheep series, which the Brooklyn-based artist has previously exhibited at the Dallas Art Fair and in New York’s Times Square. In Boston, the sheep will serve as the inaugural work in what the Conservancy says will be an annual rotational exhibit inspired by the animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. Read all details in Malcolm Gay’s article for the Boston Globe: http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2015/05/21/greenway-conservancy-bringing-herd-sheep-sculptures-chinatown/caJxZtit3fAREq7iyk9FnJ/story.html

  • Monday, May 18, 7:00 pm – Project Puffin

    Project Puffin is the inspiring story of how a beloved seabird was restored to long-abandoned nesting colonies off the Maine coast. As a young ornithology instructor at the Hog Island Audubon Camp, Dr. Stephen W. Kress learned that puffins had nested on nearby islands until extirpated by hunters in the late 1800s. To right this environmental wrong, he resolved to bring puffins back to one such island—Eastern Egg Rock. Yet bringing the plan to reality meant convincing skeptics, finding resources, and inventing restoration methods at a time when many believed in “letting nature take its course.”

    Today, Project Puffin has restored more than 1,000 puffin pairs to three Maine islands. But even more exciting, techniques developed during the project have helped to restore rare and endangered seabirds worldwide. Further, reestablished puffins now serve as a window into the effects of climate change. The success of Dr. Kress’s project offers hope that people can restore lost wildlife populations and the habitats that support them. The need for such inspiration has never been greater.

    Derrick Z. Jackson, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and an accomplished photographer, is an associate editor and editorial board member of the Boston Globe. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and will speak on Project Puffin at Porter Square Books on Monday, May 18 beginning at 7 pm. For more information visit http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/derrick-z-jackson-project-puffin.

  • Thursday, April 23, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm – 3rd Annual Derby Dash: Hats + Hearts for Horses

    Mystic, Frederick, Liberty, Otis, Baron, and Winston cordially invite you to a fabulous evening, the 3rd Annual Derby Dash: Hats & Hearts for Horses, on Thursday, April 23, from 5:30 – 8 in the Copley Place Rotunda, 100 Huntington Avenue.  Let’s break out the hats, food, and juleps in preparation for the 141st Kentucky Derby, in support of Boston’s Park Ranger Mounted Unit.  Festivities include a spirited Hat Contest for both men and ladies.  Ticket price includes complimentary libations and hors d’oeuvre.  Hat judges include Erica Corsano of The Herald, Kennedy Elsey of MIX 104.1, Jonathan Soroff of The Improper Bostonian, and Tina Sutton of the Boston Globe. Tickets are $150 ($125 for young professionals under 35), and may be purchased through PayPal at www.savebostonshorses.org, or you may mail a check to PO Box 67147, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.  Image from www.stayclassycanton.com.

  • Tuesday, March 24, 9:00 am – 10:30 am – Boston Methane Leak Tutorial

    Please join Case Associates on Tuesday, March 24th from 9-10:30 am at Muriel Finegold’s home at 72 Mount Vernon Street in Boston to learn about the methane leak problem in Boston.

    We will have two fabulous experts explain the problem and together we will discuss possible solutions. Feel free to invite others you think might be interested and please RSVP to Ana Maria Camargo at ania.camargo@gmail.com, or telephone her at 617-227-1711 so we know how many people are coming.

    Methane Leak Issue:
    Natural gas pipes buried under the streets can begin to leak as they age. The natural gas that seeps out is potentially dangerous, kills trees, wastes the ratepayers’ money, releases volatile organic compounds hazardous to human health and is a potent greenhouse gas.

    The Boston Globe recently reported that: “the amount of methane leaking from natural gas pipelines, storage facilities, and other sources in the Boston area is as much as three times greater than previously estimated — a loss that contributes to the region’s high energy costs and adds potent greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The leaks would be enough to heat as many as 200,000 homes a year and are valued at $90 million a year, the Harvard study authors said.”

    Our speakers:

    Audrey Schulman, HEET Co-founder and President

    HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) is a Cambridge-based non-profit organization with a mission to catalyze community engagement and develop hands-on educational opportunities to advance energy efficiency skills and clean energy knowledge to achieve climate stability and create resilient communities. In 2014, Heet organized the “Squeaky Leaks” project to map natural gas leaks along public streets in Cambridge and Somerville. HEET recruited Bob Ackley of Gas Safety USA, a professional with 30 years experience, to do the mapping. Ackley drove down every street in Cambridge and Somerville with a GPS- enabled high precision methane analyzer (natural gas is 95% methane), recording any elevated levels of atmospheric methane. The data was mapped to Google Earth. They found 780 leaks with released methane that damages the climate more than the combined emissions of all the cars driven in the two cities.
    Joel Wool, Clean Energy Campaign Organizer for Clean Water Action
    Joel joined Clean Water Action in 2011 to support work on clean energy. He now serves as a campaign organizer focusing on energy efficiency, natural gas infrastructure and coal phase-out. An alumnus of AmeriCorps and the JOIN for Justice Fellowship, Joel believes strongly in amplifying the voices of communities. Joel worked on Mayor Walsh’s campaign for mayor advising him on sustainability issues.

