The Urban Pantheist

In April Urban Nature Walk went to Ponkapoag Pond. Some folks stayed for four or five hours, finally making it to the bog. Alas, I had to leave after 2 hours. Friends of mine (locals I call the "nature friends") found out I'd never been to the bog and were horrified. Finally enough things came together and I planned for the July walk to approach Ponkapoag from the opposite side so we would get to the bog quicker. Even before we got to the bog, it was a very different walk than the one we took in April. For one thing: mushrooms!


These little teeny guys were right by the trailhead (which is right off of rt 93). They look very similar to mushrooms we've seen at Cutler Park--we haven't identified them to species, but Alexis named them "Spaghettio mushrooms."

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I got to the Urban Nature Walk early this morning and HOLY CRAP this guy rolls up on his homemade summer dogsled.


He and the dogs had done the 4 mile loop around Ponkapoag Pond and the dogs were hot and ready for a dip.


He runs the dogs competitively with that thing. He said it's a unique sled, made of mountain bikes and sheet aluminum, and only weighs 40 lbs.

I went to Allston with the intention of setting up my 3:00 snapshot to be a picture of Ron Jeremy, who was making an in-store appearance promoting his brand of rum. (Why does this sound like I'm describing a dream? This really happened.) There was a very short wait to meet him, so it all happened rather early. I headed home and at five minutes until three went to Turtle Pond and set up this self-timer photo.




I pulled over again, just at the turn to my street. This swampy meadow is actually drainage ditch. I wanted to show how pretty it is even in mundane spots like this. I was going to get a photo of the roadside, but just as I got out of my car, a fire engine and a police cruiser pulled over; there was a lady walking along the road and the firefighters and cops went over to talk to her. Maybe she had something happen and called 911? I ducked back toward the drainage ditch because I didn't want the emergency personnel to think I was trying to photograph the situation.

We went for a walk in the morning to look at the neighborhood of Magnolia--we hadn't really seen it in the daylight.
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Alexis and Albee taking an afternoon nap together. We've been so tired since last weekend in New York. I blame the puppy a little, but other things have come up to prevent us from sleeping as much as we should. I was happy to see her grab some sleep out in the yard.

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Sweatin' on July seventh. The heat wave lasted 5 days. Not bad! Longest July heatwave since 1990.
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As near as I can tell, this is the first time I appeared in the media (although I do vaguely remember being at some public event and a photog pointing a camera at me when I was younger, but unless you can find it, this one will suffice). I must have noticed the science journalism blunder in the caption (a pond aquarium won't have SALT water) but I didn't remember it until my dad showed me the clipping yesterday.

I take this as proof that I was on path to studying biology before getting discouraged by my shortcomings (disorganization mostly, and inability to keep a notebook) and derailed into art. I've come back to my first love!

The Jim rides in my lap as Alexis drives us back to Lost Pond, in Brookline.

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I took a short hike with some zookeepers (first time I've been in a group of all-male zookeepers since I've been in the business) to birdwatch near Spot Pond (part of the Middlesex Fells). We saw common and hooded mergansers, but not the bald eagle pair that's been seen lately. Apparently the eagles fly over Stone Zoo pretty often these days.


A very small part of the pond is iced over, which is unusual for this time of year.

Five years ago today it was cold enough to...

But we went to Deer Island anyway:

Waterlilies and springtails, Rock Pond, Allandale Woods.