It's Back

The clematis came back! A couple of Winters ago took a big hit on the plant. I thought the poor thing was never to be seen again. Happily, the plant seems to be hardier than I thought.

Transpartation

One of my team members coined the play on words "transpartation" for the Art of Science Learning project we are working on. Our project will be to design an art-infused STEM  curriculum using transportation as a theme.  This image was my contribution to the presentation we had to give. It's a mix of traditional and modern motifs visually interpreting the intersection of art with STEM.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Summer is officially here! Bring on the hazy, hot, and humid.

2. I skyped with my elementary school best friend. She lives in Arizona, and I hadn't heard from her in a while. Technology is wonderful.

3. Met Himself for a lunch date. 

4. We had our presentation for the Worcester Incubator. Hard to read the panelists whether they liked the idea or not. My part in the presentation was a timeline. 

5. I had a lazy day, yesterday. Did absotively nothing and don't feel guilty about having an extremely non-productive day.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday

This is my dad's certificate to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. Dad was sponsored by Peter F. Hines, an attorney and member of the Boston City Counsel.

Other than the header, picture of the courthouse in Washington, DC, and the seal, this document is entirely handwritten! I can see faint pencil lines where the calligrapher ruled lines for the text. The text is written in Copperplate.

Wordless Wednesday

For the Chemists

Walden Pond

After lunch, Teague and I went to Walden Pond. Yeah, that Walden, where the 19th c. author and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau lived for two years in a small cabin in the middle of the woods. Concord locals pronounce his name like "thorough".

 Swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing are allowed. There's a designated swimming area with a beach house and  lifeguards though visitors can swim anywhere around the pond at their own risk. The day we visited, several people were swimming across the pond (maybe a mile and half or two miles). A recent controversy has sprung up as a local group wants to end swimming and boating. Their reasoning is to "preserve the pond for future generations." It would be a shame if swimming is banned. The pond is a beautiful place to swim and picnic. And it's very clean. No one leaves trash. What's the sense of preserving the area, if it's not used? I think some of the locals are fed up with the increased tourist traffic in an area that is already heavily congested.

We followed a path to visit the site of Walden's cabin. We were too busy chatting and missed the stone marker so we had to back track. Nine stone pillars mark the cabin site. The cabin was dismantled long ago.  Yankees, ever frugal, reused the wood. I think I heard the wood from the cabin roof was used as a roof for a pig pen. There's a cairn where visitors leave a stone as a sign of respect. Pick one up before you leave the beach as most of the stones around the site are scarce. Someone left a rose.

I Know Where He Is

Last week, after not being able to find Zio Manny in the cemeteries I thought he might have been buried, I sent for his death certificate. The document arrived on Thursday.

I was almost afraid to open up the SASE. I thought perhaps, a record couldn't be found so the City returned my check. Inside the envelope was the pale green document. Seems criminal to be smiling while holding a death certificate, and to be excited to plan a cemetery hop.

And the really cool thing? The cemetery has an online locator. I don't have to make a call to the cemetery office or the Archdiocese of Boston. Just plunk in Zio's name and a map showing the location of the grave and which road to take through the cemetery pops up.