  • Tuesday, August 12, 7:00 pm – Off the Leash: A Year at the Dog Park

    Porter Square Books at 25 White Street in Cambridge will host author Matthew Gilbert on Tuesday, August 12 beginning at 7 pm. Off the Leash is about the strange, wonderful, neurotic, and eccentric dog people who gather daily at Amory Park, overlooking Boston. And it’s about Matthew Gilbert’s transformation from dedicated homebody to joyful member of the dog park club: an oddball group of dog people with fur on their jackets and biscuits in their pockets. Gilbert, the TV critic at the Boston Globe, describes his reluctant journey into the park subculture, as the first-time dog owner of a yellow lab named Toby. Like so many Americans right now, he has been steeped in the virtual, digital world. At the park, though, amid the chaotic energy of dogs and people gathered in packs, he is unprotected by the screen and forced to let go. The dogs go off-leash, and so do the people.

    There is something eternal and deeply satisfying about both the group experience at the park and the simple pleasure of playing fetch with one’s canine companion in a large, green, open space. A charmingly written narrative that will appeal to anyone who has ever enjoyed watching a puppy scamper through a park, Off the Leash is a paean to dog lovers and their pets everywhere. (But especially the ones in the Boston area.)  Free, but sign up at www.portersquarebooks.com or by calling 617-491-2220.

  • Monday, July 7, 7:00 pm – Crafty Bastards

    Join Lauren Clark at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on Monday, July 7 at 7 pm for a celebration of the New England tradition of brewing beer — complete with samples!

    The region that defined Yankee ingenuity has a beer heritage in keeping with its character. Brewing in New England goes back four centuries, beginning with the Pilgrims who dropped anchor in Plymouth because their supply of beer was running low. (After barely surviving the winter, they planted a crop of barley and soon brewed their first ale.) Making beer in New England hasn’t always been easy. Puritan housewives, Industrial Era beer moguls, and contemporary craft brewers alike have concocted humankind’s oldest beverage in the face of scarce ingredients, legal hurdles, and public indifference. But despite these challenges, beer continues to be a staple of New England life.

    With Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England from the Mayflower to Modern Day, Lauren Clark deepens our appreciation for the perfect pint. Giving voice to the inimitable Yankee spirit that allows New Englanders to faithfully produce some of the best beers in the nation, Clark invites readers to take a giant swig of brewing past and present.

    Lauren Clark is a journalist and former bartender and brewer. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, Jane, and Yankee Magazine. Clark is the founder of drinkboston.com, which was featured in several Boston newspapers and magazines, the Massachusetts Beverage Business Journal, and Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh.

  • From the Archives – The Great Birdbath Robbery

    Bud Collins wrote the article excerpted below for the Monday, July 3, 1967 Boston Globe:

    James Vorenberg, executive director of the National Crime Commission, warned the nation that crime in the streets is increasing – but he didn’t prepare Bostonians for the foulest deed of the decade: the Great Birdbath Robbery on Commonwealth av. (sic)

    Two weeks have passed since the prized William the Conqueror antique granite basin was snatched – along with its pedestal – from a cement mooring in the sidewalk garden at 169 Commonwealth.  There are no clues, not even a ransom note, and the police are frantic.  Police Commissioner McNamara has tried to calm a terrified neighborhood, but flocks of dirty birds are screeching louder every day for relief.

    Specs O’Keefe of the Brinks Gang was questioned, and had an alibi.  Teddy Green has been ruled out as a suspect because he was in Walpole the night of the robbery, and Raymond Patriarca can prove he was in Providence.  McNamara has instructed detectives to watch for a heistman with a hernia, since the birdbath weighs almost 200 pounds.

    Shaken by his loss, the owner, Dr. William Macdonald, has issued a plea to the bath-lifters not to drop it.  He has also offered a $25 reward for the safe return of his feathered friends’ tub.

    Dr. Macdonald, a skin specialist who raises roses redder than rashes in his small, handsome plot facing the Commonwealth Mall, is “saddened” to think that thieves would knock over his garden.  “It’s quite amazing,” said Dr. Macdonald, a short, sprightly man with a thin mustache whose garden is celebrated throughout Back Bay.” …

    Within the 12-by-15 foot space between his house and the sidewalk, Dr. Macdonald has created such a splendid floral display. His arrangement of roses, coral bells, pansies, geraniums, a Japanese cherry tree, a yew and an Austrian pine won him first prize ribbons from the Back Bay Garden Club last year and this.

    The place became Macdonald Springs to the flighty members of the wing set that came to take the waters.  Rising above the flowers, to about 30 inches, was their pool, a six-sided granite basin where finches, grackles, sparrows, pigeons and an occasional hummingbird gossiped and bathed.  It was L St. for birds.

    “…this granite was from Caen, France, William the Conqueror’s hometown, and was brought over by him to England in 1066.” Why William would lug blocks of granite to England is a mystery.  Perhaps he envisioned a granite sink for himself to shave in.

    Anyway Dr. Macdonald bought the basin for $100 and paid $60 more to have it shipped to Boston. The doctor has tended gardens all over the world, in his native Australia and in Egypt where he was stationed during World War I.

    Today a Garden Club of the Back Bay magnolia tree enhances the front garden. The birdbath, we believe, was never recovered.

    http://www.bosarchitecture.com/backbay/commonwealth/169_1.jpg

    Save

    Save