Boats in Boston Harbor

When I was 15 or 16, my father and I had one of our major fallouts over a boat trip. My parents were divorced, and he was supposed to take my sister and me on vacation for a week each summer. That year, he picked us up for a surprise trip. After a long drive from NJ to Maine, we arrived at a dock to board a small sailing ship for a week cruise.

I am not a good traveler. I had been and continue to be sick in cars, planes and especially on boats. It is possible that my father didn't know of my situation since we didn't spend much time together, but I would figure that he had experienced some of my episodes during my childhood. Anyway, I was not going on that boat! After a very uncomfortable ride back, we ended up back at my mom's in NJ the next day.

In my 40s, I am still a reluctant boater. I have been willing to ride a quick ferry across the Hudson river; a catamaran cruse on my honeymoon remains a sickening but funny memory; and I have come to enjoy occasional canoeing or peddle boating on small lakes or rivers. Thus, I am very surprised how prominently boats figure in my Massachusetts life.

My son has discovered a love of sailing. I attend his races, and recently he took me out for a sunfish sail on our local lake. I'm OK with him on the water if he doesn't tilt the boat too far, and he agrees to return me to shore immediately if I don't feel well. I can reach into the water to put cool water on my face and neck when panic causes me to overheat.

Last Thursday, however, I willingly arranged a boat trip for our family. Granted, it was a quick ferry trip, but I loved it. We sped from the Boston pier to the Harbor Islands. We could see city skyline views as well as busy life on the water. The ride was not more that 30 minutes. But that's a start for me.

Boarding our ferry. The top level provided a shady and breezy ride.


There's lots to see in all directions.


A multi-sailed ship.


We saw this old-fashioned, brown-sailed ship from the shore.


A lobster boat is surrounded by a flock of eager seagulls.


Tankers and tiny sailboats share the sea.


Don't dump your wastes in this water.


A catamaran under a bridge.


This guy's enjoying his boat even when it's not moving. He's reading BoatUS magazine.


The variety and beauty of boats on the water was amazing. There is so much commerce and recreation happening here.

Roasted Tomatoes

After 5 days of rather unhealthy fried, overly-salted, or richly sweetened and buttered food in family restaurants on Cape Cod, I'm eager for my local produce! In fact, while I enjoyed our vacation a lot (I'll do a post on it next), I think vacations are meant to remind us how wonderful our real life and real home is.

I often imagine that I'd be happier if I didn't have to cook and clean so much, but my own cooking was the thing I missed most while we were away. We got home yesterday morning, and I headed right to the farm stand across the street to take advantage of their special: tomatoes 99 cents/lb when you buy 5 lbs.

Dinner was roasted tomatoes on pasta with roasted carrots from last week's CSA share. I used this recipe from Fine Cooking magazine. It's a winner that I've done for a few years. I cooked on the grill to keep the house cool, and finished our propane tank just as the tomatoes were done.


I used those local tomatoes, garlic from the share and our own thyme. I made enough to put 2 more jars into the freezer. Pulling them out in January is magical! I wish you could see how great dinner looked, but I was so excited to eat, I forgot to take the picture of the rich, glazed, finished tomatoes, or the tomatoes mixed with pasta. But here's one of the finished jars.

Letterboxing

I could take lovely hikes or arboretum walks any time. But children sometimes need a goal. Letterboxing fits the bill. I first read about it about 5 years ago in Family Fun magazine. The internet is quite amazing. Here's the article.

All around the country and even across the world, individuals, scout groups and others set out letterboxes containing a stamp, an ink pad, and a recording book. They post directions on this wonderful website. People can go with their own letterboxing book or kit and collect memorable hikes and experiences as they fill their book.

It's easy to make a letterboxing kit. All you need is a small book, your own purchased or homemade stamp, an ink pad, and perhaps a pen or pencil. We keep ours in the car with some printed directions to different letterboxes.

Here's a photo of the first page of our book from Oct. 2006:


Here's a favorite page from a hike called Grandkids. Throughout a NJ park, a Grandmother and her grandkids gave instruction to 4 different sites where they set homemade stamp kits. Very cute.


In NJ, we did a couple letterbox hikes per year. Last year, we found our first MA letterbox by accident while hiking around a local woods. We had to go back with our letter box kit.

Yesterday I set out with Renee to purposefully explore the Arnold Arboretum and follow the directions to this letterbox. The arboretum evidently sets up a different one each month. Finding it combines fun and a lesson about a species that is particularly showy in that season. July's tree was the silk tree. As we walked through the Arboretum we were guided to a number of specimens of this species, and got to see lots of other interesting things.

We touched a cork tree. It really felt soft and cushiony.


We found a trufula tree (actually a smoke tree).



Finally, we found the letterbox under the silk tree. It was covered with flowers that looked like pink tipped feathers.



Try letterboxing. It's lots of fun. It's best to sort letterboxes in your area by the date they were placed. Older boxes can sometimes go missing leading to disappointment.

Summer's Here

Summer harvests are here. And we are savoring the tastes. We have had 4 weeks of CSA boxes now. There have been lots of lettuces, herbs and other greens and radishes. Our favorites were the shelling peas. There are never enough. So as an experiment I bought some additional ones from the supermarket. Big mistake, after eating the share peas, supermarket ones were nearly inedible. We're moving on to summer squash, brightly colored carrots, and fava beans.

