October travels: Boston

November 22, 2021 a-roving

The Gentle Author was holding their last-ever Advanced Blogging workshop in April 2020. I had signed up, booked my flights and lodging, and was looking forward to the trip, and then… well, you know what happened. But a year and a half later, the workshop was finally back on, and I couldn’t wait. Here was another chance to learn from the GA and to share notes and ideas with other bloggers. I started planning my trip.

Flying all the way to London for a weekend workshop seemed rather extravagant, so I decided to make the most of my trip by stopping in Boston on my way out and Philadelphia on my way back, to visit friends and enjoy the autumn colors. I also added side trips to Albany and Oxford, so it was a busy three weeks. I have already written about challenges of traveling in a pandemic; here I want to share some of the highlights and photographs from my visit to Boston.

A place to stay

I timed the start of my travels to coincide with the end of my sister Shannon’s stay in Boston, hoping to spend a little time with her and her husband before they packed up and headed back to California. Unfortunately, that part of the plan did not work out. This was all the fault of the Boston Red Sox, who won their wild card game and went on to face Tampa Bay in the division playoffs… which in turn affected the plans of my sister and brother-in-law, a die-hard Red Sox fan… which in turn affected me. So the dominoes fall.

Fortunately, my friend Deborah and her husband David generously invited me to stay a couple days longer than originally planned. They are kind and considerate hosts, knowing instinctively when to organize some sort of activity and when to give a guest space to do her own thing. My bedroom was on the third floor, where they have created a peaceful place for sleeping or reading or yoga or meditation or writing — whatever one needs. It’s a wonderful place to stay, and if they were an AirBnB I would give them infinite stars.

The best part of my visit was the chance to hang out with Deborah, whom I see too rarely. We are both part of a group of friends who call ourselves the Wild Women (or perhaps it’s Womyn) of Folklore. We gather in person once a year at the very most, but during the pandemic we began to meet regularly via Zoom. Having more frequent contact with these dear friends was one of the silver linings of the pandemic for me, but better still was this chance to spend in-person time with Deborah, sitting or walking and talking together — a real joy.

A wander through town

Deborah and I spent my first day wandering and shopping and lunching in Boston. I don’t know about you, but I often have better luck shopping while I’m traveling than I do at home. Maybe it’s that I have no preconceptions or routines in an unfamiliar place, so I’m more likely to explore something different from my usual? I’m not sure. But on Newbury Street we discovered a wonderful clothing store called Betsy Jenney, where Betsy herself waited on us. We had fun trying on (and eventually buying) a few pieces.

After lunch we wandered through a corner of the Boston Common and then over to the Arlington Street Church, where we stopped to tour the beautiful Tiffany windows. There is nothing like Tiffany glass for its rich, warm, opalescent glow. Lit by the afternoon sun, the windows were glorious.

I made the below composite images from photos I took of the oldest windows, which were installed between 1899 and 1905.

Window 1 (left): Madonna of the Flowers | Window 2 (right): The Message of the Angel to the Shepherds
Window 4: John the Baptist | Window 8: Sermon on the Mount

That same afternoon, I walked through the older section of the Boston Public Library and found myself in the Abbey Room, whose upper walls are adorned with fifteen large painted panels depicting the quest for the Holy Grail. The room is named for the artist, Edwin Austin Abbey, an illustrator who had little experience working with oils and had never painted a mural before accepting this commission in 1893. Looks like he learned on the job! The paintings are dramatic storytelling, rich with detail and vibrant color.

This is the final painting in the series, which shows Sir Galahad receiving the grail and completing his quest.

A walk in the woods

One of my reasons for visiting Boston was to enjoy the fall colors, so Deborah and I decided to follow my sister’s suggestion and take a hike in Great Brook Farm State Park. There is something about deciduous forests that speaks to my soul, a yearning that is never quite satisfied by California’s beautiful evergreen forests, and I was longing to walk in these leafy, airy woods.

Following Shannon’s directions, we parked and followed the trail along the brook and through the trees.

Love those reflections!

Any hike that ends with ice cream is a good one, in my book. So Deborah and I were happy to locate the park headquarters, whence we followed the signs to the ice cream stand for a pre-lunch dessert.

These are the small scoops!

From there, we made our way into nearby Concord, where we sat on the patio of the Main Streets Café and munched our sandwiches. Then a little wander around the shops before heading home. This lovely church, looking quintessentially New England-y, caught my eye, so I took its picture.

St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church in Concord, Massachusetts

And other pleasures

Other highlights of my time in Boston included long talks with Deborah, dinners with my friend Ellen and with Craig’s nephew Nick, trying out an ebike with Deborah (so much fun!), burnt caramel ice cream at Toscanini’s (wow!), and long walks through the city. Boston is eminently walkable: even at night, plenty of people were on the streets, and I felt safe being out on my own.

I also spent an afternoon exploring Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, in the largely fruitless search for birds. I did spot this guy, which I think is a juvenile red-tailed hawk. (If you know better, please correct me!) I spied a bluejay, a couple of robins, and some small sparrow-ish birds scrabbling in the undergrowth, but I couldn’t get close enough to identify them.

As I wandered, I began to notice that the paths that crisscrossed the cemetery were all named for flowers and trees. I found the Violet and Aster and Oleander Paths, as well as the Jonquil and Poppy and Dogwood Paths (and dozens more). So I just knew that somewhere there had to be a Primrose Path. And I was right.

Down the primrose path

If you’re like me, you have heard the expression “leading someone down the primrose path,” without quite understanding what it meant or knowing where it came from. I had only the vague notion that it meant leading someone astray. Having discovered an actual Primrose Path, I wanted to know more. (You didn’t think you were going to get away without a bit of a nerd-out, now did you?)

As is so often the case, it turns out that we owe the metaphor of the primrose path to our old friend Will Shakespeare, who first used the phrase in Hamlet. In response to her brother Laertes, who has just lectured her on how to behave while he’s away at university, Ophelia replies that he should follow his own good advice:

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious [ungodly] pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff’d [proud] and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks [heeds] not his own rede [advice]. (1.3.48-52)

A similar phrase appears in Macbeth: “the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire” (2.3.17-18). So in Shakespeare’s formulation, the “primrose path” contrasts with the “steep and thorny way to heaven” (perhaps that’s the Thistle Path?) and is, in fact, the easy and pleasant road to hell. (You know, the one paved with good intentions…) Which means that leading someone down the primrose path is a more serious matter than I’d originally thought — and also that the presence of a Primrose Path in a cemetery is rather troubling!

Scholars suggest that Shakespeare took inspiration for this metaphor from a verse in the Gospel of Matthew: “Enter ye in at the strait [narrow] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (7:13, King James version). I assume this is also the origin of the expression, “keeping to the straight and narrow” — but I’ll spare you any further divagation.

Thank you!

Many thanks to David and Deborah for your company and your hospitality. I’m so grateful to have had this time with you. Come visit us!

Traveling is a pleasure, but remembering and reflecting on a trip is its own delight.
In that vein, this lovely round by John Krumm came to mind:
“The road is calling, as leaves are falling.
It’s back to home; my travels are now done!
I’ll sit by the fire and drink a toast to all of you.
Farewell! I must be gone.”

Connections
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