A Busy Weekend!

This was a good weekend of cycling!

I've been concentrating many of my recent rides on the Neponset River Trail, which cuts a path along the boundary between Boston and Quincy, and then between Boston and Milton further upstream.  It's not as well-known as the much longer Minuteman Commuter Bikeway further to the west, but the Neponset River area has unique charms all its own, such as the 1940's-era streetcars that rumble by the path (still in everyday use by the MBTA)...

...historical and whimsical murals...

...and the former Baker Chocolate Factory at the Lower Mills area of Dorchester and Milton:



I then continued along the new bike lanes in Milton:

On Saturday, in addition to riding all of the above, I did a loop around the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Boston's very scenic Columbia Point:

I've also been experimenting more with acrylics while watching the Ardennes classic races on TV.  So I just finished a painting of the riders crossing the river Meuse in the finishing town of Huy, during the Fleche Wallonne race in Belgium:

And ... I finally joined a cycling club!  I'm now a member of the Charles River Wheelmen.  It's one of the largest clubs in the Boston area, with multiple rides every week, century rides, a newsletter, and more.  I'll be honest, the only reason I hadn't joined the club earlier was because of its name.  Of course there are both women and men in the organization, so "wheelmen" feels so old-fashioned (although it's still a fairly common name among long-running cycling clubs).  But once I discovered all the great things the club organizes -- and I saw that both women and men are in leadership positions (its newsletter is called "wheelpeople") -- I then happily joined up.  I guess old names die hard, like YMCA, where the only letter that's still relevant is the "A".  Anyway, I'm looking forward to taking part in some of their rides, and maybe making some new cycling friends in the process.

So, a good weekend!

Ghosts of Boston Harbor

When you live near a very old harbor, odd things are always showing up at your doorstep. For instance, this just appeared in my corner of the harbor last week:


It's a barge -- or more exactly, about a third of a barge. It was a complete vessel when it arrived, with a bow, a stern, and everything in between intact. I saw it every day as I crossed over the Neponset River Bridge on the subway.

But by the time I rode out to it on my bike this morning, all that was left was:


Now, I love industrial ruins. Abandoned factories, dilapidated wharfs, crumbling mills ... they all have an eerie, dark beauty about them. And this barge seemed especially mysterious as I passed by it on the subway, when it was all in one piece.

So looking at its remains this morning...


...I was sad to see it in the process of being demolished. The grimy old barge would have felt very much at home naturally decaying among the other ruins in this quiet part of the harbor, like the sparse remnants of Flounder Fleet Wharf next door...


...the overgrown runway just across the water I wrote about last year...


...and the strange industrial tower on my normal riding route (here in a photo I took on a gloomy morning last month):


It must have had an interesting life, this old barge. So as I got back on my bike to head for home...


I took a parting photo...


...and wished it well as it joins the many ghosts of Boston Harbor.