Saturday 14/ Sunday 15 / Mon 16 June 2025
Saturday, the locals
put on a band, a food truck and a brewery pop-up in the little garden at the
historic house of Jason Russell. This was attacked by the British in 1775 as part
of the Lexington/Concord battles – the first in the War of Independence. He was
killed (good old British bayonet they say), along with 30 others. The Brits lost about the same. The house is in
the main street of Arlington and still has some bullet holes from the
skirmishes. Lt John Baker, King’s Own Muskets 1775, recorded, “We were now
obliged to force almost every house on the road, for the rebels had taken
possession of them and galled us most exceedingly but they suffered for their
temerity, for all that we found in the houses were put to death.” Paul Revere’s
midnight ride was along this road and he whispered, not shouted, “the Regulars
are about.” So, they say.
Sunday was a catch up
day. Although, Lady P took Masie for an 8km walk around the lake. Flashy
vacuumed and cleaned the kitchen; made meatballs and tidied up.
Monday, the sun came
out again and stayed out all day. Lovely early summer weather. So, off on the
bus and train to Harvard. Harvard University is a private Ivy League research
university in Cambridge (Boston), Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 and named for
its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard (bet he hated witches!), it is the oldest
institution of higher learning in the United States. Not quite like Oxford, of
course. The University of Oxford has evidence of teaching as early as 1096,
making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the
second-oldest continuously operating university globally. But, hey, were in the
US and just down the road is Harvard.
On arrival, we went to Tatte, a restaurant/coffee shop with outlets here abouts. It’s tatte like latte coffee, they say. Anyway, we had a delicious lamb kofta meatballs in pita and a shakshuka - a simple combination of simmering tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices and gently poached eggs. Unfortunately, Lady P didn’t realise that they didn’t serve alcohol.
Harvard is a very nice,
red brick campus. Green and leafy - and luckily for us, the students don’t get
back from the mid term break until next week. We walked around the grounds,
visited the Harvard Museum of Science and Culture and the Peabody Museum and
then public transport home. While there, we went to the Ware Collection of Glass Models of Plants. Hold your excitement! There are hundreds of glass models - yes, made entirely of glass, made by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschaka, a couple of good old German glass artists from Dresden, Germany in 1886 to 1936.
It's difficult to describe. You look at what you think is an actual botanical specimen of a plant. It is that accurate. Except they're made of glass. With 19th century technology. Why? Well, Prof. Goodale, founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum, wanted life-like representations of the plant kingdom for teaching botany. The collection provides this for over 800 species. Some money at Harvard eh?
After a good day of culture, we’re home to a Tanqueray or two and all’s good with the world. Well, maybe not.
A statue of the old Puritan himself.
Did you know that that George Peabody, the philanthropist, who financed the Peabody Museum at Harvard is also the Peabody that the Peabody Hotel in Memphis is named after. Flashy and Lady P may recall that we saw the famous Peabody ducks at said hotel.
ReplyDelete