Fall Foliage Backdrop in Public Garden

The autumn hues provide a colorful background for any photograph within the Public Garden. These photographs span October and November. Not all trees change colors at the same time: some are early in October, other late in November. The late change is due to the urban micro-climate, as the city pavement and buildings create enough of a head sink that the foliage changes in the Public Garden lag the suburbs of Boston.

Summer in the Park -- Public Garden

|

The Public Garden is a beautiful subject in any season. But, in summer it really comes to life. Life, in both senses: people and plantings. The main walkways are lined with planting beds that feature the most creative designs of the Parks Departments' horticulturists.

When the weather is nice, the park is teaming with strollers, people eating lunch on park benches, musicians playing, and many in line for the swan boats.

July 4th was a Saturday this year...."Saturday in the park; I think it was the 4th of July"....the lyrics of that song by Chicago were in my mind all day. When we passed through the park, people were everywhere. The swans were nesting. The mallards were escorting their little ducklings around the lagoon.

There are a sampling of the photographs I took this summer.

Sampling of the horticultural creativity:







Below: Weeping tree drapes over walkway.



Below: Swans, ducklins, and swan boats share the lagoon.




Below: Sun descending new the close of a summer's day.

Spring Scenes -- Boston Public Garden

Some photos from April and May 2009.

Industrial Heritage - Vassar Street at MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was built on filled tidal marsh land between the industrial Cambridgeport and what is now the bank of the Charles River Basin. Being principally an engineering school, MIT always had a close tie to industry. For decades, the western fringes of the MIT campus overlapped with the factories and warehouses of industrial Cambridge.

Over time, industry departed Cambridge, replaced by research and development, with biomedical and pharmaceutical businesses predominating.

The MIT thermal energy plant on Vassar Street still beckons back to an earlier, more industrial age, with its tall stack and characteristically industrial architecture. In the failing fall sunlight, it could be 1959, but it is 2009.

Lagoon in the Public Garden

Photos taken April 16, 2009.



Above: Looking across the lagoon, the Hancock Tower provides a backdrop for the historic Arlington Street Church steeple.

Below left: The ducklings island on the right with the sun reflecting off the Taj Hotel (formerly, the Ritz).

Below right: The office towers that ring Beacon Hill are the backdrop to the lagoon.


















Below left: The Taj and Hancock Towers are in the left background behind the lagoon. This same view in winter, with the lagoon frozen and snow-covered, is the 4th photo in my post "Scenes of Winter in Boston".

Below right: Sunset on the lagoon silhouettes the ducks at the water's edge.

Urban Rails

Rail yard in Worcester, March 2008:







































Above: Street tracks, elevated tracks, Causeway Street in Boston (from archieves of University of Connecticut)


Below: Trolley stop in Lowell, Massachusetts

Above: Compromise joint bar connects rail of different thicknesses. On the left is 115RE rail and on the right 100NH rail.

Below: Locomotives in the Providence and Worcester Railroad yard, Worcester, Massachuestts, March 2008.

Below: Tracks at train station in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Back Bay Boston Photos

Below: Bank clock and Prudential Tower



Above: Converted Industrial Building at Mass. Av. and Newbury St.

Below: Boston Conservatory along The Fenway

Above: St. Clement's Church on Boylston Street

Below: Trinity Church reflected in the windows of the Hancock Tower