Category: Nature

Belle Isle: Lobster Rolls at the Reservation

We dedicated an afternoon and a few of our Zipcar credits to exploring Winthrop last week. Our dog Poppy enjoys an occasional ride in her car crate so we took her along and were happy to find so many public spaces where our whole family was welcome, as long as we obeyed the rules.

Today, we'll tell you about the Belle Isle Marsh, one of the MDC reservations.

Airplanes landing and taking off are a part of the scene here. Ed was having a great time photographing them. This is a great destination for a photowalk. We plan to gather a group of friends with cameras and come back in the fall. Marshland is often overlooked as a place to enjoy autumn's colorful show.

Boston's last remaining salt marsh, this conservation area is right in the city and you can include houses in some of the views. You can also see the reservation's observation tower in the center of this photo.

Map courtesy of Friends of Belle Isle. Please visit their site for a larger view.

We originally had not planned to include Belle Isle in our explorations but needed a place to have lunch. Our hopes that the new outdoor seating at Belle Isle Seafood might be dog friendly were dashed since you have to go through the restaurant to get to it.

So, we ordered our lobster rolls to go and drove to a lovely picnic table at the Belle Isle Reservation to enjoy all that lovely lobster and great onion rings.

There was so much lobster in our rolls that we had leftovers and took some home for supper!

After a big seafood lunch, you can walk off some of the calories on the winding trails. We saw lots of folks with their dogs enjoying the day.

Here's the info to plan your visit!

Belle Isle Marsh Reservation

Bennington Street, East Boston, MA (Map)

Open year-round, 9:00 a.m. to dusk.

Belle Isle Seafood

Has relocated across the bridge to 1 Main Street, Winthrop MA (Map)

Phone: (617) 567-1619

What do you know about Amazon Prime?

We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month, free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

August 26, 2013
Belle Isle: Lobster Rolls at the Reservation

We dedicated an afternoon and a few of our Zipcar credits to exploring Winthrop last week. Our dog Poppy enjoys an occasional ride in her car crate so we took her along and were happy to find so many public spaces where our whole family was welcome, as long as we obeyed the rules.

Today, we'll tell you about the Belle Isle Marsh, one of the MDC reservations.

Airplanes landing and taking off are a part of the scene here. Ed was having a great time photographing them. This is a great destination for a photowalk. We plan to gather a group of friends with cameras and come back in the fall. Marshland is often overlooked as a place to enjoy autumn's colorful show.

Boston's last remaining salt marsh, this conservation area is right in the city and you can include houses in some of the views. You can also see the reservation's observation tower in the center of this photo.

Map courtesy of Friends of Belle Isle. Please visit their site for a larger view.

We originally had not planned to include Belle Isle in our explorations but needed a place to have lunch. Our hopes that the new outdoor seating at Belle Isle Seafood might be dog friendly were dashed since you have to go through the restaurant to get to it.

So, we ordered our lobster rolls to go and drove to a lovely picnic table at the Belle Isle Reservation to enjoy all that lovely lobster and great onion rings.

There was so much lobster in our rolls that we had leftovers and took some home for supper!

After a big seafood lunch, you can walk off some of the calories on the winding trails. We saw lots of folks with their dogs enjoying the day.

Here's the info to plan your visit!

Belle Isle Marsh Reservation

Bennington Street, East Boston, MA (Map)

Open year-round, 9:00 a.m. to dusk.

Belle Isle Seafood

Has relocated across the bridge to 1 Main Street, Winthrop MA (Map)

Phone: (617) 567-1619

What do you know about Amazon Prime?

We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month, free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

August 26, 2013
Belle Isle: Lobster Rolls at the Reservation

We dedicated an afternoon and a few of our Zipcar credits to exploring Winthrop last week. Our dog Poppy enjoys an occasional ride in her car crate so we took her along and were happy to find so many public spaces where our whole family was welcome, as long as we obeyed the rules.

Today, we'll tell you about the Belle Isle Marsh, one of the MDC reservations.

Airplanes landing and taking off are a part of the scene here. Ed was having a great time photographing them. This is a great destination for a photowalk. We plan to gather a group of friends with cameras and come back in the fall. Marshland is often overlooked as a place to enjoy autumn's colorful show.

