The Urban Pantheist

The back of the Zoo Hospital offices, with a vacant mews collapsed by the snow load.

I haven't said much about Hurricane Irene. Predictions were dire, but smug Bostonians were mostly vindicated as the storm caused little damage here. Enough branches and trees came down to close Stone Zoo for a day, but Franklin Park opened the day after the storm. The carousel is out of commission because a row of small trees is gently resting on the roof. They caught up the hummingbirds in the butterfly exhibit and took them to the zoo hospital for the weekend, lest the butterfly exhibit canvas blow away. Most surprising to me is that most of the big trees at Franklin Park--even some with parasitic fungi at their bases--stood strong, while seemingly healthy trees fell over.

Strangely, Vermont took the most dramatic damage, with swollen rivers wiping out roads and covered bridges and houses. My dad's friend at work had three family members lose their houses to the storm.

Alexis and I spent a nice day inside. Even the dogs weren't much bothered, since the storm didn't have any thunder and lightning as it passed by us. Maggie actually liked it, and wanted to be out all day. Charlie preferred to stay under the covers. One big branch fell from our pine tree onto the neighbor's fence, causing much less damage that if it had fallen two or three feet in any other direction, and throughout our neighborhood there were broken trees here and there. We didn't lose power until 24 hours after the storm was gone, and it was only out for 2 hours. All is well.

One of the big red oaks out my office window lost a limb.

Olmsted Park and the Riverway, this Sunday.



Between Willow and Spring Ponds, Olmsted Park.

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