My View of Life on the Dock
GloucesterCast With Patti Amaral and Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 4/18/14
Topics Include: Gloucester MA, 01930, Earth Day 2014, Carry In/ Carry Out, Sidewalk Sweeping Day, Rose Lopiccolo, Recycling, Rozalia Project, Maritime Gloucester, Single Stream Recycling Is Coming, Hookset Sewer Disks
Patti Says- Recycle!
The following excerpt I wrote over fifteen years ago. The article was later adapted for my book Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! (available at my publisher’s website-click here). Yesterday’s post about how planting for wild bees and butterflies can save farmers money reminded me of the chapter “Planting in Harmony with Nature”.
Male Cecropia Moth on Magnolia virginiana foliage
“The idea of a garden planted in harmony with nature is to create a loosely mixed arrangement of beauty combining native and well-behaved ornamental flowering trees and shrubs. This informal style of a woodland border or bucolic country hedge is not new and is what the French call a haie champêtre. Perhaps the country hedge evolved because it was comprised of easily propagated, or dispersed by wildlife, native species of plants and perhaps as a revolt against the neatly manicured boxed hedges of formal European gardens.
The country hedge is used, as is any hedge, to create a physical and visual boundary, but rather than forming the backdrop for ornamental plants, it is the show. By planting with a combination of native trees and shrubs, whether developing the framework of a new garden, designing a garden room, or extending an existing garden, one can create an interplay of plants drawing from a more widely varied collection of forms, textures, and colors. The framework is the living tapestry of foliage, flowers, fruit and fauna. Working and living in our garden rooms, we are enchanted by the wild creatures drawn to the sheltering boughs, blossoms, and berries. Additionally, by choosing to grow a combination of companionable fragrant North American trees and shrubs, designing a garden planted for a well-orchestrated symphony of sequential and interwoven scents is decidedly easier. We tend to be more familiar with ornamental trees and shrubs because they are readily obtained through the nursery trade. With the accessibility to resources available through the internet we can design with an increasing selection of native species.”
For the homeowner, Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!, a Boston Globe best-of, is chockablock full of design ideas for attracting pollinators to your garden, including extensive information about specific plants, plant combinations, and their cultivation. Oh Garden also makes a terrific gift book, at any time of year, but especially in the spring as we begin to see the earth reawakening and are seeking fresh design ideas and inspiration.
Read more about Oh Garden on my website, Kim Smith Designs ~ Click here.
Magnolia virginiana is one of the most deliciously scented flowering trees you could grow. And the foliage is a caterpillar food plant for the fabulous Cecropia Moth, North America’s largest species of Lepidoptera. The above male Cecropia Moth found in our garden had a wingspan of six inches!
The Fish on Fridays series is a collaboration between Gloucester photographers Kathy Chapman and Marty Luster. Look for various aspects of Gloucester’s centuries-old fishing industry highlighted here on Fridays.
This is part one of a two or three part series on the family business Felicia Oil, located in Gloucester’s Fort. The first installment focuses on Sam Nicastro, Captain of the Trawler Felicia. He is pictured standing with her in 1948 at Fiesta and onboard landing a mako shark. In the second photo, Sam is in the first row, second from the left, aboard Captain Joe Ciaramitaro’s boat, the Benjamin C. At that time there were over 200 boats in the Gloucester fleet.
In 1952 Leslie Jones photographed F/V Felicia iced over coming into Boston’s fish pier. Five years later Sam would venture into the fuel business, servicing fishing vessels in Gloucester Harbor.
Kathy Chapman Marty Luster
http://www.kathychapman.com http://www.slicesoflifeimages.wordpress.com
Well, it’s pretty far away, but it’s still out there! If you didn’t know, I’m a huge space geek. I absolutely love this type of discovery, and all it conjures up! So, do you believe that other life is out there? Are we just one spec of life-form compared to the bazillion galaxies that share our universe? Have you ever “seen” anything that you can’t explain? Feel free to click the link below and watch the video, and make sure you share your voice with the poll just below. And by all means, slap some feedback if you want to get deep, or just share some of your sightings or ideas on the subject of ALIEN LIFE!
http://www.space.com/25531-new-earth-size-planet-could-have-water-video.html
Looks like we may have friends out there after all.
(all photos and videos courtesy of SPACE.COM)
Drop off your unwanted scrap metal at the Magnolia Historical Society April 26 through May 3, 2014 at 46 Magnolia Avenue, Gloucester, MA.
Homie and Rubber Duck’s First Anniversary
We are looking for people who would like to help at the Larcom Theater for our 2014 Season. See current shows here. More will be announced soon.
Ushers get to see the show for free and help others enjoy their show experience! Ushers assist our patrons in finding their assigned seats and provide playbills to patrons. The ushers then take a seat in the theatre during the show in order to address any needs that audience members may have.
If you are interested please call Peter or Vickie at 978-525-9093. 
