A tiny 'pocket park'

Welcome to the Officer Arthur English Memorial Garden. Hardly large enough to warrant a second glance on my daily commute to and from work. However, it is large enough to occasionally lure me to it's benches for a bite to eat or some writing or reading time. My previous post was written here in this tiny floral pocket park above the green line tracks where I enjoyed the sunshine and snapdragons. To be exact it was written on this bench, which is one of two in the garden:

Journey Downtown

Warning: This is a very old post. I wrote it on August 21st outside on my lunch break at work and when I tried to impute it into the computer I had tons and tons of problems. Blogger and I don't get along. Now that the wedding is over, David (my new in-home computer tutor) is showing me a little Html so i can avoid the pre-wedding blogger frustration that began my month absence. On with the show!

So, yesterday David and I both played hooky with the aim of 'getting some things done.' In fact, our first mission was to purchase rings for our extremely quickly approaching wedding. Thankfully, for both our budget and sanity, we followed the advice of friends and headed downtown Boston to check out the plethora of jewelers located in the area.

Once successful at mission number one, mission number two was to take a little rest and relaxation, and enjoy the day. This weather we have right now is wonderful - the best all summer, I'd say! You can feel autumn's pull in the crisp night air and bright blue skies.

Being thrifty and able-bodied, we took the journey from Downtown Crossing to Trident Booksellers and Cafe (yum, yum, yum.) What a delight! All manner of people were out enjoying this brilliant day.

Please bear with me, I'm still learning how to format well on Blogger, but take a look at some highlights of our journey:

Entering the Public Gardens...

Wandering down Comm Ave...

Community Garden Update: Pretty Weeds (and Bees!)

weed (PLANT)
noun
1 [C] any wild plant which grows in an unwanted place, especially in a garden or field where it prevents the cultivated plants from growing freely

(Thank you, Cambridge Dictionaries Online!)

Now, here's the thing with weeds. I don't even know what all these photographed 'weeds' are, and some of them may be evil killers of all things native, but obviously I enjoy them enough to try to take nice pictures of them with our new camera (thanks!). I even wish that the sunflowers were in my community garden plot and not in the field next to the gardens!

The pictures are of the following:

1. Sunflowers

2. Golden Rod

3. Queen Anne's Lace (coming in my garden fence!)

4. Pink Morning Glory like weed (climbing my garden fence and very familiar, but what is it?)

5. Sunflowers

6. Pink Morning Glory like weed

7. Butter and Eggs

8. Not a clue, but an awesome bee picture

9. Jewelweed (also known as touch-me-nots... a personal favorite)

Rain, rain, go away...

You don't have to be terribly observant to have noticed that it's been raining like crazy in New England this summer. With rain comes more mosquitoes, less pleasant time to spend outside, cancelled outdoor events, not getting to see the Perseids, and rampant tomato fungus.

But not all fungus is created equal. David reported seeing lots of different species on his camping trip this weekend including a variety that was apparently very purple (wish I had a picture.) Likewise, I saw a ton of different species on my little walk at Hemlock Gorge Reservation. I have no idea if this is really 'good' fungus, but it's certainly pretty. Here's a couple samples:

Park Profile: Hemlock Gorge Reservation

Just south of Route 9 in Newton and Needham, Hemlock Gorge Reservation is a green gem. It is less than a mile from the Eliot T stop, but having never been there before I drove my car from work on yesterday to have as much time there as possible.

I have only two complaints: First, it's a little loud. The convenient location gives it a lot of car noise - mostly from Route 9. There's more natural sound coming from the man-made falls at the old mill as well. This is not a good place to listen to the birds!

Second, the poison ivy was insane. It covered the ground in huge patches. I took some pictures, but my new camera needs another disk to expand its capacity. You know what it looks like anyway, right? (More on that at a later date.)

The people I met along my walk were remarkably friendly. Often the shy one, I'm not very vocal with my 'hellos' and 'beautiful day, huhs?' with strangers. This was not the case with the folks I ran into today. Not a single one failed to at least give a warm smile and hello and some even tried to strike up a bit more of a conversation. Was it the beautiful day after all the rain or the place itself?

A gorgeous lunch-hour it was. The sun shone magnificently in a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds. The view from the top of the Echo Bridge brings you to the level of the tree canopies, allowing you to view the sky to its fullest advantage. I am not a talented enough photographer to even begin to capture its full beauty as I saw it today.

