A Wedding Photographer

This guest at a recent wedding was very serious about the photo she was taking.

My daughter is getting married at a beautiful New Hampshire lake this weekend.  They won't let me take pictures . . . we have hired a professional.  My job is to be a charming host, beaming father of the bride, and uncomplaining writer of checks.  I have a lot of experience writing checks.  The beaming will come naturally. 

Charm?  Time will tell.

Ellie

Ellie is four years old.  She just got a vaccination.  Her mom took Ellie and little sister Lucy to get a treat.

Outhouse?

This little shed is on the sidewalk outside the building on Pearl Street that once housed Congregation Ados Israel,  Hartford's first synagogue.  As the neighborhood turned from residential into office buildings, the congregation's members moved out of town and the temple was closed.  I showed the building earlier this year.

What do you think this little building is?  I don't know either.

Samuel Colt Memorial

This is Samuel Colt's monument and a nearby cross at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.  You see the "rampant colt" in a weathered shield on the memorial.  The rampant colt has long been a trademark of Colt Firearms.

 

This post is linked to Taphophile Tragics.

A Red Victorian House in the West End

Here is another pretty and well-tended house.  This one is in Hartford's West End, a historic district.

Like the color red?  Then visit here.

Frogs on the Playground

Two frogs in Bushnell Park discussed whether to go on the see-saw or climb the jungle gym.

The Curmudgeon

This is The Curmudgeon, a sculpture by Brigid Kennedy, an art teacher at a local high school.  It is in the yard of a fascinating home in the West End of Hartford.  The 1903 house is by William H. Scoville, who designed many homes in this historic neighborhood.

The house has chalet-like details and unusual carvings.  Look at the circular detail on the porch, where the rail would usually be supported by balustrades.

Why The Curmudgeon today?  It is my birthday. I thought it was appropriate.

Theater Works and the Goodwin

This is the building that houses Theater Works.  It reflects the  Goodwin Hotel and the CitiPlace office building.

More reflections?  Click here.

This weekend is the wedding of the daughter of a close friend in Vermont, and the following weekend is my daughter's wedding in New Hampshire.  Between the travel, the house guests and things that will arise at the last moment, I expect to be pretty busy until early September.  So, I won't be visiting other blogs as often as usual.  But, I have scheduled posts.  I hope you enjoy them.

Bushnell Park Carousel

The 1914-vintage Bushnell Park Carousel operates from May through mid-October on the weekends.

Scarecrow

Recently I was asked if there are scarecrows in Connecticut.  I didn't remember any.  Then I saw a stylish scarecrow guarding a small garden in a churchyard.

The Goat

This goat has been nibbling at that lilac tree as long as I can remember.

Dragon Boat Races

The thrill of victory.

The objective is to row TOGETHER!

Silas W. Robbins House

This impeccably painted and maintained inn is on the Green in Wethersfield.  The Trip Advisor comments about the inn are full of superlatives.  28 of 29 ratings are "excellent."  The other is "very good."  The complaint from the one dissenter?  They showed up for breakfast at 10 a.m. and it was over.

A link to the inn's website is here.

Sue left an interesting comment yesterday about the inn and its renovation.

Fountain

Wethersfield Green runs for a third of a mile.  There are many classic old homes, as well as many newer houses. 

This fountain is on the lawn of a gorgeous bed and breakfast inn.  You will see more of the inn tomorrow.

Geometry

I have done something similar before, but I liked it then and I like it now.

This is the Hartford Steam Boiler building, also known as One State Street.

If you like reflections, please visit James' blog, Weekend Reflections.

Butter and Sugar Corn

Locally grown butter-and-sugar corn is available at farm stands and stores now.  When I see it, I have to stop.  (OK, when I see fresh apple or cherry or strawberry rhubarb pies, I have to stop for them, too . . . you got a problem with that?)

Kyla works at the little family-owned Anderson Farms stand on the Wethersfield Green.  I talked Kyla into letting me take her picture, but Haley ran away.

The Weir Family

The New Britain Museum of American Art is showing an exhibition of work by Connecticut's multigenerational Weir family of painters.  The first prominent painter in the Weir family was Robert W. Weir.  His best known painting is Embarkation of the Pilgrims, on display at the U.S. Capitol.  This exhibition had a smaller version of the same painting.

