Red Dress Race for Women. And Kids.

 

The kids start the races.  100 yards for the youngest.  Half mile and mile for the older.

The start!  Brittney Telke (a former UConn cross country runner who has won the event several times in the past) was in the lead by the first turn.  She finished an amazing 2 minutes and 

30 seconds ahead of the second place runner.

It is a fun run.  Some runners pushed strollers.

Many wore red tutus.

Even the pace setters.

This family runs together every year and finish together.

Afterward there is food and swag.

More People I Have Met

Chane (pronounced Shane) is from Antigua.  She came to the States eight years ago to work.

She manages a wine bar in West Hartford center.  Chane was wearing a crisp white blouse 

and walking past a white wall.  How could I resist?

And how could I resist Trevor's style?  Especially that bowtie?  And we had an interesting background.  I'm so sorry I let him stand where a seam would run through his head.



Kristen was walking back from lunch with Trevor.  They are both medical assistants at a health care facility.  At least I was able to move her over so the seam didn't go through her head.

A friend was taking Mary's senior picture in Elizabeth Park.  Two big dogs were tugging at leashes in my left hand while I squeezed off a fast photo with my right hand.

Hosta, Coleus and Shingles

This north-facing West Hartford house gets a lot of shade in the front.

Hosta, coleus, mountain laurel and rhodies work nicely in the shade.
The shingles make us feel like we are on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard.

Church of the Good Shepherd. Again.

It has been years since I showed the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Some things are worth repeating.

The Cycle of Life

Prominent international architect Tai Soo Kim lives near Elizabeth Park.  He worried that old trees were being taken down, but tight budgets constrained a vigorous tree replacement program.

So, he donated $100,000 to the Elizabeth Park Conservancy to fund the planting of new trees.  

Last fall and this spring, healthy young trees have appeared all around the park.

Well done, Mr. Kim.

Many A's for These Ladies

Anita.  Angelina.  Angelica.  Angela.
Four women dressed for an afternoon in the Elizabeth Park rose gardens.  I had leashes for two eighty pound dogs in one hand and a camera in the other so I couldn't take notes.

This is Anita.  She was the group's photographer.  

Anita handed the camera to a young girl so I could take her picture.

Here we have Angelica and Angelina.  Or Angelina and Angelica.

The A with the blue flower in her hair had a marvelous 1940s or 1950s styling.

I am pretty sure this is Anita.  (Oops . . . no . . . Angela.)  She used to work in a tattoo parlor.  

The boss got bored and tattooed her arm.

A New Mural in Hartford

Corey Pane is a local artist known at first for designing brightly colored hiphop patterns for the athletic shoes of professional football and basketball players.  He has branched out into painting canvasses and painting murals.  I showed his mural tribute to Nipsey Hussle in May.

Cirque du Soleil is in town this month to present "Luzia."  They hired Pane to paint a mural celebrating Mexican heritage in Hartford.  It is on the side of a parking garage underneath Constitution Plaza, Hartford's oldest high-rise office building.  The banners seen on the walkway above the mural advertise Stanley Black & Decker's manufacturing innovation hub on the first level.

See Monday Mural for more posts of murals.