Mrs. Loring's Bloomers

First Parish church steeple and weathervane on a sunnier day than yesterday. From a written history of Sudbury from the 1800's we read "the sun is flashing from the weathervane of the First Parish Church which some people have said looks like Mrs. Loring's bloomers hung out to dry." Mrs. Loring was the pastor's wife. I have to snicker now when I drive by.

First Parish of Sudbury

This meeting house was built in 1797, the third structure erected on this spot. The earliest religious services of this Parish took place east of the Sudbury River in 1640, in what is now the Town of Wayland. In 1723, Israel Loring accepted a call as the first minister of a newly created precinct, with its own meeting house, on the west side of the river. In 1837, the congregation was split and the church became Unitarian Universalist.

This was our dreary, cold and rainy Sunday.

Tea

I am currently drinking an absolutely soothing cup of tea which I bought at Teavana. Teavana is a teashop popping up at a mall near you. They sell all sorts of loose tea which is stored in these colorful bins. They hook you at the entrance where they dispense samples of their most expensive teas. The absurdly priced, yet very tasty tea which I bought was "frutto bianco pearls blended with rooibos peach bloom."

By the way, Sudbury doesn't have a mall.

We Recycle

The school where I work has a very effective recycling program for both paper and plastics. The kids have fun donning rubber gloves and fishing through the bin for those with a 5 cent redemption value.
My son's university is the first in the U.S. to ban the sale of water in plastic bottles on campus, thereby reducing the amount of recycling necessary. When he moved on campus, he was given small bins for his room to recycle paper and plastic. Recycling seems to be second nature for the younger generation.
How about your school, your business or even you? Do you recycle? Do you have a compost pile?

Tombs and Tombstones

Bluestone tombstones from the 1700s in the lower Revolutionary Cemetery and younger tombs and tombstones in the upper Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Painter at Work

I had driven half a mile past this artist before my CDP alter ego forced me to turn the car around and take a picture. He was painting one of my favorite vistas so I just had to stop. He was kind enough to allow me to take a picture of his work. He was a little disappointed that he had lost the light and the shadows it had cast two hours earlier. I love the way he cleans his brushes - take a close look at his pants! We said our goodbyes and hoped our paths would cross again in the coming months.

Rusty Bolts

Rusty old bolts from a rusty old bridge. Glad they built a new bridge. But, why are these parts still laying around almost a year later? I don't know.

Fence Deep in the Woods

This post is a "Thank You" post to Jacob and Lois Anne, who love stone fences and who were kind enough to present me with an "I Heart this Blog" Award. Be sure to stop by their site at The Villages Daily Photo.

When you see stone fences deep in the woods, you must understand that once upon a time, maybe two to three hundred years ago, this was not a forest, rather farm land or pasture devoid of trees. Many find it hard to believe that New England used to be the breadbasket of the New World before the move west.

Vernal Equinox, Vernal Pool

Went for a hike Saturday on Nobscot Conservation Land, 118 acres which abuts Nobscot Scout Reservation. which is another 480 acres of forested land situated on the border of Sudbury and Framingham. We came across this melting vernal pool, also called an ephemeral pool, which is a temporary pool of water. Vernal pools do not usually contain fish, and therefore allow for the safe existence of various species of frogs, toads, spawning salamanders and insects.

They are called vernal pools because they are often at their deepest in the spring or vernal equinox.

Bikes Not Bombs

On Saturday, there was a Community Bike Drive in Sudbury, a call to donate used and broken bicycles. It was an overwhelming success as you can see. The photo on the left shows more than 140 bikes packed and headed for a tune-up.

The event was sponsored by an Eagle Scout and Bikes Not Bombs. The young man did an outstanding job publicizing the drive. When I asked him, he told me that he expected to collect maybe 40 bikes. When I arrived on the scene, they had already collected over 200 bikes! Bikes Not Bombs promotes bicycle technology as a concrete alternative to war and environmental destruction. For 25 years, BNB has been a nexus of bike recycling and community empowerment both in lower income neighborhoods of Boston and in the nations of the Global South. A portion of the bikes will be shipped to needy people around the world to provide them with transportation and employment opportunities.

Hopefully you will take the time to visit their website and consider such a drive in your community.

Spring Cleaning

First day of spring. Time to reflect on all those spring chores that need to be done. First, wash feet.

Stone Fence

Everywhere you look in this area you find stone fences of one sort or another. The early settlers had to harvest a lot of rocks before they were able to get anything edible from the ground.

I feel pretty!

I feel pretty, oh so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and gay,
And I pity, any girl who isn't me today.
I feel charming, oh so charming,
it's alarming how charming I feel,
and so pretty,
that I hardly can believe I'm real.

Natural Textures

Twining grapevine, rock with lichen, decaying fungus and gnarly tree bark. Natures amazing mix of textures.

Hmmmm

Grand finale from the New England Flower Show.

Hmmm was the reaction most people had of this water fountain that was roped off near the entrance of the exhibit. I wonder if the bus loads of senior citizens were thinking that they had been dropped off at the wrong convention.

Pick Me!

New England Flower Show continued.

Paphiopedilums, commonly known as the lady slipper orchid. This arrangement reminds me of second graders jumping out of their seats, who so desperately want you to pick them to answer your question. Pick me, pick me!!!

