Greetings from Gloucester Harbor

My Monday was all about unexciting things like laundry, bathroom cleaning, and working on a project with a friend, though the latter was fun and involved looking up a bunch of things from old movies. I also did a little organizing of bookshelves because I bought some awesome little shelf lantern lights. When Paul got home, we took a walk up toward the woods, and though it was a gorgeous cool afternoon, we only saw a few bunnies. 

We watched most of the Red Sox game, and although they didn't lead until the very end, they won their fourth straight and I got to see a Rutschman-Stowers reunion. Now we're watching the end of the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which isn't as great as it should be but is still enjoyable. Here are some of the sights around Gloucester, including the Gorton's fisherman, two lighthouses, and the site of the Massachusetts Bay Colony:

Greetings from City Hall

It rained all of Monday morning, so I spent it doing exciting things like laundry, working on a book review, and cleaning the counters. Then the mail came and I got two packages I'd been waiting for from overseas, the Beatles Tarot deck from England via Kickstarter and my own reprints, after scanning and editing, of the Star Trek Tarot deck that Paul drew for me in the early 90s -- they were expensive to print and so very worth it, since I've always been afraid to shuffle the originals or risk smearing the ink with my fingers! 

My afternoon was fully distracted by the MLB trade deadline, before which the Orioles had traded a significant part of the team -- at least Ward is going to the Mariners, my side team, and Rutschman is coming here to the Red Sox, so I'll get to see him a lot sooner than I was expecting. We took a walk and started watching the second season of Citadel after dinner, but it was so insanely violent that after an episode we put on the new season of Futurama instead. Here's Worcester Common, City Hall, the Continental Army cemetery, and memorials:

Greetings from Waltham and Boston

Spent a lovely Saturday out since morning so we could meet Meredith in Waltham at the Sheepshearing Festival at Gore Place, which is more like the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival than what it sounds like -- there was sheepshearing and demonstrations of sheepdogs herding sheep, plus lambs and alpacas, but there were also over a hundred craft and art tents, musicians, Federalist-era reenactors, and tours of the 1806 Gore Mansion. We enjoyed all that, then walked to John Brewer's Tavern, named for an original from 1770, for lunch. 

Then we drove into Boston to the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard's public gardens, which has a variety of cherry blossom trees, nearly all of which are past peak bloom and a bunch of people posted that this was really the last weekend to see them flowering. There are also lots of forsythia, some flowering quince, and many non-flowering trees, all of which had birds around including blue jays, yellow warblers, and red-winged blackbirds. Now we're watching Rivals, in which Alex Hassell and David Tennant are competing to be the biggest jerk!

Greetings from River Bend Farm

Paul went into work in Boston on Monday, and I did a bunch of household stuff -- put up the bird feeder, went through the remaining art boxes and hung up some prints though I can't find the Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover I went looking for, did laundry, took a walk to the wetlands where the spring peepers have a lot to say. It was a three-bunny day -- we've seen as many as five. 

After dinner we watched the season finale of Paradise, which did a lot of little things I really appreciated and one big thing that feels potentially shark-jumping to me but we'll see where they go with it next season. Then we watched some more of The Forsyte Saga, in which I still can't warm up to any of the characters, especially not the main ones. The River Bend Farm visitor center, also a canal museum:

Poem for Thursday and Faneuil Hall

To Faneuil Hall 

By John Greenleaf Whittier 

Men! if manhood still ye claim,

If the Northern pulse can thrill,

Roused by wrong or stung by shame,

Freely, strongly still;

Let the sounds of traffic die

Shut the mill-gate, leave the stall,

Fling the axe and hammer by;

Throng to Faneuil Hall!

Wrongs which freemen never brooked,

Dangers grim and fierce as they,

Which, like couching lions, looked

On your fathers' way;

These your instant zeal demand,

Shaking with their earthquake-call

Every rood of Pilgrim land,

Ho, to Faneuil Hall!

From your capes and sandy bars,

From your mountain-ridges cold,

Through whose pines the westering stars

Stoop their crowns of gold;

Come, and with your footsteps wake

Echoes from that holy wall;

Once again, for Freedom's sake,

Rock your fathers' hall!

