#BioDivlibrary button at Marconi Station, Cape Cod

Site of first transatlantic radio transmission

QotD: "A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings" HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

For the second time this month, I've had the fortune to stumble upon a famous writer's home. Earlier in the month it was William S. Burrough's home in St. Louis, and now it was H.P. Lovecraft's last home in his native Providence, Rhode Island.

Providence, I learned, is full of Lovecraft sites, including his birthplace and his grave.

Pictured at right, is Lovecraft's home at the corner of Prospect St. and Meeting Street. The house was originally on a different site a few blocks down, but was moved when Brown University was doing some construction. FYI, many of Lovecraft's papers are in the John Hay Library (Brown).

And so, today's quote of the day is from one of Lovecraft's signature works, "The Call of Cthulhu":

"Above these apparent hieroglyphics was a figure of evidently pictorial intent, though its impressionistic execution forbade a very clear idea of its nature. It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a Cyclopean architectural background."

Survived the Bourne Bridge, hello Cape Cod

On to Brewster

Seaman's Bethel, New Bedford

Good morning Rhode Island State House, Providence

Bright blue sunny day

Providence sunset at Prospect Park

Starbucks #7419, Providence

Angell St.

Hugh Howey's Wool, in the wilds of a brick and mortar store

Brown University bookstore

Starbucks #9667, Providence

Good morning to a rainy Providence

Starbucks #13661, Providence

US Airways 3254: DCA to PVD

Gate 24.

Happy birthday, Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden, aka "Shaw's Garden" (@mobotnews)

Shaw's Mausoleum

Today is the birthday of Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden. I paid my first visit to "Shaw's Garden" in 2006 (photo set) when I was attending at TDWG meeting before heading on to San Francisco. Since that first visit, I've made many more trips to STL and the Garden (most recently, just a few days ago (photo set).

As a member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Garden has hosted many of our BHL meetings over the year (as well as

Though the Garden is, of course, famed for the beautiful floral and botanical displays, it is also an important scientific facility with an amazing herbarium and research library (The Peter H. Raven Library).

The Garden will be having some special events in honor of it's founders 213th birthday, see more information here.

Some random shots from visits to "MOBOT" (as I continue to think of the Garden) are below. The first item is an herbarium specimen collected by Charles Darwin.

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