Becky's photoblog

Every year in early Spring, the Gardner Museum’s courtyard features gorgeous hanging nasturtiums, and I finally got to take photos of them! The Gardner’s nasturtiums are my favorite sign that spring is here! Actually, this year, they’re a sign that spring really is coming soon …

It’s still pretty chilly out there, but we’re trying to welcome in Spring with some brightly colored house plants.

After wandering through the galleries at the Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art, we popped in to the greenhouse next door for a truly wonderful treat! We were in desperate need of beautiful colors and incredible smells, and the greenhouse did not disappoint. It’s always amazing to see such an enormous variety of plants all in one place. We both took lots of pictures!

My sweetie gave me orange-yellow roses (my favorite!) for Valentine’s Day, and they are keeping our house bright and cheery during the gajillionth winter storm. The sun came out, so I could take artsy photos of the roses in the front window, with the snow swirling around in the wind in the background.

We had planned to stay in for V-Day, and since it was blizzarding out, we decided to stick to the plan. Brian made an incredible dinner, starting with an appetizer of seared scallops, and then an incredible duck risotto, with plenty of seasoned onions, shallots and garlic.

I have new orchids in my office, and they make me happy.

We went for a walk, and saw A LOT of ducks.

A glimpse of lovely purple flowers at the Gardner Museum’s greenhouse before heading out in to the cold after a fun evening of volunteering!

I’ve eaten about a million tuna melts, but never a crab melt … until a few days ago. Turns out, it’s delicious. Three days in Maine, three crab melts. This one was the best: crab meat slaw, melted havarti and avocado at Robert’s Maine Grill right by the Kittery Outlets.

My parents hosted several friends on the fifth night of Hanukah. Mmmm mom’s latkes …

We spent the afternoon helping my mom make batch after batch after batch of delicious cookies!

A delicious and picturesque lunch with a friend

We hosted a Fall Feast potluck so we could get a bunch of our friends together and eat delicious food!

Brian picked up some gorgeous flowers for our fall feast! I so love these colors

The Kelleher Rose Garden in the Back Bay Fens on a gorgeous sunny late afternoon.

My inner 8-year old needed an arts and crafts project, so I decorated a box with pretty autumn leaves. While walking along Baystate Road during my lunch break, I collected several lovely leaves all in excellent condition. I flattened them a bit, then mod-podged them to a box I had lying around just waiting to be decorated. So pleased with myself 🙂

We wanted to see some colorful New Hampshire leaves, and it had been too long since we’d seen Sara and Eric, so we made some last-minute plans and drove to Keene, NH. We had an incredible brunch at the Stage Restaurant, wandered around for a bit, then headed over to Mt. Pitcher and walked to the top for some incredible views!

I had about an hour to kill before our pre Yom Kippur dinner, and I needed to clear my head after a long week, so I took a walk around the Fenway neighborhood and found myself wandering through the Fenway Victory Gardens: “the oldest continuously operating Word War II Victory Gardens in the United States, spanning 7.5 acres with over 500 gardens.” Who knew?

The gardens are part of a park that’s about half way between Boston University and the Gardner Museum … two places that are a 15 minute walk apart, and where I have spent a lot of my time in the past 8 years … and yet I have never wandered yet another one of Boston’s incredibly little hidden gems.

The Fenway Victory Gardens are truly beautiful and bizarre. It’s one little secret garden after another along narrow dirt paths, each garden with it’s incredibly unique and often strange qualities. You can feel like you’re alone and lost (in a good/peaceful way) among the endless rows of gardens, and yet you can hear traffic not too far away, you can see nearby apartments, and you can see nearby landmarks such as the Prudential Tower. The contrast made this oasis of calm and quiet even more beautiful. In many cases, it’s clear that the gardens are not just places to grow plants and produce, but also places for peaceful personal reflections. Many of the gardens featured wandering paths, sitting nooks and an enormous variety of personal touches.

Brian took this lovely photo of the leaves that have fallen off of one of my favorite trees

My parents set a beautiful table (as always) for our first Rosh Hashanah in the new house.

My cousin Alex was in town from Australia! We hosted a little family gathering and served some of our local favorites: Legal Seafoods clam chowder, apples and cheddar with caramel, and pumpkin pie!

Our first butternut squash risotto of the fall season! With broccoli, seared turkey breast and lots of delicious seasonings

So good to catch up with the beautiful Fiorentino family at the Harvard Fall Festival!

I love love love fall flowers, and the sweetheart who brings them to me 🙂

Really good light on really really thoughtful flowers

Melissa couldn’t believe that we had never been to any of the Boston Harbor Islands, so we made a last-minute plan to fix that right away. We packed a picnic, hopped on the ferry from Long Wharf (which stopped at Spectacle Island) and spent an absolutely perfect Saturday afternoon wandering around Georges Island.

Most of the island is what’s left of Fort Warren, a civil-war era fort which is now mostly grassy fields, big empty rooms, creepy dark stair wells, and upper ramparts with amazing views  in all directions. We could see Boston, Quincy, Hull, and Boston Light on Little Brewster Island. There were tons of families out there because it’s a fun and inexpensive way for kids to run around and explore, and for adults to relax along the shore with amazing views. We got our exercise in, and we also sat for a long time and read our books. Perfect afternoon! Thanks, Mel!!

A few of us got together to celebrate Melissa’s birthday earlier this week, and they brought her an incredibly delicious dessert with four spoons!