O'Brien Nurserymen

 I had lots of shade-loving hostas in my home in West Hartford, many of which I bought at O'Brien Nurserymen in Granby, Connecticut.  My daughter took two dozen of them for her Ridgefield home, and she has added others.  On Friday we drove up to O'Brien to admire the crop and buy some more.

John O'Brien created this amazing place in 1984.  His nursery has grown into New England’s premier hosta nursery.  The extensive display gardens feature over 1,300 hosta varieties as well as other shade-loving plants.  John's plant knowledge is encyclopedic.  He helped us choose about a dozen plants. 

Beyond hostas, O'Brien features asarums, pulmonarias, epimediums, polygonatums, and arisaemas.  

The gardens also include a wide variety of unusual dwarf conifers 

and more than 100 varieties of Japanese maples.

If any reader loves plants -- especially shade-loving plants -- enjoy this Youtube interview with John O'Brien from August 2025.  It has had more than 100,000 views since it was released ten months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7VqroTbu0o 

Roses

Passing through West Hartford last Friday, I came across rose murals painted by Ben Keller, whose work I have featured here before.  They are in a shopping center, where two buildings almost meet. 

 

Linked to Monday Murals.

Church of the Assumption

Westport's Church of the Assumption stood out on a day with a gloriously blue sky.

The Catholic congregation dates to 1866, this building was dedicated in 1900. 

A.C.T. of Connecticut

 A.C.T. (A Contemporary Theater) of Connecticut is concluding its eighth season in Ridgefield with a performance of Dear Evan Hansen.

I attended recently.  Shame that I hadn't been to a performance before.  It was excellent!

Attendees reach the theater by walking through long corridors with large photos from past shows. 

The theater isn't big, but it has good seating and a professional stage.  

The actors are professionals and members of Actors' Equity.

Dear Evan Hansen is about a socially awkward high school student who invents a relationship with another loner student who dies.  One thing leads to another and builds toward the inevitable collapse.  The play is thought provoking.  I will be buying tickets for future A.C.T. performances.

Mansplaining

I have been guilty of this on occasion . . . 

This is at Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.  If you will pardon my own mansplaining, the nearest bust is of Daniel Wadsworth, a Hartford amateur artist and architect in the middle of the 19th century.  He was from a well off Connecticut family.  He funded the creation of the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1842.

Two circles

 Entering the Wadsworth Atheneum's Gengras Court in Hartford, I encountered two circles.  

In the foreground, we face dissident Chinese artist Al Weiwei's "Grapes," formed from 26 traditional three-legged stools.  On the wall behind it is one of American artist Frank Stella's so-called "Protractor" works, named for its careful creation with a protractor and compass. 

Wadsworth Atheneum and The Travelers Tower

 

The nearer building is Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, an excellent art museum that I visit often when I am in Hartford.  Behind it is the Travelers Tower, headquarters of the Travelers Insurance Company.