Boston Flora

Tag: Cambridge Massachusetts

  • Saturday, November 21, 1:30 pm – American Rural Cemeteries: Interpreted through the Lens

    The second of the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Landscape Visions Lecture Series will take place Saturday, November 21, in the Tapestry Room of the Museum, beginning at 1:30 pm.  Alan Ward, landscape architect and principal, Sasaki Associates, will present American Rural Cemeteries: Interpreted Through the Lens. Boston has two iconic garden cemeteries: Mount Auburn and Forest Hills. The Rural Cemetery Movement in America began with the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1831, and spread from there across the country. Often the first designed public landscapes in American communities, rural cemeteries represent major shifts in cemetery landscape concept and form, and continue to resonate with the modern sensibilities they helped shape. Tickets: $15 General Public; $12 Seniors; $5 Members; FREE for Students.  To purchase tickets, log on to www.gardnermuseum.org, or call 617-566-1401. Image: Halcyon Lake in spring, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by Alan Ward.The Landscape Visions Lecture Series is made possible by a bequest from Jeanne Muller Ryan

    Mt Auburn Cemetery Alan Ward lecture

  • Saturday, September 19, 2:00 – 3:30 pm – Modest Spaces: Mount Auburn’s Beautiful Public Lots

    Join Dee Morris, Social Historian, on a walking tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday, September 19, from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm.  As Mount Auburn developed, it set aside four public lots containing single graves. Victorians of  modest means were then able to afford a final resting place in pleasant proximity to generous family lots. Named after Saints, these lots embraced such notables as Peter Banner, the architect of Boston’s Park St Church, Thomas Grundy, a hardworking brass finisher from Stoneham, and the genteel Austin sisters of Garden Street in Cambridge.  Join Dee on this late summer stroll to learn more about some of the fascinating individuals buried in these public lots. Meet at the Entrance Gate.  $5 charge for Friends of Mount Auburn, $10 for non-members.  For more information, you may call 617-547-7105, or email friends@mountauburn.org. You may register in advance at www.mountauburn.org by clicking on to Calendar of Events.

  • Saturday, September 26 – National Public Lands Day

    National Public Lands Day began in 1994 with three federal agencies and 700 volunteers. Last year 120,000 volunteers worked in over 1,800 locations and in every state. Now, 8 federal agencies and many state and local lands participate in this annual day of caring for shared lands.

    National Public Lands Day keeps the promise of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the “tree army” that worked from 1933-42 to preserve and protect America’s natural heritage.

    This annual event:

    • Educates Americans about critical environmental and natural resources issues and the need for shared stewardship of these valued, irreplaceable lands;
    • Builds partnerships between the public sector and the local community based upon mutual interests in the enhancement and restoration of America’s public lands;
    • Improves public lands for outdoor recreation, with volunteers assisting land managers in hands-on work.

    To find a site near you, or to nominate a site, log on to www.publiclandsday.org.   One venue will be the Boston Nature Center, one of the organizations supported by The Garden Club of the Back Bay.

    This event will be an interactive educational event for youth of all ages. Local, state and federal land management agencies will provide games, activities and information. Join them from 1 to 4 PM at the Boston Nature Center.

    Contact: Jessie Scott
    Agency: USDA Forest Service
    Phone: 617-626-4979
    On the Web: www.massaudubon.org/boston
    Location: 500 Walk Hill Street | Mattapan, Massachusetts 02126

    Another local event will be sponsored by the Charles River Conservancy, alont the Charles River Parklands, removing invasive species, combined with trash pick-up along the banks of the Charles.

    Contact: John Broderick
    Agency: Charles River Conservancy
    Phone: (617) 300-8173
    On the Web: www.thecharles.org
    Location: 4 Brattle Street | Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

  • Sunday, September 13, 12 – 7 pm – Cambridge Carnival at Kendall Square

    Not exactly a garden event, but something of interest to our Boston members is the 17th Annual Cambridge Carnival International.  This is a colorful and festive celebration rooted in African traditions.  The festival attracts over 150,000 people, making it the largest festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts  The highlight of this annual Mardi Gras style festival is a grand costume parade accompanied by rich rhythmic musicality promoting all types of cultures.  The festival combines food and craft exhibits, costumes, masks, wire-bending, live music, steel pan, street parades and dancing, displaying the history and culture of the Caribbean traditions based on the models of Trinidad, Tobago, and Brazil.  For more information log on to www.cambridgecarnival.org.  The Children’s Museum will feature “Meet Me at the Table,” and will focus on food and art activities that relate to six different cultures around Boston: Brazilian, Haitian/Caribbean, Puerto Rican and Dominican, Cape Verdean, Chinese and Vietnamese. They will be setting a table with beautiful, artist-made play food, and will encourage festival participants to eat and play together. Activities will include making collage place mats that will then go back to the museum for use at our big end-of-summer party in September.

    Carnival Close-up by Steve_C.