Bird + Seed

Weekday Runs

I don't know if it's the endorphins, the adrenaline, the peace and quiet or the fact that I'm in a good mood because no one has tried to run over me and my bike while they're texting and driving yet- but I see the most beautiful things on my morning runs.  And I never have a camera with me.  Of course, no camera can capture all the beauty- especially when what you see is influenced by your state of mind [see the comments about endorphins and adrenaline above].  But just the same, I took my phone with me on a run last week and snapped a few of my favorite spots.  I never run with anything other than a watch, so it was a little annoying to have my phone clunking around in my pocket.  Ok!  Onto the run.

I don't start my runs from home.  Rather, I bike to the gym, which is only a few blocks from work, and start my runs from there.  I do that mostly because in the summer I don't like running, then showering, then biking to work and getting re-sweaty.  Or biking up hills when my legs are tired from a run.  Also, some days I work out at the gym, so it keeps me on the same routine.  I run 3-4 week days and one long weekend run of 10-12 miles.  Someday I will take my camera on a long run up the Charles River.  The birds!  The trees!

Anyway, keep in mind all of these pictures were taken within Boston City Limits.  And Boston is a small city area-wise.  Very small.  And yet there is beauty and wildlife all around.  The first image is taken from the Fenway- the marshy belt of land that surrounds the Muddy River flowing into Boston.  It's at about 5 minutes into the run.

Just about the two mile mark there is a creek to jump over.  Thankfully, the rocks are obliging.  In slippery conditions I run on the paved trail- but there are lots of bike commuters and other runners there, so I usually try to stick to the paths and trails that are semi-hidden in the small clumps of forest.

Up some stairs!  Almost at mile 2.5.

Jamaica Pond.  At approximately 1.5 miles around, I usually run around once to bring the total run to 6.5 miles.  Sometimes I run around twice.  If I just stop here and turn back, it's just over 5 miles.  So there are options.

You can't hardly tell, but those are hooded mergansers.  Waterfowl has really made a comeback on the pond. Of course there's the usual Canada geese and mallards, but now Coots, Loons and lots of swans.  The coots are my favorites.  I'm constantly on the lookout for new birds.

And there we have it.  The halfway point of the 6.5 mile run.  The tire tracks in the picture are from the police car that circles the pond in the morning.  He makes it safe.  And the girl in the right hand side of the photo is often there, meditating or journaling or just sitting.  I see many of the same people every day and we wave.  But now it's 6am, which means in 20 minutes I gotta hop on my bike and get to the gym and start my run.  Only 5 miles today.  And no pictures.

Backpacking in the White Mountains

Yes, we've moved.  But things are still in a state of disarray.  And rather than allowing ourselves be mired in the little things we've yet to do, we went backpacking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  Thankfully, this trip was much more easier going in terms of trail difficulty compared to this spring's journey that we actually got to enjoy the scenery in all of it's Fall glory.  

It was approaching 80 degrees as we started along the Lincoln Woods trail, which was actually an old logging railway- complete with old railroad ties along the way.  It was like a highway- straight and pretty flat.  Until about three miles in, and we lost the day hikers and the trial got difficult and barren.  Mostly just backpackers then.  We entered the National Wilderness area and tried desperately to find a place to set up our tent- but the whole area was bog & beaver pond.  Beautiful, but not really great for a tent.

Night was closing fast and we were starving.  So, after bushwhacking through a bog we set up our tent on the mossy ground- which was really an elaborate meshwork of fallen logs suspended a foot over a bog- which we discovered with each misstep that sent us postholing into the marsh.  In the fading light we went back to the river for dinner.  Dehydrated Pad Thai never taste so good.  But ominous grumbling sounds and fresh moose tracks sent us quickly back to our tent and the cover of dense undergrowth for the night.

Damon says that one of the best parts of backpacking is imagining what you're going to eat when it's over.  I think my favorite part is imaging a hot shower and a comfy couch.  We kind of sped out way out of the wilderness in the morning, motivated by food/shower [and the fact that our water filter broke, leaving us with under a liter of water and we were already dehydrated] and horrible thoughts about the Columbus Day traffic back into Boston.  I swear 50% of the city goes into New Hampshire on every long weekend.  The other 50% goes to Cape Cod.  As for Damon's food, we stopped in the cute tourist town of Lincoln for bagels and coffee and I got my shower about 2 and half hours later.

It was the first backpacking I've done in years, and am totally ready to do more.  But maybe with more people.  And the opportunity to bathe in a river.  I'm not keen on stinky feet.  And if you are traveling with me, you won't be keen on my stinky feet either.

Craft fairs are great places to find birds

Somerville Artbeat is one of my favorite parts of the summer.  Craft fair + food stalls + Davis Square weirdness is my perfect equation.  [Hint:  the answer is AWESOME].

