Last night we had friends over to JP for the Lantern Parade around Jamaica Pond (a few pictures here), a community event featuring lanterns made by kids in the neighborhood to raise money for charity. It was blustery and cold, but it didn’t keep the faithful away, and as usual there was no shortage of super-cute costumed kids.
After our stroll around the pond, we walked back to the apartment for an autumn-themed dinner:
The pizza was particularly tasty, so I would recommend trying it if you’re looking for a twist on the standard fall fare.
We bought the pumpkins a couple of weeks ago at the Allendale Farm, which is only a couple miles from here just on the other side of the Arnold Arboretum and is the last working farm in Boston/Brookline.
Yesterday we took a pleasant bike ride around the Eastern Point area of Gloucester, a peninsula that sticks out into Gloucester Harbor. I’ve driven around the loop any times, but it was only as we began exploring some of the side roads that we discovered entire areas that we didn’t realize existed. Following one such road took us back among the summer houses of the absurdly rich, one of which was the Beauport, former home of interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper. Eventually we ended up at the Eastern Point Lighthouse and the Gloucester Tidebreak. Walking out to the end afforded us fine views of both the lighthouse and downtown Gloucester.
On our way home we swung through the Rocky Neck Art Colony, which the oldest active art colony in the country. Unfortunately, most of the galleries were closed for the day, and most everything else seemed to closed for the season.
Yesterday evening I biked by this tree in Eliott Street Park and couldn’t help but stop and take a photo. There wasn’t anything subtle about it–just brilliant setting sun on brilliant yellow leaves. It was my first birthday present of the day, and things only go better as I went from there to meet Cathy for a picnic next to Jamaica Pond.