Magazine Beach

Because of Thursday’s rain, our Walk/Ride Day Celebration was on Friday and it was beautiful. Thanks to all who turned out, all who partnered, all who shared music and stories, all who sponsored the event, and everyone else who helped out. Photos by Bimal Nepal.

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P.S. Sorry about no ice cream truck. Snowy Joey’s truck broke down. But it should be fixed for this Sunday’s upcoming Traditional Irish Session. See you there!

P.S.S. If you’re thinking, those Magazine Beach t-shirts sure look good and I’d like one, email me at cathzusy@gmail.org and we’ll get one to you. They’re $20 a shirt and they come in S, M, L & XL. Design by Conway Design.

UPDATE: We’re moving to our rain date, Friday, July 28. Sorry to change things, but we don’t want you sitting in the wet. Tomorrow should be beautiful! See you at the park!

Come celebrate sustainable and healthy commuting at our Walk/Ride Day Eve Celebration Friday, July 28 at 6-8pm (rain date: Walk/Ride Day, Friday, July 28). Bring a picnic and enjoy treats from ice cream truck!

Boston-based band Trusting Fate will serenade us with “imaginative, unexpected music that combines elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, roots and blues into a fresh, powerful sound.” Katie Liesener from Massmouth will MC commuter-related storytelling. (Have a funny, gripping, or otherwise memorable personal story about urban biking, walking, or transit experience to share in 4-5 minutes?) Gallery 263 will host a bicycle decorating table, so bring your bikes. And be amazed by big animal puppets made by the Cambridge Wildlife Puppetry Project. FREE!

Thanks to our partners: Green Streets Initiative, MassMouth, the Cambridge Wildlife Puppetry Project and Gallery 263; and to our sponsors: Sanofi Genzyme, MIT, Kimco, Forest City and the Charles River Conservancy.

About 20 Cambridge Mayor’s Program teens learned about watersheds, swales, biodiversity and nature in their own backyards today at the park. Mass Audubon educators engaged them with bug nets and binoculars as they examined insects (gathered from the swale) up close and birds and bees at a distance.

Afterwards, Elisabeth Cianciola of the Charles River Watershed Association led the students in removing purple loosestrife from the western swale. (See purple flower above.) While beautiful, this plant is non-native and invasive–it takes over! It has a long flowering season that allows it to produce a vast number of seeds. And it spreads by its roots.

We need biodiversity–which is why we’re making an effort to get rid of the phragmites, which has taken over most of the eastern swale, and the loosestrife, which is colonizing the western one! Vive la difference!

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Stellar, but silly, juggling, amazing magic,
incredible unicycle tricks,
(on a 6-foot unicycle, space permitting)
wacky antics, balloon sculpture,
audience participation,
and a rubber chicken!
Plus accordion music (played by DAVEY!),

and

a parade with members of the audience!
Family Friendly Entertainment
that will keep the kids (and the adults) convulsed –
with LAUGHTER!

Co-sponsored by Cambridge Community Schools, Department of Human Services.

And, don’t forget, Navigation Games on Wednesday, Yoga Saturday, Stories & Song Mondays and Nature Detectives Tuesday! For more info, go to: magazinebeach.org/events.

7.15.17 update: Yoga is on. Looks like a little rain at 7am, but then just clear. Enjoy!

Yesterday, Liars & Believers theater brought Yellow Bird Chase to Magazine Beach. Unprompted, Morse pre-schoolers cried “Try harder! Work together!” to the clown/maintenance crew—which was caught in terrible fixes (again and again) while pursuing the yellow bird. After the show, the actors mingled with the kids who LOVED trying out the props and giving those ordinary cleaning supplies (a plunger, duster, sponge and tarp) the imaginative powers bestowed upon them in the show. Very fun.

Next week, along with weekly Stories & Song, Nature Detectives & Navigation Games for little ones, Davey the Clown will join us:  Thursday, July 20 @ 10am (rain location: Morse School). Monday, August 14 @ 10am, the amazing John Bonaparte will bring magic. Click here for details.