Up, and tread beneath your feet

Every cord by party spun:

Let your hearts together beat

As the heart of one.

Banks and tariffs, stocks and trade,

Let them rise or let them fall:

Freedom asks your common aid,--

Up, to Faneuil Hall!

Up, and let each voice that speaks

Ring from thence to Southern plains,

Sharply as the blow which breaks

Prison-bolts and chains!

Speak as well becomes the free

Dreaded more than steel or ball,

Shall your calmest utterance be,

Heard from Faneuil Hall!

Have they wronged us? Let us then

Render back nor threats nor prayers;

Have they chained our free-born men?

Let us unchain theirs!

Up, your banner leads the van,

Blazoned, "Liberty for all!"

Finish what your sires began!

Up, to Faneuil Hall!

-------- 

Thursday was chilly but not rainy, so a nice day by Pacific Northwest winter standards. I'm still trying to get organized from our trip and the wedding -- no, the laundry is not folded yet! -- and had a lot of correspondence to get to, plus some scanning that will continue into next week. We took a walk and saw four eagles, though today instead of sitting in pairs they were spread out in four different trees between Marymoor and Idylwood parks. 

I had my Thursday night chat group before dinner, then we had soup and grilled cheese with cats trying to steal bites. Then we binged the rest of the new season of All Creatures Great and Small (we have PBS Passport, and they dropped the whole season for subscribers) -- very enjoyable and now I'll miss it till it's back again! Speaking of traveling to Boston, here are some views inside and outside of Faneuil Hall on Monday:

Greetings from the Freedom Trail

Home! After a very nice but very long day (had an extra three hours for us) that started with a trip to Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, and several Freedom Trail sites with Cheryl, including the Old State House and Old South Meeting House. After she left to catch her flight, we also visited the Old North Church, Paul Revere's statue (his house was closed today), and Bova's Bakery. Then we met Daniel and Cahaya for coffee back at the market before we headed to Logan Airport, from which we flew home (sitting next to a Navy officer on the first leg of a flight to Japan) to our cats!

Greetings from Great Falls

The only shopping I did on Black Friday was for food. Otherwise, I spent a fairly quiet morning with my kids, then we dropped Daniel and Cahaya off at the Metro to go downtown, left Adam in Rockville to meet friends, and we went to Panera for lunch before driving to Great Falls, where we enjoyed a long chilly hike along the Potomac River. 

We went to get Starbucks to warm up, then walked next door to Safeway for cheese and crackers to bring to my parents. Then we went to hang out with them for a little while before going to pick up Daniel and Cahaya, who came came to have leftovers with us and them. Now we're watching Oregon-Oregon State and waiting for Adam to return.

Poem for Tuesday and Larsen Lake Park

Picking Blueberries, Austerlitz, New York, 1957
By Mary Oliver

Once, in summer
in the blueberries,
I fell asleep, and woke
when a deer stumbled against me.

I guess
she was so busy with her own happiness
she had grown careless
and was just wandering along

listening
to the wind as she leaned down
to lip up the sweetness.
So, there we were

with nothing between us
but a few leaves, and wind’s
glossy voice
shouting instructions.

The deer
backed away finally
and flung up her white tail
and went floating off toward the trees -

but the moment she did that
was so wide and so deep
it has lasted to this day;
I have only to think of her -

the flower of her amazement
and the stalled breath of her curiosity,
and even the damp touch of her solicitude
before she took flight -

to be absent again from this world
and alive, again, in another
for thirty years
sleepy and amazed,

rising out of the rough weeds
listening and looking.
Beautiful girl,
where are you?

-------- 

On Tuesday morning, the notary for the settlement company arrived so that we could sign the papers for the closing on our house, which will belong to another family as of Friday. So that is exciting and a little strange after 28 years! We ate bagels, then in the afternoon, my Voyager group watched episode five of season three of Picard together. Then we went to Trader Joe's to get pita and some other things. 

The reason for the shopping trip is that we had dinner with Adam and Katherine, who had offered to cook for us when we offered to bring over blueberry pie. They made veggie kabobs and we discussed plans for upcoming baseball and Taylor Swift weekends, all of which was lovely. Now we're watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Elizabeth is still a pirate king. Larsen Lake Park, the blueberry farm: