Genoa in Boston

Monday, June 15, 2009

Urban Fowl

The turkeys, now numbering three, have been spotted all up and down Avenue Louis Pasteur.

I haven't seen them spread their tail feathers (they're not mating), but they're rather pretty and iridescent when you look closely.

This guy's checking out his reflection in the window.

And back to the geese.

The grass had gotten very high. (That's what we dramatic types call "foreshadowing.")

An older group of goslings, being led by their parents, crossed the greenway. The younger goslings are in the foreground.

And then the older kids were off, crossing the street.

It rained a bit last week.

This kid was great. He was feeding the birds and had an audience of ducks, pigeons, starlings, and a squirrel.

You may be tired of seeing goslings; here's a duckling.

I've never seen pigeons sitting down, let alone lounging in the grass.

The pigeons aren't the only ones enjoying laying on the grass in the sun.

The Public Garden

The little nook neighborhood park on my street.

I walked to work the other day and found two people mowing the lawn of my little swath of greenway.

I guess it really did need to be mowed. And although the geese were absent that afternoon, by the next day, they had returned and were munching freshly cut grass. Boy, all they do is eat and poop.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Spring in the City

Below, the Victory Gardens with the Boston skyline in the background. Everything in the garden is in bloom, and the birds are chirping. It's so lovely...

Unless you have problems with this:

Can you see the wispy webby stuff in my fingers? It's pollen, and it floats through the air everywhere. It's like it's snowing again. Below are fireworks. New Hampshire's motto is Live Free or Die. They're big on personal freedom. Seat belts are only required for minors, and you can buy fireworks here, which other states outlaw because they're dangerous.

I've taken lots of pictures of Boston apartment buildings, but since I don't come across houses in my daily life, I have fewer photos of them. As I'm out in the suburbs more, I'll try to capture the look.

The rhododendrons are in bloom.

The other day, it was sprinkling just the slightest bit. It wasn't very cool, but the goslings were huddled up anyway.

Then one of the goslings gets the bright idea that mom might be warmer.

Everyone goes over to mom and starts tucking in under her wings.

Mom needs to readjust, so she stands up and walks a few feet away.

One by one, the goslings tuck under again, this time from the tail, as dad looks on and keeps us at bay.

I was having drinks with some friends after work last week, and someone asked what I liked about Boston. My stock answer is seasons and architecture. And I looked up at the building facade above the restaurant's patio, and saw a perfect example of the latter. Everywhere you look in Boston, the buildings have so many more architectural details than what you typically see in younger parts of the country, like San Diego. I love San Diego, don't get me wrong. I'm going for a visit in just over a month, and I'm really looking forward to it. San Diego is a great place to be from. But for now, I'm enjoying Boston, largely because it's different from what I grew up with.

Something else you don't see in San Diego is wild turkeys. Let alone wild turkeys crossing the street in the city!

In the upper center of the picture, below, you may recognize the pillars of Gordon Hall, the building at Harvard Medical School that I photograph so frequently. These guys were crossing the street as I walked to work.

Sometimes they stop traffic, but this time, they crossed the street and walked up the sidewalk, out of the way of cars.

Too many gosling pictures? Greg is so patient as I whip out my camera whenever I see their fuzzy little butts.

Katy, Billy still loves his cat cave/bed. Thanks for the hand-me-down! He also loves the new toy I got for him. It lost its feathers very quickly, and the elastic string has gotten shorter as Billy has chewed the ends of it, but the toy remains.