Category Archives: Day in the Life

Foothills Theater is certainly one of Worcester’s hidden gems, in both the literal and metaphorical sense, nestled between a parking garage and one of the towers that will remain standing after the upcoming city square renewal project begins.

From the City of Worcester website:

Rich with symbolism, the Celtic Cross is a memorial to the early Irish settlers, their descendants, and all the Irish-Americans who gave so much to the City.

Incised blasted panels on the cross depict scenes of Ireland; an Irish wolfhound near the round tower in County Waterford, and a thatched roof cottage represent rural roots. Two scenes show the Irish in Worcester; laborers digging the Blackstone Canal and a likeness of Christ’s Church on Temple Street. A sailing ship suggests the earliest immigrants’ passage and a tableau of tools represents the work which the Irish found in their new homeland. On the base is a simplified 1829 map of Worcester, showing landmarks important to the Irish community.

The Celtic Cross is laced with traditional symbols — Celtic knots, shamrocks, the Tara Brooch, fraternal shields, a claddagh ring, and crossed Irish and USA flags.

The Barre granite cross was erected to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first permanent settlement of Irish in Worcester.

The cross stands on the north side of City Hall.

The building in the background is one of the newest buildings on the UMass University Hospital, and part of the medical school.

Anika has her annual discussion with Santa at The Hebert Candy Mansion. Free chocolate lollipop and no elf pressuring you to buy pictures of your kid with Santa, but since you’re in the store anyhow, might as well buy several pounds of candy. Christmas marketing at its finest. Yum.

The mission of the American Antiquarian Society is “to collect, preserve, and make available the printed record of what is now the United States from 1640 through 1876.” You can go for a free tour on Wednesday afternoon’s at 3PM, which is where I first saw these bookstacks with the glass floors. This is probably one of those places in Worcester where everybody passes by but never goes inside.

Reflections on Long Pond at Rutland State Park. Besides fishing, the park seems like a good place for mountain biking.

Holy electric bill, batman!

The Shepherd Hill Regional High School’s Chamber Choir and “Madrigirls” perform a Christmas concert.

This is the southern half of Worcester as seen from the Worcester Airport. With the trees partly obscuring the view and no strong focal point of an architecturally prominent downtown, I’m not sure it captures the essence of Worcester, whatever that may be. It’s certainly not a fair comparison, especially since Worcester does not have the large body of water which gives an unrestricted view of the city the way that Boston or Chicago have, but is there a nice expansive iconic scene to be found anywhere here?

The 15 acre Greenwood Park has a public swimming pool, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and this playground, lit by the full moon for 30 seconds.

Mark Waters, mounting specialist at AutumnColor Digital Imaging, explains their print mounting options to a potential client during today’s open house. Notice the large white mounting roller in the foreground. Ten years ago, before I knew anything about Worcester besides the fact that people pronounced it funny, I knew about AutumnColor (when it was known as EverColor). The price of EverColor’s prints were way out of my range at the time (and still would be if those were still the prices), but having one of my photos printed here had been on my maybe/someday wish list ever since first hearing about them. So it was great to go in and visit what was really my first connection with Worcester. The prints on display were absolutely amazing, and I feel certain that I will be using them for all my fine art numbered printing in the future, especially since the printing and scanning prices are well within a reasonable price range for this type of precision and quality of service. The technicians were very passionate about what they were doing, and that’s always worth the price.

Worcester’s 2nd annual Festival of Lights marks the lighting of the Christmas tree on the common. City Hall hosted a number of performances and hands on activities for kids.