This was the first time I had seen the Greene family since our grandfather, Joseph Greene, Sr., had died back in the early 80's.  A decade and a half will change people and I was amazed to see how the whole Greene clan had grown up.  This page will have pictures from my stay in Amsterdam as soon as I can put them up.  For now though, they will have photos that my mom and I took on the day after we returned.

On that day we went to the DeCordova art museum.  This is a modern art museum and it features an extensive outdoor sculpture garden.  Here are a few pictures of our exploits on the museum grounds.  Yes, that is snow on the ground.  Actual, real snow.  And, yes, it was really that cold.

This is one of the first exhibits we encountered.  Titled "The Musical Fence" and created by Paul Matisse, it was a vertical xylophone of sorts.  Each of those metal rods was tuned to resonate at a different frequency and the museum encouraged their being played through the use of rapping them with wooden sticks.  They had even conveniently placed a small metal bucket to hold the sticks.  All this made for a functional and fun piece of sculpture.

This was also an interesting exhibit.  Jim Dine, created these and titled them "Two Big Black Hearts."  Made out of bronze they had a whole bunch of things imbedded in them.  If you look closely at the photo you can see some of them.

Here is my mom with the first outdoor sculpture we came up to: Philip Grausman's "Leucantha (Portrait of Martha)."  It is of a woman's head and the sculpture is made out of a fiberglass and epoxy.  This yielded a piece that seemed to glow as the light reflected through it.

My mom has been to this museum several times so she knew the title of this one to be Russian Houses.  I liked the effect of them.  Especially in the snow.

An odd combination here.  The sculpture, Deborah Brown's "Cock Bob," here combines the head of a Bob's Big Boy mannequin with the body of a giant chicken, itself no doubt borrowed from some chicken fast food chain logo.  All of this was "penned" in by the white picket fence around it.  Modern art indeed.

Another sculpture.  This one was made out of stainless steel and shaped to be a laboratory decanter - only giant sized.  The whole thing was about twenty feet long and is titled: "Sphere IV" by David Berry.

A number of the installations were "hidden in plain sight."  You had to really open your eyes and expand your horizons to see them.  Case in point are these sharks "swimming" in the air above your head amidst the pine trees.  Kitty Wales, created them and name the piece "Pine Sharks."  Very nicely done.  A good effect.

Here is a close-up of one of the  Pine Sharks.

Quite a few of these sculptures where of a whimsical bent.  This one is also a functional piece and is by George Greenamyer, titled: "All Time Belongs to God".  Coming up through the middle of this picture, and cut off in this view, is a windmill.  It is geared to turn both the "clock" in the center there as well as the other figures in the piece.  Among other things, the devil on the left there is set up to play golf.  There is a lot going on in this sculpture and it was fun to watch as the gears turned.

Yes, that is actual snow and I am actually shoveling actual snow.  This is not some "digitally enhanced" image.  It is the real thing.  On the last night I was Back East it snowed and snowed hard.  The blizzard knocked Logan International Airport offline and left me Back East for another day.  So, I helped my mom out by shoveling her driveway.  Several times.  The snow kept coming.  I was rather pleased with the way the snowflakes show up in this image.  When we took these pictures, and there should be several more coming, all we saw through the viewfinder was a brilliant flash.  It was only when we replayed the images did we realize what caused that flash and how it affected the images themselves.  Pretty cool, huh!  It was not bitterly cold but the snow was the wet & heavy kind.  The kind which means for real work to shovel it.  Such snow is also one of the reasons I moved from Back East to San Diego.  It never snows where I live.  I like it better that way.
 
 

Here is another couple of shots of me and the snow.  These were taken the morning after the snowstorm had blown through. As such storms occur on a regular basis in New England, the municipalities there are well prepared to handle such things.  This means that the streets get plowed fast and plowed well. This keeps things moving in the Winter time even if it does make for more difficulties in traveling on the sidewalks.  The sidewalks do not get plowed.  It is the responsibility of each individual homeowner to take care of their bit of sidewalk.  Some are better at it than others.

I am writing all of this from the perspective of a Southern California Guy and as proof that I can function in Winter environments.  A lot of people think that us SoCal folks can not function in the white stuff.  Well, here is the proof! Also, for the rest of you SoCal folks reading this page, let me tell you that shoveling snow is no fun! It may look romantic from a distance but up close and personal it loses its allure after the first few minutes.  It especially gets old when you have been at it a bit and start to sweat.  Sweating in freezing weather is generally not a good idea.  If ever you get the chance, you can ask an Eskimo about that.  But until then you'll have to trust me that it isn't.  At least I had the option of running inside for a nice cup of hot chocolate (thanks mom!) once the job was done.