Happy May Day, Everyone.
Not to take anything away from other things that get celebrated on May 1, but it’s in the ancient rituals of girls dancing ribbons around poles and secretly leaving baskets of flowers on doorsteps that the deep magic lies.
Posts Tagged ‘flowers’
May Day
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dance, flowers, may day, may pole, postaday, secret on May 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Chai Tea after Tai Chi
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged flowers, garden, Hillbilly at Harvard, mystery, painted utility box, Per Wahlöö, postaday, Sjöwall, swedish, tai chi on June 28, 2014| 2 Comments »
Weather like this is a reminder that simple pleasures are often the best.
A great blue heron flying over Thoreau Street. Buying three Vietnamese fresh rolls and chai tea after tai chi class. Listening to the smart Hillbilly at Harvard program in the car. Sitting on the porch dipping crackers into the famous guacamole from the shop around the corner. Reading in the bath the first Martin Beck mystery by the Swedish partners Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.
The pictures show flowers from the yard in a pitcher made by our engineer/potter friend, a bird painted on a utility box, and the garden maintained by the tai chi teacher and his youth classes. He says the care taken with the flowers is the kind of care the school devotes to students.
The Day Dawns on Flowers
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birds, blithewold, bristol, concord, dawn, dogwood, flowers, lilac, photo, photography, postaday, R.I., spring, walking on May 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »
These photos are mostly from walks in Concord, although one is from Blithewold in Bristol, R.I. I’d like to develop my eye for good shots in winter, but there are so many more reasons to take pictures in spring! I especially love old, blasted trees with delicate, young flowers. I include one, a dogwood. The lilac in the graveyard is another tree that doesn’t know it’s not as hale and hearty as ever.
On Nashawtuc, a hundred different bird calls replaced the sounds of traffic.
All’s Well in the Greenway
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bon me, boston, dewey square, flowers, greenway, kiosk, Life Is Good, phone, postaday, recharge, vietnamese on May 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »
What a treat to be outdoors in the Greenway again! Flowers and trees are starting to bloom, and there is always something new to observe.
Although I don’t use my phone on my walk, except to take pictures, a new amenity provided by Fort Point neighbor Life is good is likely to be welcomed by many visitors. I saw one phone-recharging kiosk near the Dewey Square food trucks and one near the Boston Harbor Hotel.
Got my lunch at the Vietnamese food truck Bon Me and ate outside in the sun.
Happy May Day
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bryn mawr college, celebration, dancing, flowers, holiday, may day, maypole, postaday, spring on May 1, 2014| 2 Comments »
Photo: Bryn Mawr College
Happy May Day, the old-fashioned kind that involves surprise flowers and dancing around the May Pole.
This year’s came in like a lion, with icy rain, and is going out like a lamb. Spring can’t be stopped now.
Here are a few photos of the season.
When the Temperature Stays in the Teens
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged boston, channel, children's museum, cold, flowers, fort point, postaday, salt water freezing, tea party museum, winter on January 24, 2014| 2 Comments »
I lived in Minnesota for a few years, so I really shouldn’t make a big deal out of cold weather, but it sure has been hard to pry myself from a warm building this week.
Today I went out to take a picture of salt water starting to freeze in Fort Point Channel, something I hadn’t seen before. I got a bonus for my effort — a colorful bubbly sculpture in a tree in front of the Children’s Museum. Was the nearby Boston Tea Party Museum throwing its bales of tea into the channel as usual? Probably the tea would have bounced right back.
The flowers are by the wonderful landscaper in the building where I work. They make you feel like you are in a greenhouse (“växthus” if you are Swedish or have a bilingual grandson).
Note the weather outside the window.
Update 2/6/14. Today the ice in Fort Point Channel, covered with snow, reminds me of chicken fat when you take homemade soup out of the fridge. I added the photo up top.
Free for Fathers
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged flowers, garden, gardening, nature, photo, photograph, plants, postaday, tower hill, Worcester County Horticultural Society on June 16, 2013| 2 Comments »
My husband suggested we go to Worcester County Horticultural Society’s Tower Hill Botanic Garden today. When we got there, we learned that this weekend, the admission is free for fathers.
All the flowers and trees have labels, so it’s another way to get your plants identified (besides MisterSmartyPlants). There were lots of plants. Lots of families, too. A curious thing: In spite of the crowds and the absence of trash cans, I did not see one single piece of litter.
My husband chose to pose by a large aloe. Borrowing a line from A Raisin in the Sun, he said the aloe “expresses me”: prickly and healing. 🙂
Spring Planting
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged environment, flowers, gardens, grass seed, mass challenge, mass innovation nights, microsoft nerd, mister smarty plants, pearl's, planting, postaday, spring on May 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The big thermometer on the garage may have said 40 degrees when I woke up this morning, but I’m still thinking spring.
My husband has planted an array of annuals and perennials, and both kids are seeding lawns.
Since I am rather a fan of Mass Challenge winners and I also had a heartfelt testimonial from Mimsey, I encouraged both families to try a 2010 Mass Challenge winner, Pearl’s Premium grass seed.
Mimsey said that she had thrown Pearl’s into a wooded area next to her house, expecting nothing. Before she knew it, a lovely velvety carpet had grown there. Sounded to me like the beans Jack’s mother threw away that led to Jack’s adventures at the top of a beanstalk.
