3rd House Journal

4th of July Weekend

[Betsy Ross flag, Belmont MA; July 3, 2009]

The "Betsy Ross" flag, showing 13 stars for the original 13 colonies, is popular in these parts. In popular legend, Betsy Ross made the flag at her upholstery business in Philadelphia during the American Revolution, but it's unproven whether she made this particular design.

Massachusetts was, of course, one of these 13 colonies and a center of revolutionary activity. Since 1973, every year on July 4th the Boston Pops Orchestra celebrates with a concert and fireworks at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade. D lives very nearby so, if the weather holds tonight, we'll go to the increasingly popular rehearsal concert. And he's throwing his annual cookout on the deck tomorrow evening, with a short trek over to watch the fireworks after dark. Should be fun.

Happy 4th of July weekend to all those celebrating or at least enjoying a long weekend. Hoping for sun and drier weather here in New England!

Cloud break

[Sky above Watertown/Belmont; 7:45pm 6/29/09]

I had dinner on my porch tonight so as not to miss one ounce of rare sunshine. Then I went inside to strap on my walking sandals and heard it - pouring rain, thunder. But it passed. This June's seamless drizzle is finally breaking apart into bits of sun and bits of rain , which must be a good sign. Right?

Field notes from the weekend

Friday 9am: Annual review time. After 4 layoffs on Wednesday, not really worried, but... curious. Discussion of strengths and weaknesses areas of improvement. Then, a promotion! Gratifying. But, no $ increase involved, alas.

Noon: Free and out of the office! Overcast now, but predicted sunny with a chance of showers all weekend. Summer at last.

4pm: Showered, primped, packed and off to the city for the weekend.

5pm: Traffic 'copter overhead, but we have our feet up, cold beers in hand, watching clouds chase across the city skyline.

Later... a juicy burger out on Newbury. Later still... a sundae at JP Licks. Yum.

[Cranberry field, Bay Circuit Trail, Hanson MA; noon, 6/27/09]

Saturday, 10am: I get a ride from walking-group friends down to the wilds far south of Boston on the Bay Circuit Trail for a foraging walk led by Russ Cohen, author of Wild Plants I Have Known... And Eaten. Hot, humid, sunny and buggy. We nibble wild lettuce, sniff bayberry leaves and sassafras bark, observe unripe black raspberries & blueberries, learn when/how to eat pokeweed and various greens that "taste like asparagus," identify safe mushrooms. We chew Russ's homemade autumn-olive fruit leather, delicious. My favorite: wintergreen leaves. I bring a sprig back for D.

3:30pm: Driving back north on the expressway, the city ahead: fogged in. On the cell, D says it's suddenly chilly. Maybe it'll pass...?

[Back Bay, Boston; 4pm, 6/27/09]

4:30pm: Nap.

6ish: The sun tries to break through. On the streets, a mix of leftover shorts & tees and weather-savvy long pants & jackets.

7pm: In the Public Garden, we look for cygnets but the swan still nests, curled tight and asleep. On the pond her (his?) mate struts for the few tourists.

 

Sunday: Gray, damp. Sleep in, late breakfast. Planned trip to the seacoast is less appealing now.

Noonish: We wander around Cambridge. I'm discombobulated & aimless. Or perhaps pointless (see below).

3:30pm: Home alone, too early. Glum. But getting ready for the work week is necessary. Back out for groceries. Later... kitchen puttering: a pot of jambalaya, comfort food.

Short week ahead, as I get Friday off for the 4th of July weekend. Maybe the sun will come back...

[Pointless* sculpture, somewhere at Harvard; 12:30pm, 6/28/09]

"A point in every direction is no point at all" - from Harry Nilsson's The Point

(Notice the sign reading "please do not climb" - as if.)

Waiting for summer

[Garden bench, Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary; 11am, 6/2/0/09]

The gardens at Habitat can only be reached by going through the nearly century-old house that serves as Habitat's visitor center. Saturday was the first time this year that I've been there that I was able to go in and explore. While the sanctuary's 87-acres of woods, meadows and ponds are well maintained, the formal gardens offer a bit of nature tamed and ordered for humans rather than wildlife.

 

Saturday was the day before the summer solstice, which was officially at 1:45am Sunday morning. Just about one year ago at last summer's solstice, I discovered the gardens after ducking inside the center during a rain shower. There were no downpours this weekend, as I mentioned in my last post, only soft drizzle with the sun occasionally nearly breaking through. It's been a very wet, cool June (after a long, snowy winter). At least no one's had to water the gardens.

