Tobacco Barns

There are tobacco fields and barns near the airport in Windsor Locks.  On a recent trip I detoured.

(I put the last one through a filter . . . )

Back in 2011 I wrote about Connecticut's 150 year history growing tobacco, 

primarily leaf tobacco to wrap cigars.

Back in Hartford

I have been back and forth between Naples and Hartford for several weeks, but today I go back to Connecticut for the summer.  Most recent news in Hartford and Connecticut has not been good.

I am going to escape and show some photographs that make me feel good.

It is dogwood season.

  

 Friends and parents pay to "flock" the front yards of graduating high school seniors.

The proceeds help pay for an end-of-the-school-year party.

There was heavy rain one day and the azalea buds were tightly closed.

The next day azaleas burst into bloom.

A white dogwood against the further house, a Japanese maple near and azaleas below.

These days I usually return to Connecticut too late to see the tulips in Elizabeth Park, 

but this year I saw the end of the run.

A different way to look at tulips falling apart as their season ends.

Willa is Two Years Old Today

Willa is a happy, talkative, outgoing little girl.  Yeah, yeah, I am biased.  But it is true.

Happy birthday, Willa.

Back to Connecticut tomorrow.

Consultation

Consultation, a 1991 sculpture by A. Joseph Kinkel, is in a garden at a medical office building

off Health Park Boulevard in Naples.  Yes, I have my annual physical today.

A View of the Sea

It is just a small, local, hole-in-the-wall restaurant along U.S. Route 41 in East Naples.
But, in 2002 an artist named E. Thomas painted a pretty nice mural
on the parking lot side of the building.

Monday Mural.

Riverwalk

A number of tourist-focused restaurants are on the west side of Naples Bay south of U.S.Route 41,

in a big (and funky) complex called Tin City that is ringed by docks and piers.  So far there are no announced plans to redevelop this area like Kelly's Fish House across the bay.

Kelly's Fish House

Kelly's Fish House is the oldest restaurant in Naples.  On the south side of U.S.Route 41 and the east side of Naples Bay, it occupies a valuable piece of real estate.  After sixty years,
Kelly's Fish House is closing its doors.  The land is just too valuable.

Kelly's Shell Shack is on the same property.  It -- surprisingly enough -- sells shells
and items made from or related to shells, like lamps and pillows.
It is closing, too.  A more intense development of the site is planned.

  This is a serious problem for local fishermen, who land and process their catch on nearby piers.
The developers promise that there will be room for the fishing boats, but,
while construction goes on, where do they go?