Millennium Park

Because it's just such a pain to have to keep watch on your bike when you're busy going down the slide at the playground.

Laura Scannell photographed the Moving Wall Vietnam War memorial at Millennium Park in West Roxbury. It's there through today.

Copyright Laura Scannell. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

As yesterday afternoon's storm wound down, I drove up to the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury, figuring there might be a rainbow. There was! Split in two, with one end landing just left of the high school and the other end between the VA hospital and the Great Blue Hill. Alas, it was just a little too faint for my camera to do justice, so no photos, but I did take some shots of this twittering bird, which seemed to be enjoying the wet road. Anybody know what it is?

A little kid navigating the path at the top of Millennium Park today.

Lizkdc meditates on Millennium Park:

... Here people come and fly kites, run laps, stroll babies and dogs. Ducks paddle, a heron stalks, and red-winged blackbirds were calling to one another today, defying the still melting snow and half frozen stream.

It's a good place to focus on one's awareness, because there's nothing here, and everything.

I went down to Millennium Park today to take pictures of stuff like the frozen Charles (except it wasn't frozen) and barren trees set against dismal clouds (like the ones below), but as I was driving up from the canoe launch, I saw this huge kite above the soccer fields.

Chuck Donaldson is the man who wants to build a windmill right at the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury. When I first read about his proposal, I wrote NO!!! Donaldson invited me up to the park to try to convince me to support the idea. Read more

It was fun watching a pair of local Brazilian teams play soccer at Millennium Park yesterday (I think the complex behind them is the apartments by the Chestnut Hill Mall).

The Transcript reports some retired engineer in West Roxbury wants to put a wind turbine right at the top of Millennium Park. He also wants to replace a wildflower field with solar panels.

At the risk of sounding like an environmental hypocrite (I drive a Prius and stuff): NO!!!

The park is a wonderful, rare commodity in Boston: A wide open expanse with gorgeous views (plus plenty of room for recreation). Now this guy wants to stick a big pole in the middle of this view - a 100-foot high, 16-foot diameter pole at the end of the park - where there are now two sheltered benches for looking out over the countryside. Why not investigate putting windmills on top of downtown buildings or the Pru and Hancock? Or up on Bellevue Hill at the other end of West Roxbury - where there are already two MWRA water towers? I bet there's a lot of wind there, too.

Also, he wants to create a West Roxbury advisory group for the project. Given that this is a citywide resource, why limit it to them, as opposed to opening it to people who actually use the park (raises hand). It's not like the park is in the middle of the neighborhood.

I got to Millennium Park today about 10 minutes before the first bolt of lightning flashed in the distance and the announcer at the annual kite festival told everybody it was time to call it a day.

Even as most people reeled in their kites, some still looked skyward, hopefully: Read more

Every time there's a heavy rain, this woman, who lives on the southbound side of the VFW Parkway, just past the West Roxbury Parkway, dons her boots and raincoat and goes out with a rake to try to keep the storm drain and "dry" catchbasin outside her house clear, to minimize the damage from flooding. She's been doing that a lot lately. Read more

357-unit complex proposed for space in old industrial park on Rivermoor Street, which is off the road that runs from Home Depot to Millennium Park in West Roxbury.

Steve Garfield was at Millennium Park in West Roxbury for Flag Day today. Also see Flag Day videos.

Lino takes a trip to Millennium Park in West Roxbury and is amazed by the number of SUVs in the parking lot:

... I counted a total of 66 vehicles. Out of a total of 66 vehicles I saw 2 pickup trucks, 3 minivans, and 33 SUVs making a total of 38 gas guzzling vehicles. I realize that West Roxbury is one of the most affluent parts of the city of Boston but a parking lot where 57% of the vehicles are gas guzzlers, I sort of wonder about the mental stability of some of these people. Don't they realize that bigger is NOT always better. ...

Two things: Not everybody there is from West Roxbury. Millennium Park is sort of the regional soccer center. But then again, this is West Roxbury, where one pizza place (Target Pizza on Washington Street) uses a Hummer H2 to deliver pizzas.

Not the most dramatic sunset, but still a pleasant way to end a warmish day at the giant dog park that Millennium Park in West Roxbury seems to have become (it was amazing how many people were there at sunset with their dogs today).

What better place to see a big thunderstorm roll in than the top of one of the highest points in the area?

Yes, I was an idiot; but at least I realized before the lightning began flashing along the Charles on the other side of Millennium Park that standing outside in a parking lot at the top of one of the highest points in the area was dumb even for me (and hey, I didn't get out the kite we have in the trunk). I came to this realization when I noticed the wind (and the anemometer atop the Port-a-potties) had suddenly stopped; I got back in the car just before the rain started smacking the roof.

