St. Patrick's Day -- Parade Participants

A man leading the Notre Dame alumni wore pants with a leprechaun puppet in them.

Marchers from a high school band.

A young man had fun throwing beads from a float.

Another bead thrower.

Pipers in a New York City fire department band. 

Marcher with a nice smile.

Several students on the Ave Maria University float had their heads wrapped in this gold stuff.
I don't know what they had in mind.

A singer with one of the bands.  In her Lucky Shirt.

A very red-headed trombone player with the Palmetto Ridge High School marching band.

St. Patrick's Day -- The Parade

I love bagpipes.  Sorry.

And I love Irish dancing.

Saint Pat faced the other way when he passed by me.
Maybe I should have yelled to catch his attention.

The National Park Service was in the parade.  Shhhhhh.  Don't tell the President.

This is a vehicle used in Big Cypress National Preserve.

More bagpipes!

Florida Gulf Coast University is the local state university.  An Eagle is the mascot.

New York City firefighters marched in force.  This float had 343 flags, 

one for each firefighter who died on September 11, 2001.

There were oodles of politicians, high school marching bands, college alumni groups, retired firemen and police and businesses.  I passed up photographing most of those.

St. Patrick's Day - - The Crowd

The Naples St. Patrick's Day Parade is a big one, the biggest in the area, and the biggest parade on the Naples calendar.  I will start with crowd scenes to set the stage.  Tomorrow, some of the parade  Tuesday, some of the parade participants, close-up.  Then on Wednesday, faces in the crowd.

Fountain

She wasn't posing for me, but, hey, I was there and I had a camera!

Pink Tulips

Back in southwest Florida.  MUCH warmer.

A traffic circle at the Coconut Point Mall in Estero sprouted about thirty pink tulip signs

decorated with names of breast cancer survivors and those who succumbed to the disease.

Parma Market

Susie and her family are living in Ridgefield, in southwestern Connecticut.  Parma Market is one of the best local deli's and bakeries.  A mouthwatering array of sandwiches and desserts.

Bakery

Trattoria

A close-up of a box of Willa's straws.   Not from Parma, but I wanted to show them.

Visiting the Wadsworth Atheneum Again

Sunday in Hartford was bone-chilling.  A good day to stay inside.  So, I went to the art museum.

This is a nose.

See?  I told you.  Chuck Close, Self Portrait (2007).

 Different works catch your eye on different visits to a museum.  On Sunday I was captivated by black on white swan (2016) by American artist Vanessa German.  It is assembled from porcelain dolls, shells, keys, bottles, buttons and the like.  German intends the work as contemporary social commentary as well as a reference to figures that ward off evil in Congolese communities.

In an exhibition of paintings by 18th and 19th century American artist John Trumbull, a man standing near me seemed to know a lot about the exhibition.  With good reason.  Meet Tom Loughman, 

who became the director of the Wadsworth Atheneum a year ago.

A security guard (right) showed a patron something about a large painting in an exhibition of woodblock prints and paintings by the 18th century Japanese artist Utamaro.

A bored security guard looked into Morgan Great Hall.

Another security guard.  This one is Lola.

Lola posed in front of Helen Frankenthaler's Sea Picture in Black (1959).