Note: Nature Detectives is cancelled this morning, due to rain and predicted thunderstorms. Zumba is on at 6pm today. See you at the park!

While rowers raced, some of us slowed down with Boston Sketch today and studied what was before us, or in our heads….

It was another perfect day at the park. The Riverside Boat Club’s Cromwell Cup regatta, the largest summer regatta on the Charles, attracted over 600 competitors from ages 16 to 70+ from all over New England and the mid-Atlantic.

And what a day for a picnic!

Summer Programs are in Gear… Yesterday morning, Cambridge Arts kicked off their Summer in the City with Red Yarn Productions: folksongs and puppetry by Andy and Jessie all the way from Portland, OR. DELIGHTFUL.

Coming up at the park: Morning Yoga (Saturday) and Sketching (Sunday), Stories & Song (Monday), Nature Detectives (Tuesday), Zumba (Tuesday), Navigation Games (Wednesday, only at 11:30am), and the Yellow Bird Chase (fantastic family theater; see photo below) Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing you at these events or at the pool—open daily, 11:15am-6:45pm.

There’s a cool breeze along the river..

The pool is now open daily, 11:15am-6:45pm, until August 23. And Stories & Song will be on Mondays, Nature Detectives & Zumba on Tuesdays, Navigation Games on Wednesdays, & Yoga on Saturdays! All FREE!

This week, Stories & Song, Zumba and Yoga will kick off.  Zumba with Janice Neiman starts tomorrow, Tuesday, June 27 @ 6pm. Meet on the park side of the pedestrian footbridge, at the foot of Magazine Street. Yoga with Jade Sylvan begins this Saturday, July 1 @ 9am. Both activities are courtesy of the Cambridge YMCA. (Thank you CYMCA!) In case of rain, these programs are cancelled! See Events for all other listings and weather cancellation updates.  

Notes:  1. DCR will be offering FREE swim lessons at the pool. Register at the pool July 3 @ 10am, July 17@ 10am & July 31 @ 10am. Kids should arrive in their suits, ready to take a swim test! Lessons are for ages 3 and up. (But if there is demand for a parent/toddler class they may add one.) Classes are Monday through Friday for two weeks. The 30 minute lessons will be held between 9:30 and 11am.  

2. July 4th picnickers: Please, ONLY bring gas grills, not charcoal grills, to the park. Gas is MUCH CLEANER and there’s no need to dispose of the hot charcoals.  Many of the trees at the part are really suffering, we think in park from coals being dumped at their base. THANK YOU.

Over 200 joined us at the park Wednesday night for a gorgeous evening of folk/rock tunes and a cool river breeze. The event ended with two jam sessions – harmonica and ukulele – enjoyed by young and old. This event was part of not only a city-wide celebration, but a world-wide one–over 800 cities participated.

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Heads up! Stories and Song (Mondays @ 10am), Zumba (Tuesdays @ 6pm), and Morning Yoga (Saturdays @ 9am) all begin NEXT WEEK! Head to the park with the little ones, or without them for some enjoyable yet challenging exercise and relaxation under the big old shade trees. AND, the pool opens TOMORROW, Saturday, June 24 @ 11:15am!

Twenty Pull Phragmites From the Swales–Many thanks to all the volunteers who dug up Phragmites at the park this morning. It was tough digging up those so persistent and intensely networked rhizomes. DPW provided tools and Elisabeth Cianciola, Katie Friedman and Lee Mabry from the Charles River Conservancy provided direction. Ten Honor Society students from Cambridge Rindge & Latin High contributed their strength. We’ve got a lot more to do–there will be many more volunteer opportunities to assist–but we did haul out many a bag of root masses. The CRWA staff will cover the area with black tarp now with the goal of killing these invasives without using herbicides. Want to help out another time? Click here. Let’s open up the swales for wildflowers!