Roundup of August 2015 Posts

Summer is almost over and the Labor Day weekend looms before us. Even if the days are still sunny and warm, the sun is setting earlier. Tree frogs set up a racket at dusk and crickets sing loudly at night.

When I do the Dark Side of Boston tour for Boston By Foot, I know when the sun sets because the cannon on the U.S.S. Constitution—Old Ironsides—is fired at that time.

Old Ironsides

When I do the Dark Side of Boston tour for Boston By Foot, I know when the sun sets because the cannon on the U.S.S. Constitution—Old Ironsides—is fired at that time. In the summer, I don’t hear it because I’m done with the tour well before the sun goes down.

Last Saturday night, though, the cannon fired when I was leading the group down Copp’s Hill. (I jumped- — it’s loud.) The sunset shot will go off earlier and earlier from now on until finally we start the tour after the sun has gone down.

Corporate outings and barbecues are over. Kids have already gone back to school and their first-day pictures crowd Facebook. Our elder granddaughter started first grade today, which is very exciting for all of us. But those big orange buses also make the morning commute slower.

Before work picks back up in the fall, though, here’s your chance to catch up with the regular roundup of August 2015 posts. I know from the stats that you’ve missed a few. Susanne and I covered our usual range of topics. (Although we haven’t written about food much lately.) Jump right in. 

The one that drew me in particular was a painting of the “Trees in Front of the Entrance of the Asylum,” which showed the façade of the mental hospital in Provence where Van Gogh spent many years attempting to master the demons that tormented him.

Trees in Front of the Hospital by Vincent Van Gogh

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