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Wheeler’s Point Gloucester has some great rocks to climb and a big open area up top. Not really any trails but the view’s great and lots of room to run around. Check it out …
New off leash for us! Inland and off Cherry St., look for the Dogtown Common sign 100 yards from the Cape Ann Sportsman’s Club. There’s another entrance off Gee Ave. but we’ve yet to use it. Click for map.
In Housing Market, Uncertainty Reigns
- By ANTHONY BROOKS
- May 11, 2011, 3:50 PM
- 14 COMMENTS
(haglundc/Flickr)
In recent days, we’ve been a hit by flurry of reports about an increasingly weak housing market and falling home prices in the Boston area. Just Tuesday, a new forecast projected a drop in Massachusetts home prices by as much as 6.5 percent.
So how bad is it? Are we heading toward a double-dip? Or has the market hit bottom? Some analysts say we can expect the market to begin to recover in the coming months. Are they right?
As the spring home sale season heats up, many prospective buyers and sellers are caught in the middle of a market in transition. Is it a good time to buy? Should owners be looking to sell?
We speak with housing experts on the state of the market.
Do you have a question about the housing market in Massachusetts? Are you looking to buy or sell a home? Do you rent because you’re too scared to buy?
Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Guests:
- Scott Van Voorhis, real estate blogger and columnist, Boston.com.
- Karl Case, retired Wellesley College economist; co-founder, Case-Shiller Index
- Patty Knaggs, real estate agent based in Beverly
- Curt Nickisch, business & technology reporter, WBUR
Friday is Earth Day and there’s lots going on this weekend including free concerts on Boston Common and at the Cape Ann Brewery here in Gloucester. Saturday many of us will be meeting at Stage Fort Park to help clean up the litter that has accumulated over the winter. (Some “blown” some littered on purpose. Don’t get me started!) Starting at 9AM or so you can show up, pick up trash bags and then pick up trash. I’ll be grabbing bags and going back to my own neighborhood near the high school. Check out GoodMorningGloucester for more info on these events. Hope to see you there!
When you are a dog mom, one gets invitations to yards (byod-bring your own dog), or walks much more then homes! It was at one of these yards I learned the story of “Running Rock Head”.
Great art by great artists can be found in the most surprising places! Visiting a friends’ yard (yes on Cape Ann and no I can’t say where) for the first time, I was introduced to this very unique work of art, hidden behind her fence, “running” in the side of her yard. It is inspiring to look at and special in significance. The story how it came to be located there is at once intriguing and sad.
The artist, Joe Wheelwright is the intrigue. His art ranges from tree “sculptures” to traditional stone sculptures, all the way to cast bronze. His art is one of vision, imagination and execution. It is not so much the art of using materials to create an object, but more one of seeing a vision that people like myself can not see. He “liberates” this vision, from its’ encumbered natural existence into that of a piece of art. Now eligible to be seen, admired and enjoyed by mere mortals like you and me.
Tree figures he creates, are one piece of wood. Joe removes the unnecessary part of the tree to fit his vision. He then designs a wax feeder system that will channel the molten bronze around the tree form. The form is then enveloped in plaster. The plaster contains the bronze as it surrounds the tree form. When it cools post-casting, it is again heated in an oven. After the plaster is removed, he often creates a patina on the surface using a heat torch, chemicals and a brush. Joe often sculpts heads out of stone and frequently sees trees as forms having life energy apparent in arms and legs. It is so very fitting that in this sculpture he has used a rock as the head and the tree as the movement of the figure. His most common stone sculptures are heads and faces. Yet, his most plentiful tree sculptures are of the human body consisting of torso, arms and legs.
The sad part of the story: Running Rock Head came to reside at my friend’s house as a gift from a friend. It was received, post-mortem, after a tragic youthful death. It dances (in my eyes) or runs every day as a testament to a friend with way too much life to ever really die. Thank you dear friend and Joe Wheelwright for this gift of life. Both the artist, and the gift giver, are and were two truly exceptional people in life and in death.
I just came from an open house here in Gloucester. Nice property, expensive, great ocean views. But someone forgot to tell the seller that a huge “no no” is displaying any of the following:- Clowns
- Dolls
- Shrunken heads
- Stuffed game, birds or pets
- Guns
- Any clown, doll, shrunken head or stuffed animal HOLDING a gun.
If you’re selling, it’s a good idea to hire an agent that uses a professional stager. Then take the stager’s advice and remove the things that could turn off a potential buyer. In this market, you can’t afford to offend anyone.
I love it when the big flag goes up on the Boulevard. Means “no more snow”. Does anybody know who put’s it up? Is it the city?
Goose Cove Gardens…the calm before the storm, I mean spring!
I love to grow things (flowers, vegatables, turfgrass) and will take every opportunity to be surrounded by green things. One of my favorite places (any season) to visit on Cape Ann is Goose Cove Gardens on Gee Ave. in Gloucester. Barbara and Hilary Dombrowski the owners, operators, founders, ceo, cfo, brains, brawn, field hands…you name it (!) exude their passion for growing plants organically every time I visit. We have had many a conversation over the fabulous qualities of our locally produced fish fertilizer, Neptunes Harvest to Barbaras own Goose Cove Gardens’ compost tea for plants. This very early spring I paid them a visit and Barbara gave me a tour of just some of what goes on at Goose Cove Gardens long before people like you and I show up to get our annual supply of flowers and vegetables. When Goose Cove Gardens opens on Saturday, April 16, 2011 the efforts of all their planning and work will be on display for all. How ever, if you would like a sneak preview…
Gloucester snow farm update and litter rant
So the snow is almost gone. Stagefort Park will soon have it’s parking lot back. If you really want to appreciate how much litter is plowed up with the snow, get up there this week before DPW cleans it up. This crap almost ended up in the ocean. And don’t we FISH in that ocean? Isn’t it important to keep it CLEAN!!!???
Hold on a minute. I feel a rant coming on. I can’t believe how much crap people throw on the ground. And I’ve got to assume most of this is thrown out car windows. . Makes me sick to see all the plastic, cigarette butts, wrappers, empty nips, coffee cups, water bottles, paper bags, plastic bags with dog shit in them, spoons, ice cream cups, and I could go on and on. It’s disgusting. And so preventable. HAVE SOME PRIDE IN YOUR COMMUNITY. USE A TRASH BARREL.
BTW Newell Stadium is just as bad. Does anyone bother to tell the high school kids not to throw their trash on the ground? Or is THAT too much bother, too? End of rant.
For those of you that don’t litter, Mother Nature and I thank you.
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All content on this blog is the opinion of the author and should not be relied upon when purchasing or selling real estate.