Capitol Geometry

 

Connecticut State Capitol from the Legislative Office Building.

Legislative Office Building.

House of Representatives.

Senate.

Nathan Hale in the Capitol's east end.

Replica of The Genius of Connecticut in the Capitol's rotunda.

Blue Back Square

I have mentioned Blue Back Square several times in the course of something else.  But, I don't usually show it directly.  BBS is a mixed use development south of the original West Hartford Center. 

BBS has numerous national stores and restaurants -- like Crate & Barrel, West Elm, Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble and Cheesecake Factory -- and local stores and restaurants.  And, a six screen movie theater, a branch of Hartford Hospital, a big fitness center, and apartments and condos.

Relocated and renovated municipal functions -- the library, town hall and 

central police station -- are incorporated at the edge of Blue Back Square.

Axes. Machetes. Adzes. Hatchets.

The Collinsville Corp. was an old implements company that harnessed the river's flow for power.
Today the building holds a tee shirt company and several antiques businesses.

Farmington River, Collinsville (Canton), Connecticut

An Angry Homeowner

For several years, a homeowner on North Main Street has been putting on big Halloween displays.

Since the 2016 election, the displays have become increasingly political.

This year's main display has pages from Presidents the homeowner respects -- like Kennedy, Obama and Roosevelt -- on the left side, a variety of anti-Trump harangues on the right, and in the middle

"Gates to Trumpian Perdition" in the middle below a large "Democracy Can Die"sign.

To the right are panels marked "Hope" and "Fear" and an invitation for passers-by to write down what they hope for or what they fear.  This young woman spent time writing on one of the panels.
She then stood silently reading what her predecessors had written.

And, oh, I just noticed that a few days ago I published my 3,000th post.  It was one with a Triumph TR6 with a "For Sale" sign on the windshield.  If I had been paying attention, I would have
picked a more special one.  Maybe the post with my granddaughters.

This Time of the Year

If you want to feed two struggling species -- monarch butterflies and bees -- plant purple asters.

Japanese maple.

Limelight hydrangea.

A May-flowering rhododendron that got confused.

A quiet weekday afternoon in West Hartford Center.

Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, Connecticut

Norwich was a rich city at the end of the 19th century.  Industrialists harnessed the water power of the Thames River for mills and sold Norwich-made products globally.  The Slater family was the leading industrial mill family.  The son of the family's founder built a museum to honor his father.

The Slater Memorial Museum is attached to Norwich Free Academy, the public high school for Norwich and nearby towns.  An early museum head commissioned plaster casts of Europe's best sculptures and friezes.  So, a replica of Michelangelo's Pieta commands the mezzanine
above the central hall.  (The original is in the Vatican.)

Moses -- also a replica of a Michelangelo statue -- sits in front of fine stained glass at the other end of the mezzanine.  The original is in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome.  Flash photography is prohibited, so I had to lighten the image to show Moses, at the cost of washing out the window color.

Tractor Ride

Willa.

Hazel.

And the dynamic duo.