And I especially love how in Cambridge/Somerville fairs & festivals Indian food stalls far outweigh everything else.  Fried dough and burgers?  Hard to come by.  Samosas, pakoras & mango lassis?  Hell yes.  

And of course friends.  Especially when friends are so good as to match my raspberry lime rickey.  

But the highlight of the day [for me] was this shop.

I've admired her wares before at previous craft fairs and a shop in Providence, where she is based [etsy shop here!].  Everything was very cute and lovely.  But oh. my. god.  I made an impulse buy that I do not regret.  I even told my friend before we got to the craft fair that I was probably going to buy something with a bird on it.  Cause I'm just that kinda gal.  But this, this is meta.

This is going up on the wall above the couch.  Next to the yellow bird print... which is below the egg painting. Which is across from the other bird print.  Yeah.  And for all you uninitiated, I welcome to the club:

And how was your Memorial Day weekend?

Our good friends [who got married in this post] came back into town [from Quebec], toting their incrediably adorable and well behaved daughter with them.  

We had a great dinner at Beacon Street Tavern, played pass the baby, and decided that we all wanted to take her home.

- I sold my old bike [featured here] to a friend.  Yay!  Lola is off to a good home.

- We had dinner at Henrietta's Table.  It was our four year anniversary.  Damon made the comment that Henrietta's Table is a lot like yuppie Cracker Barrel.  That totally killed it for me.  Because it's true.

We beached it in Marblehead.  The sun finally peaked out and we both got pleasently brown.  

Over all, a really great weekend.  How was yours? 

Vegan Feast

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but ours is particularly cold.  I guess I found my bike riding limit and it's 0 degrees F.  Yup.  Because tomorrow morning will be -5 and will be the first time I decide not to commute into work because of the cold.  That and because with the wind/riding it will be -25 which means a frostbite alert is out from the National Weather Service.  As my bike commute is longer than 15 minutes, there is a very real risk of frostbite to my face.

Maybe the cold walk and the cold bus-waiting was what made Saturday's dinner at Grasshopper so good.  Er, maybe not, because it is just so good- regardless of your state of discomfort.  Damon, the meat eater, was really satisfied and I kept piling the food in.  

We started with crispy fried tofu and carrot hand rolls.  Tasty, but very fall-y-apart-y.  And then, the big guns came out.  First- the No Name (pictured in the foreground)  A vegan sweet and sour fried imitation pork dish drenched in tasty sauce and sesame seeds.  This was absolutely amazing.  Also, the taro-root nest of veggies and vegan meats and vegan seafoods.  I knew seitan was versatile, but they made it taste/look like chicken, beef, shrimp, squid & pork.  And it was all so tasty.  

We vowed to go back- only when spring comes around or when the snow melts and biking again becomes possible.

Un-Rut Yourself

There's something good to be said about routine.  But taken too far even the best of routines can morph into ruts.  And as I am a class-A routine builder that makes me hyper-prone to ruts.  My goal for this year is to keep that fine balance between rut and routine in check.  My goal is to spice things up.  So last night a few of our friends come over for a beer, then we all headed to Improv at the local comedy club.  I used to go every few months and always enjoyed it.  Damon was called up on stage to participate in one sketch.  When the Improvers tapped him on the shoulder he had to come up with some word that they would then incorporate into the dialog.  Damon is great with off-the wall situations like this.  A few of his offerings were 'Grecco-Roman wrestling' and 'preachers'.  Excellent.  We all had a great laugh.

So do you get into ruts?  Have any great and easy rut-breakers?  

What the Fluff?

please note the man dressed as a Fluff pirate in the background

When you think of classic Americana I bet the wacky towns of Cambridge and Somerville, MA don't immediately come to mind.  But I'll have you know that they should.  [I do live three blocks away from the Junior Mints factory and the old Polaroid Headquarters].  Also of note, a few blocks away in Somerville is the home of Fluff.  And to celebrate this old-school concocation of sugar and... sugar, my baby cousin [not so baby now a freshman at BU] and a few friends and I attended the Fluff Festival. 

And nothing says family fun like fluffernutters, fluff smores, whoopie pies, and the Flufferettes.  Yep, professional Burlesque dancers.  Doing a Fluff-based striptease.  [Totally PG btw].  And the Fluff Test Kitchen.  Of note, Fluff on Saltines with Spaghettios is gross.  Though probably not as gross as tunafish made with Fluff.  

Restaurant Week: Aquitaine

Whenever restaurant week swings around [and it does twice a year] I like to head out with a few girlfriends for a night of yummyyummy food.  The restaurant week concept is great.  Three courses, 33.10$ for dinner.  So of course we're going to try out expensive restaurants that we would never have the assets to try otherwise.  Last summer we went to Henrietta's Table in Harvard Square.  And on Tuesday we [Alissa, Michelle & Jenny] went to Aquitaine in the South End.  

