Monday, August 9, 2010

First Anniversary

Yesterday was the first anniversary of our wedding.  My beloved spouse and I went to Concord to walk around the spots where we had our wedding photos taken and then had dinner at the Colonial Inn where our reception was. 

Rebekah Kay Photography

We had dinner on front porch of the Inn.  It was beautiful and we had a fabulous meal and got to reminiscence about being married for a whole year.  I can't believe that time has passed so quickly!  

Our anniversary gift to each other is going to be a wine tasting course that we'll take in the fall.  I've always tried to fake it when it comes to tasting wine in restaurants so now I'll know the actual procedure.  Maybe I'll figure out how to describe wine as well, but probably not because most of the things that people say about wine is either obtuse or ridiculous.  

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's Free Shakespeare on the Common

Every summer my family gathers up their lawn chairs and blankets and heads in to Boston to watch the CSC produce one of Shakespeare's plays.  It's always an amazing production, made even more so by the fact that it's absolutely free.  This year's play was Othello and as per usual it drew a massive crowd.Every summer my family gathers up their lawn chairs and blankets and heads in to Boston to watch the CSC produce one of Shakespeare's plays.  It's always an amazing production, made even more so by the fact that it's absolutely free.  This year's play was Othello and as per usual it drew a massive crowd.  Check out the crowd in the photo below.  This was at 5pm a full three hours before the show began!  I also added a photo of the stage.  I'm always amazed by how a simple background is all that's needed to support a phenomenal play.  








The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum


Despite the fact that you can't take pictures inside the museum, I did take a few outside.  The Y shape that you see in the second photo was specifically placed on the front of the building by Isabella Stewart Gardner because she enjoyed Spanish culture and used the Spanish spelling of her name, Ysabella.

The museum is also undergoing a major renovation project that will provide a new entrance, coatroom, and a much larger cafe.  It should reduce some of the impact that visitors have on the delicate collections.    It was a huge endeavor to get approval for the expansion because Isabella Stewart Gardner specifically stated that nothing within the museum was to be changed or moved.  The museum's board of directors eventually agreed that the carriage house at the rear of the museum building was not considered a part of the museum and could therefore be changed.  Let's hope that when the renovation is completed in 2012 it looks as wonderful as it should!

Friday, August 6, 2010

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

I love museums.  It's a not so secret obsession of mine.  They are cool, and quiet, and beautiful.  A perfect place to spend the day during a frigidly cold New England winter or a blazingly hot New England summer.  My hands down favorite in Boston (and there are lots of great museums here) is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  As far as museums go it's a completely unique concept.  Essentially Stewart Gardner loved to travel and collect art and artifacts and decided to build a home/museum where she could showcase her collection the way that she wanted to.  Unlike traditional museums that group artwork from the same time period or of the same style, she decided to group things that she liked together together.  A simple concept that worked out beautifully.  I've been there about a million times and I always see something new because there is just so much to look at.

During the summer the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hosts what they call "Neighborhood Nights" where they open the museum on three Thursday evenings for free admission.  They also have games for the kids and live music.  Needless to say I go to all three neighborhood nights every summer.  I even bring my trusty blue museum guide (I'm a big nerd like that) so that I can read up on everything that I see.

Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside of the museum so you'll just have to trust me and go to the museum yourself.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Leaning into it....

So I stole the title from Oprah, but I think it accurately expresses how I feel about change.  When it comes to changes it's hard to decide to make a change and then immediately implement that change.  Instead it's more often a gradual process.. or a leaning into it.   So since I'm recently married, rapidly approaching 30 and committed to a healthy lifestyle there are more than a few things that are going on in my life that I'm trying to lean into.