Georgetown

 Welcome To The Historic Village of Georgetown.  

The man at the left end with tousled white hair is Mark Twain, whose last years were in Redding, of which Georgetown is a part.

Linked to Monday Mural.

Charles Ives

 Charles Ives was born 150 years ago today  in nearby Danbury, Connecticut.  Ives was an American modernist composer.  He was also a very successful and wealthy insurance executive.  His wife and he bought a plot in West Redding, Connecticut, and built this fine "cabin."

"Three Places in New England" is Ives' best known work.  The work is in three movements.  I have taken photographs for each of the three movements.

The first movement is inspired by Augustus St. Gaudens' statue on the Boston Common, Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment.  Shaw was a white officer from Boston in the Civil War, who led  Black volunteers on a failed assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina.  Shaw and many of his men died.

I visited Boston in August and went looking for this statue, which is across Beacon Street from the Massachusetts State House.

The second movement, Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut, is inspired by American Revolutionary War hero General Israel Putnam's encampment in the harsh winter of 1778-79 .  Today the site is  a Connecticut state park.  In 2023 I photographed this statue of Putnam by Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Ives enjoyed hiking with his new wife when they honeymooned in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.  That pleasure was in Ives' mind when he composed the third movement, The Housatonic at Stockbridge.  I took this photograph in August when I was in the Berkshires to hear Yo Yo Ma at Tanglewood.

Country Road

I pass through here every time I return to my Ridgefield home.  

It is always pretty, but in the Fall it is special.

Scarecrows

 The Town of Ridgefield likes nothing more than dressing up the Main Street business district and raising money for worthy organizations.  Over the summer large painted sneakers were all around, raising money for children and arts programs in the poorer community of Bridgeport.

In October, every lamp post in the district has a scarecrow attached to celebrate fall and to raise money.  The top scarecrow was created by a small store.  It is publicizing a Walk to End Alzheimers.  The bottom scarecrow is by a designer of floral displays for weddings and events.

Skeletons

 

What is the plural of "skeletons"?

Pumpkins

I think there are enough for everyone.

 

Golden Hour

 

Golden hour is always beautiful, but especially in the Fall and beside a lake in Connecticut.

Some Chinese People

I like photographing people.  Sometimes as planned portraits, sometimes just capturing people as they go about their lives.

She demonstrated a tea ceremony and showed us how Chinese people brew a range of different teas.

An artist and a merchant in a Beijing hutong.

A woman taking a break after posing for someone else.

An energetic jade saleswoman.

A man greeting guests at a restaurant.

Two people greeting guests arriving for dinner and a show.

People arriving to see the Terracotta Army in Xi'an.

A craftswoman making small clay terracotta warriors for sale in a big shop.

David, our guide in Xi'an and Beijing.

A girl outside the Xi'an wall, playing with the equivalent of a big yoyo.

A man in Zhuijiajiao.

Cooking.

Displaying knickknacks.

Two men in Haitan Ancient City.

Belle, our local guide for visits to the Summer Palace and the Lama Temple.

This three week trip to China was wonderful.  I'm back in Connecticut briefly before heading to Florida for the winter.  Photographs from Connecticut will be here tomorrow. 

Lama Temple

 Lama Temple is Beijing's principal and largest Buddhist Temple. It was built in 1694, as part of the city wall for Emperor Yongzheng, before he ascended the throne in 1722. 

Yongzheng’s son -- Emperor Qianlong -- sent for 300 Tibetan monks and 200 Chinese students and housed them in the palace in 1744. From then on, the dwelling served as a temple and monastery.  Lama Temple is considered one of the greatest centers of Buddhism outside of Tibet.

Burning incense and bowing is a big part of Buddhist culture.

Photographing Buddha is not permitted, so I photographed parts of the temple interior in front of the golden Buddha statues.

Summer Palace

 The Summer Palace is a complex of palaces and gardens set in multiple lakes in Beijing.  The first stage of construction on the Summer Palace building was commissioned in 1750 by the emperor Qianlong—the fourth emperor of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty—as a gift for his mother. It was completed in 1764.

The Qinjan marble boat dates back to 1755.  An advisor told the emperor that "the waters that float the boat can also capsize it," implying that the Chinese people can not only support an emperor, but can also topple him.  So, the emperor had a very substantial boat built as a sign of stability.

We were there during a national holiday week, when many Chinese came in from the provinces to see Beijing, perhaps for the first time.  Some, like this woman, wore clothing typical of the provinces.

We were told that this long corridor is in the Guinness Book of Records as the place with the most paintings.  (Perhaps an exaggeration.) 

The Summer Palace itself is off limits to visitors.  It is visible here from the long corridor.

We took a boat trip to a small island in the biggest lake.

We weren't alone.  Many people enjoyed the day in boats.