Friendly Garden Club Tour 2009 Despite the unseasonably cold and wet month, ten residential gardens in Beverly managed to thoroughly captivate an audience of a couple hundred gardening enthusiasts on June 27th as part of the Friendly Garden Tour. The Friendly Garden Club of Beverly and some very generous Beverly homeowners welcomed the public for a review of a variety of Beverly’s best gardens on what turned out to be one of the first few sunny summer days of 2009. While some plants were somewhat seasonally delayed, all the gardens were in outstanding condition. The tour included English cottage-style gardens, woodland shade specimen collections, showy raised beds of annuals, pool-side oases, and examples of “perfect” perennial plantings, all of which offered a little something for everyone. The hospitality provided by those who opened up their gardens ... read more

Norwood Pond June 13, 2009 Today I went with members of the Beverly, Open Space Committee to walk the woods of Norwood Pond. Nancy, Kate, Pam, Bob, Dave, Robert and myself were there to review the possibility of developing an accessible trail in this area. We walked around the site looking at it’s variety of forest types, flora and fauna. There was one loop trail beginning near the kiosk that seems to have the trail grade to allow for development of an accessible trail. Beginning at the Elnew Road trail entrance you proceed down to the Old Farm trail. The Kiosk with description and map will be ahead of you. Continue on Old Farm Road to a fork in the trail. Turn left on to the Sunshine Trail and proceed to a trail entrance on the ... read more

Today Karen, Maureen and I did our weekly trip to somewhere I haven’t been before. We visited the home of two more former presidents, the homes of John Adam and John Quincy Adams. Other than the cold and rainy weather today it was a day well spent. Both former presidents and their wives were such accomplished individuals, each playing such important roles in early American History. The Park Service does an ok job of explaining the lives of these historical figures but it's really one dimensional. You really need to do some outside reading to get a complete picture. Last year I read the David McCallum book on John Adams that really gives a complete story. Now I want to see the HBO miniseries on the Adams. We also visited The Church of the Presidents in ... read more

Karen and I attended the 2009 ALS Advocacy Day and Public Policy Conference in Washington DC. A great part of the event was meeting and exchanging ideas, experiences and hopes with PALS (persons with ALS)from all over the country. We started with a roll call of Chapters in the opening session. Forty-eight states were represented including Hawaii and Alaska, among the 500 participants. Over eight hundred advocates were expected to participate. This was followed by a “Preparation for the Hill” session before being treated to a barbeque and open bar on the outside patio. At eight-thirty the annual candlelight vigil was held across the street in front of the Washington Library. Several very moving and emotional speeches were given and a young talented singer accompanied by piano sang a song after each ending with “You Lift ... read more

On a warm Saturday afternoon Karen, Andrea, and I did the “DC on Foot” walking tour. This is a great way to tour the Mall. Tim, a Trecky, our guide was an excellent host and a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide. He began by telling us the tour would be longer than the hour and a half advertised on line and went on to provide almost two and a half hours of enthusiastic, interesting narration of historic stories and information about the Mall. He took us on a guided tour from the Washington Monument, WW II, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial. He interpreted the history and story of each location. Tim also provided information about shows, exhibitions, tours and activities currently occurring in DC informing the group of what events you might need tickets ... read more