CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Skyspace for new Friends Meeting in Chestnut Hill

 

This is a sky space in Pomona in California and I think these are houses maybe in Connecticut.  I’m not quite sure. But his work is all over the word now. But none on the East Coast is open year round to the public. There’s a sky space at the Modern Art Museum PS1 annex …There’s a Turrel there. And I didn’t understand all the fuss until I went and saw that. It’s astonishing. You take the freight elevator to the second floor of this old school building and the corridors painted bright enamel green. You walk down the corridor and there’s a little green door that says “Meeting by James Turrell” You open this little green door and inside is a white chamber filled with light.  And there are people sitting all around the perimeter on benches. And you know these kids in New York with their piercings and their blue hair. And you know they’re very hip artists. They’re silent looking up at this great opening to the sky. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A SKY SPACE? Well it’s a hole in the roof. It’s an aperture that is so cunningly designed there’s no architectural feature. You can’t tell that it’s constructed. It is just a diamond in the sky, coming down… It’s a retractable roof so obviously when it’s raining, you got to cover it. It opens up and there’s no glass, it’s just open to the air. And you sit under this. I went in February when it was 21 degrees Fahrenheit so it was very cold. So we sat all huddled under our blankets looking at this. And during the day you just see the clouds going by like the geese or the contrails of the jet planes…It’s at sunset and sunrise that it has the most dramatic-it’s the change of color, the change of the light. Turrell has some very small lighting around the outside that is a contrasting color. So what happens is the color becomes more and more saturated…. It’s intensely blue so it’s in contrast with this color. It’s very gradual very slow, it takes maybe 45 minutes for the color to change and change and darken…

Jean Warrington, Clerk of the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting at the Chestnut Hill Library. See http://www.chfmnewmeetinghouse.org

She counts hawks

SO MELISSA’S THE OFFICIAL- the official hawk counter for Cape May Bird Observatory. AND WHAT DOES THAT INVOLVE? It involves getting here at sunup every day until about 5 o’clock at night, monitoring the hawk migration, identifying and counting the hawks that go by. She has to be able to identify fourteen or fifteen regularly occurring species. Cape May is known for rarities so she has to be able to identify rarities that might show up as well.  HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO KEEP TRACK OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME? It’s not so based on the weather that day, wind direction, she kind of figures out whether a lot of the birds are migrating through or whether they’re just hanging around, does her best to keep track of them. WHAT’S COMING THROUGH THESE DAYS? Not much, it’s late in the season, the peak of the season is September, October so at this point we’re hoping for a golden eagle, a goshawk, more northern birds but those are sort of unusual. Not much is moving today, had a couple redtails, a couple bald eagles, northern harriers and sharp shin hawk. ANYTHING OUT THERE NOW? A bald eagle right over the pavilion here going away from us over that tree…DO I SEE CLICKER THINGS DOWN HERE FOR KEEPING THE COUNT? Yes, because on busier days at the peak of the season, there are hundreds of brides and obviously she can’t keep in her head so she clicks them as they come by. Each species has its own clicker. Steve (“Mr. Awesome”) Bauer, narrating activity of Cape May Bird Observatory Official Hawk Counter, Melissa Roach. Watch video here

By a Maine river, life as it should be for 87 year old

Natalie Kempner says it is a gift to be living in Maine by a river (the Kennebec) at the age of 87. She cherishes the beauty, the constantly changing river,the ice that breaks and goes up and down with the winter tides, the constantly changing seasons.  She swam as a kid all the time and if she had had a wish, she says,  it would have been to be able to live and swim out her front yard. And now she’s had it for twenty years after she and husband Fritz moved from Conshohocken just outside Philadelphia. She enjoys the company of her children and grandchildren and friends and the bustle of visitors in the summer and the quiet time to catch up on things in the winter. A sparkle comes into her eyes as she describes  the wildlife all about - seals in the river, foxes and skunks on land, the coyotes walking atop the frozen winter river,and ospreys and eagles up above. Quoting the common Maine slogan, Natalie says it’s “life as it should be.” Watch video interview here.

Captain Otis will sell you lobsters off his boat

Captain Travis Otis,30, sailing out Searsport Maine has been fishing these waters since he was 13. Otis also particpates in lobster boat races. Late one gray drizzly afternoon, after coming into port from a lobster catch with his Uncle and a helper on board, he sold us five beautiful 1-and-ahalf-pounders which became dinner at our destination - our friends' house in Woolwich, an hour or so down the coast. Here he shows off 2-1/2 to 3 pounders. Watch video here.

