The unusually warm October weather made for a lovely Art Walk. We had a great group with three small children who took right away to the Andy Goldsworthy concept of making art from nature. We gathered materials in our baskets and created a series of little works.
On Thursday and Friday, August 24 and 25, a group of volunteers from Keurig Corporation worked with The Trustees to make major repairs to badly eroded trails. The volunteers also cleared some grown-in trails, but the repair of eroded trails was a growing eyesore and problem that these folks worked hard and solved.
There were a number of trail sections that were eroding badly, becoming difficult-to-walk piles of stones. The Keurig volunteers not only filled in a number of these washouts, but all dug many diversion ditches across trails to prevent future erosion.
The Trustees (of Reservations) are in the process of working out a park management agreement with Boston, the actual trustee of the Mary Cummings Trust. But even before that process is all set, the Trustees are making a major impact at the park by coordinating volunteer efforts of many local companies.
Keurig was the most recent firm to work with The Trustees, but many others are lined up. The combination of the trail expertise that the Trustees bring, combined with the substantial people-power from our corporate citizens means that we can expect to see major improvements to many aspects of the park over the coming months and years.
(The Friends of Mary Cummings Park will continue to contribute trail mowing and clearing, trail signs, park maps and graphics as long as we are needed.)
Since the first Saturday on the month was Burlington’s Town Day, we made this our monthly event. In spite of intermittent rain, we had a steady stream of coloring kids and parents visiting our booth. Fun was had by all.
Ted Elliman led us on our most well-attended walk; a enthusiastic group ranging from beginners to very knowledgeable wildflower fans took advantage of a perfect, crisp, late summer day.
The Trustees recently announced the Cummings Foundation awarded the statewide conservation and preservation nonprofit a $100,000 grant to help improve Mary Cummings Park in Burlington and Woburn.
“With this generous startup grant, we hope to ultimately bring this important park property back to life for public use and enjoyment and care for its abundant natural resources with the same world-class standards we apply to our other 116 properties statewide,” says Barbara Erickson, Trustees president and CEO. “We are so grateful for the generosity of the Cummings Foundation to help us move another step toward our goal and hope that other local businesses and community organizations will join our effort.”
A hardy mixture of Mary Cummings Park and Landlocked Forest people marched together for the 2nd time in the Burlington July 4th parade. The weather was nearly perfect (teeny bit hot, which is what it is supposed to be on the 4th.) Cath Moore dressed up as Mary Cummings and invited parade watchers to “Come visit my park.” The parade can be seen on Burlington Cable TV, BCAT.
Starting now, beginning of July, and lasting perhaps a few weeks, there are FIREFLIES at Mary Cummings Park! If you have never seen them, or not since you were a kid, or have kids who have never seen them, this is your chance.
Fireflies are becoming more and more rare in suburban areas due to widespread use of insecticides and way too much night lighting. But Flyer’s Field in Mary Cummings Park, has a nice population of them in this summer of 2017.
Park along Blanchard Road, not at the Burlington Soccer field. (The soccer field is just a big lawn and lawns don’t support fireflies.) There is an entrance to Flyer’s Field on Blanchard Road with a kiosk, across from the big Oracle parking garage. Park on the Mary Cummings side of the street (DON’T cross the road at night!) Walk about 100 paces into the park and look around. If conditions are right, not windy, and about an hour after sunset, you should see the twinkling greenish lights all over the field.
See the map below the video on this page.
DO NOT try to catch fireflies! They are rare!
Expect mosquitos and use repellent. There are ticks, but if you stay on the short mown path you should avoid ticks.
Taking photos is pretty difficult, not likely to work with a smartphone. There are numbers of online references about how to photograph fireflies.
We are very pleased to say that we raised over $500 for The Friends of Mary Cummings Park at our Talbots Photo Fund Raiser.
There were TWO ways to support The Friends of Mary Cummings Park:
These prints are photographs by Jonathan Sachs and were made for gallery use. All are printed on archival paper and are ready for framing. The gallery below shows samples of the collection, which includes:
Below are samples from each of the 12 categories for sale. Click each thumbnail to see the image enlarged.
Jon Sachs, the photographer, was at the store throughout the day and evening to greet donors and answer questions.
Watch the volunteers from Samsung in Burlington clear a mass of invasive vines from a group of hardwoods trees. Below the video find a gallery of images. Huge thanks to the gallant Samsung crew.
See still images with captions:
Matt Burne, co-author of A Field Guide to the Animals of Vernal Pools, led us on a lovely, rewarding walk, in spite of rain showers. The group was made up of hardy souls who voted to continue the walk to the 3rd pool, in spite of yet more showers on the way. Matt showed us eggs of salamanders and frogs, fairy shrimp, and diving beetle larva. And, as we watched, our sample beetle larva proceeded to attack and eat the fairy shrimp. We all thought the fairy shrimp much cuter, but that nature takes her way. (All of the walkers, we think, survived the walk, with only some muddy feet and wet clothing.)
Matt is a founder of the Vernal Pool Association, and is an excellent guide.
Each photo below has a caption that explains what’s going on. When you click a thumbnail, the photo shows quite large, with the caption at top left.