The place is small and cute and the smells wafting around were outstanding.  Our service was not... a bit flaky.  And after being neglected for a while he brought the wrong beer.  But after this lapse our server became super vigilant, so we can't really fault him.  Dinner was ...ok.  I don't think they pull out the big guns for restaurant week.  Actually, let me say that dinner was yummy and we had a good time, but I don't think I want to come back to Aquitaine.  I'm glad I went, but it wasn't good enough for a repeat performance [and with soooo many good restaurants to try why should I go back?]

With the bread [yummy] and the beer [French country style ale...super tasty] I started with the sunchoke soup with apple beignet.  Sunchokes [aka Jerusalem artichokes] are big in New England- being an indigenous edible plant that actually survives and grows much of the year here.  Soup was good- could not taste the apple in the beignet.  Moving on... main course... vegetable cassoulet.  Very very tasty.  But when I'm in a restaurant I want to eat something that I can't easily make at home.  I know that's tough for chefs when planning a vegetarian course, but they should at least try.  Because while the cassoulet was tasty, in the end it was really just beans and veggies and made tasty with just some fancy olive oil [and more of it than I would ever put on my dinners at home]  Finally, the dessert, pictured above.  Salted caramel pot du creme with vanilla bean chantilly.  This was so great.  So rich and sweet without being cavity-aggravating.  Everyone else at the table got the chocolate bread pudding, which after sneaking a bite I also recommend, but was glad I got the caramel instead.  

Really, in the end we had a great time eating and laughing and slogging to Tremont Street in the rain [I tell you- I'd come to the South End more often if there was a T that got there... maybe its their ploy to keep us out.  No trains and only 1 inconvenient bus keeps us riff-raff out]  So in six months restaurant week comes around again... where too next?
 

A New Year's Day Well Spent

Happy New Decade Internets!  You may notice some changes around Bird+Seed.  More will come online this weekend.  And please take note of my new & re-vamped tumblr page, The Daily Snap.  One New Year's resolution is to take a photo each day.  Anywhos....

I awoke bright and early [if 8am counts as early] on New Years Day.  I did not party the night before.  To kill two birds with one stone I ran [3.3 mi] to lab to "play" with my mice [read:  inject their bellies with ouchie-things] and then I ran [3.5mi] back.  Exercise + science.  Good girl Connie.  I snapped some pictures on the way as I took with me a small camelback pack with my ID/keys/camera.  The above picture is Boston seen from the small wooden walkway below the BU bridge.  See how the Charles is all frozen and snowy?  The picture below is the railway that runs below the BU bridge.

Then my parents came!  It's a New Years thing for us.  They visit me New Years day.  It's really the only time they ever come up to Boston, which is a shame because we can't do lots of walking around in the cold & snow.  They brought some of my presents I couldn't carry back on the NYC->Boston bus, plus some wine, canned goods, and recently passed grandma's flat screen TV.  I'm a grown up now, I have a real TV.  I took them up to Porter Square, a part of Cambridge they never saw before.  I love that area now, there are lots of new shops & cute things to look at.  I think they really enjoyed seeing 'the real Cambridge'.  Which, its true, I love... old houses and brick sidewalks and little shops and people of all sorts and ages walking around.  We had drinks and nachos at Christopher's.  What a great place.  And the beer selection!  So many wonderful local options!  I had the Lafebeire honeyed winter bock.  Wow, really good.
 
For dinner I took them to The Garden at the Cellar, which is one of my favorite dinner places.  With great and unique foods, drinks and reasonable prices [plus I have a small crush on the head chef & his herb-farmer father] I always take visitors here.  After, we went to ImprovBoston right down the street for some comedy.  It's such a young crowd of comedians, most of them grad students and young professionals who do perform in their time off.  

But now its the second of January and the parents are gone.  I'm left of shift for myself in the inches and inches of snow that are piling up on top of the few inches we got the other day.  I'm in the mood for cozy coffee & afghans & books.  Happy New Year! 

Bye Bye Buds

Our lab shrunk this week.  Two post-docs had their last days, and thus we had a lot of good-bye partying to do Friday night.  MD, pictured above with me, is off for bigger and better things.  He's starting his own lab.  I learned a lot from him and much of my dissertation is founded on and expanding upon his work.  With a truly unique personality, many of his sayings will still used in lab.  My personal favorite?  When you're working really hard on something, concentrating...he'll come up behind you and say "Just don't fuck it up."  Sarcastically. 

Also JW is leaving for a post doc in Denmark.  Originally a grad student in lab, after he got his PhD he stuck around for a year to finish up some stuff.  That's kinda common.  Being the only two grad students in lab for a while, JW taught me much of what I know and how to do things.  And maybe most importantly, where things are kept.  Also, he's been a great friend.  Lab is going to be feeling very empty next week.  But bonus I get to move from my desk in lab to JW's desk in the office.  Which means I can have coffee when I'm analyzing data on my computer.  Farewell friends.  And good luck.