Weekend B-Day Celebrations

Last week there were some other celebrations, besides just the Climate March.  Seth did his part and asked the City of Waltham (as well as the consent of our new land lord) for a tree for our mini yard.  After months of emails, he finally got his wish, and it arrived right on his birthday!

Seth with Charlemagne, his brand new Red Maple.  It is already starting to change colors for Fall!  (At least I hope that is why it is turning colors, and not that it is already drying out/dying...).  

Before heading to NYC, Bo took me out for a fabulous, belated B-Day dinner by her place in South Boston.  What a treat :o)

If turning 30 means getting a beautiful necklace and enjoying a fancy dinner with a great friend, I think this will be a fun age ;o)

The People's Climate March

This weekend I joined 310,000 people for the People's Climate March in New York City.  This march was organized around the UN Climate Change Summit and demanded governments around the world to take notice and take action.  This march was like a big brother to the one I did in Australia 8 years ago.  Too bad not much progress has been made since then...

Climate March in Canberra, AU (November, 2006)

The event was remarkably well organized and hundreds of buses and trains from around the country shuttled people in.  From South Boston, I was dropped off in the crowded streets of Central Park West with a friend from the lab, Alice.

When we got off the bus we were provided with signs that read "I am marching for (fill in the blank)".  It was too overwhelming to think of just one thing.

We also made climate ribbons, on which we wrote one thing we don't want to lose to climate change.  In a similar style to Buddhist prayer ribbons, we were instructed to attach the ribbons to the prayer tree at the end of the march.

Lining up

Even after the march had officially started, there were so many people that the back of the line had a 3 hour wait before it even began moving! 

We took a scenic detour through Central Park

The march was organized into broadly-defined groups.  A moment of silence for the victims of climate change was spent with the scientists.

The children of nerds played with methane molecules as they waited

Stilt walkers

In front of the American Museum of Natural History

The Tapir Specialist Group had a strong showing of all 3 people

Somehow Alice and I were adopted to help hold the giant banner.  It was so massive no one knew what it read (I think it said something like "FRACKING = CLIMATE CHAOS" but that was just a rumor).

The Social Justice group

One of the best aspects of the march was the diversity in support!  It wasn't just young hippies, although there were plenty of those ;o)

Even the anarchists showed their support, in their own special way.

The WWF and Sierra Club had a great showing.  The Mass Sierra Club even sponsored our bus from Boston and made free t-shirts for us :o)

Not sure who these older ladies were...

We got stuck in the bicycle section for a long time.

Bicycle-powered T-Rex

An Earth Vigil at the edge of Central Park

Many people were creative and dressed up in elaborate costumes.  It looked a lot like Salem on Halloween.

Heading down the Avenue of the Americas

The Vegans

 

The Indigenous People enveloped in Time Square

 

We saw this polar bear at the start of the march and now again at the end!

The march ended with a Block Party.  There were more people than were expected and marchers were actually turned away from the "party"!

Tying our climate ribbons, as instructed

Wrapping up the march at the massive block party!

I am so thankful for the amazing turnout and to be involved in such a meaningful, energizing experience.  Hopefully everyone, especially nonbelievers (regular people as well as heads of state) will take heart and take action.  The choir has already been preached to, now it is time for the rest of the world to listen! 

Fungi and Friends: Sharing is caring... usually

The past couple weeks have been sprinkled with friends and littered with a harvest of wild mushrooms.

After our puff ball adventure a couple weeks ago, Seth discovered a fresh hoard of chicken of the woods.  I'd estimate this tree was carrying a good 10 pounds of edible--and delicious--mushrooms!

Chicken of our beloved woods

This pictures shows less than 1/2 of what we cut in total.  We must have cut about 4 pounds over several days.

Compared to last year's chicken of the woods and this year's puff balls, this was certainly the best mushroom yet!  We ended up munching on some of its meaty goodness for dinner and sharing a bite with our braver friends.  The rest found a place in the freezer.  Next year I think we should go into business, foraging for local restaurants.  We could make a tiny fortune ;o)

Last weekend Seth and I found ourselves scoping out a local Burning Man event hosted by one of his old college buddies here in Waltham.  I am still not really sure what the whole thing is supposed to represent but it was quite an experience.  Next year I will be sure to shave my head and get a few tattoos so I don't stick out so much.

A hippie pool with hippie lifeguard tower

Lots of people camped overnight in the yard

A "steam room"...

Tiny art garden--to be burned?

Tiny art garden in front of the big vegetable garden and behind the cemetery

There was actually a really nice feeling of community at this 24 hour party.  It would have been nice to stay longer but we had friends from out of town coming to stay with us.

Angela and Taylor are friends from NC/SC/GA; Angela knew Seth back at UNC.  I hadn't seen them since they got married 9 years ago!!  Unfortunately they could only stay with us for one night. At least during their short stay we fit in an outing to In a Pickle for brunch and a hike up Prospect Hill. 

After sharing some chicken of the woods with Dr Hayes, he got inspired to start foraging for mushrooms himself.  While in New Hampshire he found himself a mother-load of birch polypore and decided to return the favor, sharing a bit with me.  Edible? Yes.  Plentiful? Yes.  Delicious?  Oh no, no, no :o(  Morel of the story: Just because something is nontoxic and can't kill you doesn't automatically mean one should eat it. This one went into the garbage, not the freezer.