I came across this handsome flock along the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway in Watertown during a 22-mile bike ride this afternoon.
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Great hike in the Blue Hills today led by Marc Hurwitz, our intrepid Appalachian Mountain Club guide. I hadn’t been there since I was a Cub Scout leader, and trust me, that was a very long time ago.
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Elliot Tower, closed for renovations

The weather station on the summit of Great Blue Hill

The GBH transmitter on the summit of Great Blue Hill. Do you know what “GBH” stands for? Think about it for a moment.

Boston skyline from the observatory on top of the weather station

Weather gear on top of the observatory

Chia Shen, Cathie Ghorbani and me. Marc took the photo. You may know that Marc is a food journalist for NBC Boston and for his own blog, Boston Restaurant Talk. Like all good restaurant reviewers, he travels incognito.

Heading down from the summit
First time in the Middlesex Fells in a few months, and I was happy to see that the restoration of the North Reservoir dam is finally complete. The road has been reopened and the water level has been restored to its normal level. Also: The Mosquito Rapture must have taken place, because there wasn’t a single one that I could detect. I’m not complaining.
A few years ago I noticed a “Not Art” stencil for the first time, on a concrete barrier alongside the Mystic Path, which runs along the eastern shore of the Mystic Lakes. Over the winter I took pictures of every one I saw in Medford, Arlington and the Middlesex Fells. I didn’t go looking for them; I just documented what I encountered. And no, I didn’t know they were a thing until I Googled them. Here’s a Boston magazine story about them from 2014.
Overhead in West Medford at 6:30 p.m. — the most striking conjunction of Venus and Jupiter that we’ll see until 2039.
I hiked nearly six miles in Willowdale State Forest this afternoon — the first time I’ve been there since last May. Even though we had just one day of frigid weather followed by a week of unseasonably warm days, the swamps were still frozen over.