Bloomie's

More from the New England Flower Show.

These blooms were appropriately placed by the Bloomingdale's entrance. Bloomingdale's (affectionately known as Bloomie's) is an upscale department store.

My friend bought the huge pink cymbidium orchid on the right for just $55. What a bargain!

New England Flower Show

Every March I look forward to The New England Spring Flower Show as a breath of warm balmy air after an endless winter. The show has been reduced this year to appearances in area malls and foyers of large office buildings in Boston. Today we visited the Chestnut Hill Mall in Newton to see the orchid exhibit. The orchids were stunning.

My favorite shot from the show however was of this couple leaving the orchid exhibit. The combination of natural lighting through the skylight and the couple's obvious joy with each other really spoke to me.

Beaver Dam

Someone's been busy.

Monument in Monument Square

Monument Square is named for this Civil War memorial obelisk which was erected in 1866. Monument Square is actually oblong shaped and as far as driving is concerned, it is at the center of a rotary or a round about. A square oblong rotary!

Located in the center of Concord, many of the town's major institutions are built around it: the Town House (town hall), First Parish church, Holy Family Roman Catholic church and its rectory, Christian Science church, and the Colonial Inn.

In the warm months, Monument Square and its drinking-water fountain are a popular resting-place for cyclists who pedal the many popular bike routes around the town. Around April 19, it is the scene of the Patriot's Day Parade.

And yes, that building really is a pinkish purple color.

Snowdrops on snowdrops

I was so jealous of everyone posting snowdrops and now I can finally post my own!

Typical

A typical Sudbury colonial home on a yet another typical Sudbury snowy day. I am so tired of taking pictures that look monochromatic but are not.
Oh to live on the Mediterranean Sea!

Sunshine and Shadow

It was a glorious Sunday.

This Old Tree

I have passed by this house in Concord many times but never noticed how massive this tree was. It is near the Old North Bridge, the site of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. I wonder if it was just a sapling when the Minutemen and the British Army marched by. Perhaps a silent witness to history.

Enough Already

I think I was a little premature in putting out the lawn furniture last weekend. We gave "old man winter" one last chance to play his silly games and now we'll send him packing. After 9" of snow Monday, we're expecting 60 degree weather this weekend.

Maple Syrup Time

March is the time of year when the nights are cold and the days are warm and the syrup from the maple trees begins to flow. The interesting thing about these pails is that they are not located deep in a forest of maples, rather in Concord Center by the Concord "Town House."

When it was originally built in 1851, it was a Town House in that it accommodated many functions including church, meeting place, classroom, offices and it also housed the Town Hall. The brick architecture of this Town Hall is very different from the pillared white wooden structures of Lincoln and Sudbury's Town Halls.

Its new function appears to be Maple Syrup farm. Maybe a new means of generating funds for the town in these hard times.

Book Club

I recently hosted my Book Club where we discussed "People of the Book" whose author, Geraldine Brooks, was the object of a recent post. It made for an interesting discussion. I am wondering if Book Clubs are as popular around the world as they are here in the U.S.

Besides wine and hors d'oeuvres, I served Panama Torte which is flour less and very rich chocolate cake.

Also, because people didn't arrive on time, I took the opportunity to share my CDP blog and they were quite impressed by our effort to make an entry every day. They zoomed in on their home towns of Norwich, UK and Sydney, Australia and got quite nostalgic.

Coffee Break

The weather was clear and the tourists were already flooding to Concord this past weekend. These bikers must have felt the roads were clean enough and the air was warm enough to go for a ride and then stop for coffee and a pastry at Main Streets Market and Cafe . Those helmets look they're from out of space. I have to admit that this was a lap shot and I feel that it turned out well.

We walked into a furniture shop with my camera around my neck and I was asked where I was from. I don't know who felt more awkward, me or the lady who works in the store. I guess you wouldn't assume a local would be walking around with a camera, unless they were on the prowl for CDP.

Black Boxes

Does anyone have any idea what these black boxes are which I spied in a field in Sudbury ? I do because my dad had anywhere between 5-40 in our backyard ever since I was born. The black wrapping is to protect what's inside from the cold winter elements. In the summer, these boxes may be white or brightly colored, two to three times as high and abuzz with activity.


Okay, here is a clue from my dad's last crop which he harvested when he was 86, two years ago. If you look closely at the labels, you may be able to notice that they are both in English and French, the law in Canada.

I recently watched the movie "Secret Life of Bees" and I was pleasantly surprised to see their accurate portrayal of harvesting and bottling up honey, just as I remember.

Bottoms Up

Today it is cold and snowy again, but for a few days we had a spring thaw and these ducks and Canada Geese were having a feast because the ice had melted. I didn't realize how vivid the blue from the reflection of the sky was until I downloaded the photo.

Theme Day: Glass

This is a shot by my father-in-law's abandoned potting shed. He, like my mother, would use old windowpanes as the lids for their coldframes where they would start seedlings in the early spring. Every morning they would prop open the glass to give the plants fresh air and close them up again at night to save them from the freezing temperatures. They both had huge gardens and seeing their coldframes was as welcome a sight in spring as seeing the first robins. This photo was taken in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago where we celebrated my mother-in-law's 95th birthday.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants of March Theme Day.