Tag: gloucester

City of Gloucester CODE RED from Mayor Kirk

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

 CODE RED – Issued at 6pm, Tuesday, February 4, 2014.

Good afternoon.  This is Mayor Carolyn Kirk with an important message from the City of Gloucester’s code red emergency messaging system. 

If you tend to park in school lots during parking bans, please listen especially carefully to this message. 

Effective at 7am tomorrow morning, Wednesday, February 5th, the city has declared a snow emergency and parking ban on all city streets due to the arriving snow storm.  Due to the timing of this storm, parking is also prohibited from school parking lots. 

From 7am tomorrow morning, Wednesday, February 5th until 7am on Thursday, February 6th, all vehicles are banned from parking on city streets and school parking lots.  

Violators of this emergency declaration are subject to ticketing and towing at the owners expense.

Residents and businesses are reminded that they are responsible for clearing snow from sidewalks adjacent to their property.  Your cooperation during this parking ban is necessary for efficient and safe snow removal efforts. 

To repeat, the city of Gloucester has issued a parking ban on all city streets and school parking lots as of 7am tomorrow morning.  The ban shall be in effect until 7am on Thursday, February 6th.

Thank you for listening, and this concludes this message.   

Good Harbor Beach Neighborhood

Posted on by Fredrik Bodin
Good Harbor Beach as it looked in 1939. The houses and the bridge are pretty much the same. The snow - well warmer weather is around the corner. Donna Ardizonni was talking about her desire to go to the beach when it warms up. I hope she's patient!
Good Harbor Beach as it looked in 1939. The houses and the bridge are pretty much the same. The snow – well warmer weather is around the corner. Donna Ardizzoni was talking about her desire to go to the beach when it warms up. I hope she’s patient!

Request for Help from GMG Community and Monarch Film Update

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

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For the past three years I have been filming the life story of the Monarch Butterfly in backyards and along the shores of Cape Ann. My original intent was to tell the story of the butterflies primarily as it relates to their northern breeding grounds and specifically here in our community. Prior to filming, I wrote a children’s story about the Monarchs and during this entire time I have had an ongoing inner debate as to whether or not to travel to Mexico. While editing the film these past few months, I determined that capturing the butterfly’s story in their winter sleeping grounds as they are awakening in Mexico would only add to the film’s depth and beauty. To film in Mexico would be a dream come true.

If you listened to Joey’s GMG podcast yesterday, you heard that in February I am going to be filming the butterflies in Mexico!! This all has come about very quickly! I have to practice walking five miles a day, recall how to ride a horse, and learn enough Spanish so that if I am separated from my group or kidnapped by bandits, I can at least inquire as to where is the bathroom.

Does anyone know of a local outfit that gives lessons in trail riding? And does anyone have experience with a Spanish language lesson CD (basic)? If so, can you please recommend in the comment section. Thank  you!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for adventures from Mexico! Beauty on the Wing ~ Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly will premiere  in the summer of 2014.

Rather than wait until the film was complete, this weekend I made a new website for the film-in-progress. When you have a moment, I hope you’ll visit my website and read more about Beauty on the Wing here.

monarch-butterfly-milkweed-good-harbor-beach-c2a9kim-smith-2011Monarch Butterfly Nectaring at Common Milkweed ~ Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester

Beauty on the Wing celebrates the poetry and majesty of the uniquely North American phenomenon of the Monarch butterfly and its migration. There are no other butterflies the world over that travel this distance and it is a fascinating ecological link that connects Mexico with nearly every geographic region within the United States and Canada. How well the forested habitats of Michoacán are taken care of is as of equal importance to the Monarchs as how we in Gloucester conserve our habitats.

Ready to Ship

Posted on by Fredrik Bodin
After salting, the cod was packed into wooden boxes to ship just about anywhere in the world. To learn more about cod and the Gloucester fishery, read Mark Kurlansky's excellent book: "Cod, a Biography of the Fish that Changed the World." The Bookstore on Main Street has it, and I've seen salted cod in local supermarkets.
After salting, the cod was packed into wooden boxes to ship just about anywhere in the world. To learn more about cod and the Gloucester fishery, read Mark Kurlansky’s excellent book: “Cod, a Biography of the Fish that Changed the World.” The Bookstore on Main Street has it, and I’ve seen salted cod in local supermarkets.

Birds of Cape Ann: Great Egret vs. Great Egret

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Great Egret Gloucester - ©Kim Smith 2013Great Egret (Ardea alba)

On a gorgeous dawn this past season I filmed an epic battle between two, possibly three, Great Egrets at the Good Harbor Beach marsh. The battle lasted nearly ten minutes with the defending egret aggressively flying lower and beneath the intruder, preventing it from landing anywhere on the marsh.

Great Egret Gloucester ©Kim Smith 2013

Great Egrets have interesting breeding behavior in that the male selects the nesting site and builds a platform nest of sticks and twigs in a tree, shrub, or on the ground near a marsh,  prior to selecting a mate. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the chicks, and both male and female vigorously defend the nesting territory. Perhaps that is what I had observed, a male and/or female defending their nesting site.

