Fantastical ferns

“Fernland” (oil painting), by Concord, N.H.-based artist Pamela R. Tarbell’s in her show “Marsh Kaleidoscope,” at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum, in Boston’s Jamaica Plain and Roslindale sections, through Oct. 7

Coryphopteris simulata, synonym Thelypteris simulata, is a species of fern native to the Northeastern United States. It is known by two common names: bog-fern and Massachusetts fern.

Sign outside New Hampshire’s State Capitol Building

—Photo by Karmafist

#Pamela R. Tarbell #Arnold Arboretum

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Where it's Arbor Day everyday; Kennedy on Chappy

“Path, Arnold Arboretum” (photo), by RUSSELL duPONT, in the show "Artists in the Arboretum,'' at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 125 Arborway, Boston, Sept. 17-Oct. 18.

Arboretums can be magical. We just toured the exquisite and unexpected Mytoi Japanese Garden on Chappaquiddick Island, part of Martha's Vineyard. Very, very soothing. Everything was perfect except that otters had eaten all the gold fish in the lily-padded pond.

Then  we took on the ugly, as we traced the routes that the late Sen. Edward Kennedy took in his drinking, driving and other activities  on the night of July 18, 1969 that resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne when Mr. Kennedy drove a car off a bridge into the water.

None of excuses/explanations he gave were plausible but local authorities were in the pocket of the Kennedys so he avoided a vehicular-manslaughter charge and proceeded with his political career. But the accident may well have prevented him from becoming president.

-- Robert Whitcomb

Use everything

 

"Tangle'' (300-foot-long rope made with acorn caps), by BETH GALSTON,  in the show "Branching Out: Trees as Art,'' at the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Mass.,  through Sept. 20, 2015.

She collected the acorn caps under a single red oak in Boston's Arnold Arboretum.

"The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we'll hang them.''

-- Lenin