42. Broadmoor and Chase

Week 42  5/11/16

As long-time Massachusetts Audubon Society members we have been to nearby Broadmoor many times. As a matter of fact, I passed it every day on my way to work.

For some of the way, we walked a different route than we have in the past. But first -- lunch. We had a picnic near one of the boardwalks.

Many ferns were uncurling.

I always like this meadow. This day it was humming with bees near the trees.

Paul is very good at balancing. I got across somehow.

We weren't sure what animal would make such a large deep hole so low to the ground. Anybody have an idea?

Next we stopped at Chase Woodlands, a Trustees property. We only stayed a short while because we had a scheduled event, but were able to take a much longer hike on our last trip there.

41. Flowers with Art then Art with Flowers

Week 41  5/6/16

Stop one was the Garden in the Woods in Framingham. We were given a gift membership by Medway friends this year. I considered it a perfect day for a visit - early spring following a rainy spell. We were impressed by the extent, scope and variety of this place and plan to come back many times and bring others with us. We bought a trout lily to remind Paul of a hike he took with Charlie recently in Connecticut where they saw many wildflowers Trout lily was Paul's favorite. I didn't take a picture of his plant because it is just two leaves at this point. But here is a link to trout lily.

We watched this chipmunk who finally emerged from his home.

The cottage of the original owner is still present. Installed nearby was an intriguing kinetic firepit. Rising smoke causes the wheel to spin. We did not see it in use.

The property includes several pools. This one had plenty of animal life as well as plants.

A marshy area has some beautiful unusual plants.

This is one of several sculptures at the Garden in the Woods. We could see it as a dinosaur, feathers or leaves.

This is a children's area. I'd recommend it if you have kids. There was a place to build fairy houses, a maze made of plants, a hollow tree trunk to crawl through and an area to display collections of objects.

We could see this log construction well with few leaves on the trees. It will be interesting to see what it looks like when the logs rot and things begin to grow on them.

Next stop was deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum which we have visited many times. I didn't do a good job at showing the beautiful plantings they have here, many local species, but you can see a hint of some small red flowers growing on the rock in this shot.

This is one of my favorite sculptures in the park. It is by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa and is called Humming.

The intent of my picture was to view four sculptures at once. It didn't work well.

40. Skipping School

Week 40  4/26/16

One spring Wednesday at Wellesley College is always set aside for a celebration of student achievement as the Ruhlman Conference. Paul and I first attended a fascinating set of short talks by four students on memory, history and subjectivity. Then we split up so Paul could attend a talk by one of the students he works with, who will be going to graduate school in biochemistry next year. He says it was over his head. 

Instead, I listened to one in a series of ongoing site talks by a group of students who are trying to get the Wellesley community to stop and see their surroundings. At each talk they discuss with the group a certain plant and a nearby piece of outdoor sculpture. This day we looked at an ivy climbing on the brick walls of the Davis Museum. The students asked questions to help us observe the ivy as a species and also to think about why it was planted in this spot. For example, "What would be different about this space if the ivy were not here." Then we looked at a sculpture under the arch which had recently been relocated to that spot. The students asked questions here as well. Since we had professional botanists, art historians and museum administrators in the group, we had quite a high-level discussion.

The catered community lunch was served under a tent. Paul and I ate in the amphitheater while we looked at the program of afternoon events. It was a gorgeous day, and ever on the lookout for SIGNS OF SPRING, we set out around the lake.

Many SOS today! Here is one of a few vernal pools we saw. 

Just one of the wildflowers we saw, Paul says this is a marsh marigold.

And of course, no walk around Lake Waban is complete without a photo in front of the Hunnewell Topiary Garden.

After our walk, there was still time for two more sessions. We went to the Science Center to hear three students talk about a human-computer interaction project with students, music, and wearable electronics including conductive thread, paint ans sensors.

