Fern Leaf Beech

This gorgeous symmetrical tree near the Ballard Park gazebo always catches my eye.  I can only identify it because I bought a pamphlet identifying Ridgefield trees of interest.  

Apparently it turns bright orange in the fall.  I will be checking it out.

Damselfly

There are many damselflies in my yard.  I always thought dragonflies and damselflies are the same thing.  Wrong!  Dragonfly wings are out to the side and they have thicker bodies.  The wings of damselflies are aligned with their thinner bodies. 

Collis P. Huntington State Park

 Huntington was one of the wealthy railway barons of the late 19th century.  With Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, he invested in companies that built the transcontinental railroads.  Later he established the largest shipyard and dry dock company in the country at Newport News, Virginia.

His daughter, Anna Hyatt Huntington, was a noted sculptor who donated her 1,000+ acre estate in Redding, Connecticut, to the State of Connecticut for a public park named for her father.

Statues of wolves and bears by Anna Hyatt Huntington greet visitors at the park's entrance.

The park has wide, well-kept paths.  I just explored a small part of the park.

A family rode their bicycles past me and then paused to admire a lake.

So did I.

The Fountain Inn

The Fountain Inn is a new bed and breakfast inn that opened weeks ago on Main Street in Ridgefield.

It looks beautiful. 

Sticky

 She loves to read.  The library has incentives for children to read in the summer.  She easily won a certificate for a cone at her favorite ice cream shop and could hardly wait to claim her reward!

 The August theme for City Daily Photo photographers is "sticky."  

Click here to see other interpretations.

Animals on Pillars

A grand, angry lion on Silver Spring Road in Ridgefield. 

A stylized lion standing with a crest on a road I can't remember in Redding.

A black metal horse head on a pier on High Ridge Avenue in Ridgefield.

And a concrete horse head looks out on Ridgefield's North Salem Road.

A dog on the same forgotten road in Redding.

Butterflies and Bees

Monarch butterflies on echinacea (coneflower)

  This Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, with rich iridescent blue on her tail, is a female.

Male swallowtails don't have the blue tails. 

This black swallowtail butterfly with iridescent blue on her tail is a "dimorphic" female variety.

A bumble bee coated with pollen visits an echinacea (coneflower).

Hummingbird moths.

 

A bumble bee on the left and a honey bee on the right.