They say the weather should break break tomorrow, with temperatures rising, a bit more sun (though party cloudy and subject to showers), and humid. We'll be complaining of the heat before long, I'm sure. But right now we're all waiting for summer's gate to swing wide open.

Soft weekend

[Leaf, Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary; 11:30am, 6/20/09]

For most of the weekend, a light drizzle occupied the air, too light to be considered falling. On Sunday, we put up an umbrella briefly, then traded it for our hoods, the better to pull up or down as we ducked in and out of shops. The Irish call it a soft day. The Urban Dictionary calls a soft day a day with no edges.

If there were edges, they were high in the sky, to be squinted at during cloudbreaks.

[A view from Boston's Back Bay; 5pm, 6/20/09]

There was a brief break in the endless clouds and rain on Friday evening. After dinner with a friend in Cambridge, the sun broke through and we walked along brick residential sidewalks admiring the gardens (very green, with rain-drunken blooms) and lovely porches. On Saturday, the sun did battle with the clouds, gaining the upper hand early only to lose it at the end of the day. At least it was dry and bright enough for awhile to bring one turtle out to "sun" at the eponymous Turtle Pond in the local Audubon sanctuary.

[Painted turtle at Turtle Pond; 11am, 6/20/09]

Nearby, the bullfrogs were also busy bellowing (a former colleague called Habitat "frog heaven").

It was a nice soft weekend for me, no timetable, no plans but last-minute - duck into a warm cellar-hole of a restaurant for dinner, couch-potato the rest of the evening, watching movies on the HDTV. On Sunday, we did wander out to see Up - in 3D! Wonderful movie. (A quick Google search says I'm not the only one who thinks the main character looks like Spencer Tracy!) We joked about a woman who promptly quit her job after seeing the movie, but really it did have a powerful message about taking stock of what's important in life.

We've all been complaining mightily about the bleak June weather we've had here in Boston, but it's hard to complain about a weekend with no hard edges.

Consequences 10

A person could walk right through them without falling, without succumbing to the dizzying vortex, the desire to hurl oneself like a dervish spinning into oblivion. It was possible and, of course, necessary. She hesitated. There they all were, milling about, expectant, buoyed up in their Sunday best, children fidgeting, women smoothing their dresses, men jingling the change in their pockets, rocking back on their heels.

Slipping behind the doorpost, she rested her back against the wall and closed her eyes. An image floated into mind of herself as a child, dolled up by her mother in a starchy dress, her hair equally starchy in a perfect, immovable bob, paraded out for company, grinning, repelled and flushed with the unasked-for attention. Another image of herself: holding an absent classmate's paper while passing back papers at school, the nun in her black habit staring at her, waiting for an answer, repeating: "What do you think you should do with it?" Her mind blank, windpipe squeezed, tears welling. Such a small thing, in every sense of the word. So ridiculous.

What we do to each other. She shook her head. What we expect. The thought of the nun's sour, pinched face staring at her now made her laugh, hard enough that she had to run to the ladies room so no-one would hear. Dabbing mascara from under her eyes and straightening her satin dress, she looked at herself in the mirror. Drawing a deep breath, she said, "This one's for you, Sister!"

---

This is the tenth post in an ongoing online game of Consequences. Each successive entry begins with the closing line of its predecessor. Entries are 250 words long, and are linked thematically. The series started with Hydragenic, and was followed by Patteran Pages, Porous Borders, The Middlewesterner, Feathers of Hope, Blaugustine, Small Change, Via Negativa, and Cassandra Pages. The series will continue soon at Mole.

Summer's eve

Of course to have a "sunny window" for the plants assumes there is sunshine. It's been cloudy and/or rainy for days, and the 10-day forecast shows more of the same, with perhaps "partly cloudy" by Thursday. I am hoping that tomorrow's forecast of "afternoon showers" means "morning sun." Whatever plans I might have had, I will go outside.

Likewise, I have been in a storm of social activity for days. A busy weekend followed by a busy week. Last night, I had a break on a rainy evening - hours to myself to putter. I threw in laundry from last weekend (finally), made a stir-fry for dinner, read remaining bits of Sunday's paper, balanced my bank statement. Yet it was damp and chilly, unseasonably dark. I had a couple of hours yet before bed, so I was inspired to bake a blueberry quick-bread. Ah the warmth and the smell! Heavenly.

