A summer's day

For nine months, the street is quiet - a few dog walkers pass by, nothing more. But now everyone is out and about. 

Summer has arrived

Memorial Day weekend usually brings big changes to our quiet little corner. Suddenly people are everywhere - on souped-up noisy motorcycles, in canoes and kayaks on the river, creating long lines at restaurants. There were cars piled up 8 deep on both sides waiting to get across the covered bridge, which only has one lane. They didn't seem to know the local etiquette either - 2 cars go one way, then 2 go the other. Impatient people (from New York, we always assume!) were going 5 or 6 at a time in one direction. But there's a reason they come here - it's beautiful, and if you like outdoor sports, the northwest corner of Connecticut is a great place to be! (and I don't even work for the tourist bureau!) 

Memorial Day Parade

Many more pictures here. 

They're always among us

Today is Memorial Day and in a few minutes I'm going out on my front porch to watch and photograph the town parade. Meanwhile I was playing with this shot and liked how it came out. 

Extra

This isn't my official photo for today - I'll put one up later (it's past midnight and I'm 150 miles from home...) AND this isn't from Sharon. But I think it's really cool - sort of watercolor-like. I took it with my (new) mobile phone at Bard College on the Hudson River last weekend. I did absolutely nothing to it - this is how it came from the phone. I especially like how all the people on the lawn look mysteriously ghostly.

Roy Swamp

Not far from the wildlife sanctuary I showed you last week. The water is quite high now since we've had so much rain - it's not quite up to the road. 

Downtown

This is Sharon's entire shopping district: from left to right, the laundromate, "Clothes and Collectibles," NewMil Bank, Trotta's grocery store, the Pharmacy, Rick's Wines, Shear Illusion, and the Country Corner restuarant. We have a few other businesses in town: a couple of realtors, another restaurant, an art gallery, a few lawyers and a whole lot of doctors, because the one big employer (that we're so lucky to have in this rural area for so many reasons) is Sharon Hospital. If you click on the picture to see the larger version you'll probably notice that my skills at taking a panoramic picture by stitching several together aren't great - you can see the seams!

Another flower picture

It doesn't really grow upside down, but I put my camera on the ground to steady it and this is how it came out. (It's a fringed tulip before it opened. It's even stranger looking when it opens.) 

Steam rising

Last picture from the storm. There was so much rain that after it stopped, steam rose from the hillside and blended with the clouds. 

Storm passing over

Here's another shot of the storm as it passes over - the sun was out overhead, lighting up the grass, but the sky was still dark over the hills. This shot is almost identical to this one, which I took when I first started this blog a few months ago. 

After the storm

We had an intense thunder and hail storm yesterday - I drove home from my daughter's 4th birthday party just after it ended. I got some gorgeous pictures, which I'll post over the next few days. 

A visitor

I guess he came to see my neighbors, Ken and Ro, who are sculptors. But perhaps they weren't home! 

The social event of the season

I'm not kidding - they put on a great party! We depend on our volunteer firefighters - these guys (and women too) are our local school teachers, housepainters, plumbers, clerks... after a hard day of work, when the rest of us are vegging out in front of the TV or computer, they suit up to save lives. (In fact, at this very moment, I hear the alarm from the firehouse down the street!) 

PR at the Post Office

Click on this photo to see the larger version and you'll know everything that's going on in our town this weekend. You can probably see my post office box in the background, too. Click here for the outside of the P.O. - it's the place to see and be seen on a Saturday morning!  

I lived here!

Amazingly, I lived in this house for six years - it's on a nature sanctuary at the other end of town. My husband worked for the organization that owns it and the 1200 acre wildlife sanctuary where it's situated. It's grand and gloomy and expensive to heat - I loved walking outside every day and hearing the birds, seeing bobcat and bears (and woodchucks in my garden!) Many more pictures of the sanctuary here!

Covered bridge to West Cornwall

On this side of the bridge, you're in Sharon - on the other, you're in West Cornwall. (Underneath flows the Housatonic River.)

According to www.past-inc.org, the bridge "is an excellent example of the Town lattice truss, with its red-spruce timbers secured by a pair of treenails (slotted and wedged to hold them in place) at every intersection. For many years it was thought that this bridge was built in 1841 to replace one washed away in the flood of 1837, but recent research by Michael R. Gannett for the Cornwall Historical Society has shown that the correct date is 1864. The center pier supporting the middle of the bridge was probably reused from the earlier structure. One source gives 1887 as the date when a secondary queen-post truss was added, probably to stiffen the bridge, since wooden trusses had a tendency to sag. " 

Nighttime petals

I was experimenting with taking pictures at night (long exposures of cars driving by, etc) and as a throwaway, took this one of fallen appleblossom petals on my lawn. I can't decide if it's beautiful or a blurry failure - you tell me! 

Even the bar...

is quaint-looking. It's the only one in town. I must confess I've never been there - but as part of this project to get to know my town better, maybe I'll stop there for a drink soon! 

Quarreling?

Shooting a few pictures in the rain, I noticed that the two chairs in my yard looked like they were angry at each other. 

Rainy reflections

I particularly liked a picture Sam in Montchauvet, France posted last week of reflections in a puddle. Here's a twist on that theme -- the puddle is on a metal lawn chair. We have had a week of rain and the forecast is for rain for the next week as well.

Sharon Valley Limekiln

Sharon and the surrounding towns were once a major iron-mining area, and this is one of the many artifacts remaining. Here is a historical picture of the limekiln.
According to the Sharon Historical Society: "The Northwest Corner became a center of iron making because it had the perfect combination of raw materials, people-power and energy sources." Much more about that here. 

Planting time is almost here

This farm might not actually be in Sharon - I was driving on a back road and may have crossed into the town of Northeast, in Dutchess County, New York. They grow corn in this field - it's usually planted in late May, and by mid-July it's as high as an elephant's eye.

Not a Mansion

I've shown you Mansion Row - this house is on what could be called Tavern Row. Perhaps its proximity to the Valley Tavern accounts for its drunken lean. 

A Great Beast

An ox, maybe? I came around the corner and slammed on the brakes when I saw this - this photo fails to convey how HUGE this creature is. Jealous as I am of those of you in exciting big cities like Paris, New York, Venice, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Paris, Porto, Hong Kong and did I mention Paris... I will keep on documenting the bucolic rural character of my town, knowing that for all of you, it's a nice breath of fresh country air (before you go back to your fine art, fine food, great architecture, interesting surprising people....) 

Grand estate

Because we're only 2 hours from New York City, lots of well-known people live in our town - actors, writers, TV newscasters, etc. One of them lives here! 

The Sharon Classic

Every once in a while, our quiet town is transformed - the August craft fair is one such day, and so is the first Saturday in May, with the annual Sharon Classic Road Race. It's a fundraiser for the Sharon Day Care Center, and runners from all around the region come to compete in the five mile race. Many, many more pictures, including of me after finishing (not a pretty sight!) are on display here.