Granger St. Studios

01/15/2026

We had such a great turnout for our Opening Minds Through Art final show!

Bob Cass stands with Caiden Lau, who Cass depicted in the bottom painting || Monica SagerThe student-older adult pairs created a variety of art pieces || Monica SagerArt participants at the Senior …

01/06/2026

Tidbits are coming along. The Art of Winter. Another of a bunch...

10/13/2025

A belated but happy update. Just about five months after a fall that required a couple of surgeries and months of rehab...Hilda is back stronger than ever!

Back cooking for Dad (he will pour himself a bowl of cereal under duress...). Back making cards loaded with themed stickers for birthdays. Back driving. Back sleeping in her own bed. Back bringing smiles to people when they see her quirky shirts. And best of all...back walking and balancing better than she has in years (thanks to all the PT and her continuing to exercise).

Thank-you all who reached out with (or just had) caring thoughts, prayers, and cards. 🌻

06/11/2025

Hilda had her surgery at the end of last week and is now in the healing and getting stronger phase. She really wants to get back to that garden of hers! In the meantime...lots of plant and flower T-shirts to brighten her day.

And...she said (in her typical dramatic way) "thank-you all for the kind thoughts and prayers."

06/07/2025

Sometimes someone plans an elective surgery or procedure and they anticipate the need for short-term rehabilitation afterwards and can take the time to consider where they’ll go.

In our case the need for rehabilitation came after an unexpected medical event, which can add to the overwhelming sense of worry. We had less than a day to figure out where Hilda (Mom) would be transferred to (based on a list given to us by the Case Manager at her hospital).

How did we handle this situation? First...don't just look at reviews. We were lucky that my brother was in town and he walked in unnanounced to three of the top recommended facilites. Two of the three were good, one he found unacceptable due to a small gym facility, what he observed to be low food quality, and general feeling of it being more of skilled nursing than rehab. Here is what we asked.

06/06/2025

Let's take a stroll back a few decades. To New Bedford as it was when Hilda was growing up. She lived just a few blocks from the waterfront, and grew up among families with strong women used to the ways of 'the old country,' fishermen and linguica makers.

Since the seventeenth century, New Bedford has been a major destination for immigrants, a city shaped by the diversity of its residents.

Today, new arrivals live alongside descendants of Wampanoag Indians and the many ethnic groups that have made New Bedford home over more than 300 years.

Today, more than 55% of the population of New Bedford claims Portuguese forebears. Hilda's mother arrived from the Azores in the early 1900's.
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06/03/2025

You know Hilda (Mom). She loves gardening and cartoon shirts. Cooks a mean meat loaf and spends hours designing birthday cards with themed stickers. She is quirky and unique!

Two weeks after Mother's Day (when these photos were taken) Hilda fell down in a parking lot and managed to bang herself up pretty good. Multiple broken bones, a concussion, and quite a contusion on her forehead.

She went from hospital to the most wonderful rehab (Dwyer Home at Fairing way). She has more surgery and quite a rehab journey ahead, but she is working hard and we expect she will recover from this awfulness.

In the meantime - her biggest worry? Her garden! I take it as a very positive sign that she is most distressed not about her physical pain and general frustrating situation, but that she can't be in her garden right now. Having something to look forward to and to work for makes all the difference.

So thankful for the team at this wonderful rehab- Social Workers and Admin, Nurses and Aides, PT and OT, Housecleaning, and one of her highlights...the incredible Chefs and Dining department!
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05/08/2025

What a lovely email I received..,

"Today Governor Healey signed an Executive Order and released a new age-friendly state plan which will outline improved ways for Massachusetts agencies to serve older adults, following feedback gathered from across the state. Our feedback was included at listening sessions that was then included in the new state plan.

Swampscott’s Opening Minds Through Art was one of the programs!

Huge thanks to Siobhan McDonald for bringing this program to us and equally huge thanks to Hadley Woodfin for making it happen through the High School!"
Heidi (Whear)
Director of Aging Services / Town of Swampscott

01/10/2025

There were Portuguese who were living in the East as traders and missionaries. In 1569, a Portuguese missionary mentioned tea in a letter to his king.

But although some of these individuals may have brought back samples of tea to their native country, it was not the Portuguese who were the first to ship back tea as a commercial import.This was done by the Dutch, who in the last years of the sixteenth century began to encroach on Portuguese trading routes in the East.

01/09/2025

Buddhist monks also spread tea throughout Asia, introducing it to Japan as early as 611 CE.

The caffeine proved to keep the monks awake during long hours of meditation. Zen monks taught that if Zen and meditation are to flourish and grow, so must tea, for they are one in the same. For this reason, many monasteries cultivated vast tea fields.

The Zen masters were so effective in cultivating tea that even today, you will find that most famous Buddhist temples across Japan, China and Korea are surrounded by tea plants.

01/08/2025

In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), tea drinking became an art form and a drink enjoyed by all social classes. It became such a favourite that during the late eighth century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch'a Ching, or Tea Classic.

For Lu Yu, tea symbolized the harmony and mysterious unity of the universe and it’s more than just a book on tea; it weaves together literature, history, and art, making it the first comprehensive tea book ever written. Spanning ten chapters, the book explores the origins, varieties, quality, harvesting, production, preparation, equipment, tasting, and history of tea.

Full disclosure...I haven't read it. Yet.

01/07/2025

The story of tea begins in China. According to legend, almost five thousand years ago the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water and some leaves from the tree blew into the water. He decided to try the infusion that his servant had accidentally created. The resulting drink was what we now call tea.

On Mt. Mengding in Sichuan, there are mythological seven tea trees that are still worshiped. They are protected by a tall stone wall and 2 stone tigers guard the front and back entrances.The walls surround the 7 ancient tea trees, each more than 2000 years old. Every year, on March 27, a ritual for the “ tea gods” is performed at this site.