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

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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.