Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day, but it rained so the parade was canceled.

The veterans' memorial in West Hartford Center received many visitors even without the parade.

Remembering all who died in service to our country.

Commencement and Reunion Weekend

OK.  You found me out.  I went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Campus Dance is on Friday night, with one area for younger alumni and another for older.

If you didn't take a selfie, did you graduate?

Brown is on College Hill.  Did I mention that the hill is very steep?

In the commencement procession, faculty members start down the hill first, in their
colorful academic regalia, followed by members of the administration
and the Corporation (i.e., governing body).

After the graduate students, alumni/ae march (or limp or walk or dance, depending on their ages) down the hill.  The oldest classes go first, and the boisterous recent classes bring up the rear.

This gentleman is from the class of 1946.  Do the math!  (I get about 92 years old.)

Class marshals lead the graduating seniors down the hill.

It is always a joyful celebration, and this weekend perfect weather played a helpful role.

Connecticut Farm Project

Jack McConnell is a prominent Hartford photographer.  He has been working on a project photographing Connecticut farmers.  A selection of his prints has been displayed

at the Hartford Public Library, where I met him at a reception.

One of Jack's subjects is John Cavanna of Cavanna Farms in Glastonbury.  His family farm produces the apples sold throughout Stop and Shop's Connecticut grocery stores.

John is also a Hartford police officer.

Derrin House

Fire broke out two weeks ago at the 1810 Derrin house, home of one of Avon's earliest families.

Workers restoring the house tossed oily rags in trash cans and they spontaneously ignited.

The Avon Historical Society uses it as a farm museum.  They had planned to have a 

celebration in June to recognize the Derrin family's arrival in town 250 years ago.

One room has extensive fire damage and others have heat and smoke damage.

Fund-raising to fix it is underway.

Monticello in Connecticut

Somers is half an hour north of Hartford, just south of the Massachusetts line.  A few years ago, the now-102 year old co-founder of a restaurant chain got it in his head that he wanted to build 

a modern replica of Thomas Jefferson's home on nearby land.  He spent $7 million to do it.

Finished two years ago, he put it up for sale at $6.5 million.  No takers.  The price was reduced to $4.9 million.  Still no takers.  So, on May 31 it goes up for auction.  No reserve.

Crack open your piggy banks, kiddies.

(And, it is iris season in Elizabeth Park.)

Women's Lacrosse

Trinity's women's lacrosse team played 14-time champion of Division III (small colleges without big athletic budgets), The College of New Jersey, in the 2016 NCAA quarterfinals.

Trinity (dark blue) scored first.

The Trinity women went out to a fast 5-0 lead and won handily, 10-5.

The semi-final and final games will be played this weekend.

Fido and her friends had to find a place somewhere in this post . . .

Trinity College Graduation

On Sunday afternoon I went over to Trinity College for an athletic event.  (That will come later . . . )

I discovered that the graduation had occurred in the morning.  Grads and alum were partying.

Amidst a lot of acrid cigar smoke, your faithful reporter got some pix for you.

West Hartford Houses Don't Look Like Florida Houses

Architects call these "colonial revival" houses, built in the 1920s, plus or minus.

Realtors call them "center entrance colonials."

Except for those whose entrances aren't in the center.

The Most Colorful Flower in the Garden

A wedding guest might have upstaged the bride.

Welcome Back to Elizabeth Park Daily Photo

I'm back, so, of course, I walked over to Elizabeth Park.  It is in transition.

I missed the tulips.  

The work of lifting bulbs out of the beds is about half done.

Annuals are sitting in flats in the greenhouse, to be planted next week.

It is good to be back.

Good Night, Naples

See you in October.

Cocohatchee

View from a bridge.

Weekend Reflections.

The color was so wonderful that I decided to take it all away.

Fishing at the Naples Pier

Time is approaching for me to head back to New England for the summer.
As the season in Naples is ending, let's visit the Naples Pier one more time.

Naples Botanical Garden

Seriously, how do I pick just a few images after touring a place like the botanical garden?

Impossible.  Next year I will have to devote a week or two to the gardens.

Liz is the curator (kind of a librarian keeping track of an inventory that grows and dies and self-seeds).  She gave the first third of the tour.

 Chad, the deputy director, met us in the treehouse in the children's garden and finished the tour.

A school child made a drawing about strangler figs, so the grown-ups found a large strangler fig elsewhere on the property and transplanted it into the children's garden.

A 1991 tile mosaic by Roberto Burle Marx is seen from many vantage points in the garden.

Chad finished the tour in the oriental garden.