Carousel 2

Carousel Museum, Bristol, Connecticut

I am the man on the right in the red Speedo.

Do you like carousels?

There is a Carousel Museum in Bristol, Museum.  Let me show you some photos from the museum while I am away.  (Though I might interrupt the series to show a travel photo if time permits . . . )

The top photo shows an antique.

The bottom photo shows a partially completed wooden horse, to illustrate how they were constructed.

Go Fly a Kite

When you are flying your first kite, it isn't important how high the kite gets.

Back in a week.  Posts are still scheduled.  I hope you visit.

SmellingTulips

This is how you learn that tulips are beautiful but don't have much scent.

Art in the Park

Students from Hartford Art School (part of the University of Hartford) were spread over Elizabeth Park with their sketch pads.  What a way to spend a spring afternoon!

Jacqueline and Allen

Allen asked me to take a picture of Jacqueline and him on his camera. 

Taking a picture of them on my camera afterward was a fair trade.

Away for ten more days, but posts are scheduled.  I hope you visit.

Cindy

Cindy is a book publisher from Glastonbury.  She and her camera-shy friend were having a picnic on a bench in the Elizabeth Park rose garden.

I told her I was taking photos that might end up on my blog.  She said she was familiar with it:  "Yes, Hartford Daily Photo, Paris Daily Photo, London Daily Photo, etc. . . . "  No wonder I liked her.

Tag!

What would you do if your mother took you to a dumb park and
made your brother and you look at some dumb flowers?

Dogwood

This old pink dogwood tree is in our yard in West Hartford.

Webster House and Garden

The Noah Webster House looks pretty on a spring morning with daffodils, tulips and blue thingeys in bloom.

Noah Webster

The Noah Webster House doesn't permit photography inside the house, but they grudgingly let me take a quick photo of a bust of Noah Webster at the information desk. 

Another well known literary resident of greater Hartford -- Mark Twain -- wrote "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindeness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."   I will be traveling for two weeks, returning on May 7.  I will have limited time and internet access to visit your blogs, but I do have posts lined up here.  I hope you will continue to visit. 

Who knows?  I might even interrupt the scheduled posts to show off an elephant or giraffe or daughter.

The Dawn's Early Light

Walkers are out at all times of the day in my neighborhood.  I saw this woman

a few blocks away when it was dark and then again in Elizabeth Park

at the dawn's early light. 

Tulips in the early morning

The tulips in Elizabeth Park's annual garden are always gorgeous in the first light of the day.

Yesterday several people commented that the library's reading room was empty.  That is deceptive.  I was there soon after it opened, and I went to the third reading room, which had not yet filled up.  The library is actually a very busy one.

Reading Room at the West Hartford Library

To me, this looks like a prototypical reading room at a prototypical public library.  I am curious how my viewers will feel.  Then again, I have lived in New England for a long time.  Austere windsor chairs and pine tables are pretty normal around here.

New Books

You have seen the Hartford Public Library many times before, but I don't think I have shown you the  inside of the Noah Webster Memorial Library (i.e., the main public library in West Hartford Center).

Did you notice how smoothly I transitioned from yesterday's "reading" post to today's library picture? 

Read a Book or Pay My Taxes?

Reading a good book would be so much more enjoyable than paying taxes, but I have procrastinated long enough.  Today is the day.

I received an email from Matt Wood, the designor/director of the Torrington Mural shown a couple of weeks ago.  He tells me that it was a project for an After School Arts Program (ASAP) in Washington Depot, a small town near Torrington.  All of the people portrayed in the mural were student artists participating in the project.  And, the large "negative head" image is of Polly Doremus, an elderly lady who was active in the area and who co-founded a shelter for battered mothers.

It is always a pleasant surprise to hear from people who come across photos featured here.  And, even more, it is always fun to learn about the positive things that people do in their communities.  Not everyone is a Scrooge.

Some Like It Hot

Some people get very suspicious when they see you taking pictures of their restaurant.

I was driving down New Park Avenue, the street that divides Hartford and West Hartford in the southern part of town.  I saw banners saying that the restaurant in an old diner had won some awards from Zagat and a local newspaper's reader poll.  So, of course, I stopped with my camera. 

A rather hostile chef stared from the front door and asked what I was doing.  I don't think he believed me about a daily photo blog, but he warmed up and posed for a photo.  Then, he invited me inside, showed me the menu and told me to come back for lunch some day.  I will.

Mechanics Savings Bank

Pearl Street, Hartford, Connecticut

To my eye, this is one of the more successful re-uses of an old building's facade in a highrise development. 

You can see more reflections here.