Could this be a good place to watch the upcoming meteor shower? I guess it's possible, but I would definitely find it too creepy. Oh, well.

I'm definitely looking forward to going back during the day. Maybe I'll try out the Echo Bridge's echo next time!

Community Garden Update: Not the biggest zucchini I've ever seen...

... but getting there.

The Story of (one of) the Biggest Zucchini I've Ever Seen

Once upon a time, in a garden not-so-far away, there was a happy, overcrowded squash patch.

Almost every day, the young couple that tended the garden would come visit.

Almost every day the young lady would look all over the overcrowded squash patch for juicy 6-inch zucchini. There were some every once in a while, but she kept wanting more. "Zucchini plants are supposed to go crazy with fruit, why aren't mine?" she thought.

"Maybe, they're too crowded. The delicata plants are really taking over," said the young man. He tried to thin them out a bit, but it didn't help.

This continued. Every few days the happy, overcrowded squash plant would have a new zucchini or two, but it still was not enough. It seemed that the happy, overcrowded squash patch was destined to only have zucchini every once in a while, but have lots of delicatas.

Then it happened.

One day, the young couple didn't visit the happy, overcrowded squash patch. The day before they had visited and had found three tiny zucchini that looked they might be ready in a few days... and it was raining... and they wanted to go out to dinner.

The next morning, the young lady was very excited. She wanted to pick those three tiny zucchini and eat them for dinner! She was very excited and dragged her beau out very early in the morning to check on them.

First, she bent down to look at the oldest delicata squash to see if it was ripe enough yet. Not yet, but what's that? A beautiful medium-size zucchini lay right next to the delicata!

"Hmm," she thought. "I don't remember that being there at all!" As she began to cut the beautiful zucchini from the vine she turned her head toward the rest of the patch. "AAAAA!" she shrieked.

Oh no! They young man was sure there must be a monster or maybe a dead hedgehog in the squash patch. "What is it?" he exclaimed anxiously.

"Look!!" she said.

And there it was. He couldn't believe his eyes. In less than two days, one of the cute baby zucchini had turned into a big, beautiful monster, and another zucchini almost as big was right next to it! There were lots of zucchini that day, but none would compare to the biggest of them all.

So, he took it home, took a picture of his arm next too it, to show it's giant size, and then shredded it up for zucchini bread. Everyone lived happily ever after. And so it begins...

Want some zucchini?

Coming Soon to a Dark-Outdoor-Space Near You: The Perseids

Early next Tuesday morning should be the best time to view the Perseid meteor shower (weather-permitting, of course). Dust from the tail of the Comet Swift-Tuttle will hit the earth's atmosphere at well over 100,000 mph to display bright streaks in the night sky. If you are a serious stargazer, you may consider camping out all night beginning at 9:00 p.m. For those of us who enjoy sleeping or have previous commitments (yay, Monday night trivia!), the best viewing will begin once the moon has set at 2:00 a.m. the morning of August 12th.

So, where to view, where to view...

We need an open space, not to far from the apartment hopefully without too much light. It's hard to know what has a lot of light and what doesn't. When I was a kid, we had an awesome view of a meteor shower on the high school soccer field, so something like that'd be a possibility.

Or the park on Eastern Ave. in Arlington apparently called Robbins Farm. It's an awesome place for viewing man's fireworks over Boston, maybe you could catch a glimpse of nature's as well. Except it might be too bright.

How about Danehy Park in Cambridge? Should be nice if it's not too well lit at night. There's a very clear hill you can stand on top of and try to find the stars in the city, but could easily be too bright. Also, they've had some mugging problems.

The clear choice for me I think will be the reservation where we tend our community garden -- Rock Meadow -- the place that hasn't made it onto google maps at all yet. No green blob. No name. Just empty space that only reveals the paths and garden plots in satellite view. There are no lights to speak of and with a little flashlight, hopefully we'll be able to see the path well enough to get to the middle of the meadow on the path and away from the city lights.

Note to self: Must remember the bugspray.

In the News: 'Minuteman still inspires'

I may be a bit behind the times, but at the end of June, in the aftermath of the Minuteman Bikeway becoming the first trail in the Northeast to be inducted into the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame (Hoorah! Is there anything they don't have a Hall of Fame for anymore?), the Boston Globe ran an article entitled "Popular trail gets better with time."

Discussing the many greens spaces that are directly accessible from the Minuteman, Jack Johnson, whom the author describes as wearing "many cycling hats," states that "it really is a greenway." I could not agree more!

