Farmer's Market

In the summer there is a Saturday farmers market on the ground of a local Ridgefield church. 

Ann Marie sells salt crystals.  I told her I like to sprinkle olive oil and salt on steaks before grilling.  She immediately recommended a merlot sea salt from Sicily.  I bought it.

A coffee vendor was VERY busy.

The Hickories is a favorite farm in Ridgefield.  I don't think we have ever passed a Hickories booth without buying something.

A flower vendor paid undivided attention to a young customer.

I remember a crowded hummus booth last year.  It was crowded again last Saturday.

Arts Festival

 Ridgefield is having an arts festival in Ballard Park yesterday and today.  There was a lot of good art, but attendance was down because of competing events and light rain.

I told Audrey she was born in the wrong century.  She paints dark realistic works that would appeal to Edgar Allen Poe.  Her frames are gold and ornate.  And she feeds a pair of black vultures.  Audrey has an amazing face.  When I asked to photograph her, she made a funny face that I captured.

Audrey smiles like a normal person most of the time.  (I felt obligated not to show only the first one.)

I suspect this young man is the son of the artist.  He was bored minding the tent, so he twirled constantly.

OK, they have nothing to do with the art.  I just liked the composition.

License Plates Amuse Me!

 Some more license plates that interested me.

This is a new favorite while the Tartan Army is charming everyone during the World Cup.

A guy is very proud to drive an electric vehicle.

At every Brown University sporting event, one hears a fight song that begins, "We are Ever True to BROWN For we love our college dear . . ."  Don't blame me.  I didn't write it.

Someone else needs to explain this one.  But, you notice it, don't you?  (That is UConn Husky image.)

He is either bragging that he is driving a Full Self Driving Tesla or he is warning us!

Selling below investment grade securities is probably lucrative.  But, on your license plate?

Gossip

 

"Gossip" is a 2004 work by the sculptor Martha Pettigrew.  It makes me smile.  Gossip was originally placed in Stamford's Latham Park but it was later moved to Veterans Park.

Goodbye, Red Rooster

 I'm sad that the Red Rooster Restaurant in Ridgefield is being torn down to clear the space for a 21 unit residential development.

In Naples the city officials let developers destroy natural areas needed by wildlife to make way for oversized housing developments.  In Connecticut, towns let developers tear down irreplaceable historic buildings to squeeze in new developments.  Different problems, same outcome. 

Laurel

Laurel played the guitar and sang in front of Ridgefield Town Hall during last Sunday's "Make Music Day."  I googled her name to give me information for this post.   I learned that Laurel just finished her freshman year at Harvard, where she is cross-registered with Berklee School of Music.  

Laurel is studying both music and cognitive science, each independently and their intersections.  She frequently sings the national anthem at Harvard sports events, performs as an individual and with musical groups, and sings in choral groups.  Her musical interests are both classical and contemporary.

And, by the way, Laurel was the Connecticut girls' state chess champion, and she and her younger brother started a group teaching chess to kids.

Wow!

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