Tropical Storm Irene hits Somerville

Yesterday Irene struck Somerville, Massachusetts and the rest of New England. Although it was just a tropical storm (not a hurricane as everyone predicted), it still caused a fair amount of damage. Here are some pictures I took in Somerville during the late afternoon.

A damaged car on Murdock Street

A snapped tree on Broadway (near Trum Field)

A fallen tree on Hall Avenue

We didn’t lose power at our Cedar Street apartment, but folks in Magoun Square did. Inside Olde Magoun’s Saloon staff were sitting in the dark, and across Medford Street (around Status Boutique, Marcelino’s Exotic Birds and Churrasco) a generator was running.

A great way to start a Sunday morning

My fiancé and I have a friend named Charlie who’s been cultivating a garden this summer in Woburn, Massachusetts. We saw it for the first time this morning, and were quite impressed. Check out my pics:

The garden is 54 by 54 feet.

Tomatoes

Jalapeno peppers

Cabbage

Asian eggplant

Rosemary

Radishes

Lettuce

Brussels sprouts

One entrance to the garden

There were lots of bees pollinating flowers.

Cucumber

My pics don’t even begin to show all the produce that was there, including spinach, tomatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, squash, zucchini, lettuce, eggplant, rosemary, basil, snow peas, green beans, cabbage, radishes, parsnips, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers,  corn and watermelon. We ended up with a bunch of veggies to cook this week!

My fiancé , Jim, and Charlie in the garden

Here are a few pics showing the garden’s surroundings:

There's a swan in the distance!

Walking home on Hudson Street in Somerville

Took these pics last night:

Royal White Laundry in Somerville has new storefront location

Today I saw this sign in front of Royal White Laundry’s longtime 181 Cedar St. location.

I walked to 13 Warwick St., which is just a few steps away. This sign is in front of the business.

This is what the entrance looks like.

Royal White Laundry had been operating its tailoring and dry cleaning storefront out of 181 Cedar St., while 13 Warwick St. appeared to contain all their washers and dryer. Now everything’s been consolidated. The planned community path extension and new Maxwell’s Green (formerly MaxPak) development should provide increased visibility for the Warwick Street location.

Photos taken at dusk in Melrose, Massachusetts

My fiance and I returned from our trip to Charleston, SC last night. I will surely be blogging about our amazing getaway in the near future. In the meantime, here are two pictures I took the night before we left for South Carolina. I captured the shots from Melrose’s Main Street.

Doesn’t the sky look like it’s out of a Renoir painting?

It sure is snowy in Somerville

When I left the house at 7:15 a.m. to go to the gym, the roads were clear. When I got out of the gym at 8:30 a..m, they were covered in snow and ice. Not only that, but snow was streaming down, vehicles were moving slowly (good thing!), and pedestrians were struggling to get to work. Here’s some of what I saw:

On Elm Street in Somerville

An ambulance headed out of Davis Square (toward Elm Street)

A woman walking in the road on Willow Avenue

A vehicle being towed on Willow Avenue

A guy with an umbrella (smart idea!) on Highland Avenue

People crossing the street on Highland Avenue

Vehicles backed up on Cedar Street (right before the intersection with Highland Avenue)

Home sweet home

Talk about a lot of action for before 9 a.m., huh?

Yeah, Save the Dates are ordered!

Today I ordered Save the Date postcards from Vistaprint, a Lexington, Mass.-based company. About 100 postcards and envelopes cost $75 ($15 of which covers seven-day shipping). I’m not sure if that’s a good price, but I am happy to have placed the order. Here’s what the front of the postcards will look like:

I don’t have Photoshop, so I added the text with Paint.

Some more Somerville snow pictures

These were taken on the community bike path that connects Cedar Street to Davis Square, and around Davis Square:

It’s a snowy day here in Somerville

Some pictures from outside my apartment:

The snow is really sticking to the windows:

Some pictures from my recent trip to Manomet (in Plymouth, MA)

My boyfriend’s family has had a camp there for generations. A couple of long weekends per year I join them at it. We sleep in tents, build a fire, and cook on the grill. We drive to Manomet Point for a view of Provincetown, walk along the nearby Cape Cod Canal, and go to Gellar’s for ice cream.

We also canoe on the stream that runs behind their property, swim in a nearby lake (much warmer than the ocean) and play board games (I learned cribbage this year). On the Fourth of July we go down to the ocean to see fireworks and the big beach bonfires.

Here are some photos from my Labor Day weekend stay:

I helped collect firewood.

My boyfriend unloaded the wood.

We had lobster for dinner (the one on the left was 7 pounds)!

A boat on the Cape Cod Canal

My boyfriend and I at the Cape Cod Canal

I look forward to returning to Manomet next summer!