Weir's portrait showed a man with longish gray hair and a beard.  A man with longish gray hair and a beard walked past, so I asked him if he minded posing with it, to simulate looking in a time-warping mirror.

After I took the picture, I discovered my model was Bob Noreika, the water color plein air artist shown yesterday.

Plein Air

The New Britain Museum of American Art offers lectures on Wednesdays.   The plein air water color painter Bob Noreika was a recent guest.  He picked a location on the museum's front porch to demonstrate how he paints. I learned that a roll of paper towels is an essential tool for a water color painter.

Twins? Sisters? Best Friends?

You tell me.

Mom and Dad are Fans

The pitcher's mother and father attend most of the vintage baseball games.

Vintage Baseball

On Saturdays in the summer, a small group of vintage baseball aficionados gathers at a field in Colt Park in Hartford.  They play a couple of games, one with rules from 1862 and another with rules from 1865.

Globes

More of these reflective globes are for sale in garden centers than in people's yards, it seems.

Extra points for those who find the photographer.

To see other photographers' reflection photos, visit James' blog, Weekend Reflections.

Jorgenson Center

The concert hall at the University of Connecticut's main campus in Storrs is the Jorgenson Center.  It was empty when I sneaked in to stand on the stage. 

"To be or not to be."

Mr. Lincoln and Mrs. Stowe at the Caribbean Festival

The Caribbean festival I showed on Sunday was colorful.  Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe also attended.  They had an animated discussion about which cellphone plan to buy.

Ivy

Old North Cemetery is a small cemetery on North Main Street, just a few blocks from West Hartford Center.  There are two old cemeteries, just a block apart.  I have driven past them for three decades without stopping.

The carved ivy vines and the rough texture on this tombstone caught my attention.  Adolph C. Sternberg was a Republican member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, who died in 1913 at the age of 74.

This post is linked to Taphophile Tragics.

Taste of Hartford

It is restaurant week again.  Many of the good restaurants in Hartford are offering special menus at attractive prices to encourage diners to visit when lots of regular customers are vacationing out of town.

This is Firebox, a popular restaurant at Billings Forge in the Frog Hollow section of Hartford.  In some surveys, Firebox is the top-ranked restaurant in the city.  It emphasizes locally raised foods.

These photos were taken with my little point-and-shoot Canon.  I didn't want to lug the big guy into the restaurant and I didn't know how they felt about photography.

Tiny Dancer

A Taste of the Caribbean festival was held yesterday at Riverfront Park in downtown Hartford.  It was very hot, so I didn't stay long.  But, I did stay long enough to catch dancers in bright skirts.

Naomi

Naomi is a hard-working woman.  She is a home health care aide who works two jobs caring for elderly clients.  Sometimes she comes to the park to relax for an hour between jobs.

Travelers Tower

There are many modern glass-walled office buildings in Hartford's downtown, as well as many older buildings with traditional lines.  I enjoy it when the two collide.  Today's image is of the Travelers Tower bounced off a modern building.


It is Friday, so James' blog Weekend Reflections is again showing photos with reflections.  Take a look.

Watering the Flowers

We seem to have a lot of vintage trucks on Connecticut farms.  On Monday you saw the side of an old truck on a farm in Simsbury, half an hour northwest of Hartford.  Today you see an old truck on a small farm's flower stand in Preston, an hour east of Hartford.  It is a different truck.  I guess I just like them.

Numbers

OK.  I admit it.  As a photograph, this is a nothing.  But, the City Daily Photo bloggers are posting photos today illustrating the theme of "numbers" and I am a team player even if I didn't have a photographically interesting image.

BUT, even though this image is blah, the content isn't.  Over the last eighteen women's college basketball seasons, a University of Connecticut player was named the best player in the nation ten times.  Diana Taurasi was named twice and Maya Moore was named three times.  Two of the players (Rebecca Lobo and Jennifer Rizzotti) have been elected to the Hall of Fame, Rizzotti's election coming just this month.

And, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Tina Charles are on the USA women's basketball team in London this week, along with former UConn teammates Swin Cash and Aisha Jones, heavily favored to win the Olympic gold medal.

You can see more "numbers" photos here.