Grand Lady of the Greenway

Every morning, I get together with my buddies for coffee. A couple of months ago, we made a friendly wager as to who could grow the most amount of sunflowers. I really want to win this bet, so, I planted a thousand sunflowers. I didn’t realize how much work that involved. I have to water them, fertilize them, and weed them. It turns out the second place guy only planted a hundred, so, I way over did it. After two months of work in my garden, I needed a day off. I asked Mom for a recommendation. She  recommended the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. The Greenway has a bit of everything, beautiful gardens, art, water park, and carousel. All of this beauty in the middle of the skyscapers!? It sounded intriguing.

I got a bus ticket and headed into the city. The bus went through the Ted Williams Tunnel. I have seen a lot of tunnels and burrows in my time but was this truly amazing. A tunnel that goes under Boston Harbor and big enough to drive a bus through it. We chipmunks have to rethink tunnel design. I hate to admit it but you humans have definitely outdone us in this category.

The bus pulled into South Station. I got down to the street level. I made the mistake of looking up. I had to crane my neck so far back to see the top of the buildings, I tipped over backwards. Whoa, these buildings are 100 to 200 times higher than the Woodpile! Apparently, humans like to live and work in these things.

These humans must be exercise nuts. Imagine having to climb these stairs just to bring up the groceries. No thanks.

 

This bar serves so many different brews, the bar stretches across four floors. They certainly do everything BIG in the city. I dropped in for a tall glass of ice cold lemonade. (After spending two months tending sunflowers, I wanted to taste something other than sunflower Ale!) I was chatting with some of the locals and mentioned I was on my way to the Greenway. “Oh, you must be heading to see the Grand Lady of The Greenway.” I smiled and just went along with it. I had no idea who this Grand Lady was, never heard of her.

After wandering around this concrete and brick human jungle, I was relieved to find a ribbon of greenery. This must be the Greenway. As I step into this oasis, I was greeted by some fellow critters. “Welcome to the Greenway.” The welcome committee consisted of three house sparrows. I offered them some sunflower seeds but they had no idea how to crack a seed open. They have spent their entire lives eating human food. I had the opportunity to introduce them to sunflowers and gained some new “converts.” They were surprised how good tasting “natural” critter food was. Before I left them, they suggested I share my seeds with the Grand Lady of the Greenway. I thought they were pulling my tail but politely agreed to their suggestion. I am assuming this is some sort of joke that the locals play on tourists. I was on to their game.

Some of the city ‘munks maintain a small sunflower garden.

 

The flowers along the Greenway were breathtaking. I wonder what it takes to maintain all of this?

Well, it was just my luck I ran into the head greens keeper for the Greenway. This rabbit is in charge of selecting the grass species for the greens and for cutting them. I asked what his secret grass mix was. Since I was a fellow critter, he didn’t mind letting me on the secret. He uses 50% clover seed. His team of rabbit mowers can’t eat enough clover. They show up everyday hungry to get to work. The strangest thing, he asked me to pass along the message to Grand Lady. He didn’t strike me as the practical joke type.

 

The artwork is pretty amazing. This mosaic uses stones and seashells along with the traditional bits of tiles.

Partway along the greenway I found this circular area paved with different colored stones. I started to explore it to figure why someone would pave over the greenery. I found some small openings in the stones which I peered into. The next thing I know I was flying straight upward on a geyser of water! I have heard about the geyser in Yellowstone National Park, I never knew we had them in Boston. They really should put up some up signs to warn us critters of this unexpected hazard.

After drying myself off from my geyser shower, I looked up and was surprised to see a turkey on the Greenway. She must be another tourist liker myself.

I introduce myself and said I had a rather strange question to ask: Did everyone keep telling her about the Grand Lady of the Greenway? She chuckled and invited me to sit with her on the park bench. I shared some of my sunflower seeds with her. She told me the story about how she arrived in the city about a year ago penniless. Apparently no one had ever seen a turkey in the city before and they kept asking lots of questions – who are you? What are you doing in the city? She thought she would have some fun and made up of a tale that she was a rich duchess from England on an extended holiday. All the best hotels competed with each other to have her stay with them. Everyone started to treat her with respect and addressed her as “my lady.” The humans would even stop and give her seeds and peanuts to eat. This is how she became the “Grand Lady of the Greenway.”

She currently lives in a luxury suite at the Boston Harbor Hotel. We had a very pleasant chat. Before, I took my leave, she gave me a ticket for a ferry ride to Georges Island in the Harbor. (I will tell you about that adventure next week.) She gets all sorts of freebies which she gives away. She hands them out to her fellow critters who think she's rich and generous. This helps to reinforce her persona on the Greenway.