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Monthly Archives: July 2013

Retreat Redux

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Community, Writing Life

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Tall yellow flowers

I feel grateful for another round of retreating at Earthdance, a community and dance-space for artists and community-builders of many stripes, nestled on a hillside in Western Mass.

Manuscript

Trying to bring love to the manuscript

That familiar, welcoming wood-smell of the Gratitude dorm, new and same heartful, generous people, same novel manuscript for me to wrestle.

The books I bring with me

Kitty guest

The young Rumi was a guest for a few days at Earthdance

Out with kitty

Farewell, Cotton T-shirts

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Green Life

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Tags

goals, gratitude, recycled

Once upon a time, I learned a fine method for departing with items once cared for, but currently out-of-use: take a picture.

Got Yarn? t-shirt

1st Boston Knit-out Festival I attended

After stockpiling a selection of T-shirts that I wore pretty much to-death, I decided to enlist some assistance and employ this method. The result? A virtual, visual library of memories spun from cotton and dye. I’m still the person I was, who purchased or received these shirts as gags or gifts or glimmers of who I was leaning towards being.

Martha Stewart no justice no quiche t-shirt

Worn during march on Washington for women’s reproductive rights

CCBN top ten reasons to work here t-shirt

Job of old

I miss the opportunity to wear them, now that (most of) these old Ts have been converted to dust cloths and hankerchiefs. I don’t miss the burden of owning more than I can appreciate wearing.

WECB Emerson radio station

Never wore this shirt because it bothered my eyes

Hemp recycle bicycle t-shirt

In my experience, hemp doesn’t get as soft as proported

Boston Knit-out & Crochet 2005 t-shirt

Designed by my gent, and then washed to death

Lost and Found with Boston Nature Center

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Boston Moments, Green Life

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Tags

bike-commuting, city-farm, community

IMG_6562

On a bike ride home from Dorchester, I got lost.

One confused turn led to another, to another. Traveling down a road lined with brick homes that reminded me of the old military base I once lived near in New Jersey, I stopped in front of a welcoming yellow building. And then I was found.

View of Boston Nature Center

Boston Nature Center front

The best thing about getting lost in Boston is that it’s a fail-proof method for learning what is where and how the neighborhoods connect.

Stick lean-to in progress

The Boston Nature Center is an urban wildlife sanctuary located on the grounds of the former Boston State Hospital. It offers programming for elementary school age children as well as miles of trails and many bushes under which rabbits graze to their heart’s content.

Rabbit spots the photographer

Lots and lots of rabbits . . .

Rabbit with tail up

Rabbits just chillin

Two rabbits hide in grass

Look closely for two sets of ears!

Right nearby to the Nature Center are the Clark Cooper Community Gardens. Described as some of Boston’s oldest, this impressively large collection of community gardens probably does not welcome rabbits. In the past, friends and I once spotted some wild turkeys loitering around the edges.

Horse trinket on fence

Green roof at Clark Cooper Community Gardens

Fence post

Gardens in the sun

So what have you found when you were lost?

Whole Heart Washington DC

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Bike Life, Learnin'

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bike-love, travel

This is what I looked like the first time I wandered Washington, DC as a tourist.

PhoebeinDC

With few visits in between, one where I marched in support of women’s reproductive rights, another devoted to the company of friends, I have had little opportunity to explore the city on my lonesome. DC’s charms have remained -for me- long forgotten, under-appreciated, or elusive.

Exhibit in the National Museum of the American Indian

Exhibit in the National Museum of the American Indian

I was fairly sure I didn’t much appreciate the culture of our nation’s capital.

Broken skateboard in DC

Say DC and I’ll free-associate: khaki, suit jackets, ladder climbing, poverty, gentrification, and blindingly white, granite-smooth buildings. Hot hot heat. Free museums.

Statues in American Indian museum

However, a whirl around the city astride a shiny Capital Bikeshare rental spun my opinion.