Still, it was quite something to see. And right in the middle of it all, a hole opened up overhead and the sunlight came pouring through for a couple of minutes.

Then the hole closed up and I could look toward the Great Blue Hill and watch the black cloud coming in from the north mixing with the silvery cloud coming in from the south:

Over in Watertown, Teddy Kokoros heard thunder at the same time he saw lightning and that's never good.

Chris Fournier got caught downtown:

... Like deer in headlights we were trapped. What to do? No real place to wait it out. No cabs in sight. Let's make for the Haymarket T stop! Soaked by the time we made the short distance walk, we brazenly decided to skip the taxi and just ride the Green Line. Stupid! By the time we got to Lechmere the rain was coming down at a ridiculous pace. When I say ridiculous, I mean RIDICULOUS! I've been in bad weather, but I have never, ever been SOAKED like this before. ...

Some people were not impressed.

I took this shot from the top of Millennium Park this evening about a minute before a parks-department employee with a rather strict definition of "closes at dusk" started kicking out sunset watchers. Fortunately, there was also a rather nice view from the bottom of the hill, just beyond the park gate: Read more

Boston held one of its household hazardous-waste recycling days today, at the West Roxbury DPW garage.

We loaded up the trunk with eight old paint and stain cans and a large bag of GrubEx, which I bought in a fit of grub-induced madness several years ago (based on past experience, our lawn would have died even without the grubs; this year, in digging up the lawn yet again, I found maybe two grubs).

Police, DPW workers and employees of Clean Harbors did an excellent job of unloading trunks and keeping the line moving (although it was kind of funny to see so many Clean Harbors workers in aprons; it looked like they were getting ready for a barbecue instead of handling gallon after gallon of toxic chemicals): Read more

We had a lot of fun at the Millennium Park kite festival today - until the spaceship appeared overhead and the giant lobsters descended. Or maybe I just got too much sun and that was just an unusually large kite shaped like a lobster.

Yes, it was a kite festival, not an alien invasion:

Sunset today over Millennium Park in West Roxbury.

Mark J graphs the temperature at his house:

... I wore sandals outside today, and can't ever remember doing that in January, in the Northeast, before.

Jim Caralis examines some of the benefits of global warming, including:

No more irritating L Street Brownies New Years day stories.

Forget Florida, retire to Revere!

Who likes ice sculptures anyway, coming soon - First Night beach parties. ...

John Daley is hoping the lack of snow continues, not because he dislikes snow, but because he's rooting for certain Hogan Tire customers to get free snow tires.

Chad Parenteau grouses:

... As a winter enthusiast, all I could do was go along and hope the well wishers of today get 5 more virus and illnesses than I did.

You know, from the germs that are supposed to be kiled by the cold?

Ana Salwa: enjoys it:

Call it global warming or any name that fits the description of the current temperature, I have three words for it. I love it. ...

Yup also enjoyed walking outside:

... even if it does mean that the world is coming to end that the polar ice caps are going to melt and everything will flood and the weight of the world will shift from its axis and gravity will be fucked up and then half the worlds population is going to float into space while the other half will be stuck floating in boats while the earth plummits toward the sun for the next fifty years ...

Josh Simons: This is ridiculous:

My snowblower is ready and waiting. ...

Teddy Kokoros: I rode my bike along The Charles River this morning in a T-shirt and Shorts.

Had a couple of errands in West Roxbury this afternoon. When I got back to the car, I looked up and knew I had to head over to Millennium Park, which overlooks the Charles.

I wasn't the only one with that idea:

Same sunset further down the Charles.

Millennium Park was crawling with wooly-bear caterpillars today. Most seemed to be inching their way down the hill - wooly-bear convention down at the Charles? The fuzzywuzzy above? Its head was on the left, as you can see below:

Ever wanted to recreate the final scene in "Planet of the Apes" when Charlton Heston goes around that cliff, sees the remains of the Statue of Liberty and suddenly realizes what's happened?

You can get a taste of that by walking the path in the woods along the Charles River at Millennium Park in West Roxbury. The park used to be the city landfill and while most of the stuff there is now covered by several feet of clay and dirt, there are a couple of remnants of a large building frieze that lie exposed on the river bank, including "Machinery" above (the other one shows "Leather").

Sure, it was way warm today, but the view from the hill at Millennium Park makes it clear that fall is coming.

Yesterday, some Brazilian guys were trying to sail away from the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury. At least while we were there, none succeeded in getting airborne for more than a foot - and a second - or two. Except for one guy, who just jumped off the side of the hill and sort of sail/hopped down to the canoe access road at the bottom of the hill - for maybe 20 seconds.

Fortunately, if they were after views, they didn't need to get very high: Millennium Park offers some beautiful views of the surrounding terrain, which includes the winding Charles River: Read more

The sun sets over Millennium Park in West Roxbury on Wednesday.