The cows and pigs across the street are growing. That farmstand now has the best sausage and bacon I've ever tasted. Guilt free! Or guilt free when used in small doses with all those great veggies.We got some wonderful corn there yesterday.


Corn should always be shucked while wearing a yellow bathing suit.


Our own garden is producing too:

yesterday's beans


yesterday's raspberries


R's July 4th breakfast with our own raspberries

Squash flowers are blooming, and tiny cucumbers are developing, but something has eaten some of the leaves off those plants. I'm concerned for their future and hoping for the best.

World's End

Recently we hiked to the World's End. No, not the actual world's end, rather a nature preserve of the south shore of MA. It was so beautiful.


Since it was father's day, there were lots of families hiking together. One exciting thing I noticed about our family compared to others is that we have moved into an unencumbered phase. For the four of us, we carried one backpack with a picnic lunch. Three of us alternated carrying the load. I saw so many families with multiple kids in backpacks and strollers, with lots of equipment. There was even a woman pushing a stroller with a wooden bicycle on top. The kids were walking.


It felt so easy and like a milestone of our kids' independence. And speaking of independence, my son is now off on a three week bike trip with a dozen other 9th and 10th graders. Their chaperones/counselors are about 22 years old. They are biking 450 miles in three weeks going from the North Shore of Massachusetts to the top of Cadillac mountain in Acadia National Park. They carry all their own equipment, cook for themselves and don't call home. I am so excited for him, and can't wait to see how this experience helps him grow.


One other thing about kid's growing older, they get very reluctant to have their photo taken.


Just a bit more info about World's End. Over the past century it has been one of the most threatened landscapes in MA. In the late 1800's it was slated to become a suburban environment with 163 homes. Fredrick Law Olmstead designed the carriage roads that he hoped would draw crowds to buy. It was never built. In 1945, it was considered for a United Nations Headquarters. In 1965, there was a proposal to build a nuclear power plant.

Now the area is protected by The Trustees of Reservations, the oldest statewide land conservation and historic preservation organization in the country. You can see some wind turbines from parts of the shore. I'll take that!

Growing

Yesterday's post with the pictures of the fast growing green beans made me think about this:

June '09, Jack is quite a bit shorter than me.


August '10 (less than a year ago), about my height.


June '11 He's a couple inches taller than me. I'm not in the picture but my mother-in-law is a couple inches taller than me too, and he has reached her height.


You might notice from these pictures that Renee has grown from below my shoulder in '09 to about the height of my lips. It won't be long before I'm the shortest in the family. Note the amazing maturation of faces too.

And for another cute blast from the past. I think this is Sept. '08.

Finding Meaningful Work

"Take a brilliant person working on weapons design at a high salary. This is negative work, no matter how high the quality. You, on the other hand, in making a garden have contributed more toward building a better world, even though that contribution may go unrecognized." -- A Handmade Life by Wm. S. Coperthwaite

Compare the green beans above (with flowers) to how they looked a few weeks ago!


I sometimes feel less than useful. Since having my first child (15 years ago) I have not held a full time job that earns meaningful money for my family. I have worked at Barnes and Noble and as the primary school librarian at my kids' Montessori school. Since moving to Boston almost 2 years ago, I have done no paid work.

My husband and I are so lucky that his job alone can provide for our family. He makes enough that we can have a lovely house, healthful food (even grassfed beef from the farm across the street and organic veggies from a CSA membership), the ability to save for retirement and college, and health care. All our needs are met... and more.

So my job has been caring for the family. Choosing and preparing our food, being a caregiver, manager, encourager, teacher, planner, cleaner. I have also been heading out into the community to do volunteer work. I have joined 3 groups that are environment related.

The Green Team is a committee trying to increase environmental stewardship in our local schools. Our main projects this year have been encouraging composting and gardening projects at the schools, promoting the use of reusable bottles and water fountains instead of one-time-use bottled water, and getting rid of the polystyrene trays used in our cafeterias (220,000/year)!

I've recently gotten involved with a new group Transition Wayland. This group was started by a woman I've met in town who is a real inspiration. Here's a blog post she did about a "barn raising" to move her hoop house. She's lived in her home with her husband and daughter for 3 years. In that time they have covered the yard with gardening beds watered from their rain barrels, installed a wood stove, and are now putting up solar panels. In short, she's increasing her family's resilience. If the power goes out she'll have electricity, if there's a disruption in oil supplies or prices skyrocket she'll have an alternative heat source. She can rely on her garden for a portion of her food. That's what Transition is about but at the community level. The group seeks to educate about climate change and peak oil. But not in a frightening way. Rather the group seeks to move the entire community to work together to build resilience in the whole town... neighbors helping neighbors, sharing resources, planting trees, learning skills, growing gardens. It is a long term project that is just getting under way, but it is a hopeful way to look at the future.

I've also joined the green sanctuary committee in church. The group works to green the church building and activities, does presentations to the congregation and Sunday school on environmental topics, and grows a garden to donate vegetables to a local food pantry.

For the moment, I'll try to make this type of work (increasing the resilience of my family and community) work for me, my family and community.