And from the weather department here at Endless Knots, a snap of the thermometer outside the back door yesterday. Granted, its back faces west and thus gets the very warm pelting of the afternoon sun but, holy schmazoo!
By way of contrast, I refer you to "Baby, it's cold outside," a similar photo, at least in subject matter, from the esteemed photographer, Neelon Crawford, with slightly different findings.
OK, local history buffs, you all know that Newton, Mass., when settled in 1630 as "the newe towne," is so named for its proximity to its better known relative, Cambridge. But now perhaps we should just call it Watertown. Ooops, no, it's taken. And water has taken over there too.
A walk around the Charles between Newton and Watertown a few days ago yielded these pictures. If you've ever been on the DCR path between Bridge Street and Watertown Square and headed east, you're very familiar with the approach to Watertown Street. This is what was in front of us, i.e. the Charles! In the second photo, you can see Watertown Street ahead. And in the third shot, taken on the Watertown side, you can see the familiar duck feeding bench, where, of course, you're not supposed to feed the ducks. Or geese. Or swans. Some of the geese left. That's the last picture.
There's still so much water in the Boston area after the 8-inch drenching last weekend that it's impossible to walk around the Charles between Newton and Boston, Newton and Waltham. Last night, driving west to Boxborough (see next post), the Sudbury River was right by the shoulder; some turns off Route 2 were still closed.
Here's what it looked like yesterday along the Charles near our house.
These things don't really belong together but alas the joy of blogging.
Although we live mere moments from Boston (eight miles by the odometer), we're also blessed with many woods nearby--Hamlin in Wayland, Paine in Weston, Lincoln Conservation Land near the DeCordova Museum, Elm Bank Reservation in South Natick, and, of course, Cold Spring Park right here in Newton, just to name a few whose paths we tred on a regular basis.
Should you ever come across something like this in any of those woods, know that someone near and dear to me, one celebrating a birthday today, marks the woods in which he runs when many paths converge. On Sunday, we found that this one for five paths had survived yet another winter at Paine.
Belle, at 14, still can make the trek, with a bit of huffing and puffing, so here she is too, surveying the snow, even as we were just in our shirtsleeves.
You know how interested I am in green teams, which I first wrote about here almost exactly a year ago (Carbon neutral, or shall we say, green teams).
Now PEBO has gone and appointed one that can really make a difference. Here's the scoop from CNN's Steve Hargreaves's piece, "Obama names energy team, vows new tack:"
So guess what? We've added them to the ever-growing map.
And here are their faces with their organizations, all in one little picture. Clockwise, Lisa Jackson at EPA; Nancy Sutley at Council on Environmental Quality; Carol Browner (welcome back, EPA head during Clinton administration) at Office of Energy; Climate & Environment; and Stephen Chu, Secretary of Energy ("Nobel Prize-winning physicist who has headed the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004"). Go PEBO Green Team!
This summer has brought tornados, microbursts, and record rainfall to New England. Yesterday, I spotted this flower growing out of the crease where a limb was removed a few years ago - and these 'shroomy growths. Anyone know what these are exactly?
