Sunsets on the Charles River

Whether I take the subway home or ride my bike, I'm often heading home along or across the Charles River near sunset.

Between Boston and Cambridge, the Charles River Basin is lined by parks, the most famous being the Esplanade. This consists of parkland along the riverbank as well as a series of small islands and lagoons. It also features the Hatch Shell, a large bandstand where the annual 4th of July concert and fireworks are held.

Below: Charles Station on the MBTA Red Line, the only above-grade station on this subway line within Boston Proper, affords a wonderful view of sunsets on the Charles River.

Below: A twisted willow on one of the Esplanade islands is silhouetted against the sunset sky over the river. This was on a ride home in March 2009.

Below: A footbridge crosses the lagoon between the riverbank and one of the Esplanade islands.

Below: A delicate pink light on the horizon is reflected in the wide section of the lagoon that separates the bank from the islands. Another photo from a bike ride home.

Below: The tree canopy frames a view west into the dusky sky, with the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Avenue) and the high rise dorms of MIT and Boston University in the background.

Below: Ducks swim in the river near the Harvard Bridge, which carries Massachusetts Avenue over the river. Interestingly, the Harvard Bridge is not near Harvard University, but instead adjacent to MIT. Apparently, there was a contest between the schools for naming rights, and given the plain profile of the bridge, it was the looser of the contest that carries its name on the bridge over a century later.

In the Mist Outside the Science Center and Other Photos of a Sunny Friday

Friday afternoon before Memorial Day, I scheduled a late afternoon appointment near home. That gave me the opportunity to just stroll around on a most beautiful, warm, sunny late day in spring! Living a short walk from the campus of Harvard University, I headed in that direction.

Right: sunlight in the tree canopy over Harvard Street.

Below: a view through the mist of the spray founation outside the Harvard Science Center. I spent many a hot afternoon here with my toddlers who enjoyed a bit of the cool spray. Also, Memorial Hall in the background is also famous as the "analog" structure from which the CG version of the Great Hall at Hogwarts was created for the Harry Potter movies.

Below: a young woman finds the stones of the fountain a convenient place to sit while making a call.

I Don't Think We're Still in Cambridge, Children!

That's the feeling I have everytime I walk into this little isolated part of my current home town of Cambridge. This little neighborhood is off the beaten path, partly bordered by the sprawling campus of Harvard University. While the rest of Cambridge is very much a city -- high rise buildings, the subway, closely spaced building, itsy bitsy back yards -- I enter this area and everything changes!

This was a favorite place to stroll when my children were little. First, it was quiet! All those city noise of traffic and people and activity are gone. The houses feel like I'm in the suburbs, maybe an older suburb with a slightly rural character as afforded by the canopy of very mature trees. Some trees, like the one on the right, have grown into the street, beyond the curbline. This never happens in the rest of the city.

There are lawns and real backyards. There are even some single-family houses, which are a rarity in a city of triple deckers (3-family homes with one unit on each floor).

I still enjoy strolling here, and did so today on this beautiful, sunny Sunday in May. Thought the photographs you can join me on a stoll through this part of Cambridge which doesn't feel like we're still in Cambridge.

Urban Evening

It is evening when my workday is finally over and I can leave my environmentally controlled office (visually isolated from the world outside) and enter the urban environment of this great city where I am employed. Many days, I'm rushing home and take everything for granted. Other evenings, when I have some time, I stroll, taking in the scenes as though I was a tourist here for the first time.

Here are some evening photos. All but the park were taken just last Thursday.

Above left: The classic Boston Back Bay skyline reflecting into the Charles River, as seen from the Massachusetts Avenue (Harvard) Bridge. The tower on the left in the Hancock and on the right it's the Prudential (the results of a rivalry for tallest building in Boston between these two insurance companies in the 1960s). To the left of the Hancock tower is the old Hancock tower with its lit single spire.

Below: A view across the lagoon at the Public Garden as the shadows of evening fall.



Below: Up close, the Hancock tower's glass facade reflects its plaza and the buildings around it.

Below: A view down St. James Avenue, with the Hancock tower to the right.



Below: The evening setting sun backlights clouds over the Boston Public Library and the Old South Church.

A Brief Return to New York City

New York City is, for me, the ultimate urban vista. The intensity of development and activity in Manhattan is virtually unmatched. Also, having been born in "the city" as we call it, some details just say NYC to me, even if the rest of the view could be in any of a dozen major cities around the globe.

Last Saturday, I made a brief return to my hometown for a family gathering. Maybe someday, I can return for a longer stay and enjoy seeing again the iconic urban fabric that is Manhattan.

Above left: The sun has just set over the Hudson River, and behind some of the "average" towers of the west side of midtown.

Below: A rooftop view from the outdoors portion of a penthouse lounge, a mere 15 stories up. In most of the world, 15 stories (180 feet or 60 meters) would be fairly tall. But, in Manhattan, it's nothing!

Below: Zooming in to a classic rooftop water tank, a detail very typically New York.


Below: Murals can be found throughout the city, particularly on industrial buildings, such as this sign factory.

Below: a rooftop view from only 15 stories high is diminished in the canyon of taller towers. The red lights are on Broadway, heading for Times Square.

The Coming of My Favorite Season

Ah, spring is finally here! For me, spring is the season of hope. The season of potential. Little green buds emerge from the ground, and weeks later, grow into the first flowers of the year. The landscape is still mostly brown and gray of the winter groundcover. Yet these first flowers inspire hope.

It reminds me of looking at my babies when they were new to this world. They were a bundle of potential -- what would they become? What would they be like?

So, too with the first buds of spring: what wonderful flowers will bloom? And what will this new year be for all of us? Here is a sampling showing the coming of spring here in the city. (Some other photos are included in my Other Thoughts blog: "Almost Spring!" and "A Beautiful Day in March.")

Below left: The happy faces of my daffodils blooming in the sunshine of a warm 1st day of spring. Below right: some crocuses blooming in the yard next door.

Below: My jonquils (march flowers) a few days before they bloomed.


Below (4 photos): Sampling of crocuses popping up all over Cambridge.





Below: The buds in the trees foretell leafing out in April.


Below: After 4 days of warm weather, the yellow forsythia blooms are showing. We call this lot the "forest." In the city, even a 1/2 acre that is not developed is like a 100-acre forest to us urbanites.


Below: The warm weather brings every one out from their winter hibernation. Left: The first day of spring and temperature is in the 70s (over 20 deg C) and the banks of the Charles are littered with sunbathers. Note the leafless trees. Right: Another sign of spring: music in the park! On my lunch stroll through Boston's Public Garden, a jazz trio is playing.

Below: On a warm day in March brings out a couple of rowers (see lower left) on the Charles River where Harvard University lines both banks.

Below: A warm last day of winter and I'm riding my bike home from work when I stopped along the Charles River Esplanade to get a backlit photograph of a footbridge. (My favorite picture of this footbridge is bathed in the pink light of sunset -- see my post "Sunset Along the Charles River")

Below: I came home late to find my jonquils blooming. Here is a flash lit night photo of them.

Sugar Snow

The other day we got just a dusing of snow, something I call sugar snow. It reminds me of the texture of confectionary sugar dusted on a pastry.

While the region from New York to Virginia seemed be getting pelted with one big storm after, way up here in the Boston area, we got rain, rain, and more rain. No shoveling, no slipping on ice, but no snow days off either. So, when we got this little bit of snow this week, I captured a few views of the sugar dusting of Boston Common.