As I made my early morning circuit of the Public Garden yesterday, I watched the crew ready the Swan Boats for their migration to winter quarters.
One-by-one, under the careful supervision of members of the Paget family, the boats are disassembled and packed into a truck for the trip. (Unlike the Canada Geese living on the lagoon, the swans don't form a "V" and fly South.)
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of photographing the spring build of the Swan Boats and was very impressed by the planning, checking, and thoughtful work that goes into the stewardship of these Boston treasures.
I look forward to seeing the swans return to the lagoon in the spring and would like to say a public thank you to the Paget family for their continued protection of this iconic part of our neighborhood.
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Duchess Poppy Whitehead here! (Once we're friends, you can call me Poppy.)
Every year around this time, I find myself "sniffing-up" with a lot of new members of my Boston Canine Court. So every year I try to let them, and the rest of the dogs who are new to Boston, know what they should put on the to-do list of their human servants.
License
Just like you have to make sure your chauffeur has a valid driver's license, you have to be sure one of your human staff members gets you a Boston dog license (if Boston is your main residence and you are more than six months old).
Please don't come running up to me on one of those long, thin, dangerous strings with a pulley. I'm a bit shy and I don't trust those things. You'll make me stamp my little paw down!
Boston's leash law is clearly stated on the city’s site, “When your dog is off your property, it must be on a leash.” City ordinance calls for a leash of 10-feet or less. That makes most retractable leashes technically illegal in Boston. If a person tries to attach one to you, growl at them.
One more interesting aspect of Boston’s dog rules is that while out with you, your retainers, if asked, must be able to show that they are carrying something to pick up dog waste. This makes city dog walks a prime reason to attach a roll of pick-up bags to your leash.
Even if your people use recycled bags to do the majority of clean ups, the roll will give them a back up supply if you are stopped after your business is done, but the walk isn’t.
Sir Felix is one of my special knights. He prefers a leather leash or halter when he escorts me around the pond.
Dog Parks
I must admit, I'm not much of a dog park dog. I prefer a nice chat on a park bench or a picnic lunch under a shady tree.
But, for those who like to romp, the legal exceptions to the leash law are: the “official off-leash hours” on the Boston Common, and inside the fences at dog parks like Peter’s Park in the South End, DeFilippo Park in the North End, and Ronan Park in Dorchester.
Emergency Services
The one bit of guidance you must be sure your humans note is that Angell Animal Medical Center Emergency Services are available, as they say, “… every day of the year, 24 hours each day.” My people have their number on all our cell phones in case of an emergency. And it can't hurt to have your chauffeur practice a drive to the location so he or she will know where you are going in a stressful time. You don't want to be giving the driver directions if you have an upset tummy.
Questions?
If you have questions about living in Boston, have your people send them to my people and I'll try to dig out answers. (I do love to dig.) Add your thoughts in the comments below. Tweet them to @BostonZest or send us an email.
Get to know all of the wonderful Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Duchess Poppy Whitehead here! (Once we're friends, you can call me Poppy.)
Every year around this time, I find myself "sniffing-up" with a lot of new members of my Boston Canine Court. So every year I try to let them, and the rest of the dogs who are new to Boston, know what they should put on the to-do list of their human servants.
License
Just like you have to make sure your chauffeur has a valid driver's license, you have to be sure one of your human staff members gets you a Boston dog license (if Boston is your main residence and you are more than six months old).
Please don't come running up to me on one of those long, thin, dangerous strings with a pulley. I'm a bit shy and I don't trust those things. You'll make me stamp my little paw down!
Boston's leash law is clearly stated on the city’s site, “When your dog is off your property, it must be on a leash.” City ordinance calls for a leash of 10-feet or less. That makes most retractable leashes technically illegal in Boston. If a person tries to attach one to you, growl at them.
One more interesting aspect of Boston’s dog rules is that while out with you, your retainers, if asked, must be able to show that they are carrying something to pick up dog waste. This makes city dog walks a prime reason to attach a roll of pick-up bags to your leash.
Even if your people use recycled bags to do the majority of clean ups, the roll will give them a back up supply if you are stopped after your business is done, but the walk isn’t.
Sir Felix is one of my special knights. He prefers a leather leash or halter when he escorts me around the pond.
Dog Parks
I must admit, I'm not much of a dog park dog. I prefer a nice chat on a park bench or a picnic lunch under a shady tree.
But, for those who like to romp, the legal exceptions to the leash law are: the “official off-leash hours” on the Boston Common, and inside the fences at dog parks like Peter’s Park in the South End, DeFilippo Park in the North End, and Ronan Park in Dorchester.
Emergency Services
The one bit of guidance you must be sure your humans note is that Angell Animal Medical Center Emergency Services are available, as they say, “… every day of the year, 24 hours each day.” My people have their number on all our cell phones in case of an emergency. And it can't hurt to have your chauffeur practice a drive to the location so he or she will know where you are going in a stressful time. You don't want to be giving the driver directions if you have an upset tummy.
Questions?
If you have questions about living in Boston, have your people send them to my people and I'll try to dig out answers. (I do love to dig.) Add your thoughts in the comments below. Tweet them to @BostonZest or send us an email.
Get to know all of the wonderful Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Here's one of my top tips for newcomers to Boston. If you want news that really matters to your life in Boston, you need to know about Universal Hub.
It's usually the first site I visit each morning. And, when I want to know what's going on: why traffic is stopped on Storrow Drive or why I'm hearing helicopters or non-stop sirens, I call up Adam Gaffin's @universalhub timeline on Twitter.
