Lilac Sunday - May 11th

Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum coincides again this year with Mother's Day. It's the only day of the year when picnicking is allowed on the arboretum's lawns, and it's usually a pretty crowded day - lots of families enjoying the bursting lilacs everywhere. Dawn to dusk tours hourly showcase the arboretum's 180 varieties of lilacs collected from all over the world.

Arboretum pictures on Flickr.com here.

The arboretum is a wonderful place for walking, exploring, wandering, bird watching, taking photographs and just breathing easier. Part of Boston's Emerald Necklace, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and managed by Harvard University, the arboretum was part of the late industrial age idea that mankind needs green spaces to preserve their sanity and humanity. How prescient!

The timing seems to be quite apt again this year, as the lilacs on my tree are just itching to pop!

ArtsBoston has a new website!

ArtsBoston has launched a new website this week.  The nonprofit group has long known for its support of local arts, and for running the awesome same day ticket booths in Copley Square and Faneuil Hall.  Fewer people know that you can also buy seriously discounted tickets from the group ahead of time.  

Add yourself to their mailing list and you'll get notices of upcoming shows, ticket availability, special showings, all kinds of arty goodness!  Theater, dance, visual arts, photography, college theater, comedy, charity events, concerts, musicals, all kinds of local and regional events.  

See you there!

Museum of Bad Art

The Museum of Bad Art has just opened a second gallery at the Somerville theater - now it's twice as bad!! This gallery, like the first, is located near the men's room. Hah!

Lucy in the Field With Flowers, above, the inspiration for and cornerstone of the Museum of Bad Art collection. I totally need to go there. File under "Things you must see while in Boston!" It's still on my list!

Harvard's Glass Flowers

Harvard's Glass Flowers , originally uploaded by Auntie Lola.

I finally got to Harvard's Museum of Natural History's Glass Flower exhibit. Wow! I now see why it's on everybody's "Things You Must See While in Boston" lists. It took a father-son team about 50 years to complete the series - the room is has a lot of overhead lights, and it's dimly lit except for the cases, so photographs were a bit of a challenge. I did manage to get a few that were quite nice. Here are some of my favorites ....

Rows and rows of cases hold the flowers and many of the specimens have magnified bits and cross sections of sexual organs or seeds or common parasites - quite detailed!!

Common chicory - adorning roadsides everywhere and flavoring or substituting for coffee in many places!

Red maple leaves were spectacular in their colors and execution - it took him months to get the colors exactly as he wanted them.

Along the back walls are some of the drawings they used to plan their specimens.