3rd House Journal

Deck the Mall

[Workers string holiday lights on the Comm Ave Mall; 11/20/11]

'Tis the weekend in Boston when they string holiday lights around the trees along the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in the Back Bay. In 2009, D and I were astonished when we first came across guys with ladders as well as trucks with cherry pickers, working their way slowly down the 9 blocks of the Mall, hand-stringing the strands of white lights. This year, we started seeing them on Saturday afternoon and they'd just reached D's block late this afternoon. The lights won't be turned on until the official lighting ceremony on Thursday, December 2nd, then they'll put on a beautiful display every night throughout our long, stark winter.

I was searching for information on the lighting ceremony and was quite surprised to see my photo from December 20, 2009 being used with the announcement by The Garden Club of the Back Bay! (You'd think they might have asked, but they did link to my blog, so I guess fair enough.)

[Decking the trees behind statue of Bostonian Samuel Eliot Morison, Comm Ave Mall]

Sign of the Season

[Kenmore Square, Boston; 11/13/10]

For the past few years, I've put together a calendar using some of my photographs and printed a handful to give as Christmas presents. I was inspired by ones Lorianne created, which are always filled with her beautiful nature photography. I think my Mexico calendar (2007) was the first I created, followed the next year by Springtime in Paris (2008). The next two years' calendar photos were of Boston area scenes; alas, I don't see that I collected them in a Flickr set. The photo above I used for November last year. I'm rather late getting started on them this year, but I'm hoping to get some selected over the weekend. I just need to settle on a theme...

For you out-of-towners, the Citgo sign in Boston's Kenmore Square is iconic because it's linked to nearby Fenway Park, the historic home of the Boston Red Sox. It's also nicknamed "See it go!" for the Red Sox' home runs. It appears on souvenir tchotchkes and you can even have your own animated Citgo sign for about $30 if you must! The first sign was built in 1940 and has most recently been revamped with thousands of LEDs to keep it shining brightly and efficiently, even when the Red Sox are not.

3rd House Journaling

[Three porch pumpkins; 11/6/11]

I started blogging at 3rd House Journal seven years ago today here on TypePad, after spending a year and a couple of months on the old Userland platform. So yes, I've actually been blogging for eight years. In either case, it's been a fortunate thing, opening up the world (see previous post) in innumerable ways.

The 3rd house in astrology does not deal with the big picture, with beliefs or philosophy, or far-away places; that's reserved for its opposite, the 9th house. Instead, the 3rd is the house of one's local neighborhood, of communication, conversation, writing, personal thoughts, and day-to-day things. All things that seemed appropriate to an online journal, writing bits and pieces of day-to-day things to share with others. Astrology also shows that I have the North Node in the 3rd house in my birth chart, which signifies that this is a place of life lessons, of challenge and growth (that it's in the sign of Libra, with its challenges of cooperation, partnership, and balance is another story). So this blog also serves as a place to work at writing and sharing, however awkwardly.

Thank you, dear friends and readers, for being my virtual neighbors.

Rae Opens the World

[Rae waits patiently for an off-camera treat; 11/17/11]

I had an unexpected, but welcome, surprise tonight when my friend Lori's GPS steered her off-course on her commute home, away from traffic and right by my apartment. As a veterinary radiologist, she gets to take her dog with her to work, so Rae was along for the ride. I do miss having a dog sometimes, but my life is not set up for the care and attention a dog needs, alas. After my last dog died, K (who was studying at the nearby veterinary school) rented my downstairs at the condo and brought along the inimitable Ingrid, who I got to play auntie to for 5 years. Now I'm dogless, but I get to admire the many city dogs when we're out and about in town on weekends and the suburban dogs who romp on the playground down the street from where I live. For now, that will suffice.

By the way, you may notice the book on my coffee table, Opening the World, which is a delectable collection of poems by Dale Favier, who blogs at Mole. I'm making my way through it slowly as I've been too brain-fagged to read lately when I get home from work (plus there's this little NaBloPoMo thing I'm doing this month). But it's really quite wonderful.