Obligatory White House photo

Obligatory White House photo

I had arrived in DC a day ahead of the conference I was to attend on behalf of my “place-based” community agency. Figured to take in a few museums, eat some local fare, visit with my partner’s cousin, and maybe locate an outdoor market. I accomplished some of those, but it was the bike ride that finally won me over.

Coasting down Pennsylvania Avenue in the impressive protected cycle track located smack in the middle of the street, I toured the neighborhoods.

Pennsylvania cycle track

Today, you say DC, I free-associate: charmingly colorful row houses with all manor of quirky embellishments, the sky a blush pink and cottony blue, mural of some of the U.S’s most popular brown faces –Bill Cosby and Barack Obama.

Tower against the blue sky

Sunset beginnings

Dramatic sunset, DC

So . . . this is what I looked like on the most recent occurrence of my wandering DC as a tourist. Notice any differences? :^)

Pho in DC 2013

35

05 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Home, With Friends

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

as-we-are-living-it, food-n-cookin, gratitude, potlucks

It’s a pivotal age, I think, 35. For one, I can no longer click the radio buttons for 30-34 on demographic questionnaires. I’ve been bumped to 35-40. That’s kind of sad.

Muffins fresh from the oven

Potatoes getting ready to be hashtags

On the plus side, I’ve enjoyed my thirties -the feeling settled in my skin as my own quirky self, the way others appear to listen more closely when I speak from that space of knowledge which comes with experience- so more thirty, more delight, right?

Toys for our young visitor

Friends discuss

D & G at brunch

I rarely engage in big shindigs just for myself, so this year, having friends over for a light brunch, strolling through one of Boston’s grand community gardens, dining at the funky-fine establishment of my favorite Boston-area baking/restaurant mavens, and catching sight of the Boston Fireworks in an unexpected local, felt perfect.

Berkeley St. Garden Welcome Gate

Paper lanterns at Meyers and Chang

Phoebe at Meyers and Chang

What Is It: Fuzzy Orb at Jamaica Pond

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in What Is It

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jamaica-plain

And this thing is . . . ?

Wierd fuzzy thing at Jamaica Pond

Size of a large stone. Spotted on the beach at Jamaica Pond where community members often fish wearing waders. We had some guesses, but you tell me!

Hiking Madame Sherri Forest

01 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Green Life

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

jamaica-plain, spring, trees

IMG_5900

You know how they say books open doors to new worlds? It’s true.

Walking the ruins

Two different socks - sitting on top of the ruins

My partner and I frequent our local branch of the Boston Public Library, twice having borrowed a copy of The New Hiking the Monadnock Region: 44 Nature Walks and Day-Hikes in the Heart of New England and renewed it generously. Long title, many trails at various levels of difficulty.

David through the arch

Consulting the gude to hikes
Following our guide (what? you don’t travel out-of-state with library books?), we visited the stone ruins of a mansion built in the early 1920s by an eccentric theater costume designer, several beaver lodges (sadly, none of the occupants sighted) and many chewed trees that hadn’t toppled in the desired direction, and delicate amphibians decked out in bright orange or careful, mottled brown.

Beaver lodge

Orange amphibian

Mottled leaf floats on the water

Our hike was easy-level and included many reaches into the giant-bag-o-trailmix, so I didn’t work up the level of appetite I might have. Still, I was happy to chow at Putney Diner, a spot famous for its homestyle pies.

Finally, we stopped by Brattleboro, where I introduced David to the one area of Vermont I know fairly well, having visited with my mother and on numerous occasions with friends.

Welcome sign in pocket park

Gardens on the Main Street

Brattleboro Food Co-op outdoor eating area

Wherever You Are, Be There

Whole Heart Local is a webhome of Phoebe Sinclair, writer, wanderer, friend.

Whole Heart Local celebrates beauty at home and afield. Welcome. Stay awhile.

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Fresh From The Stacks

The Kids: The Children of LGBTQA Parents in the USA

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--Beautiful and compelling. I've been wondering about these kids.

Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

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--NEEDED.

Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People

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--Very cool. Very depressing.

Webcomics I'm a'Lovin
Wilde Life - surprising mid-country paranormal & a grumpy werewolf- GO! READ!

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