Back to Boston

This image is modified from a Charity Tee by Gildan for sale online. LINK

Yesterday my husband and I drove to the Anderson-Woburn MA commuter rail station, parked, and took the train into Boston to attend a rescheduled BSO concert.  I was struck by the quiet demeanor of everyone.  I am rural person through and through so I normally find entering the land of mass transit to be noisy, dirty, and I go into a mild state of alertness even though I love many assets that can only found in an urban environment.  None of those feelings yesterday.  OK there may have been one or two discarded newspapers on the floor of an Orange Line car but really the young people (tweens, teens, college students, 20 somethings) were all displaying a respectful reserve along with their elders. The security checks of bags when entering Symphony Hall was professional, but did not feel intrusive. After the concert we ended up walking quickly past the area where the Patriot’s Day bombing took place.  We were trying to make it to North Station in time for a train (which we missed by 2 minutes) so we were not really gawking.  Everything looked quite normal, the way it would at the end of April any year except as I have already noted quieter and cleaner.  My husband commented when we got home how the streets showed no evidence of the recent dramatic tragedy.  We did not walk directly passed the stretch of fence where memorial displays had been relocated but could see a moderate crowd of people viewing those items as we turned the corner to head in the opposite direction.  Again my ears were struck by the relative quiet.  There was plenty of traffic but I only heard one or two car horns.  People might be carrying on conversations but there was no yelling or screaming to friends in the distance.

We will be back in Boston this coming weekend and spending a couple of nights in one of the chain hotels in that central area.  I am going to be interested in observing if things are still somber, and comfortable for the simple country kid I will never out age, or whether the noise, grit, grim, and activity of the Boston I remember from years past is starting to return.

For those people and families who will never regain their pre Patriot’s Day 2013 normal please consider donating to The One Fund – Boston.

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures (from The Daily Post, 12/28/12)

In 2012 we said goodbye to our 22 & 1/2 year old rescue cat Zoe.

After a short time of mourning we welcomed two new cats to our home.

   Thunder, who is mainly my cat, and Lightning, who is mainly my husband’s cat.  These sisters, now 9 years old,  like their own separate spaces.

 

We did not travel very much in 2012 but there were a few day trips to Boston, plus a long weekend or two also.

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Travel Tuesday – Longing for London

For a 10 year plus period, starting in 1998,  I was lucky enough to fly into Heathrow once or twice a year spending some time in London and other parts of England or Scotland.   Watching the Olympic coverage is making me miss my favorite destination, so I am sharing some more London scrap-book pages.    These snap shots  were taken on Christmas Day 2005 during a lunch cruise on the Thames.

 

Travel Tuesday # 28 – Peterborough Market & Cathedral

August 8, 2005 was a beautiful today to be in Peterborough England. 

                        

We spent most our time inside the “Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew Peterborough” — that is a mouth full.   However, as I look back it is these outside photos that remind me of how nice the day was.

If you click the link above you will see a list of the 10 things of note at the cathedral.  For me, as a reader of historical novels since my late teens, Katherine of Aragon’s grave & Mary Queen of Scots’ former resting place were the spots I headed for first.

 

Travel Tuesday # 26 – Balloon Festival Bristol England

I have never gone up in a hot air balloon but when I was growing up a few landed in my uncle’s field.  While we used Bristol England as a  base for day trips by rail in August 2005 we were able to view many beautiful balloons floating through the sky.  It turns out that Bristol  hosts an International Balloon Fiesta each August.  2012 is their 34th year.

  

Travel Tuesday # 25 – Watching a Vintage Steam Train

One morning during our August 2005 trip to England while of walking into the Bristol Temple Station to board an ordinary train we noticed a vintage steam train readying to depart on an excursion.  My husband, the train fan, decided  we should hang around and watch the old-timer take off.

   

 

 

Travel Tuesday # 22 – Vale of Evesham

Time to share another scrapbook page.  I pulled a red binder off my shelf and found memories of an August 2005 trip to England.  My husband was on a mission to see a number of cathedrals and while there are tons of pictures of them I enjoyed taking shots of the landscape while we traveled mile after mile on trains.  These photos include some crops being harvested.  I could not figure out what the crop was.  If you know, or have an educated guess I am interested in learning.

I’ll be posting more pages from this particular trip in the weeks to come.  Until then…

Travel Tuesday # 21 – Molly’s in Hanover NH

I remember this restaurant as  Molly’s Balloon went it first opened.  It replaced a clothing shop and at the time there were other places to eat along Hanover’s main street that I preferred.  That  was back in the mid 1980s. Now the other places I knew are long gone.  So while making a day trip to the “Upper Valley”  Molly’s is where we stop for lunch these days.  It is pretty typical of a New England college town hang out, take your parents establishment.  The decor is wise crack comments on wooden plagues, old back and white photos of Dartmouth doings, and other memorabilia.

So when we stopped there this past Sunday I enjoyed a house salad, a cranberry spritzer, and the 4 oz maple glazed salmon with snow peas while my husband had a house salad, a Sam Adams Pale Ale, and a cheeseburger with fries.  Because I had no starch I asked if my husband wanted to share a piece of carrot cake with me.  Well I am sorry to say I failed to take a photo of the carrot cake but it was a gigantic slice.  We both ate all we wanted and still had about half of it left to bring home.

Travel Tuesday # 20 – Bury St. Edmunds

Here are two scrapbook pages from an October 2009 day in Bury St. Edmunds:

After arriving by train we spent some time inside the St Edmundsbury Cathedral followed by a pleasant stroll around the Abbey Gardens.            

 

Wacky Wednesday # 17 – Sky Awareness Week /Astronomy Week

Growing up on the eastern side of Vermont there was often a school field trip in the spring  to the Fairbanks Museum.  The natural history aspect of the museum did not inspire me much.  In fact to this day my husband has a hard time getting me into natural history museums.  What I did enjoy were the planetarium shows.  The presentations were live and always reflected exactly what was happening in the sky at the time.  I really did not understand how good the planetarium shows were until I went to a big city planetarium and found that the presentation was simply a generic prerecorded program.

Below is some info the Fairbanks Lyman Spitzer Jr, Planetarium from the website:

The Fairbanks Planetarium opened in 1961 to stimulate interest in astronomy. The pursuit of this mission continues today through the Museum’s ongoing astronomy programs, including Eye on the Night Sky radio broadcasts on Vermont Public Radio, Star Quest astronomy outreach programs, and our annual Perseid Star Party in August. The planetarium welcomes about 15,000 visitors annually through programs for schools and the public.

The projector is the original Spitz model A-2 installed in 1961, with bench seating for 45 people under a 24-foot domed ceiling enhanced by sound and image systems. Immediately adjacent to the Planetarium is the Exhibit Hall, featuring displays on many aspects of astronomy and space travel, including the exploration of the Solar System, and a diorama of the Moon’s surface and the Apollo Lunar Lander from 1969.

I have been to the planetarium presentation within the past three years and can report the quality continues.  The presenters have a real knack for engaging both children and adults.  So if you find yourself in St. Johnsbury, VT on a Saturday or Sunday at 1:30 pm  I recommend you take in the show.