Boston's last remaining salt marsh, this conservation area is right in the city and you can include houses in some of the views. You can also see the reservation's observation tower in the center of this photo.

Map courtesy of Friends of Belle Isle. Please visit their site for a larger view.

We originally had not planned to include Belle Isle in our explorations but needed a place to have lunch. Our hopes that the new outdoor seating at Belle Isle Seafood might be dog friendly were dashed since you have to go through the restaurant to get to it.

So, we ordered our lobster rolls to go and drove to a lovely picnic table at the Belle Isle Reservation to enjoy all that lovely lobster and great onion rings.

There was so much lobster in our rolls that we had leftovers and took some home for supper!

After a big seafood lunch, you can walk off some of the calories on the winding trails. We saw lots of folks with their dogs enjoying the day.

Here's the info to plan your visit!

Belle Isle Marsh Reservation

Bennington Street, East Boston, MA (Map)

Open year-round, 9:00 a.m. to dusk.

Belle Isle Seafood

Has relocated across the bridge to 1 Main Street, Winthrop MA (Map)

Phone: (617) 567-1619

What do you know about Amazon Prime?

We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month, free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

August 26, 2013
Marlborough Street Mystery Fruit

Out on a walk we encountered a Marlborough Street sidewalk strewn with dropped fruit.

Our dog was very attracted to the crushed sweetness and the scent was clearly fruity.

The birds were busy pecking away at the fruit right on the tree. Without picking a whole fruit for closer examination, out best guess is that someone planted an apricot tree in their front yard and growing conditions this year have produced a nice crop of fruit.

For years, we've spotted apple and mulberry trees sprinkled around the neighborhood so we'll add this to our urban orchards list.

Have you spotted a fruit producing tree in a dense urban setting?

What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it, and love it. You pay once a year for free, 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows, and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one-month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 15, 2013
Marlborough Street Mystery Fruit

Out on a walk we encountered a Marlborough Street sidewalk strewn with dropped fruit.

Our dog was very attracted to the crushed sweetness and the scent was clearly fruity.

The birds were busy pecking away at the fruit right on the tree. Without picking a whole fruit for closer examination, out best guess is that someone planted an apricot tree in their front yard and growing conditions this year have produced a nice crop of fruit.

For years, we've spotted apple and mulberry trees sprinkled around the neighborhood so we'll add this to our urban orchards list.

Have you spotted a fruit producing tree in a dense urban setting?

What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it, and love it. You pay once a year for free, 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows, and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one-month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 15, 2013
Marlborough Street Mystery Fruit

Out on a walk we encountered a Marlborough Street sidewalk strewn with dropped fruit.

Our dog was very attracted to the crushed sweetness and the scent was clearly fruity.

The birds were busy pecking away at the fruit right on the tree. Without picking a whole fruit for closer examination, out best guess is that someone planted an apricot tree in their front yard and growing conditions this year have produced a nice crop of fruit.

For years, we've spotted apple and mulberry trees sprinkled around the neighborhood so we'll add this to our urban orchards list.

Have you spotted a fruit producing tree in a dense urban setting?

What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it, and love it. You pay once a year for free, 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and tv shows, and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one-month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 15, 2013
The Esplanade: A View from the Charles River with Linda Cox, July 23rd

Spend an evening on the river aboard The Charles Riverboat Company's beautiful tour boat, the Henry Longfellow, and learn about the Esplanade from one of the most respected of the park's advocates, Linda Cox.

This event is sponsored by the Boston Preservation Alliance. And, Linda's talks about the Esplanade always receive rave reviews.

They say:

"Join the Boston Preservation Alliance and Linda Cox, Esplanade advocate and historian, for a historical overview of the Charles River Esplanade and its changing landscape. Enjoy an up-close look at this designated Boston Landmark as we cruise aboard the Henry Longfellow, a custom designed riverboat from the Charles Riverboat Company fleet.

This event is $30 for Alliance members; $40 for non-members and includes light refreshments and a cash bar.

Boarding occurs at the Charles Riverboat Company dock located outside of the food court at the CambridgeSide Galleria. Parking is available in the CambridgeSide Galleria parking garage.

Space is limited. Please reserve your spot by July 17th by registering securely via Eventbrite. For more information, please email admin@bostonpreservation.org or call 617.367.2458."