Great Egret Gloucester Massachusetts ©Kim Smith 2013

The Good Harbor Beach victor first surveyed the marsh from his perch on the adjacent cottage and, after determining his foe was defeated, swooped to the tide pool below to feed peaceably alonsgide the Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron Great Egret Gloucester ©Kim Smith 2013Great Blue Heron and Great Egret

Read More Here: Continue reading “Birds of Cape Ann: Great Egret vs. Great Egret” →

Party Pics from the 6th Annual Art Haven Buoy Auction and Family Fun Night

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Congratulations Art Haven for an Absolutely Fantastic Event!!!

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David Brooks and His Mom and Dad

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_DSF8045_DSF7998_DSF8077_DSF8088See More Photos Here: Continue reading “Party Pics from the 6th Annual Art Haven Buoy Auction and Family Fun Night” →

Salt Barque, Gloucester, 1912

Posted on by Fredrik Bodin
The Italian salt barque Nostra Signora del Boschetto drying her sails. When Gloucester could not make enough salt for our fleet, we imported it from Europe.
The Italian salt barque Nostra Signora del Boschetto drying her sails. When Gloucester could not make enough salt for our fleet, we imported it from Europe.

Tonight is “Meet The Coywolf” 8PM on PBS

Posted on by paultmorrison

Meet The Coywolf on PBS Tonight at 8 PM.  Find out where all that howling at the moon on Cape Ann is coming from.

sixweekcoywolf
Six Week Old Coywolf.

The coywolf, a mixture of western coyote and eastern wolf, is a remarkable new hybrid carnivore that is taking over territories once roamed by wolves and slipping unnoticed into our cities. Its appearance is very recent — within the last 90 years — in evolutionary terms, a blip in time. Beginning in Canada but by no means ending there, the story of how it came to be is an extraordinary tale of how quickly adaptation and evolution can occur, especially when humans interfere. Tag along as scientists study this new top predator, tracking it from the wilderness of Ontario’s Algonquin Park, through parking lots, alleys and backyards in Toronto all the way to the streets of New York City. -PBS

In 56 minutes I doubt they will even scratch the surface of the interesting parts. If they say “evolution” more than twice, “mitochondrial DNA sequencing” even once, I will eat my lab coat. But it is the Nature show on PBS and they might be even handed about the subject and they might even spice it up with some real science from real scientists instead of “scientists say …”

[edit] Looking for coywolf cameltoe to toughen up this post and there is no Rubber Duck at all. She has locked herself in her room crying.

CryingRubberDuck
Weird?

My 2013 Gloucester Community Person Of The Year- Melissa Cox

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

I’ve never done a Gloucester Community Person of The Year Award  but I got to thinking and this year it just was so obvious who I would pick for the title because after being around her (and her awesome husband Bill) and seeing how much she gives of herself to our community, to me it wasn’t even up for debate.

Melissa it seems is at every single community event and is always volunteering her time and work to make Gloucester a better place.  There are people that show up for ribbon cutting ceremonies, get their picture taken and then take off.  Melissa is the one who generally was there on the ground floor of whatever people were there to celebrate by getting her hands dirty and making things happen.  Always with a smile always with a laugh.

Not talking just about her work as a City Councilor which during her young tenure has shown a great desire to do what’s right for the City not based on political vendettas, but truly based on what she thinks are the right things to do.  She is responsive and effective in making things happen for her constituents and the city as a whole.

But politics is my least favorite thing so what I’d rather point out is how she’s always there at events lending a hand or at The Burnham’s Field Community Garden clearing plots and organizing meetings, and honestly it seems like every single event we cover here on GMG Melissa is there, supporting or participating to make our City better.

Melissa, thank you so much for all you do to make Gloucester even better than the place it already is.

We love you (and Bill too) Smile

Allen Estes Vickie and Melissa Cox at Cape Ann savings bank toy drive

Vickie Van Ness photo

Getting Dirty For Breast Cancer

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Good Egg Melissa Cox Rocking Her New City of Gloucester Pin

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Joey C

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Melissa and Bill Cox at the Red Sox game.. lucky them

Melissa at World Series

Look Who’s 80 This Month!

Posted on by Fredrik Bodin
It's Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, sold since 1934. In 2013, 200 million cans sold in this country.
It’s Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, sold since 1934. In 2013, 200 million cans sold in this country.
Andy Warhol designed can.
Andy Warhol designed can.
This is Dr. John Dorrance President of Campbell's Soup since 1914, who developed the formula for the soup.
This is Dr. John Dorrance, President of Campbell’s Soup since 1914, who developed the formula for the soup.

Why bring up Dr. John Dorrance? He owned this house on the Back Shore. It was called Twin Light Manor, and later the Ocean View Inn, unfortunately now in foreclosure. I like the Chicken Noodle Soup, it's just a little too salty for me.
Why bring up Dr. John Dorrance? He owned this house on the Back Shore. It was called the Dorrance house, Twin Light Manor, and later the Ocean View Inn, unfortunately now in foreclosure. I like the Chicken Noodle Soup, it’s just a little too salty for me.