Helvetica

I learned lots about fonts and type face while watching Helvetica, but I couldn’t help feeling that there wasn’t really enough material for a full-length documentary. Perhaps a 30 minute film would have sufficed?

Touring the Boston Public Library

None of the photos in this post are my own. Click through for complete credit.

Yesterday, Eva and I led a tour of graduate students to the Boston Public Library. The plan was to arrive on time to catch one of the free, guided tours, and we were actually a little early, so we had some time to explore on our own. I was particularly taken with their current map exhibit, Boston & Beyond: A Bird’s Eye View of New England, which includes some fantastic historic maps of Boston and the surrounding area. It was really nice to track down my current address on old maps, and to notice how the neighborhood has changed.

I really enjoyed the tour of the library. It turns out that the majority of the building is very much as it was when it was first built, and a recent renovation and restoration means that this is even more true today than it was, say, 10 years ago. For example, the lamps that hang in front of the museum are the originals (for a long time these lamps were used as the logo for the library):

As are the lamps and desks in the incredibly nice reading room:

I have visions of my thesis being written here! I’d never been through the entrance of the Boston Public Library during the day time (I’d been through it once before, at night), and it turns out it’s quite spectacular:

Light streams through the windows at the top of the stairs (yesterday was beautifully sunny), and the marble of the entrance positively glows. The lions at the top of the stairs look incredibly regal. My favorite part of the library, though, was the depiction of physics in one of the many murals.

Physics is in the left-hand panel in this photo

From the Boston Public library web page:

By the wondrous agency of Electricity, Speech flashes through Space and swift as lightning bears tidings of good and evil.

I have every intention of returning to the library on my own with a camera on a day when I have time to explore on my own. The place is full of interesting nooks and crannies, and, while I suspect it’s a nightmare for the architecture and art history purists out there (it really is a mish-mash of styles), it has some moments of great beauty.

Desperate for Spring

About this time every year (at least since I’ve been living in Boston) I get desperate for spring. Today isn’t so bad – the sun is out, and it isn’t that cold – but last week was dire. I think we had five days straight without any sunshine, nevermind the comforting green of plant life! One thing that I like to do in the middle of winter is to force some bulbs. My mother has done this for years, but a few years ago I bought a forcing vase of my own. In the past, I’ve had success with paperwhites, and this year I bought some pink hyacinths (promised on the packet to be fragrant), and right now I have a flower opening.

As promised, it is fragrant, and it’s a welcome (if early) sign that spring will come! I have 3 more of these hyacinth bulbs, which are actually beginning to sprout in the bag. Hopefully I’ll have time this (long) weekend to put them in a pot, for some more hints of spring.

Always planning

Recently, my "free" gift from Rowan arrived:

Four balls of All Season’s Cotton (in Ravish, aka baby blue) and a pattern for a waistcoat or shawl. I’m not sure I want to knit either of the suggested patterns. I certainly wouldn’t wear either of them, although my mother with wear the waistcoat. Alternatively, I could use the yarn to make some kind of baby gift: Trellis might be fun (all those cables!), the pattern is free, and it would use up all the yarn…

Determined that Good Deeds Do Not Go Unpunished

A few months ago (or last year, whichever you prefer) Jonathan bought me some yarn made from recycled sari silk:

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with it (perhaps something involving scribble lace), but I’m very excited about it. It was incredibly kind of Jonathan, who aside from being a good friend, has also been an absolutely fantastic co-worker in the past. I was determined that such good deeds would not go unpunished. While I was in Australia I bought yarn for socks, and began knitting a manly-sized pair. I finished them last weekend, and gifted them to Jonathan earlier this week. Amazingly, they fit!

Photo of socks on Jonathan’s feet shamelessly stolen from Jonathan.

Hooray!