And speaking of plants, the plant identification site Mister Smarty Plants, a big supporter of this blog, needs my support tonight. So if you would like to help him get recognition at a Mass Innovation Night on June 10, vote for him here. It took me a while to figure out the voting. You have to vote for four entries in the event and make a comment. But you don’t have to give your name. Thanks!
Sunshine and Shadows
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged brunch, flowers, forsythia, grandchildren, olga's, photography, photos, postaday, providence, shadows, spring on May 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »
This morning as my almost-three-year-old grandson was “fixing” the downspout with a pair of pliers, I passed along what I like about spring.
You don’t have to put on coats and scarves and boots and hats and mittens every time you go out. It’s warm and sunny. There are lots of flowers. The flowers smell good.
He didn’t say much, probably because he had already gotten me to smell a large, red tulip, and he was focused on his work.
Here are some spring pictures. Look closely to see the mural of a rabbit in the shadows at Olga’s, where our one-year-old grandson escorted us for brunch.
Help me identify the sprays of flowery branches? The only one I can say for sure is the yellow forsythia. For the others, I will have to upload the photos at the website of the almost-three-year-old’s dad to get a crowd-sourced identification, Mister Smarty Plants. Do you think the pink spray is quince?
First May Day, Then Mother’s Day
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthstone, crafts, florist, flowers, holiday, jewelry, Luna & Stella, may day, mother's day, spring, tradition on April 17, 2013| 2 Comments »
Today’s mild weather reminds me that May Day and Mother’s Day aren’t far off. Mother’s Day is a highlight of the year at Luna & Stella, Suzanne’s lovely birthstone jewelry company, for which Suzanne’s Mom blogs.
I hope you know about May Day, too. I’d like to see it revived, the ancient custom of leaving flowers at people’s doors in honor of spring. (I don’t begrudge the workers of the world their version of May Day, but they shouldn’t hog the whole thing.)
Why don’t Girl Scout troops do May Day? Why don’t florists? It mystifies me.
I still remember a May basket I made as a kid from a punch-out book. I thought it was a thing of beauty and kept asking my mother to get me another book like that. But they stopped making them.
Now I work from scratch if I have time. Last year I blogged about one kind of a homemade basket, here.
It’s always a surprise to see what flowers are available on May 1 any given year. Since these are in my yard now, I suspect there will be different ones by May.
Revisiting Mister Smarty Plants
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged crowdsourcing, flowers, gardening, gardens, mister smarty plants, nature, plant identification, postaday on March 18, 2013| 7 Comments »
The plant-identification site Mister Smarty Plants, which I first blogged about here on May 23, 2011, just keeps getting better.
One innovation from the past year has been rounding up tweets containing photos of flowers and plants that people around the world want help identifying and bringing them to the site to be identified by the growing number of readers.
I used to get a lot of identifications right, but Mister Smarty Plants queries are quite exotic now, which makes the site both exciting and challenging.
Today, John announced a new design with special features like kudos to the week’s most successful plant identifiers.
The Smarty Plants concept has always been that the more people who come to the site with their questions, the more who will be available to identify plants. John has been persistent about finding new ways to reach the folks who need the service.
Even if you think you don’t know much about plants, check it out. It’s almost like playing a game, and believe it or not, there are people in other parts of the world who don’t know what a dandelion is.
Weather
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged flowers, may baskets, may day, spring on April 1, 2012| 4 Comments »
First it was 80 degrees, then it was 20.
Some flowering trees seemed to be OK with that. 
Others, not so much.
I was pretty confused myself. If all the spring flowers were going to bloom in March, what would be left for a May basket? I do like May baskets.
Concord Farmers Market
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged backyard birds, berries, concord, flowers, food, Frank Scimone Farm, fruit, hutchins farm, massachusetts, milldam, pete & jen's, produce, vegetables, verrill farm, yellow watermelon on September 10, 2011| 2 Comments »
Concord’s main business street, sometimes called the Milldam because it was built over a dam, got blocked to traffic this morning, and farmers set up booths. Concord doesn’t do this often because most farmers around town have their own stands. I bought a small yellow watermelon, corn, lettuce, green beans, and a tomato. Because I was on foot I resisted buying more, but the raspberries looked wonderful as did some seasoned salt, pots of flowers, dried hydrangeas, and homemade soaps.
Among the farms represented were Verrill Farm (where we went for Mothers Day brunch this year), Pete & Jen’s Backyard Birds, Frank Scimone Farm, and Hutchins Farm (pictured).
Last year we attended the Concord farms’ annual Stone Soup dinner, a benefit organized by the town’s Agricultural Committee — quite elaborate and delicious. A scholarship was awarded that night to a young local farmer as part of the campaign to encourage the next generation to pursue or stay in agriculture. I was surprised to learn that there are 18 farms in Concord. Read more here.
How the Big Dig Created a Lovely Urban Garden
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged big_dig, carousel, equal_exchange, flowers, fountains, greenway, music, rose_kennedy, sculpture, urban_garden on May 24, 2011|
Sometimes I take my morning walk in the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a lovely urban garden created on top of the Big Dig. I know the American Taxpayer paid too much for the Big Dig, but I just want to say I am really grateful for the Greenway. The mayor, among others, is concerned that not that many people use it yet, that it seems to be there just for Suzanne’s Mom and a few office workers. But now there is a carousel in summer and the Boston Harbor Islands visitor center and various food vendors — all of which are expected to attract more visitors. One vendor is Equal Exchange, the fair-trade coffee company. (You can follow Equal Exchange’s carts on Twitter at EEFreeRange.)
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