Boston Common

Seems some bicyclists are e-mailing the city Parks and Recreation Department all huffy about the new no-bicycling stencils applied to walkways on the Common last week.

But the ban is actually nothing new - it's just that, unlike in the Public Garden, where bicyclists are also warned to stay out, the previous stencils had faded away, Parks spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard says. "This is not a new policy prohibiting cycling on Boston Common. New paint was applied on top of faded paint stencils."

Goddard says her department is referring verklempt bicyclists upset at being told they can't use paths meant for pedestrians to city Bike Program Director Nicole Freedman, who "plans to work with the riders to help them find optional routes for the Beacon/Boylston/Tremont street area."

Frog Pond Freddie will be there to lead opening ceremonies for the spray and wading area at 11 a.m. that day, the city announces.

Anne Frank sapling gets its first mulching.

City and Dutch officials today dedicated a sapling from the chestnut tree that stood outside Anne Frank's refuge and that she wrote in her diary gave her much comfort.

The sapling sits behind some protective wrought iron at the bottom of the hill leading up to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, on the Earl of Sandwich side.

Boston is one of 11 U.S. cities to get one of the saplings from the tree - taken before it collapsed in 2010 - thanks to Aliya Finkel, a student at Gann Academy in Waltham, who got Mayor Menino's ear and convinced him to apply for the tree. Among the people who raised money to plant the sapling in Boston: Students at the Indian Head School in Hanson.

Finkel helped give the sapling its first mulching this morning, along with officials who included City Councilor Mike Ross, whose father Stephen is a holocaust survivor.

Cannon on the Common. Copyright Stevilboston. See it larger.

It was just our very own Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, firing rounds and shooting off things to celebrate their election of new officers like they do on the first Monday of every June, even Junes coming a couple months after Marathon explosions.

Boston woke up on Dec. 8, 1941 a changed, frightened and determined city. With war declared, Boston felt particularly vulnerable, given its position right on the coast. But Boston also rolled up its sleeves to help fend off the Axis. Scores of Leslie Jones photos posted by the BPL this week give a taste of life in wartime.

The State House's golden dome was painted over, to keep Beacon Hill from becoming a, well, beacon for Nazi warships (a skylight at MIT's Great Dome was similarly covered up; MIT only began restoring it last fall):

Good Morning Gloucester shows us the 33,000 flags planted on Boston Common this weekend in honor of service members killed in recent wars.

The annual Make Way for Ducklings parade wound its way around the Common and the Public Garden today (yeah, I don't know why it went that way instead of up and down Beacon Hill, either), ending, of course, by the ducklings statues.

Ducks in a row:

Celebrating the capture on the Common. Photo by Brig Dauber. At 8:41 p.m., a police commander at 67 Franklin St. in Watertown announced, "Subject in custody." Kip Lange tweets:

North End streets just erupted in cheers.

AC reports:

Yes, that is a Boston parking ticket on the windshield of one of the trucks that has turned the Charles Street side of the Common into a National Guard encampment. Richard Lynds couldn't believe it, either.

UPDATE: See comment below: The city didn't ticket the truck.

Eric Twardzik, managing editor at the Emerson student newspaper, took a photo after the race of a guy in a white hoodie being arrested on the Common after the Marathon. He tweeted it. Now he's trying to convince people that a) it was a hoodie, and not a turban and b) that it's not him.

The Celebrity Beacon Hill Town Crier was giving Bostonians on the Common the news they needed today.

Roving UHub photographer Rhea Becker filed this photo from the Common, where gun lovers are holding a protest today that featured a little boy reciting the Second Amendment.

The Parks and Recreation Commission approved a plan this week to set up a rotating system of dog areas on the Common, to be funded by two private groups.

Under the plan, five areas - three along Beacon Street and two near the Parkman Bandstand - will be designated as dog area, but only two will be in use at any one time. The areas will be marked by signs, rather than fences and dog-poop bag dispensers will be installed. Also:

Rules for the recreation areas will include: all dogs must be licensed and vaccinated, dogs must wear collars, no excess barking, and dog owners/handlers may not bring more than three dogs to the area at a time.

The areas will be set up just as soon as the Friends of the Public Garden and Common Canine raise money for running and maintaining the areas and for restoring "turf damaged at the site of a pilot off leash dog area located on the Beacon Street side of the Boston Common near the steps leading to Joy Street."

Dave Chiu watched some snowboarding on the Common today.

Arturo Gossage walked around the Common tonight.

Copyright Arturo Gossage. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

One of Boston's more unusual public monuments is the unexploded (but presumably defused) mine the Navy had put in the North Sea to blow up U-boats during World War I, now permanently on display next to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the top of Boston Common.

Chris Lovett took some photos as the snow began.

The city alerts us that skating on the Common has been canceled today due to weather.

Photographynatalia spotted a woman on the verge of takeoff on Tremont Street by the Common the other night.

Copyright Photographynatalia. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

A concerned citizen parent complains:

Frog Pond playground. Is this ramp supposed to hang so far below handrails? Seems dangerous. Have seen lots of kiddos fall through, including mine today.

A cavalcade of Nova Scotians, including red-suited Mounties, the deputy premier of the province and the percussion band Squid, will greet no doubt bemused commuters 7 to 9:30 on Thursday morning outside Park Street station, handing out "I Heart Nova Scotia" toques, um, caps and just generally thanking Bostonians for all that help we sent their way back in 1917. They'll then stick around for the lighting of the Nova Scotia Christmas tree on the Common, in a ceremony that starts at 6 p.m.

Suffolk University Professor Bob Allison as a Pilgrim on approaching winter.

WBZ reports on the new Earl of Sandwich, one of whose founders is a descendant of the original Earl of Sandwich and another of whom is named Earl.

In addition to the standard giant tree on the Common to be lit up on Nov. 29, the province is sending us four smaller trees, for the Pine Street Inn and Rosie's Place, the Parks and Recreation Department reports.

Nova Scotia sends us an annual tree as thanks for the trainload of doctors, emergency workers and supplies we sent to Halifax in 1917 after a relief ship rammed a munitions ship, causing what was at the time the largest manmade explosion ever. Some 2,000 people died, 9,000 more suffered injuries and downtown Halifax was completely destroyed.

Efforts were made this year to educate the public about how the annual gift-giving tradition from Halifax began. One class at the Mather Elementary School in Dorchester began a pen pal relationship with children their age at St. Stephen’s School in Halifax. The students spoke with each other via Skype on two occasions. In addition, photographs taken following the 1917 explosion are on display during the month of November at Boston City Hall.