Finally, we watched two scenes from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing which were the two Shakespeare Society plays from this academic year. The student directors talked about their visions and decisions in presenting these plays (which are always staged with all Wellesley students - so all women. For example, the Twelfth Night director gave each actor a script with only her own lines and a leading cue line. This is how it was done in Shakespeare's Day, since printing costs were high. She talked about how that changed the actors' roles and reactions.

39. College Rock to Adams Street

Week 39  4/20/16 

The Hopkinton trail system has been featured here in Week 29. On that day we made a plan to revisit with a different route. This day we parked car #1 in Holliston on Adams Street, then drove car #2 to College Rock. Still looking for signs of spring every week (this is a slow year!) we did find some greenery in this beautiful spring, as well as many tree buds and mosses.  

Here is one of the many local examples of glacial erratics. Much of this area is traversed by stone walls, indicating that it used to be farmland. Paul is very good at picking up clues of how land has been used as well as sharing his geological and forestry knowledge.

38. Rail Trail

Week 38  4/15/16

After our busy week in Colorado, we were game for a local, familiar "adventure." We have hiked and biked the rail trail in Holliston many times including on New Year's Eve, as mentioned in adventure 23. One day we'll walk there all the way from our house, through our property, the Idylbrook park, the Bettania property, Wenakeening Woods, and onto the rail trail, following it to the center of Holliston. But we've only done it in pieces. This time we parked at a lot on Rt 126 and walked through a bit of Wenakeening Woods to the trail. We continue to look for signs of spring but didn't see many this day - only a bit of green in the wetlands and hints of buds on trees. The archway under Highland Street has a nice echo.

Before heading to Jasper Hill Cafe for lunch, I took a picture of Paul near the Mudville sign which is not far from his childhood home. They say this is the Mudville of "Mighty Casey."

37. From the Mountains to the Prairies

Week 37  4/5 - 4/13/2016

On our second trip to visit Julia and John in Colorado we saw some different sights, not all of which we are showing here. For example, just around the corner from their house, a pathway opens to a beautiful open park with an expansive view of the Rocky Mountains. We continued beyond to some open space trails through grassland with many birds and wildflowers. And on another day, Paul had a golf date with his high school friend he had not seen in more than 20 years. During golf, Julia and I went to the Longmont Museum and Cultural Center.

On our first full day we went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge very close to Denver. This spot has a unique history that it is important to know about, so one can see what a change has taken place. The visitor center has a wide range of artifacts tracing the beginning of farming on the site, followed by the abrupt displacement of farm families to make way for a chemical weapons manufacturing facility begun after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This is an explosion-proof telephone.

Between 1971 and 1976, the chemicals were destroyed - sarin, mustard gas, napalm and so forth. Here is part of the control panel used for the demolition of the chemicals.

The land was cleaned and converted to a wildlife refuge with dozens of species of birds, waterfowl, fish, mule deer and bison. Two man-made lakes were created, drawing many animals to the area. A sign near the smaller lake, Lake Mary, claims that it was bulldozed by a general. Paul is not so sure. Even on a weekday, there were quite a few people walking through. One man asked if we'd seen the nesting eagles this year. We had not, but we did see an osprey. The small lake has nice benches and viewing platforms. Julia discovered a hidden talent of hers - possibly magical. We had not yet seen any fish after about 20 minutes of looking at the lake. She said "I want to see a fish right this minute." Immediately, a large fish jumped out of the water. Looking at the list of known fish in the area, and judging by what we saw, it could only have been a bass. That was the only fish we saw jump the entire day.

Although Julia and John saw the whole herd of bison next to the road on their last visit, we only saw a few from a distance this time.

Another trip was to Eldorado Canyon State Park, a hiking and rock climbing mecca, apparently. There is a little bohemian-type town before the park entrance with a very bumpy road and many twists and turns. It does not at all look like the entrance to a state park, but the buildings and so forth are very interesting to look at, since we had to be traveling quite slowly.

