New (to me) Tree

I probably need to try and get a better photo of these trees, but I noticed them for the first time the other day leaving work! They have these itty bitty blossoms on them, in a bright fuchsia color. They're gorgeous! I had never noticed the one in front of my office until this week, and then of course I noticed that I rid the train right past a whole row of them every day. But what are they?!?

Fresh Fruit

This fruit/veggie stand is at Dewey Square year round. Even in the snow. Even in the rain. Even in the freezing, freezing cold. It's handy if you have no idea what to do for dinner...got some rice at home? Pick up some veggies and make a stir fry?! Forget your breakfast? Grab a few pieces of fruit and nosh away!

The most interesting bit? Inflation hits here, too! Prices have gone up from $1/3 pieces of fruit to $1.25/3 pieces. It's no Haymarket, but it's there all week and it's right in between the T and the office.

Squeegee

Ha! How often do you get to use the word squeegee and have it be in context?! I love that word. I also love squeegee's, which once prompted my mother to buy one for our house in the hopes that it would make me more willing to wash the outside of the hard to reach kitchen windows. Pretty sure that loving squeegee's didn't work to her advantage that time. Sorry, Mom!

Anyway, back to the point here...I went out for a stroll (and maybe some ice cream) at lunch today, and saw this guy cleaning the windows. He was only about 3 floors up. He had a guy down on the sidewalk that lowered him when he was done and ready to go down a floor. These guys were also the THIRD window washers I saw while I was out...I guess they wanted to get it in so everyone would have a nice clear view of tomorrow's rain from their office?!

Common Colors

I've been admiring the flowers outside of work lately, and realized that they're the same combination as my sister's garden. She liked the way that the white tulips lead your eye back toward the tree in her photo...in mine, the white of the tulip draws your eye back toward the banker leaving work for the day! ;) Click to enlarge and check out the detail!

Skies were grey but they're not grey anymore

Today was absolutely beautiful - high 60's, sunny, and no wind. It's the first really springy day we've had, and you better believe that all us office dwellers snuck out of our caves at lunch time to enjoy it!

I've shown you this building before, but today it's a bit of a different angle. I actually saw these window washers from out of the office window and knew I'd be taking their photo later. I can't help it, I'm fascinated with the job!

Ill Passenger

There were delays on the Red Line one day last week when I was headed home from work, "due to an ill passenger at South Station". This train sat at the platform for about 5 minutes, and I had fun watching people start running when they caught sight of it at the bottom of the stairs, then run from door to door as they realized that each one was already jam packed with people.

Click to enlarge and check out the detail.

Starbucks

I walked into One Financial Center to get my daily addiction (grande soy chai, please! Only today it was a venti - early morning to start a l-o-n-g day), and the shadow from the Starbucks door caught my eye.

Makes my soul trip, trip, trip away

Sometimes, when you feel like the cold, windy, wet weather will never go away, you take whatever "sunshine" you can get. This was the window display at Winston Flowers last week.

I actually took this photo because this is the angle I saw when I walked by on my way to the T stop, and my first reaction was that it looked like an little monster face...it just happens that when it's grey and gloomy out, it's nice to find a little sunshiney surprise hidden in your image archives, right?!

Bike Messengers

Across from the building I work in, there is a Starbucks. It's more of less in the middle of the Financial District, and across the street from the Starbucks there is a small park. During business hours, you can find at least two bike messengers at all times in or around this Starbucks. They lean their bikes against the building and head inside to stay warm and get a coffee during the winter. You can see a few of them walking out of my photo (I don't think that was a coincidence!), and they're heading into a little nook where they often hang out to smoke or stay out of the rain or snow. During the summer, they line their bikes up along the fence of the park across the street and hang out on the benches there.

Angell Memorial Plaza

This is the second part of the ASPCA Monument - the memorial to George Thorndike Angell. Angell was a lawyer and philanthropist who was born in Sturbridge, MA, attended Darmouth College and Harvard Law School, and then practiced law in Boston. In 1868 he founded the MSPCA. There are also two animal medical centers that bear Angell's name - one on South Huntington in Jamaica Plain and the other on the island of Nantucket.

ASPCA Monument

In PO Square, just across the street from the grassy bit where everyone flocks to have lunch when it's warm out, is the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Monument. Let me tell you that I would NEVER have known what this was and had never spent the time to actually look at it instead of just walk by or sit on the benches around it if the fire escape plan for my old office didn't involve meeting at the ASPCA Monument. I first saw the plan and thought "who even knew that was an ASPCA Monument in that little triangle?!" Last week I ran to CVS for some tissues and grabbed my camera so I could get a few shots of this since it is just across from the CVS at the corner of Congress and Milk.

The monument is essentially two parts: the part you see here, which is a circular slab of granite with pond scene depicted on top of it and a quote about protecting animals carved around the base of it, and a large flagpole and monument to George Thorndike Angell, the found of the MSPCA. I'll show you that tomorrow!

Oh the weather outside is frightful

Here's another one from the storm yesterday. This is the tree outside 100 Federal - the Bank of America building.

Just Pretty

This is the window at Winston Flowers on Federal Street. They always have beautiful windows, but I especially love the current one.

101 Federal

I love the details on 101 Federal, and now that I've moved offices I've got an even better view of it. And I can peek in their windows and make sure that guy down there is hard at work! ;) Look in the second window from the left - see those streaks across it? That's SNOW from our first snow last week!

I have no idea what's in 101 Federal, but there is a nice entryway (shared with 75 Federal) with a Starbucks, a cobbler, Bush's (environmentally friendly) Dry Cleaners, and a convenience store.

Boston Public Market

Even setting back the clocks won't stop the farmers market on Dewey square.

Blue: Part Two

A few mornings this week I walked out of the T station and was greeted with this view - the early morning light bouncing off a building on Summer St and the moon still hanging out.

Alternatives

Not everyone needs an SUV! I've seen this...umm...what is this? I don't know. But I've seen it locked up outside my office a few days lately.

Different Team, Same Sentiment

We may be playing Cleveland right now, but it's the same sentiment! I think Red Sox fans all over are just as happy to see the Yankees NOT in the playoffs as they are to see the Red Sox in them. GO SOX!!!

Not sure of the name of this store, but it's just next to the Starbucks on Winter St in Downtown Crossing.

The State Room

I went with a friend to her wedding walk through at The State Room (at 60 State St). I couldn't help but take photos. Watch or the night view in a month and a half, as the wedding is in December. This is the view from the mezzanine in the Great Room, looking down onto Christopher Columbus Park (on the right along the water), the Mercantile Building (the taller of the long buildings beside the park), and into the North End, across the harbor and into East Boston.

The Landmark

We've had some foggy mornings lately. The taller building in the back is the Bank of America Building. In front is The Landmark, a 26 story art deco style that was Boston's first skyscraper when it was built in 1930. At that time, the building was called the United Shoe Machinery Building.