55. Bonus Week - Three adventures!

Week 55  8/10/16

On a day when we finally got a bit of rain, we headed for Garden in the Woods. The soil, plants and animals were so thirsty, that everything seemed hopeful. Because of optimism, we took along ponchos but they were not really needed. Here are a few of our favorite plants of the day. We are not good at identifying names, but remembered a few.

This plant has the creepy nickname of "Dolls' eyes."

There was a very large area of this Partridge Pea plant.

Near a pond area we saw two plants that looked similar but we could see the differences when looking closely. One was Cardinal Flower and we don't remember the name of the other. This is one of them!

I like the unusual pale leaves on this one.

A type of rhododendron.

I love the way the raindrops arranged themselves on this leaf.

8/11/16  

This was the peak of the Perseid meteor shower which is supposed to be particularly good this year. We viewed the sky last night but it was too overcast to see anything. Tonight, though, we sat outside starting at about 11 PM. We saw no meteors for about 1/2 hour, then suddenly I saw the largest meteor I'd ever seen. Paul saw another, and I eventually saw four. It was still overcast and there is too much light in the area, but these large ones were visible. I think I saw some fainter ones, but can't be sure.

8/113/16

Our long-time friends, Pattie and Steve Orr were in town on a business trip from Waco. We had a chance to meet them in Boston for an early dinner.

On the way from the subway stop, we discovered the Boston Public Market, a wonderful new (one year), indoor market space next to historic Haymarket. This is a fascinating retail space for locally sourced food and food-related products. It also has a partnership with the Trustees of Reservations. 

Here is Paul researching Massachusetts wines. We had no idea there were so many wineries here, and the market had lots of information on them, as well as breweries, cheese makers etc.

On the walk from the market to the North End, we stopped at a fountain on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. It was being well-used by children and adults. We also noticed that the sea breeze made a difference in the air, so that we didn't feel as sweltering as when we were home.

At the entrance to the North End is a statue of Tony DeMarco who grew up in the North End and had been welter-weight champion of the world. I used to babysit for his niece and nephew when I was in high school and went to some of the North End festivals with the family. I've seen Tony in the last year or two, as he still lives in the area.

Pattie and Steve arrived at Pagliuca's ahead of us and grabbed a table in a great location. This is one of their favorite Boston restaurants and he food was delicious. What a wonderful time we had comparing notes on our families, trips, retirement (for some of us) and mutual friends.

We walked back to the Boston Public Market with Steve and Pattie and bought a few treats and gifts. Here is a "doughnut robot" that was cranking out apple cider doughnuts. Pattie asked for a bag of them straight from the machine so they would be still warm and very fresh.

A satisfied customer. She shared the doughnuts with us - scrumptious!

54. Spencer Brewery

Week 54  8/6/16

Spencer Brewery is owned and operated by the Trappist community. They began this beer-making venture in recent years to supplement their income for the community as well as their charitable interests. They are also producers of Trappist jams and jellies.

This is a rather large operation, compared to some breweries we have toured. I believe that they only open for tours once per year, and had heard that today was the day.

If we had not seen other breweries, we might have been somewhat confused about what we were seeing because there was very little signage and nobody explaining what we were seeing. It was simply a very long slow line through the factory. We did see a general diagram of the brewing process on the wall and some brief signs such as "capping machine" and "cold water tank"

This is part of the packaging and distribution room.

Many visitors seemed more interested in the beer tasting and bargain prices than the tour. We tasted an IPA and a pilsner. We bought a six-pack of the IPA.

The drive through the Abbey property was lovely - lots of hay fields and beautiful vistas.

53. Ashland State Park

Week 53  7/27/16

I've been wanting to get a Massachusetts state park senior pass, so we finally got that chore done when we went to Hopkinton State Park recently. Now we have more convenient access to that and other sites such as Ashland State Park. This is where I spent many summer days with Ben and Julia and sometimes friends, as they splashed in the water and I sat in the shade reading or chatting. Today's trip brought back memories, although the park facilities have been upgraded somewhat with an expanded building and patio area.

Paul and I have visited Ashland Reservoir in the years since the kids were small. Ben and Julia both attended a camp in Elementary School that is situated on the lake, and Paul let Julia's Girl Scout troop on a nature walk one time. In the past few years we've taken our canoe to the other side of this lake and paddled to some islands where we swam.

