Hartford Yard Goats

Tuesday night I finally managed to get to a Hartford Yard Goats game.  The Yard Goats are a Class Double-A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Colorado Rockies.

The Yard Goats play at Dunkin Donuts Park in Hartford, recently named 2017 Ballpark of the Year.

The park is great and the game was fun.  I could almost forget that the nearly-bankrupt City of Hartford spent more than $70 million to build the stadium to lure a minor league team
 away from another Connecticut city just 12 miles to the west.

Ken

Ken was at the dahlia show.  He has exhibited his own dahlias in the past, 

but this year he had difficulty keeping the bulbs healthy.

Dahlias

The annual dahlia show was held Sunday at Elizabeth Park's Pond House.

Very perfect blooms were competing for awards.

The judge stared intently at each bloom.

Historic House

Back in Connecticut, where history is the region's core legacy.

You want to keep a historic house shipshape?  Scrape.  Patch.  Paint.  Repeat.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Some Animals of East Africa

I could show photographs from my recent trip to East Africa for weeks, but I suppose the idea of this blog in summertime is to show Hartford and its environs.   Before I get back on topic, though, 

I will offer a sample of animals I saw in Kenya and Tanzania.

I have seen many zebras before, but the number seen in East Africa was staggering.  Thousands. 

They are everywhere.  Usually with their buddies and migration partners, the wildebeests.

Crowned cranes are beautiful birds.

I thought that baboon grooming behavior was in part social and in part to get rid of ticks.

On this trip I learned that salt crystals form on a baboon's back and the one doing

the grooming is also searching for some salt to eat.

We saw three or four leopards, but they were quite far away.  The only way I was able to take 

this so-so photograph of a leopard was to use a big zoom lens and then crop heavily.

This pair of Cape buffalo offered a side view and a front view.

We saw cheetahs quite close.  This cheetah -- which is wearing a collar with GPS to enable researchers to track her movements -- was one of five cheetahs stalking a herd of wildebeest.

I took many photos of the cheetahs taking down a young wildebeest.  Even though

 predator attacks are part of nature out on the savannah, and carnivorous animals do 

need to eat, the images are a bit grim so I have decided not to show them here. 

Elephants are fascinating to watch.

We visited two hippo pools with forty or more hippos packed in tightly together.  Pretty gross.

OK, Connecticut tomorrow.

Three Pubs

The Corner Pug is a perennial top vote-getter in the polls for favorite pub-style restaurants in greater Hartford.  It got a fresh coat of purplish paint recently and looks great.  I stopped by in mid-afternoon during a heat wave.  On a cooler day and around mealtime, those chairs would all be filled.

For years, the Prospect Cafe was a popular West Hartford hangout.  Two years ago it suddenly closed, shocking me (and, I am sure, many others).  It has new owners and fresh paint and is busy again.

Same story.  Heat wave and mid-afternoon.  Otherwise, the joint would be packed.

The Half Door looks like the kind of bar where you don't walk through the front door unless your grandfather used to go there.  And your father.  And all of your uncles.  Mine didn't.  So I haven't.

I got home last night after two weeks in East Africa, on safari in Kenya and Tanzania.
This is a pre-scheduled post from Connecticut.  While away, I have been able to post some safari pix.
I might run one or two more days of photos from safari before returning to Connecticut pix.

Gnarly

What do you think happened in this tree's life to cause this snarl?

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Tango

Blue Back Square, West Hartford

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Lions of the Serengeti

 

A male lion stikes a pose in the Serengeti.

He also insisted on a head shot.

Not to be outdone, two lionesses and a cub posed atop a rock.

Being a model is exhausting work, so these lions snoozed in a big pile.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Lake Manyara, Tanzania

Today I have wifi again.
Like birds?

These are mainly great white pelicans, pink-backed pelicans and yellow-billed storks,
with Egyptian geese and many smaller birds mixed in,

Chynnere Again

This is a repeat appearance for Chynnere.  You saw her before here.  Though I have photographed her several other times, I guess they are still in my archives and didn't get posted.

Whenever I pass the women's clothing store where Chynnere works, I peek inside to see what Chynnere is wearing and what she has done to her hair.  She never seems to repeat a look.

On this day Chynnere was mortified.  Her hair was wrapped.  "Bad hair day."

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Another Street Ghost

In a post two months ago, I explained the art project in downtown Hartford based on people captured during the Google Street View mapping project.   Here is another I found at a bus shelter.

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Wildebeest

Today I have wifi.  Let's do a small wildebeest sampler from various places in Kenya and Tanzania.

Butterfly

A female Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly paused on the lawn just long enough for a quick shot.

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Hien

I saw Hien.  She was reading something on her phone and had a serious expression.

She reminded me of women in Japanese woodcuts, so I asked her to pose seriously, which she did.

Here is a Japanese woodcut.  See what I mean?  (I really wish I took the photo of her with the phone.)

Being serious is not Hien's usual way.  She is happy and smiles a lot.  ("I'm a ditz.")  She asked me to guess her nationality and I said "Vietnamese," which is right.  Hien said that in the winter, when she is lighter, people usually guess Japanese or Korean, especially if her hair is up.  She came to the USA when she was six.  So, she says she is about 98 percent American.  Nice young woman.

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Guilford, Connecticut

Guilford is one of Connecticut's pretty shoreline towns, with a big town green lined with shops, restaurants, cafes, municipal buildings and at least three churches.

First Congregational Church flies colorful banners expressing the congregation's openness.

Just off the green, Perk on Church -- a coffee shop that occupies half of

 a repurposed Quonset hut -- extols its sustainable values.

Closer to the waterfront, a most unusual apartment building known locally as the spaceship

thumbs its nose at passerby's from a prime spot on a little knoll.

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Bench

One of my preferred benches was taken when Lola, Sequoia and I visited Elizabeth Park recently.

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.

Joe

Joe is the third generation in his family to run Imperial Decorating and Upholstering.

His wife and two sons also work in the family business.

My dining room chairs will have some new 

clothes in time for the holidays.

I am away for two weeks without reliable wifi.  Back the 26th.  Daily posts are scheduled.