Summer Assortment

Since I took my summer vacation in late spring, I’m left with a true assortment of photos taken over the season that don’t really lend themselves to thematic photo essays; thus, I present the best of the rest, like this perfect pink rose spotted on Marlborough Street in Boston’s Back Bay.

One expects a statue of George Washington at the Boston Public Gardens, but not necessarily palm trees.

The BU-West T stop on the B line: note the slender vertical gleam along the John Hancock Tower.

Another view of the Hancock Tower, looking down Blagden Street in back of the Boston Public Library – a good representation of the city’s architecture from numerous eras.

The new Liberty Mutual building, as viewed through structural latticework of the Back Bay commuter rail station.

On a balmy mid-July Tuesday evening, an outdoor screening of Hitchcock’s The Birds at The Coolidge at the Greenway.

Tippi watches the Greenway, who in turn watches her.

This truck with the distinct, cute logo is a Haymarket mainstay.

The monolithic “luxury condos” at Commercial Wharf along the Waterfront.

Striking signage on Parmenter Street in the North End.

Crossing the Charles River into Cambridge, Sew Low Discount Fabrics in its last days; I remember shopping there for curtain-making material way back in ’98.

For those longing for Sew Low, fear not: there’s another business further up Cambridge Street with a punny name (though not as good of one).

Closer to my side of town, the Casey Overpass at Forest Hills, mid-dismantle. It’s entirely gone now (save a support column or two); I still can’t get over how much brighter the area now appears.

And, just down the road from my place, the lovely Mother Brook as seen from Dedham Blvd.

Millennium Park, slightly later in the season.

An unseasonably chilly mid-July Saturday at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

On the same day: calm, curving Nonesuch River in nearby Scarborough.

Luckily, the sun soon shone on the Nonesuch.

Cape Neddick, Maine. Home of the Nubble Lighthouse, but I already have far too many pictures of that.

A bright afternoon at the Plymouth Breakwater near season’s end.

Autumn Almanac

A dozen autumn foliage snapshots from 2014:

1. Jamaica Pond, Jamaica Plain

2. Jamaica Pond and Perkins Street, Jamaica Plain.

3. Minuteman Trail, Lexington

4. Minuteman Trail, Lexington

5. Brookline

6. The Great Meadows, Lexington

7. The Arsenal on The Charles, Watertown

8. Brookline

9. Harvard Ave., Brookline

10. Pleasant Street, Brookline

11. Dwight Street, Brookline

12. Millennium Park, West Roxbury

Summer Highlights

Although I only posted two photo essays on the blog this summer, I took a decent assortment of pix throughout the season. To begin, let’s go back to Memorial Day at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA. This is from the top of Tower Hill, overlooking the Wachusett Reservoir.

Also at Tower Hill: a sunny ledge dotted with cacti.

I returned to Tower Hill later in the season when much more was in bloom, including a throng of black-eyed susans next to the greenhouse above, and some other vibrantly colored plants below:

Just when I fear I’ve run out of things to photograph in Provincetown, the beach comes through again.

Also in P-Town: a lone piece of old Cape Cod stands apart from the usual shiny, new, tourist-baiting signage.

After an afternoon at Pemaquid Point in Maine, Steve and I swung by East Boothbay on our way back to Boothbay Harbor. An hour before sunset, we found this beautiful rocky shoreline.

I could have spent hours here if it wasn’t so late in the day (and if the mosquitos weren’t so rampant, either).

A sunset view of Boothbay Harbor taken from the deck off our hotel room.

Drove down to Hull on the South Shore one evening. I may post a whole essay on it at some point; for now, this may give you an idea of what one can find there.

On the way back from Hull, an impressionistic sunset over Hingham Bay.

I also want to post a photo essay on Boston’s Seaport District, a neighborhood currently in flux and home to one of the city’s more striking, unusual landscapes. I’m still not sure what this building is (probably some sort of city property), but you can’t say that it doesn’t stand out.

Closer to home in Boston: Millennium Park in West Roxbury on a Sunday afternoon. The sky, looking South towards Blue Hills Reservation, looks about to crack wide open.

At Millennium Park, looking Northeast towards Downtown Boston: the faint rainbow is but a smidgen of the color on display here.

In mid-August, we took a day trip to Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich. This man-made waterfall proved a fun subject to photograph.

Also at the Heritage: I love how the colors on this vertical, narrow wooden structure pop against the soothing green background.

Summer in my mind could not look more inviting and lush than this unadorned space at the Heritage.

The Sandwich coast, rough-hewn in a way that epitomizes Cape Cod Bay.

The season ended with an overnight trip to Portsmouth, NH, one of my favorite New England small towns. It was too hot and sticky to take many photos, but I couldn’t resist this street art: Seagull Under Glass (or in this case, Perched Upon It)?