Bank Door

 We often take for granted the ornate traditional details on the buildings we see every day.  This is the front door of a bank in Ridgefield's central business district. 

Originally Ridgefield Savings Bank, after a few mergers it became Fairfield County Bank in 2004.  Last year the retail bank at this location closed and retail operations moved into a newer building behind it.  The building from 1930 has undergone a sensitive renovation and now serves as an operations center.

"Bless this Garden"

 

A store along Main Street decorates a small plot in front of the store with gnomes, lambs and flowers.

Books on the Common

 

I have mentioned Books on the Common several times.  It is Ridgefield's independent store.  But I don't think I have mentioned the beautiful planters that lead one's eyes inside.

Japanese Pagoda Tree

At the edge of Ridgefield's downtown, a pretty tree has burst into bloom.  

An app describes it as a Japanese Pagoda Tree.  Who am I to disagree?

Stickered

 OBX  CIT  FB  MB etc.

Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church

Stained glass windows in Saint Stephen's.

Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Amy Walker Schott

Ridgefield Library shows the works of local artists on the lower level.  

The current exhibition is from Amy Walker Schott.  I think her work is dazzling.

Schott specializes in mixed media and multidimensional creations. 

Drawing on her graphic design background, Amy began collecting vintage found objects to incorporate into her pieces. 

By combining these antique materials with wire, she crafts distinctive images within her multidimensional shadow boxes. 

Wow!

Sweets

 What does it say about me if I search my photo archives for "sweet" and get 274 results?

This was at a 2022 art exhibition in Hartford at the Wadsworth Atheneum.  "Patisserie: French Series" by Wisconsin artist Shayna Leib was a mouth-watering series of realistic glass desserts.

A donut maker had a booth a few years ago at a fair in Croton Falls, New York.

And I remember this table well, at a holiday party at Hartford's Town and County Club.

The August 1 theme for City Daily Photo is "sweets."  Have a look here. 

Mystic, Connecticut

 The west side of Mystic, Connecticut, is part of Groton.  The east side is part of Stonington.

A  drawbridge from 1922 connects the two sides.  Or, divides them, depending on your point of view.  In the summer, it is raised to allow boat traffic at 40 min. past the hour in daylight hours, and on demand.

For 59 years the Greenman family operated a shipbuilding yard on the Stonington side of Mystic.  In that time they built 94 ships and steamers.  Today the neighborhood is Greenmanville and the former shipyard site is home to Mystic Seaport Museum.

  A favorite exhibition in Mystic Seaport is the Charles W. Morgan, an 1841 whaler, which today is the oldest commercial ship still afloat.  Over an 80-year whaling career, the Morgan embarked on 37 voyages with most lasting three years or more.

Homes of the three Greenman brothers who formed and operated the shipyard sit side-by-side along Greenmanville Avenue.

Race Point Beach

 The furthest point on Cape Cod is Race Point Beach in Provincetown.

I envisioned it as desolate.  Wrong!  It was a crowded beach.  But still lovely.

We walked a ways and left the beachgoers behind.  There are oceans of beach grass at the far end.

Something passed through before us.

We exited past buildings of the National Park Service.

Several bushes of rugosa rose took hold near the National Park Service property.  They are Asian natives that aren't supposed to be here, but they sure love the beach dunes.

Eastham Things

 New Englanders routinely describe Cape Cod with a flexed bicep.  Cape Cod Bay is inside, the Atlantic is outside.  Provincetown is the fist.  Barnstable is the muscle.  Eastham is where the forearm is raised and where we are staying with longtime friends.

A green off US Route 6 in Eastham has a windmill that dates to 1680.  It was built in Plymouth, moved around a bit before settling at its current location in Eastham in 1808.

A tree made from colorful lobster buoys is just steps away from the windmill.

The Funk Bus is a party bus that was parked down the street from the windmill and lobster buoy tree.

You need to explain these two to me.  But I like them.

And Captain Cass has reopened after a three or four year closure.

First Encounter Beach

 Eastham is on the bay side of Cape Cod, where the water is warmer  First Encounter Beach is where the Pilgrims first landed.  The natives weren't friendly, so they kept going until they found Plymouth.

We usually visit the beach when we visit longtime friends who live a short distance away.

A boy was working on the skills that might eventually develop into surfing.

The water is very shallow, which is to my liking.

Gulls are thieves.  The gulls made off with crackers, chips and sandwiches.

The Whale

One entire wall of the North Gallery of the Mystic Seaport Museum displays a whale scratchboard illustration of a Whale by Jos Sances, a California-based artist.  Sances was influenced by black-and-white illustrations for Moby-Dick, which inspired his use of scratchboard as a bold, hands-on medium. 

A type of reverse drawing, the black ink coating is scratched off with a knife, revealing white clay below.  Sances' work includes many illustrations with a social justice theme.  He feels his work reminds viewers of scrimshaw, which sailors etched on whale teeth and bones.

From Sances:  "The eye of . . . Whale confronts us with images of Black enslavement, brutalization, and cultural distortion. A host of images encircle it, including an Abolitionist figure who asks, "AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?" while proffering a racist cartoon caricature and a beautiful sleeping infant, a self-contradictory pair of images."

Brechin

 Brechin Morgan has exhibition space at Mystic Seaport for the month of July to display his maritime paintings.  He is a fascinating guy.  As a youth, Brechin hitch-hiked around the southwestern USA in railroad boxcars.  He eventually went to art school.  To support his family, Brechin opened a company that painted billboards as well as large outdoor and smaller indoor murals in South Norwalk, Connecticut.

In 1998 Brechin spent four and a half years on his 27 foot cutter "Otter," sailing alone 32,000 miles and visiting 32 countries around the world.  After returning, he opened an art studio in Bridgeport.  I could have spent all afternoon talking with him.

This and That

 Here is a collection of images from recent days.

Three little girls were "selling" vegetables from Mom's garden.  I asked how much for a cucumber.  "One" was the answer.  Uhh, one what?  They were too young to understand money.  I decided one quarter for each girl would work.  They were thrilled.  BTW, they wore berets because Dad was bicycling in France.

A lovely floral mailbox, though it is no help if you want to know the address.

Susan is the children's book buyer at Books on the Common, Ridgefield's excellent independent bookstore.  Books on the Common celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.

A hummingbird clearwing buzzed around a monarda plant.

I passed through North Andover, Massachusetts, on Monday, on my way to visiting some family members.  Then I saw this interesting church building.  It is the North Parish Unitarian Universalist Church.  New England is filled with white wooden Protestant churches, but this one is different.