Another connection to Ashland State Park is that when we were first married, Paul and I lived in Ashland near the reservoir. We could walk down the side street from the corner where our apartment was (top floor of a house) and get to the long dam which is partially shown in this photo. The photo was taken from our canoe.

We had decided to paddle first, then picnic and swim. As you can see, Paul fished also. But when we returned to the beach, it was filled to overflowing with kids attending an Ashland day camp program.
There was almost no room on the beach or in the swimming area. We moved our things to a less-congested spot in the woods for our picnic and then swam off the wheelchair ramp, which was probably not a sanctioned spot for swimming but it was a lot less croweded.

52. Full Circle with a birthday

Week 52  7/21/16

This blog began on the week after my birthday when I retired and even though I fully expected to keep it going, I'm almost surprised that the numbers worked out so that the 52nd week is my birthday again! I guess we didn't miss a week or stick in an extra adventure. This next year I resolve to post blogs on a more regular basis rather than publishing several weeks during the same sitting.

I wanted a relaxed outdoor adventure for my birthday. Fruitlands Museum recently joined the Trustees of Reservations, and Paul had never visited there, so we thought it would be a good choice. This was a beautiful but very hot and dry day, which has been the theme for this whole summer of high drought.

We started the day with a walk through the extensive trail system, passing old farmsites and a Native American hunting and gathering site. Here Paul looks at an ancient stone mortar.

Fruitlands includes the Bronson Alcott homestead, a Shaker building, a Native American museum and an art museum with permanent collection on display as well as the work of an artist in residence.

There was a bit of a wait for lunch in the cafe. We were able to get a seat on the view side of the tent. (I did drop that it was my birthday when the hostess tried to seat us at a table with less of a view.) Lunch was very tasty.

51. Feels like home

Week 51  7/13/16

Paul and I couldn't have felt more at home when we visited my best-est Wellesley friend, Andy Eusden and her husband Charlie Armstrong in Auburn, Maine. This was Paul's first visit so he got the farm tour - outbuildings and a greenhouse with cistern that Charlie built for his many forms of agriculture - vegetable garden, flowers (oh those dahlias!) chickens, orchard, beehives, large fruit orchard, berry bushes and a large maple syrup production system.

We ate some great meals, slept in a cabin on the property, and indulged our hobbies. Andy and I joined her watercolor group for some painting time and Paul and Charlie had a very successful fishing trip on the Androscoggin River. We're beginning to plan for a fishing (and other things) trip together.

This front porch, overlooking an incredible mountain and sunset view was where we ate dinner and had some drinks. 

I had been reading about the Shiloh community, an early 20th century Christian cult founded by Frank Sandford. My grandfather's friend, Arnold White, was raised in this cult community. After the "scattering" of the congregation (when Sandford was in prison for manslaughter) Arnold carried on with his life outside the cult and then made it a sort of personal mission to report on the leader's abuse of his members. Arnold wrote a book called "The Almighty and Us" which I have been reading. Andy and Charlie's home is very close to Durham where Shiloh was located so Andy and I hunted for the site. I expected to find ruins, at best, but look what we found! I have heard about Shiloh since I was a girl, but I had no idea that the building was still in existence. Note the metal crown on the tower. Two large building wings, mostly residence space, I think, were removed, as well as a large chapel and other buildings. The church building is now occupied by a Baptist congregation, and the son of the minister let me inside to see the chapel and other first floor church spaces. This Baptist church maintains information on the building's role in Shiloh's history. A group remained of the Shiloh followers and is still in existence, now calling itself The Kingdom. Here is a link to Kingdom Christian Ministries.

50. New Bedford Folk Festival

Week 50  7/9/16

We try to go to the New Bedford Folk Festival every year. This is a great festival that takes place during our wedding anniversary week, so we get to celebrate. For a few years we've shared the day or weekend with our friends, Deborah Cantor and Vincent Valvo. We always get to enjoy performers we've followed for many years and are introduced to new ones.

Festival musician Bruce Molsky  poses with a fan, musician Laura Goldhamer who is Deborah's niece. Laura and Debora attended every one of Bruce's performances on this Saturday. Paul and I enjoyed being with our friends and getting to know Laura. She had a fun day playing her guitar and singing here and there as we moved between venues, as well as seeing and hearing these great acts and shmoozing with some performers and other attendees.

At the end of the day the five of us ate dinner at a Portugese Restaurant.

Here Paul, Vincent and Deborah are discussing which venues to visit and how to find time for a lunch break.