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.

American Foursquare

The plantings -- especially the day lilies and hydrangea -- were the things that first caught my attention at this Ridgefield house on High Ridge.  Then I noticed a sign by the front door that identified it as an American Foursquare.  That sent me to Google.

American Foursquare houses are symmetrical, with four similarly sized rooms for each of the first two floors and maybe one or two rooms on the third floor.  They have hipped roofs, big front porches and a central dormer.

(And here are the gorgeous day lilies.)

CHIRP

Concerts Happening in Ridgefield Parks, or CHIRP, is a free Tuesday and Thursday evening series of concerts in Ridgefield's Ballard Park all summer long. 

I usually sit a distance from the stage.  The sound system is great, so I can hear well, but being a distance lets us talk and lets the granddaughters play without disturbing the more serious concertgoers.

A week ago there was a performance by Hot Club of Cowtown, a three member band from Austin, Texas.  Their music has been described as "western swing fused with swing and gypsy jazz." A woman fiddles, a man plays a guitar and another man strums an upright bass.  They all sing.  Terrific!

A young man, an older man and a dog passed in front of us and paused to watch for a while.  I took a photo but felt like putting it through a watercolor program.  Here it is.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Say hello to a regular visitor to one of my hummingbird feeders.

 

McKeon Farm

 

A picturesque storage shack looks out on farm land overseen by the Ridgefield Conservation Commission.

God's Acre

 Two traditional white church buildings coexist on a hill just outside the downtown of New Canaan, Connecticut.  The community calls this area God's Acre.

The oldest and most prominent church at the peak of the hill is The Congregational Church of New Canaan.  The congregation dates back to 1733.  Today the congregation gathers in the third building on the site, which was constructed in 1843.

 A nearby smaller church is St. Michael's Lutheran Church.  It was constructed in 1833 as Saint Mark's Episcopal church, but was purchased in 1962 by the Lutheran community.  

Vine Cottage

 Built around 1859, the Gothic Revival Vine Cottage is the home of the New Canaan Health Department. 

 

Though a charming building across Main Street from Town Hall, the municipality has unsuccessfully tried to sell it at least three times in recent years.  The second floor can't be used for public purposes because it is not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.  The cost of installing an elevator is prohibitive.

Marketplace

On Danbury Turnpike in Ridgefield (U.S.Route 7), there is a small collection of buildings that hold an auction house, a thrift store, and a used clothing store with a coffee shop.