Some of you may remember the last time I added visuals to a radio ad and made a video. Well I’ve done it again for our UU Meetinghouse benefit next Friday, April 25 featuring local stars 3rian King, Chelsea Berry, Renee Dupuis, Joe Cardoza and Dennis Monagle with Boston-based Meff and Brendan Burns, all of whom “come together” as The Number Nines for a fresh take on The Beatles.
CREDITS: Music by The Number Nines; radio ad produced by Jay Foss of Northshore 104.9; most of the photos by Louise Welch & Philip Doyle; the Number Nines logo by 3rian King. Poster design by Vickie Van Ness.
Khalil Gibran Quote of the Week from Greg Bover
April 11, 2014
“Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.”
Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)
Born in Lebanon when it was still a part of the Ottoman Empire, Gibran moved to Boston’s South End as a child, but returned to his native country for later education. He lost his mother, a sister, and a brother in the space of a year when he was still a teenager, and was supported by an older sister. His drawing and painting drew the notice of Fred Holland Day, an avant-garde Boston artist and publisher who introduced him to the staid New England art community, but it was his 1923 collection of inspirational poetic prose, The Prophet, which gained him widespread notoriety. Never out of print, and rediscovered by the counterculture generation of the 1960’s, he is one of the best-selling poets of all time. Among the many memorials to Gibran around the world one resides in Copley Square.
A robotic submarine has completed its first successful scan of the seabed in the hunt for the missing Malaysian plane, but investigators say tests have ruled out that a nearby oil slick came from the aircraft.
The Bluefin-21’s first two missions were cut short by technical problems and deep water, but the unmanned submarine managed to complete a full 16-hour scan of the seabed far off Australia’s west coast overnight. Data was still being analysed but nothing of note had yet been discovered. The sub has now scanned 90 sq km (35 sq miles) of the Indian Ocean floor.
| Diameter | 21 in (53 cm) |
| Length | 16.2 ft (493 cm) |
| Weight (Dry) | 1,650 lb (750 kg) |
| Buoyancy | ~ 16 lb (7.3 kg) net positive |
| Lift Points | 1 (located mid-vehicle) |
| Depth Rating | 14,763 ft (4,500 m) |
| Endurance | 25 hours @ 3 knots with standard payload |
| Speed | Up to 4.5 knots |
| Energy | 13.5 kWh of total energy Nine 1.5 kWh battery packs Lithium-polymer, pressure-tolerant |
| Propulsion | Gimbaled, ducted thruster for propulsion and control |
| Navigation | Real-time accuracy ≤ 0.1% of D.T. CEP 50 INS, DVL, SVS and GPS USBL tracking with vehicle position updates |
| Antenna | Integrated — GPS, RF, Iridium and strobe |
| Communications | RF, Iridium and acoustic; Ethernet via shore power cable |
| Safety Systems | Fault and leak detection, dropweight, acoustic tracking transponder, strobe, RDF and Iridium (all independently powered) |
| Software | GUI-based Operator Tool Suite |
| Data Management | 4 GB flash drive for vehicle data Plus additional payload storage |
| Standard Payloads (others available) |
EdgeTech 2200-M 120/410 kHz side scan sonar (option: EdgeTech 230/850 kHz dynamically focused) EdgeTech DW-216 sub-bottom profiler Reson 7125 400 kHz multibeam echosounder |
| For information on the BPAUV configuration, please download the Bluefin-21 BPAUV Product Sheet. | |
After a two day baking event, the “Bunny Cookies” are officially ready for our family and friends. Now onto cooking and setting tables!
BJ teaching Michelle how to make the perfect Bunny Cookie. Your never to old to make Bunny Cookies!
Karlee Lorden stopped by last week to make Bunny Cookies for the first time … I think she will be back next year!
Send us your Easter Bunny Egg Cookie Photos …We would love to share them on GMG’s Sista’s Dish!
Gloucester High School Photography class is officially off to Italia with Tom and Jacqueline Underwood. The GHS students would like to Thank everyone for supporting their fundraiser last November held at Cruisport Gloucester!
Lillian LoGrasso Writes ~ “Alessia has been asking to go to Italy for many years so when The Underwood’s said they wanted to take a group to Italy, she was ecstatic! We are so grateful for this opportunity and blessed to live in such an amazing city!”
Click see more for trip details ! Continue reading “Gloucester High Photograpy Students Leave For Tour Of Italy”
Our good friend, Homie, is feeling slighted…to say the least…that his friends, in this otherwise adoring and faithful community that we call GMG, let him down. I, for one, am ashamed. I think that possibly I am not alone in this. Joey, Craig Kimberly, and James + Anna Eves brought this oversight to light in a recent podcast…and since then, each time I see Homie, I feel bad.
How is it that no one made certain that his likeness, as iconic and symbolic as it is, was put up for consideration in the Cape Ann License Plate Design Contest? And I don’t mean that itty bitty homie that is sharing the stage with a lobster, sailboat, pier, etc. in one of the designs. Homie should be center stage. Although that particular design is lovely, as are the others…they’re just not homie.