If you've never been on the Minuteman (or even if you have) take a look at its maps and only begin to see the great places you can diverge from the path by bike or on foot. Be awed by an 11-mile stretch of car-free path to pulic places to play on playgrounds, rent kayaks, plan a picnic with an awesome view, go swiiming, or play a game of baseball. The options for outdoor fun are only growing and the bikeway provides some of the best access to these locations!

Two million people enjoy the Minuteman Bikeway, and I hope that, as this article implies, it continues to inspire people to create more of it's kind!

Recycled Space: Cold Spring Park

Yesterday I discovered that the northern portion of Cold Spring Park in Newton is a former dump site. The former wasteland is now home to sports fields, a playground, and a fabulous farmer's market!

So today during my lunch hour, I wandered through the wooded southern portion of the park to the Tuesday-afternoon market with a new appreciation for this unique public space. I can only imagine what this space looked like as a city dump, but today it is bustling with activity. Around a paved circle of one end of the parking lot, well over a dozen vendors peddle their fresh produce, flowers, baked goods, meat, cheese, and other products. I find myself defending my spot in front of the small packs of people in front of the stands as I try to purchase my corn, berries, and cucumbers -- on a delightfully mild summer day like today, the market is packed!

Many years ago this place likely stunk of potato peels rotting in piles of wet newspapers (and things far worse,) but today the air is fresh and clean with the buzz of happy voices floating on the breeze.

Recycled Space: An Introduction

As I've begun to delve more into the history of the parks and green places I've visited or am considering visiting, I've found that many of these spaces I love were formerly something entirely different. The Minuteman Bikeway, for instance, is an example of a rail-to-trail or a section of abandoned railroad track that has been converted into a public path.

More surprising, however, is the number of parks I'm discovering to be former dumps. These beautiful playing fields, paths, and wildlife areas display a beautiful, complicated definition of recycling.

In the short report from The Trust for Public Land entitled "From Dumps to Destinations: The Conversion of Landfills to Parks", the authors present closed landfills as excellent new park sites due to their size, location and cost. Far from a new concept, landfills have been converted into parks at least as early as 1916 when Rainier Dump in Seattle underwent its transformation into Rainier Playfield. Converting a dump into a park, however, is a very expensive prospect, complicated by the gases released by they continually decomposing trash and also the trash continuing to settle after the dump's been closed for many years. The authors of this report suggest, "Even before the first truckful of garbage is disposed at a new site, careful consideration should be given by solid waste agencies, municipal park departments, and landscape architects to how the site will be converted at the end of its expected life as a dump."

It is wonderful to benefit directly from some of these converted dumps and fascinating to see the lengths we'll go to hide our waste!

Community Garden Update!

We are well into my first vegetable gardening season as a big person with a big plot (as opposed to a child with a 4'x4' square). I'm pleased to report that no matter what happens for the rest of the season, this year has been a great success!

First of all, I love my -- excuse me -- our garden far more than I ever imagined possible. Not only is it a great way to get outside and moving, but we have been eating lots of delicious fresh vegetables. Right now we harvest a ton of greens: collards, Swiss chard and kale by the boxful. We've also recently harvested zuchini, basil, carrots, and the first tomato. The zuchini is (no exageration) the best I've ever tasted when it's picked small; it's tender, sweet and buttery.

Stay tuned for details...

Rambles on the Minuteman Bikeway

I recently moved out from Cambridge to Arlington right near the Minuteman Bikeway. I have been on the rail-to-trail bike path a couple times in the past for a fun. I've now used it a couple times on Sunday morning to get to church in Davis Square. It is surprisingly busy on Sundays before 10:00 a.m. and even more so on the way back. Multiple generations of families appeared to be traveling on the path. Some looked like they were just out for the bike equivalent of a stroll and some seemed like they had a purpose and destination in mind.

The Bikeway is one of the primary reasons my fiance and I chose this new apartment. Despite not being able to use it much yet, I must prematurely conclude that it is awesome.

Last weekend, we went on a little jaunt north. I've never been north on the path and expected pretty much more of the same. However, a short trip toward Lexington reveals vast views of the Arlington Great Meadows brimming with cattails.