We skipped the rock climbing ourselves, but enjoyed watching others do it. Most of the climbers were barely colored dots on the rock faces but we were able to watch a few people being coached through a difficult spot right near our hiking trail. We followed the easiest, Fowler trail, from which we could see some of the most popular climbing rocks, and then over an incline on a ridge. I would have loved to have taken the Rattlesnake Gulch trail, if only for the name, but also because there is also an old abandoned hotel up there. Next time, maybe.

Below you see Paul watching climbers. I'm glad we had a couple of pairs of binoculars with us. Even in person it is deceiving how far away and high the climbers are until you see a tiny yellow dot on the side of the mountain.

Julia is NOT watching climbers. I'm not sure what she's doing. Near this spot, we were told to avoid a certain trail due to nesting of golden eagles.

We ate our picnic near the spring brook.

While Paul golfed, Julia and I visited Boulder, including the tiny Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. We enjoyed the exhibits, including this large installation below, and also some films upstairs.

Buffalo Bill is buried on Lookout Mountain near Golden, Colorado. Here is the view looking down toward Golden from the mountain near the grave.

The Buffalo Bill museum was very large. What a complicated man he was...

I wish I'd gotten pictures of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. It looks like a very active campus with many programs and students, which surprised me. Golden also has a nice little historic area with replica farm buildings, houses, and some animals.

With John joining us, we went to the city of Denver for the first time, and toured the Molly Brown house. The guide was very knowledgeable and I'm sure could have continued long beyond the hour tour. Here is the front of this house.

We have been to a few aquariums, but all in cities near a coast. Denver has an aquarium that is a bit different. It does have quite a few marine exhibits from different oceans, but has more fresh-water exhibits than I've seen before. There was also an immersive experience of a slot canyon flood. We chose to stand in the dry area, but could have been splashed if we chose.

There were many clever ways to feel as if one was in the water with the fish. My favorite was a tank that curved in an arc overhead. Here is a different one Paul tried.

And of course we tried the "underwater dining adventure." A huge moray eel slowly emerged from his hiding place while we ate, and finally wandered off.

There is an amazing amount of acreage that is designated as city open space, and many areas to hike On our last day, we hiked about five miles on the Flatirons Vista Trail in Boulder. In this area we realized that we were looking across at the other end of a trail we had taken from Eldorado Canyon. The trail was extremely muddy and the mud was sticking about an inch deep on the bottom of my boots, so we turned back.

In a more dry area we enjoyed some very new wildflowers, beautiful trees and many species of birds, including many singing meadowlarks. If you can see this video, I hope you can hear the meadowlark song near the end.

36. Revolution

Week 36  4/4/16

A couple of weeks before Patriot's Day we decided to visit Concord. At the parking lot we discovered one of the projects of the wonderful Community Preservation Act - The Robbins House. This was the home of the children of a former slave and Revolutionary War veteran Caesar Robbins. The house was not open for the season so we peeked in the windows.

From the parking lot we viewed the monument and walked over the bridge, which I believe is the 6th bridge on the site.

Near the bridge and at other places in Minuteman National Historic Park and the Battle Road, were several monuments marking spots where British soldiers were buried. Paul and I wondered about who might have buried them, or if they were buried at all. We guessed they were probably buried by the colonists for several reasons. In the very well-done film at the visitor center, and in other information we read, the point was made that both sides felt as if they were fighting against family.

In this view of the Concord River, you can see what a beautiful day this was.

Back in the center of Concord, we visited two burying grounds, first the Old Hill Burying Ground, which is the largest and with graves dated from the 1600's and mostly in the 1700's. They were in excellent condition, and almost all could be read. In front of the burying ground, houses have been built so close that some stones are only a few feet from the houses. We read many of the stones and enjoyed the carved art. It seemed as if each epitaph was unique and personal, some giving nearly a life story of the person buried there.

Finally, we walked a few miles on the Battle Road Trail. We parked near the Brooks Farms and walked westward through farmland and over some boardwalks in the wetlands. Then we retraced our steps and kept going eastward beyond the "Bloody Angle" where colonial regulars from several towns ambushed the British soldiers. Finally, back to the car. There was much more we could have seen in Concord, but it will wait for another day.