15-May-99 Strainers and Pomegranate vinegar

. .
.
We set our alarms for earlier than a weekday to get to Mount Auburn early, when the birds would be active. The second and third weeks of May are peak land bird migration time, and Mount Auburn Cemetery is the best place in Eastern Massachusetts to find them. When we lived in Watertown in the early 70's we were just a mile and a half from there and we learned our way around. Recently some years we've only got over one time.

This was a good day, with thirty species of birds at a quick count. The best ones today were a warbling verio, Blackburnian warbler (one of nine species of warblers we saw), and great crested flycatcher. Warbling verio is a fairly nondescript gray-green bird, but uncommon. The Blackburnian is small, black and white on the back but with a throat the brightest orange of any bird. The great crested isn't rare, but is usually hard to find because it hangs out at the tops of trees. It has beautiful subtle colors of gray-greens, chestnut, and yellow.

As we walked toward the exit of the cemetery we saw a gorgeous royal blue antique auto with a sign in the driver's window: “My name is Lydia. I am a 1933 Chrysler Royal 8 rumble seat coupe. Please admire me from a distance because your rings and watches can scratch my paint ” Apparently the sign does some good, because the car was spotless. I sketched the hood ornament, thinking of an eraser carving.

After almost three hours of very good birding (but not as good as Mt. Auburn can be at its best, when there are so many birds you don't know which one to look at next) we left for Union Square, Somerville.

Arlene has had three prints accepted for a show and decided to have them framed professionally. Her printmaking teacher had recommended a frame shop in Union Square, so I took a deep breath and plotted a route through the northern side of Cambridge. Cambridge was at its best today, clean and shiny, with neither the slushy grime of winter nor the steaminess of summer in the city. The streets and storefronts looked sparkling and inviting. I was lost in Somerville more than once when I was in grad school, but today we found Stanhope Framers with only one wrong turn, quickly corrected, and the one parking space on the block was almost directly in front of the shop. Inside were walls covered with hundreds of frame corners, ranging from big heavy gilt frames suitable for the Louvre or a Beacon Hill mansion down to half inch wide natural wood Bauhaus style. Arlene picked out the mat board and frame she wanted, discussed the size and structure of the frames (strainers are wood frames that go inside the back of the frame, behind the art, and provide additional structure and strength to a thin wood frame), and left satisfied that her prints will be ready for the show.

The friend who had recommended the framers had said we shouldn't leave the neighborhood without a visit to Capone Foods down the block, so we headed back to it. On the way we bumped into one of my co-workers, who said he had just been to his favorite store, Capone's. Capone's turned out to be the kind of place you just can't turn into a chain. That kind of knowledgable, enthusiastic staff has to grow up with the business. Sure, you could make a list of the twenty kinds of vinegars and olive oils to carry, and tell franchisees to set up a tray of tiny cups of vinegar and olive oil on the counter with chunks of bread for customers to dip in them to see which they liked. With some effort you could get fresh mozzarella and ricotta to all your stores. Maybe you could have a chain make fifteen or twenty kinds of pasta and cut the sheets into the customer's choice of spaghetti, linguini, fettucini, or other widths as they selected it, but I don't think it would be the same. They even have a chart showing which sauces go best with each kind of pasta. A diamond where the row and column intersect means really good; a dot means good; buy a combination with no mark, and they'll talk about you when you leave the store.

Back home I worked on my Secrets of Art History postcard swap. For now, let's just say that I'm behind on my committment to the people who sent me postcards to sort out and send to the other participants. I carved two stamps for the cards I'll make to swap. I also spent a lot of time getting all the cards I received up on a web page, but until I put the cards in the mail I'm giving the URL out only to the participants.

Just before dark Arlene and I went out to Nahanton Park to see if the big patch of Ladies Slippers there is in bloom. For some reason, the flowers in that park are several days behind the ones in Edmands Park. We found several of the plants, but no big clump of flowers. We'll try again next weekend.