It seems that at least for the time being cattails in these meadows are winning against invasive species phragmities and purple loosestrife. I wonder if they are waging this battle with the help of human weed pullers or on their own for now, because I was also struck by the amount of the buckthorn in the woods near the path. Having pulled enormous amounts of buckthorn trees out of the ground in college I can appreciate that tackling this project would be a daunting challenge, and I was delighted to see that at least the meadows themselves seem to be relatively intact!

Not another defunct blog!

This is my first blogging attempt ever. I was doing pretty well in the beginning there, but I'd like to hit a groove with this. I want the most important part of this little project to be the part where I get outside. The part where I don my super hypoallergenic sunscreen and a pair of comfy shoes and bask in sunlight. The part where I utilize public parks, bike paths and other green spaces. If good writing and greater public awareness of urban green spaces results, great! If not, I'm sure other things will come. So, here we go...

Rock Meadow Community Gardens

Exciting happenings this weekend: We are the proud gardeners of a community plot in the Rock Meadow Community Gardens in Belmont, MA!

Our plot is not stellar -- We had last pick, literally, but just having a square of dirt to attempt to make things grow out of is awesome! The photograph to the right is actually a view from our plot. We are on the edge of the gardens with great proximity to the meadow.

Rock Meadow is in the beginning stages of a project to restore it as wildlife habitat. I was particularly impressed by a fairly large group of cattails apparently not impeded by invasive phragmites or purple loosestrife. It's a beautiful spot.

I'm looking forward to seeing our garden grow and also watching how Rock Meadow and the gardens change through the coming growing season.

See another gardener's blog for many more images of Rock Meadow Community Garden including photos from last year's growing season.

Park Profile: Rev. Thomas J. Williams Park

Williams Park -- also known as Cedar St. Park -- is just what any park embedded in a highly populated neighborhood should be. This is a park that is fulfilling it's potential.

Located on the corner of Cedar and Dudley Streets in North Cambridge, Williams Park boasts a basketball court that's constantly in use, a rope playground for big kids, a fairly extensive 'toddler area,' and a play fountain during the summer. For a small park, it was packed: A group of mothers and their children were having an outdoor pizza party. Children of all ages were playing on the swings, playgrounds, and basketball court. On one of the many benches, a man was working on his laptop (apparently, the park also boasts free wi-fi), and I sat under a tree and soaked in the last of the evening sunshine.

This 'pocket park' is well connected with entrances on Cedar and Dudley as well as a path between a couple houses on Norris and leading straight to North Cambridge Catholic High School. Also, it's a well-known spot by fans of the web comic xkcd for an odd gathering last September.

Photo ID

This is the "cute little blue flower that I can never remember the name of".
Can anyone help?

A walk to Porter Square

Yesterday was a perfect spring day. Temperatures were well into the 50s and the sun shone brightly, and every urban creature seemed to be emerging from its winter nest. Dogs were bounding down the sidewalks, children playing on the slides, and teens playing b-ball of both varieties. I too found myself awakening to walk the long route to Porter Square.

I traveled via the relatively new Yerxa Road Underpass, which is lovely shortcut when wandering car-less. I'm delighted whenever I find a new little place like it and hope that someday an online map program will be designed with foot and bike travel in mind. It's possible that not having to discover these mini places every time I move to a new neighborhood would take the joy out of them, but I really don't think so. I would probably even be able to discover more of them!

I continued through the neighborhood down Raymond Street and took a closer look at a lovely 'pocket park' and then rambled down Upland Road. Walking down this brick-walked, tree-lined street is as much an urban green experience as walking through a city park. The tiny front yards are blooming with delicate snowdrops, crocuses, and those cute little blue flowers that I can never remember the name of. Hopefully these April showers will let up soon for another brilliant day!

Wouldn't it be nice

I received my first newsletter from the Project for Public Spaces a couple days ago. Of course, being April 1st, it was entirely fake and, also of course, I fell for it. Somehow, I'm easily fooled on the internet (gmail got me big time this year), nonetheless, one of the fakes hit close to home.

The farticle (new word, anyone?) announced, "Protestors take over Boston City Hall Plaza demanding better public spaces". Why they didn't just walk the half-mile to the Common is beyond me, but this article highlights a couple things that would be very nice indeed: First, wouldn't it be nice if public space issues mobilized people in this way? And second, a petting zoo in City Hall Plaza would greatly improve the space's 'fun factor'.

Keeping Grass Green

An article published in the Boston Globe this March 20th announced, "Large events may become uncommon at city's beloved park". At a City Council hearing last Wednesday, Antonia Pollack, the head of Boston's Parks Department said that large events that have taken place on Boston Common in the past should relocate to City Hall Plaza to protect the park's lawns and walkways, including the newly-established turf on the Parade Ground.