Christopher Columbus Explorers

[Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, North End, Boston; 11/14/11]

Ah yes, fall foliage in Christopher Columbus Park, the Custom House tower in back, elegant path swerving into the foreground, a couple of perfectly placed pedestrians... stopping to check their smartphones (mapquest?), Starbucks cups in hand. If Columbus were exploring today, he'd no doubt use GPS.

I first encountered Columbus Park back in October 2008 when my dad last came to Boston for a visit. I hadn't been down to the waterfront since I was in my 20s and going to the bars in the area. It was grungy back then, the route 93/central artery overpass a dominating dividing line between the city and the North End enclave. When the Big Dig tore down the overpass and re-routed the central artery underground (completed in 2007), it opened up that wide swath to what is now the Rose Kennedy Greenway and made the North End much more accessible and contiguous to the city. The park has existed since the '70s and was reportedly updated in 2003, but it has clearly benefited from the new Greenway (dedicated in 2008) and its incorporation into the Boston Harborwalk public walkway project.

The lovely wisteria-covered trellis in the park will be lit for the holidays this coming Monday evening. I don't think we've been over there to see it lit up, but maybe we'll go exploring some evening soon.

[Trellis, Columbus Park; 11/14/11]

Fall

[On the Commonwealth Ave Mall, Boston; 11/13/11]

Unlike the taut wind-up for action that is Spring, Fall is a wind-down, a release and surrender. There is the final flourish and bow amid hurrahs, then the theatre will slowly empty, the set struck, the stage left stark -- for now.

Finally Foliage

[Commonwealth Ave Mall, Boston; 11/13/11]

The trees have not been ready for this fall any more than we, only grudgingly giving up their green in the warm temperatures even as the nights grow longer. But they could only hold back so long and by this weekend most had joined their avant-garde brethren in donning their gold, ruby and amber finery. Many also threw their riches to the weekend's strong winds and let them scatter across the landscape to lighten our hearts and make us forget the long cold winter to come.

[Bench collecting leaves, Comm Ave Mall; 11/12/11]

Boston's North End

[Caffe Pompei, Hanover St, Boston; 11/13/11]

Boston's North End neighborhood is the city's Little Italy, packed with restaurants from low-end pizza joints to high-end trattorias, pastry shops, espresso cafes, soccer bars, you name it. But for dogs, it's just another place where you lie on the sidewalk and cool your jets waiting for your humans.

Heading out today for a walk to enjoy the unseasonable warmth, we ended up in the North End, where we stopped for a mid-afternoon lunch at Caffe dello Sport; the sign has a soccer ball in that last o, but today they were showing American football on the TVs. It's a tiny, casual cafe on Hanover Street (right after the famous, always-overflowing Mike's Pastry) that serves pizzas, panini, pastries and various permutations of coffee (espresso, capuccino, etc). It appears to be family-run. The young waitress calls everyone "hon." Several little tables were crammed into the storefront, filled with an assortment of clientele: a trio of young male hipsters, a young Asian couple, an extended Italian family, a solo 30-something guy with a laptop, another couple, and an ancient Italian gentleman who was briefly joined by apparently his son. Anyway, D and I split a tasty little pizza with prosciutto followed by a fresh cannoli, and D had iced coffee while I had a delectable hot chocolate. By the time we left around 4:00, the day had cooled and the sun was going down. We caught the T home.

Fall Morning, Back Bay

[Marlborough St, Boston; 11/12/11]

From this morning's walk...

11/11/11

[Porch ghosts, Belmont; 11/3/11]

It's a palindromic, once-in-a-lifetime day. Corduroy Appreciation Day. Day 11 of NaBloPoMo. Nigel Huff Day! Turn it up to 11, everybody!

Meanwhile, my boyfriend's back (Hey-la-day-la...), so I'm looking forward to the weekend. But I'll be posting...