Farm to Table to Paper

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

More Cape Ann Dining news-
http://www.capeanneats.com

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Farm to Table to Writing
A Special Workshop at the Gloucester Writer’s Center

Thursday, June 2nd
3:00 – 8:00 PM

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Farm to Table Workshop

Food. It’s literally what’s for dinner, breakfast, or lunch. It can be a lifestyle or even a moral or ethical choice. What should the fat, sugar, or sodium content be? Is it organic, conventionally raised, or genetically modified? So many choices, so many things to think about, so many possible dilemmas. Generally, though, when we think about food, writing doesn’t enter the picture beyond reading the words listed in recipes or employed in a review of the latest difficult-to-get-reservations-for restaurant.

That’s not the case for this workshop. Yes, it will involve food, but the focus will be on funneling our experience of food through writing. We’ll begin by gathering at the GWC and then going to opening day at the Gloucester Farmers’ Market, where we’ll talk…

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Mystery of the Little Free Library

Posted on by Bridgette Mathews

A couple weeks ago I received this mysterious postcard in the mail with no return address, email or phone.  I drove by one morning before work and didn’t notice any “birdhouse” looking dwelling because I think I was looking for a shed size house since the note said “large”.   Since I love a good mystery I went back again tonight with back-up (husband Neil).

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AND…there it was.   Just an adorable little box on a post!  (No, not a shed…I’m a little slow about the obvious lol!)  The LittleFreeLibrary.org is a unique personal community exchange of books where you can “Take a book – Return a Book”.  You don’t have to return the book you took, you are just asked to bring back a book to replace the one you took.   I love this idea, and when I went to the website I found an awesome world map where you can find one of 36000 LittleFreeLibraries worldwide!   I was thinking how fun it would be for a family with kids to venture out over the summer and see how many they can find!   Our LittleFreeLibrary is perfectly situated at 954 Washington Street, so you can stop and grab a book to take to the beach if you like (but don’t forget to bring one back!).

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They have titles for all ages…

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My favorite part of my visit (other than the amazing smelling Lilac bushes) was that they put a guest book inside for you to sign and make suggestions or comments!

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How it all started:

The People Who Started the Movement
In the beginning—2009–Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one room schoolhouse. It was a tribute to his mother; she was a teacher who loved to read. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard. His neighbors and friends loved it. He built several more and gave them away. Each one had a sign that said FREE BOOKS. Rick Brooks of UW-Madison saw Bol’s do-it-yourself project while they were discussing potential social enterprises. Together, the two saw opportunities to achieve a variety of goals for the common good. Each brought different skills to the effort. Bol was a creative artisan experienced with innovative enterprise models; Brooks was a youth and community development educator with a background in social marketing. They were inspired by many different ideas:
*Andrew Carnegie’s support of 2,509 free public libraries around the turn of the 19th to 20th century.
*The heroic achievements of Miss Lutie Stearns, a librarian who brought books to nearly 1400 locations in Wisconsin through “traveling little libraries” between 1895 and 1914.
*“Take a book, leave a book” collections in coffee shops and public spaces.
*Neighborhood kiosks, TimeBanking and community gift-sharing networks
*Grassroots empowerment movements in Sri Lanka, India and other countries worldwide.

 

Check out the website LittleFreeLibrary.Org to see the whole story or to start your own LittleFreeLibrary!

The New and Improved Mile Marker One

Posted on by Nichole S.

As is often my go-to on rainy weekend days, I headed to the pool at Cape Ann’s Marina Resort yesterday.  You have heard me say this before, but it is a total score if you are a parent of a  young child…especially ones that can swim confidently on their own.

We were there for a little over four hours, the kids swam, we ate lunch, and hung out with friends.

We always have great, easy, inexpensive fun there and that has only become better with their new and improved menu by the pool AND the great renovations outside!  Today I ordered the strawberry summer salad, the boys had the chicken tenders with the world’s BEST honey mustard, and we shared the cheese trio plate with havarti, manchego, and brie….and mango slaw + pita chips.

I love hanging out with the boys, but I can’t wait to go back hit the raw bar, have some yummy drinks, hear some music, and sit by the water with some friends too.

Cape Ann Community Bulletin Board Listings For 5/31/16

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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Welcome To Cape Ann Community Bulletin Board

Joey C

A place where non-profit Cape Ann organizations can post press releases directly and then those press releases will be reposted to http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com . This is not an advertising space for businesses, fitness or wellness organizations, or music listings.

The web address will be http://www.capeanncommunity.com

To have your community organization news posted here, contact Joey C who will grant access for you to post directly.

I Have Some Free Rain Collection Barrels For Anyone That Would Like One

May 31, 2016 ~ Joey C

Come down the dock and do your part to capture that water from your roof to use when the water bans come! There are six total and when they’re gone, they’re gone!

Captain Joe and Sons

95 East Main St

Gloucester MA

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Cape Ann Farmers Market Opens This Week June 2- October 13, 2016

Image ~ May 31, 2016 ~ modpodge16

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Open Classroom at EPDS

May 31, 2016 ~ epdsfrontdesk

Come see a day in the life of an Eastern Point Day School student! We are having an Open Classroom this Wednesday, June 1st! 9:30 am to 11:30!

Meet our teachers, experience our curriculum and ask our kids why they love their school.

8 Farrington Ave. Kitty corner to Niles beach!

Call with questions 978. 283.1700 or email us anytime: info@easternpointdayschool.org

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Do what makes you happy…

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

More Cape Ann Health, Fitness and Wellness news-
http://www.capeannwellness.com

Ayurveda Wellness Healing, LLC's avatarCape Ann Wellness

Have you met your soul?