Bygones. Let’s just move on. I have taken it upon myself to create a Homage to Homie Plate…which may or may not be illegal. I have slightly accessorized him to add to the global appeal. Feel free to print/copy and join the Homie Revolution.
For those of you who have been under a rock and don’t know what all of this homie talk is about….put “Homie” in the search bar and see all of his claims to fame.
To see the original plate designs…minus our mad seagull, See: You Can Influence the Voting
Beaches Are Cool and Open From Brianmoc
Vivian Maier (and Kevin Henry’s Hand) Represent! at The Showcase Theater In Asbury Park, NJ
good morning joey,
there was a lot of buzz about this enigmatic woman and the movie. it is well worth seeing. this was yesterday at the showcase theater, asbury park, nj.
kevin
From Maritime Gloucester’s Executive Director, Thomas Balf: “Thanks again to all who were involved in this Saturday’s First Gloucester Harbor Marine Debris Cleanup. We estimate more than 70 people participated at sites around the harbor, and we collected more than 100 bags of waste and recycling. In one hour! The students in boats, in concert with the land patrols, were very successful. Thanks to Rachael Miller and the Rozalia Project for their initiative, leadership and resources. And to Hiltz Waste Disposal for their corporate support. And to each individual. It is these type of events that can demonstrate that we are not alone and that collectively we can make a difference. I think we were all shocked when we reconvened at the dock at Maritime Gloucester and saw both the numbers of people involved and the quantity of marine debris collected. I think I share the sentiment when I say that the efforts of others, and the extent of the problem, has motivated me to do more.”
Marine Forecast …..
Small Craft Advisory ..
Fri E winds 5 to 10 kt. Gusts up to 20 kt in the morning. Seas 3 to 5 ft.
Fri Night E winds 5 to 10 kt…becoming NE after midnight. Seas 2 to 4 ft. Patchy fog. Vsby 1 to 3 nm.
Friday Video Forecast…
Hourly Forecast…
Week Ahead …
Have a wonderful Easter Everyone!
Thanks for viewing …
GMG weatherman
Peter Lovasco…
Everyday should be Earth day. Please see the following information from Patti Amaral.
Hello Donna, here is a couple of pictures one for sidewalk sweeping and one for earth day. The one sweeping is for sidewalk sweeping and the dog with the recycling is for earth day. I figured you could put a caption “ Even a dog can help cleanup for Earth Day” and recycle too. Sidewalk sweeping is April 19th. The Building Center of Gloucester sponsors our Sidewalk Sweeping Day with a ad in the Gloucester Times asking residents to join in and sweep our sidewalks. We ask residents to sweep their sidewalks keeping it in small piles so that the street sweeping machine can pick it up.
Earth Day is April 26th. from 9-12 at Stage Fort Park. Wolf Hill has generously donated a pansy for children to take home. We are also again asking for donations for the Open Door asking if volunteers can bring fresh fruits and veggies for the pantry. I have contacted Joey and we are suppose to get together to do something for earth day but I thought a little information ahead of time will hopefully let people know to save the date and such. Thank you for your help and if you need anything else from me just let me know. Patti Peace
Foreign Affairs New Menu
Who needs Prada, Gucci and Jimmy Choo? This spring, it’s TIN CAN SALLY who has the cutting edge on shoe design! Sally’s newest collection of tin artwork, titled ‘TINDERELLA COMPLEX’ is on display at Local Colors Artists’ Cooperative, 121 Main St. Gloucester, from April 19 – May 9. Gallery hours: 10-6pm daily. 978-283-3996 http://www.local-colors.org/
Joey, here is the painting we are raffling at $50 per ticket. The painting will be at the Cruiseport event on April 30th.
“Rockport Illuminations”
30 x 40 inches oil
framed
Ken Knowles
THEATRE IN THE PINES – MAY PERFORMANCE – THE HEIRESS
Nan Webber, Artistic Director, Theatre in the Pines, announced the spring production will be, THE HEIRESS by Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the novel Washington Squareby Henry James. Performances will take place at Spiran Hall, located at 18 Broadway on the corner of Broadway and School Street in Rockport. Performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. on May 15, 16, 17 and May 18th at 3 p.m.
The background of the play is Washington Square, New York City, during the latter part of the 19th Century.
A shy, plain young woman Catherine Sloper, falls desperately in love with a delightful young man named Morris Townsend.
Larry Cook and Heidi Pulkkinen are the two leading actors in this production. Audiences loved them in “Summer and Smoke, ”
and they are electric in this stunning production of THE HEIRESS.
Tickets are now available at Toad Hall Bookstore, 47 Main Street, Rockport; The Gloucester Book Store, 61 Main Street, Gloucester and at all performances.
Performed many years ago by Theatre in the Pines, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” has been requested many, many times to return.
The September production, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” will take place at the Shalin Liu Performance Center 37 Main Street, Rockport on September 12 at 7:30 p.m., September 13 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. and September 14 at 2:30 p.m.
In spring of 2015 the Theatre in the Pines, will produce a gala production of Romeo and Juliet.
Good Morning Gloucester 