Stories are updated not only by Adam, but also by commenters, photographers who contribute to the Universal Hub photo pool on Flickr, and by members of the UH community who send additional information to the site via twitter.
Local TV news has lost me as a viewer because more and more of these programs have become promotional vehicles for the station, the network, or a sports team. They may present stories, but they are from who knows where, about things that have no impact on your life. Why? Because they have video and because they are really about entertainment rather than news.
Instead of a half hour of news, you get seven minutes of local news, endless sports and political blather, and lots of hype. They just take the feed from the network to fill the time. If I want local news, I have to turn to sites like UH.
Support Universal Hub
As with many other sites, Universal Hub is supported by advertising, affiliate programs, and contributions.
Last year Adam added a link that asks readers,
"Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) donation."
You'll find the place to click by scrolling down in the right-hand sidebar. (Or, if you are a long time user, click here and make that contribution now.) The next time you get a great, timely, local answer to your question, "What's going on right now in Boston?" click the link and drop a few coins in the UH tip jar.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Early this morning, as I made a loop around the Boston Public Garden, it became apparent that something had been added to Thomas Ball's statue of George Washington.
I didn't remember a feather in his cap. Had someone added one?
Not one but many feathers and those feathers were moving and watching me.
Or watching the squirrels and the smaller birds perhaps.
No one seemed to notice what I was busy photographing with my phone. Perhaps the morning commuters are so used to seeing people with phones out taking pictures of Washington that they don't look to see if anything is different. Today, for a little while, it was.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Early this morning, as I made a loop around the Boston Public Garden, it became apparent that something had been added to Thomas Ball's statue of George Washington.
I didn't remember a feather in his cap. Had someone added one?
Not one but many feathers and those feathers were moving and watching me.
Or watching the squirrels and the smaller birds perhaps.
No one seemed to notice what I was busy photographing with my phone. Perhaps the morning commuters are so used to seeing people with phones out taking pictures of Washington that they don't look to see if anything is different. Today, for a little while, it was.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
In this post, you'll also find assistance from federal, state, and local authorities – including medical institutions and retail stores. There are sites to track flu activity, plus suggestions that could help save you time and money.
As always, check with your doctor or other healthcare professionals for any flu-related advice.
Do federal, state, and city health officials have any updates on flu or flu vaccinations?
In this post, you'll also find assistance from federal, state, and local authorities – including medical institutions and retail stores. There are sites to track flu activity, plus suggestions that could help save you time and money.
As always, check with your doctor or other healthcare professionals for any flu-related advice.
Do federal, state, and city health officials have any updates on flu or flu vaccinations?
If you collect historic postcards, you sometimes find the messages on the back more interesting than the illustration on the front. This card, mailed from Boston on September 12, 1954, had me looking up the date and the hurricane.
The message reads, "Dear Will, Just a line from Boston. We had to spend an extra day here because of the hurricane. We'll leave for Maine tomorrow."
The Hurricane was Edna which hit New England on the 11th. Wikipedia summarized the damage to our area.
"There were widespread evacuations in southern New England, after Hurricane Carol struck the same area only 11 days prior. Strong winds caused extensive power outages for 260,000 people, including nearly all of Cape Cod. Edna became the costliest hurricane in the history of Maine, where the hurricane caused flooding that washed out roads and rail lines. There were 21 deaths in New England, eight of whom in Maine due to drownings."
The Big Story from Hurricane Carol
Locally the news that the Old North Church steeple had collapsed during Hurricane Carol received coverage as far away as San Francisco, where they called it the "Paul Revere Steeple."
The Old North Foundation explained that this was the second time the steeple had fallen. It also came down in the “The Great Gale of Boston in 1804." They also noted how little damage there was to it saying, "In another remarkable piece of luck, our original weathervane, designed by Shem Drowne, has survived not one, but two, steeple falls."
Hurricane "Myths"
Does our hot summer and warm Atlantic waters portend a busy hurricane season? In June, Weather Underground clarified a number of so-called "hurricane myths" to explain which aspects of them are true and which are false. On this topic they say, "Sea-surface temperatures are only one factor affecting storm intensity."
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
If you collect historic postcards, you sometimes find the messages on the back more interesting than the illustration on the front. This card, mailed from Boston on September 12, 1954, had me looking up the date and the hurricane.
The message reads, "Dear Will, Just a line from Boston. We had to spend an extra day here because of the hurricane. We'll leave for Maine tomorrow."
The Hurricane was Edna which hit New England on the 11th. Wikipedia summarized the damage to our area.
"There were widespread evacuations in southern New England, after Hurricane Carol struck the same area only 11 days prior. Strong winds caused extensive power outages for 260,000 people, including nearly all of Cape Cod. Edna became the costliest hurricane in the history of Maine, where the hurricane caused flooding that washed out roads and rail lines. There were 21 deaths in New England, eight of whom in Maine due to drownings."
The Big Story from Hurricane Carol
Locally the news that the Old North Church steeple had collapsed during Hurricane Carol received coverage as far away as San Francisco, where they called it the "Paul Revere Steeple."
The Old North Foundation explained that this was the second time the steeple had fallen. It also came down in the “The Great Gale of Boston in 1804." They also noted how little damage there was to it saying, "In another remarkable piece of luck, our original weathervane, designed by Shem Drowne, has survived not one, but two, steeple falls."
Hurricane "Myths"
Does our hot summer and warm Atlantic waters portend a busy hurricane season? In June, Weather Underground clarified a number of so-called "hurricane myths" to explain which aspects of them are true and which are false. On this topic they say, "Sea-surface temperatures are only one factor affecting storm intensity."
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
to your leash.