Ayurveda Wellness Healing encourages you stop, breathe and listen…as getting to the level of the soul is the key to all forms of healing.

Take the time to do what makes you happy – identify just one thing and make it a priority. Keep a journal and write down how things around you and in you start to change.

“Blockage is disease/Flow is health” 🙂

info@ayurvedawellnesshealing.com

http://www.ayurvedawellnesshealing.com

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Great remembrance to our Veterans. Thank you to all who helped make this happen. #Memorial Day Services. 🇺🇸@

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

4:50AM Memorial Day: Stillness In #GloucesterMA Harbor From @CaptJoeLobster

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

PRETTY BLUE CATBIRD EGG

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Gray Catbird holly tree copyright Kim SmithMew, mew, mew coming from the trees overhead–my husband asks–“Are those catbirds making that dying cat sound.” Yes, honey, and we’re going to be hearing a great deal more of that cat call with this sweet Gray Catbird nest!

Discovered amidst the holly bush branches while giving the shrub a good pruning, the female was seen building the nest, with her mate supplying bits of straw and twigs for the nesting materials. The Gray Catbird is a frequent visitor to gardens. I swear, the day we planted blueberry bushes is the day the Catbirds began to call our garden their home. If you want Catbirds nesting in your garden, plant the foods they love, which include shadbush, holy, winterberry, and both high and low bush blueberries. And too if we don’t have any fruit ripening in the garden, I’ll place a bowl out on a table with berries from our frig (chopped into small bits), not only attracting Catbirds, but also Cardinals, Robins, and many of our other fine feathered friends.

Gray Catbird egg nest copyright Kim SmithOne pretty blue Catbird egg–on average, the female will lay four. Hopefully more are yet to come.

Gray Catbird copyright Kim Smith

WISHING ALL OUR GOOD MORNING GLOUCESTER FOBS A PEACEFUL MEMORIAL DAY

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

In remembering many, and in honor of all our veterans, we wish you a peaceful Memorial Day.

Originally posted May 27, 2013

Icelandic Poppies sunny day ©Kim Smith 2013 copy

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

To read about the origins of In Flanders Fields see the following from the Arlington National Cemetery website.

Icelandic Poppies ©Kim Smith 2013

In Flander's Field Illustration 1921

In Flander's Field

Boston Globe features Walter McGrath’s work at Gloucester’s Cove Hill Cemetery

Posted on by Catherine

Great story by Hattie Bernstein in the Globe today gives a shout out to Walter McGrath in Gloucester.

Boston Globe may 30 2016 grave guards

“If you go to a cemetery on Memorial Day, you’ll see flowers and flags planted everywhere and a lot more visitors than usual.

What won’t be obvious on this holiday dedicated to military veterans who died fighting in wars are the efforts of Northborough’s Beth Finch McCarthy, 53, Gloucester’s Walter McGrath, 83, and Jordan Hurley, 15, who lives in Middleborough.

The three are among an uncounted battalion of volunteers across the region who share a common pursuit: maintaining their communities and ensuring that those buried there aren’t forgotten.

McGrath, a retired engineer with a long list of interests…

Continue reading “Boston Globe features Walter McGrath’s work at Gloucester’s Cove Hill Cemetery” →

We Think We are so Clever …

Posted on by God's Morning

we think we are so clever

yet at best all we can do is copy, rearrange or attempt to mimic the unfathomable creation of our incomparable Creator, while remaining utterly incapable of creating a thing on our own.

E.J. Lefavour

Motif Monday: Memorial Day, Gordon Parks, Poppies

Posted on by Catherine
John McCrae sketch book 1896, Maryland
John McCrea sketchbook, ca.1896, Maryland

Veteran of the Boer War and WWI, a teacher, and doctor, Canadian John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields in the spring of 1915 while still at the bloody battlefront in Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders.

The Germans had already used deadly gas.

Dr. McCrae had been tending to hundreds of wounded daily. He described the nightmare slaughter: “behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed.” By this time he had already devoted his life to art and healing. He couldn’t save his friends. How could anyone?  Twenty years prior, he sketched poppies during his medical residency in Maryland. He published poems and stories by the time he was 16.  I’m not surprised he noticed the brilliant fragile petals and horror. He wrote for those who couldn’t speak and those who had to see. Meningitis and pneumonia killed him January 1918 after several months battling asthma and bronchitis. His poem and the emblematic poppy continue to inspire and comfort.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt  dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 

John McCrae, 1872 – 1918

Images: Respectfully thinking about art that helps us celebrate, remember, remind and reflect every family who has suffered a loss in service.

Five reds five whites five blues
Donald Sultan Five Reds, Five Whites, Five Blues, 2008 color silkscreen with enamel, flocking and tar like texture
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Gordon Parks, Library of Congress, 1943 photograph, Gloucester policemen, Memorial Day Ceremonies

A few poppy images follow. I was thinking about their poetic illumination before and after WW1 and layers of meaning and beauty.

Paul Cummins blood swept lands and seas of red tower of london 2014 ceramic poppy
Paul Cummins, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, 2014, Tower of London, individual cast ceramic poppies fill the moat  (photo during installation in progress) commission to mark 100 years since the first full day of Britain’s involvement in WWI
Monet poppy field in a hollow near giverny 1888 mfa
Monet, Poppy Field in a Hollow near Giverny, 1888,  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

More representations of poppies in art

Continue reading “Motif Monday: Memorial Day, Gordon Parks, Poppies” →