Bees make hive in home: Highland Avenue honey

It’s really great. They took the fascia off and the amazing thing to me is as they’re crow barring, and this and that , the bees completely ignored them. So they got everything opened up and there was this cavity with honeycomb in it. I have some great pictures, absolutely incredible. They take the honeycomb out. They put them in frames. The frames went in a bee box very similar to this one. And they actually vacuum the bees Once they get all the combs in the box, then the bees go back into the box and you’re done. The reason this is still here is for all the bees that are coming back from being out foraging. I think they have the queen in this one so when they come back they go into this box and not into the house. THESE ARE HONEYBEES, RIGHT? These are honeybees. And I got some honey out of it. So they take all the honeycomb because the bees need the honey but some of it won’t fit into the frames and there’s little pieces left over so I have some honey. LET’S GO SEE. I’ll show it to you. Here’s one- it’s totally clean. You have to try it. Break off a little piece. This one’s not as clean, do you see the white things there and there? They’re pupa or larvae. Those are the bees that are coming out of the thing and growing. AND THE BEEKEEPER WILL TAKE THE HIVE THAT’S NOW RELOCATED INTO BOX AND WHAT? Now they have another hive. If you’re a beekeeper and you have thirty hives, now you have thirty-one. Todd Breslow. Chestnut Hill. Watch video here.

Below is a picture taken by Todd Breslow of his beekeepers vaccuming the hive they removed from his house and below that, the hive between studs of the second floor overhang.

Vancouver librarian volunteers in Galapagos

Sally Taylor, a university reference librarian from Vancouver, Canada is finishing up an 8-month stint as a volunteer librarian at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos. She spoke via Skype from her home in the town of Puerto Ayora on Isla Santa Cruz about her work which includes finding materials for staff and volunteers and emptying the dehumidifier. She’s also had the opportunity to do touristy things like a cruise to see flora and the albatrosses nesting on the island of Española. The station is advertising for a volunteer librarian to succeed her. Sally blogs about her adventures on the equator at http://blogs.ubc.ca/galapagos/

Watch Skype interview here.

Israeli traded sand for snow, hopeful for democracy in Egypt

Along the cleared paths of the Morris Arboretum, visitors enjoy a snowy winter wonderland. Jacob and Sarah Pinto come frequently to the arboretum with their sons Shachar (right) and Yishai, to  experience the trees or an outdoor concert.

Jacob, a native Israeli, says of his family's relocation here two years ago that they’ve traded sand for snow. He says it does snow in Israel but only in the Golan Heights and only for a couple of weeks each year.

When asked about the situation in Egypt, he expressed hope that the country, Israel's neighbor and enemy-turned friend, will have a real democracy.

Watch video here.

Downhill skiing in Conshohocken

Just outside the city’s northwest boundary, there’s downhill skiing.  Soldiers returning home after World War II joined together as the Wissahickon Ski Club to create their own micro version of the Alps, first renting and now owning  some hilly land off Barren Hill Road in Conshohocken. Longtime member and ski enthusiast Matt Sabia Sr, a brick contractor by trade, introduced his family to the club and his son, Matt Sabia, Jr. is now club president. The club boasts a working T-bar lift and snow blowers if it needs to augment the natural snowfall. On a crisp winter day, members may be making merry at the bar near a roaring fire inside the lodge, out on one of two downhill slopes, skiing or snowboarding, or helping out with the many tasks necessary to keep the club in operation. Watch video here.

Tractor Trailer O' Trees Arrive on Hill

The unit block of East Evergreen was bustling one afternoon earlier this week. Andy Peszka of the Top of the Hill Market managed  workers  unloading a tractor trailer load of Christmas trees on the north side of Evergreen Avenue as customers shopped for trees at thestore on the south side.  Catriona Briger, holding daughter Hazel, let son Oliver pick out the most appealing and not too tall tree for their modestly sized Benezet Street home. The Market's Rosie Cortez assisted them with their purchase.

Peszka was taking stock on five varieties of fir just cut and delivered from Lehighton, Pennsylvania, an hour and a half a way. He estimated it would take 2 or more hours to unload the truck and his workers appeared to be steadily unloading about 8 of them each minute.  Peszka also has some but not many customers for living, balled trees which he expects to take delivery on.  Those who buy live trees customarily bring  them inside for the holiday and  have room to plant them outside in the spring when the ground thaws. He expects to sell out all of his trees by the week before Christmas.

Watch video here

Andorra's tree house tree stump down

SO THE TREE HOUSE TREE IS DOWN? “Yeah, it’s been a stump for thirty years. It wasn’t going to last forever. AND BEFORE IT WAS A STUMP? “It was the tree of the tree house. I never got to see that. But it grew through a porch that was there and would have been an amazing sight.” HOW MANY YEARS OLD WAS IT? “It was from the 1700s.” WHAT KIND OF TREE? “A sycamore, very beautiful in the photographs.” WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR THE BACK NOW? “We’re going to have a porch built along the entire back length. Friends of the Wissahickon are going to help us build that. They’ve already had the architectural plans drawn. It’ll be twelve foot wide so we can have more teaching space outdoors. It’s going to have a green roof. It’s going to have a circle on the floor of a different wood that shows where the tree had been. And there’s going to be an opening in the ceiling like a Plexiglas, lexan opening that would show where the tree would have gone through the ceiling.” Trish Fries, Environmental Education Planner, Wissahickon Environmental Center. Watch video interview here.