(Not) Jaded

Today, a work colleague who cut back his 25-year-old jade plant sent out email offering clippings to anyone who wanted one. Ever a sucker for houseplants, I went up to his office and waited behind two others to get my clippings. He had notes - instructions for sunlight (direct, but not too hot), water (only after the soil has been dry for a couple of days, and don't get water on the leaves), soil (add sand to potting soil or use cactus soil), and patience (they're slow growers, so don't expect much growth right away). It was sweet, like he was sending his kids off to summer camp and telling each camp counselor about how to get them to sleep and be sure they have their special blankie 'cuz they're not used to being away from home. Houseplants and dogs I am good with, supplying proper attention without hovering and overwatering. Alas, dogs are currently out of the question so houseplants it is.

After feeding and walking Ingrid the other night, I was driving away and spotted an end table put out at the curb for rubbish collection. Perfect thing for setting plants in the front living room window. Someone gave me culinary herb pots for my birthday last year, with seeds for thyme and oregano. I've been waiting for a plant stand for my sunniest window. Et voila!

Life in the old dog

[Ingrid on the porch; 7pm, 6/16/09]

K and her boyfriend were out of town for a few days and asked me to dog sit. So I've been going by twice a day to take Ingie out and feed her. Plus today I went up at lunchtime, just to get out of the office and hang out with her up on the old porch. K's back tomorrow evening, so I'll have just the morning to go by, but I may sneak out again at lunchtime, too.

She's getting on in dog years, walking a bit stiffly when she gets up. But this morning she was tearing around the apartment the way she's always done. And she still loves her duck.

Planetary Alignment

[At the Christian Science Center, Boston; 2pm, 6/14/09]

The weekend flew by...

The Boston Pops concert Saturday night at Symphony Hall was part of their celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing on July 20, 1969 (Buzz Aldrin had been there on Thursday night, but alas not Saturday). After opening with the fanfare from Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (you know, the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey), the Pops orchestra did excerpts from Holst's The Planets -- Mars, Venus and Jupiter -- accompanied by some gorgeous video by astronomer and visualizer José Francisco Salgado of Chicago's Adler Planetarium. (See photo below from the Adler site.)

They also had the Navy Band Northeast Wind Ensemble, which was okay, though not my thing. I was happy for their conductor, though, who was thrilled he said after 24 years of conducting to be standing on stage at the 100+ year old Symphony Hall. The third part featured the Tanglewood Festival Chorus performing patriotic stuff, again alas not my thing but something the Pops is good at. It's likely much the same type of thing they perform every year for the 4th of July concert on the Esplanade.

[Christian Science Center]

Sunday was gray and rather chilly, though mostly the rain held off but for a bit of spitting now and then. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me the evening before as we'd walked by the reflecting pool at the Christian Science Center on a lovely evening. Here's how it looks on a sunny day.

I'd never been to the Mapparium at the Christian Science Center and it was fabulous! You stand inside a stained-glass globe with the 1935 Rand McNally map of the world surrounding you on all sides (there's a 30-foot-long bridge to stand on in the middle). There's an all-too-brief tour to go inside, and the guide explains the features, etc. I'd have to loved to spend a hour - beautiful and fascinating. I've always loved maps. The website has a gallery, though it doesn't do it justice - I think you just have to be inside to appreciate it.

As the stars would have it, my friend CA was in the city this weekend and since I hadn't seen her in many months, we got together for dinner last night. So it was another busy weekend. But lovely.

June in the city

[From a coffee shop on Newbury St, Boston; 10:30am, 6/7/09]

After another drizzly, gray week, the sun broke through yesterday afternoon around 4:00, right on schedule. We've had this inordinately lucky pattern going for the past three weeks. Fingers crossed for more of the same.

I'm tired after a long week of work, and my arms are sore again. Sigh. I did go out after work last night, to a house party in Cambridge. It turned out to be easier than expected - strangers, D's friends, but entertaining and thus unnecessary for me to expend lots of energy myself! Tonight, I'm heading in to the city again for a concert and dinner, and presumably a relaxing day tomorrow. Clouds and possible showers are forecast, but so far the sun prevails. And now, off to primp for the evening...

Dream lines

Dreamed I was washing my face with a warm stock of broccoli.
Dreamed I sat between two men, holding their hands.
Dreamed I considered sprinkling pot on my take-out sandwich, but was afraid I wouldn't be able to drive.