[First a note: Although I feel very strongly about this issue, I've been struggling to put my full thoughts into words for all too long. Please bear with me as I make my first attempts at a form of writing that is very new me. I'm sure that this article will barely even brush the surface of my thoughts on the subject. (Next time I will also take extra precautions so that a glitch in blogger doesn't delete half of my work.)]

The Globe article cites Henry Lee, president of Friends of Boston Public Gardens, as saying, "The basic problem of the Common is it has been at all times all things to all people". This is not a problem. Boston Common should strive to continue to invite an enormous diversity of activities and people onto its lawns. After all, it is at the heart of the city, where the worlds of residents, tourists, students and businessmen collide. I personally love that a visit to the Common usually brings a delightful surprise, either in the form of an unexpected bit of nature, people-watching, or event to participate in.

The Project for Public Spaces (one of my new favorite websites) names Boston Common and Public Garden one of the best parks in the world stating:

Both park spaces were the first of their kind in this country and have been centers of public life and civic virtue since their inception. Full of activity, the Common offers some of the city's best people-watching. With its grand sweep down from the majestic State House, the Common provides an uninterrupted view of green expanse, historic city buildings, and people. The parks host concerts, plays and other sorts of gatherings and offers facilities and amenities that support a wide range of more spontaneous uses and activities.

So, why worry about keeping a perfect lawn in a park that is clearly well-used and enjoyed? Events should not be moved away from a space that is serving people well to a City Hall Plaza, a space that clearly isn't. In contrast to the Common, City Hall Plaza tops PPS's list of worst squares in the world. Moving large events (particularly those that fit better in a park to begin with) to such a bleak and uninviting space will not enhance the rarely-visited plaza, and will only lessen the community atmosphere of the Common.

In the words of the Globe Editorial published March 22nd, "The Common is not a decorous parlor where the plastic never comes off the furniture". Let the adjacent Public Gardens have frivolously tidy lawns and paths, but the Common is -- and should be -- Boston's living room.

Squeezing in a quick jaunt

Especially when daylight time is limited, it's difficult to fit a long ramble into my work week. Runningmap.com has been especially helpful in planning quick jaunts for during my lunch hour. It's much like a program you'd use to find driving directions with some very useful features. Not only does the program show satellite views and distances, it also allows the route to go wherever the user desires: the wrong way down a street, along a hidden path, through a stranger's home...

I like to build new loops for romps of varying lengths. If it weren't quite so cold and rainy today (or if I weren't such wuss), I'd take 20 minutes out of my lunch hour for this 1.25 mile loop that includes a half-mile portion of the Sudbury Aqueduct.

And so it begins

Inspiration snuck up on me, like spring in New England.

You may know what I mean: the weatherman continues to predict snow or wintry mix every other day, but somehow it just doesn't happen like that. Instead, the ground begins to thaw, the mud rolls in, and if you pay close attention, you may notice a crocus timidly poking its new leaves through the muck or even a bud on a tree. It's easy to miss in the city; as the possibility of a late winter blizzard lurks, you still find yourself spending time outdoors bundled up, running from one indoor space to another.

Then suddenly the realization comes -- it's actually gorgeous outside. A little muddy perhaps, but gorgeous nonetheless. As they say, spring has sprung!

In the past, I spent a lot of time outdoors. My tenure working in the botanical gardens in college brought me out into sweltering heat and bitter cold, brilliant sunshine and persistent mist. I also had a summer babysitting on the beach and many days working happily in the soil of a suburban garden or CSA farm.

Two infections with Lyme disease, a half dozen sunburns, and hundreds of bites from insects (of many varieties) later, I moved to the city of Cambridge, just North of Boston, and took my first desk job.

I've been working indoors for over a year now and it's time for a new approach. I assume some people happily live the super- super-majority of their lives indoors, but there's no way I'm one of them. If I'm going to remain an office rat, I need to make a more deliberate effort to get outdoors. This does not mean that I'm going to dash out of work on Friday evening to travel to the most remote location I can get to and still hobble exhausted back in on Monday.

Instead, I will explore the green spaces close to where I normally roam, predominantly public parks. I'll trek off my well-worn concrete path to find new places and explore those spots I've 'always wanted to go' and hope that along the way, I may inspire you to do the same.

And so it begins...