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Last BPL Concert in the Courtyard for this Season Is Friday!

Save the date because this Friday, August 30th is the last of this year's Concerts in the Courtyard at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square.

Fernando Holz and his band enjoyed their time in the courtyard on August 2nd.

We like these events and hope you will find your way to this lovely space on Friday to enjoy a bit of jazz from Arni Cheatham and Synergy.

Thanks to the wonderful special events team at the BPL for another great summer of music. We look forward to their offerings for the fall and winter.

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: © 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 28, 2013
Last BPL Concert in the Courtyard for this Season Is Friday!

Save the date because this Friday, August 30th is the last of this year's Concerts in the Courtyard at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square.

Fernando Holz and his band enjoyed their time in the courtyard on August 2nd.

We like these events and hope you will find your way to this lovely space on Friday to enjoy a bit of jazz from Arni Cheatham and Synergy.

Thanks to the wonderful special events team at the BPL for another great summer of music. We look forward to their offerings for the fall and winter.

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: © 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 28, 2013
Last BPL Concert in the Courtyard for this Season Is Friday!

Save the date because this Friday, August 30th is the last of this year's Concerts in the Courtyard at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square.

Fernando Holz and his band enjoyed their time in the courtyard on August 2nd.

We like these events and hope you will find your way to this lovely space on Friday to enjoy a bit of jazz from Arni Cheatham and Synergy.

Thanks to the wonderful special events team at the BPL for another great summer of music. We look forward to their offerings for the fall and winter.

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: © 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 28, 2013
George Washington, Refreshed & Renewed

Last week, we told you why the Statue of George Washington in the Public Garden was under wraps.

Today, we give you photos of our first Commander in Chief all polished up and renewed. The conservators have even replaced his sword blade.

Unfortunately, the replacement blades are plastic, these days, since this part of the memorial is so often vandalized.

The art conservators who work to restore this statue (and know what they are doing) won't climb on it without building a scafolding to protect the fragile base of the monument.

But, obviously the criminal element who climb it to steal the sword or deface it with promotional material for area sporting events don't care if they damage it.

Nor, do they care about the people who come here from all over the world and would like to take a photograph of the statue with the sword and without the addition of a tacky sports ad.

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.

August 27, 2013
George Washington, Refreshed & Renewed

Last week, we told you why the Statue of George Washington in the Public Garden was under wraps.

Today, we give you photos of our first Commander in Chief all polished up and renewed. The conservators have even replaced his sword blade.

Unfortunately, the replacement blades are plastic, these days, since this part of the memorial is so often vandalized.

The art conservators who work to restore this statue (and know what they are doing) won't climb on it without building a scafolding to protect the fragile base of the monument.

But, obviously the criminal element who climb it to steal the sword or deface it with promotional material for area sporting events don't care if they damage it.

Nor, do they care about the people who come here from all over the world and would like to take a photograph of the statue with the sword and without the addition of a tacky sports ad.

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.

August 27, 2013
George Washington, Refreshed & Renewed

Last week, we told you why the Statue of George Washington in the Public Garden was under wraps.

Today, we give you photos of our first Commander in Chief all polished up and renewed. The conservators have even replaced his sword blade.

Unfortunately, the replacement blades are plastic, these days, since this part of the memorial is so often vandalized.

The art conservators who work to restore this statue (and know what they are doing) won't climb on it without building a scafolding to protect the fragile base of the monument.

But, obviously the criminal element who climb it to steal the sword or deface it with promotional material for area sporting events don't care if they damage it.

Nor, do they care about the people who come here from all over the world and would like to take a photograph of the statue with the sword and without the addition of a tacky sports ad.

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.

August 27, 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
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
Poppy Says, “Time for Some Emergency Planning”

Here's Poppy with her bright red emergency bag ready to go out the door. It's also her pre-packed travel bag with everything she needs, except food and water, when we travel. (We have an emergency backpack that has a supply of food and water for all of us.)

The heart of hurricane season is here. If you have companion animals, you need a plan because, should a storm or other disaster strike, you are on your own when it comes to finding shelter for your entire family.

The City of Boston ReadyBoston program says, “Don't forget your pets! If your family needs to go to a shelter, please know that all Red Cross shelters and many others do not allow pets unless they are service animals. Talk to your veterinarian now to determine where the closest emergency animal shelter is located to ensure your pet's safety.”

Make Your Own Plan & Emergency Kit

I doubt your veterinarian will have a satisfactory answer to that question. You have to make plans for a safe place to go with your animals in case of an emergency. While large scale disasters come to mind, it could also be a water leak or fire in your building.

If you have a friend or relative who will shelter you for a few days, that is ideal. You should also have the phone numbers of a few pet-friendly hotels, both near your home and in the surrounding areas, where you might reserve a room until the immediate danger has passed and those charged with emergency management begin to offer solutions for families with animals.

MSPCA Emergency Resource Pages

The MSPCA has set up a very complete and helpful collection of disaster planning resources on their website.

They break down what you need to do into three sections:

Preparedness Before the Disaster

Evacuation Essentials

After the Disaster

Support Pending Legislation

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is act to change the current situation that leaves those of us with companion animals on our own in disaster situations.

State Senator Karen Spilka has introduced, “An Act ensuring the safety of people with pets in disasters.” It is bill number S. 1172. Contact your state senator and representative and ask them to support S. 1172. The MSPCA has a page explaining what this legistation will do and why it should be supported.

Ask the Mayoral Candidates

Since we have a mayoral race underway in Boston, you might ask those candidates what they'll do to change the city’s emergency plans to include those of us who consider our animals part of our family.

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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 25, 2013