By the way, here's a link to Penny's review of Linda's book, Lone Holdout, A Memoir.

The book Lone Holdout: A Memoir
is available on Amazon and in the Kindle shop.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Birthday or Wedding gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: Courtesy of the Charles Riverboat Company and Charles Street Press.

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 5, 2013
The Esplanade: A View from the Charles River with Linda Cox, July 23rd

Spend an evening on the river aboard The Charles Riverboat Company's beautiful tour boat, the Henry Longfellow, and learn about the Esplanade from one of the most respected of the park's advocates, Linda Cox.

This event is sponsored by the Boston Preservation Alliance. And, Linda's talks about the Esplanade always receive rave reviews.

They say:

"Join the Boston Preservation Alliance and Linda Cox, Esplanade advocate and historian, for a historical overview of the Charles River Esplanade and its changing landscape. Enjoy an up-close look at this designated Boston Landmark as we cruise aboard the Henry Longfellow, a custom designed riverboat from the Charles Riverboat Company fleet.

This event is $30 for Alliance members; $40 for non-members and includes light refreshments and a cash bar.

Boarding occurs at the Charles Riverboat Company dock located outside of the food court at the CambridgeSide Galleria. Parking is available in the CambridgeSide Galleria parking garage.

Space is limited. Please reserve your spot by July 17th by registering securely via Eventbrite. For more information, please email admin@bostonpreservation.org or call 617.367.2458."

By the way, here's a link to Penny's review of Linda's book, Lone Holdout, A Memoir.

The book Lone Holdout: A Memoir
is available on Amazon and in the Kindle shop.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Birthday or Wedding gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: Courtesy of the Charles Riverboat Company and Charles Street Press.

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 5, 2013
The Esplanade: A View from the Charles River with Linda Cox, July 23rd

Spend an evening on the river aboard The Charles Riverboat Company's beautiful tour boat, the Henry Longfellow, and learn about the Esplanade from one of the most respected of the park's advocates, Linda Cox.

This event is sponsored by the Boston Preservation Alliance. And, Linda's talks about the Esplanade always receive rave reviews.

They say:

"Join the Boston Preservation Alliance and Linda Cox, Esplanade advocate and historian, for a historical overview of the Charles River Esplanade and its changing landscape. Enjoy an up-close look at this designated Boston Landmark as we cruise aboard the Henry Longfellow, a custom designed riverboat from the Charles Riverboat Company fleet.

This event is $30 for Alliance members; $40 for non-members and includes light refreshments and a cash bar.

Boarding occurs at the Charles Riverboat Company dock located outside of the food court at the CambridgeSide Galleria. Parking is available in the CambridgeSide Galleria parking garage.

Space is limited. Please reserve your spot by July 17th by registering securely via Eventbrite. For more information, please email admin@bostonpreservation.org or call 617.367.2458."

By the way, here's a link to Penny's review of Linda's book, Lone Holdout, A Memoir.

The book Lone Holdout: A Memoir
is available on Amazon and in the Kindle shop.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Birthday or Wedding gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: Courtesy of the Charles Riverboat Company and Charles Street Press.

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

July 5, 2013
Close Your Windows & Hold Your Nose, Boston’s Stink Trees Are in Bloom

That rotting, herbal scent in the Boston air is coming from the many, many Ailanthus altissima that have self seeded and invaded the yards and alleys around the city. When I put the search term stink tree into Google, my top hit is for Wikipedia's Ailanthus altissima entry so I'm not the only one with a nose that is sensitive to this summer bloomer.

It's appropriate that the seed droppings have outlined the manholes for Boston Sewer – these trees deliver the kind of smell that seems to belong with those words. Back Bay alleyways are wearing a coat of chartreuse and overhead the female trees are in full bloom.

If your allergies act up for the next couple of weeks, you may be sensitive to this pollen. Make sure you give your hands, face, and hair a wipe down after a walk through the yellow-green snow. And, if your pup is carrying some green dust home, give him or her a dip in some cool water to make sure the pollen clinging to a furry coat is not spread all over the house.

Back in 2008, I wrote a newspaper feature story on these trees and adapted it for BostonZest, here's a link.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Birthday or Wedding gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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