lunchtime

turtle, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This turtle lives at Sharon Audubon, and apparently for lunch he (or maybe she) likes raw salmon and salad. Sounds good to me too. Tomorrow is monthly theme day in the daily photo family - stay tuned!

tree horizon

tree horizon, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I've spent a lot of time on my bike lately - usually the camera is in the seat pack, but I rarely stop to take pictures, even when I pass something truly lovely or fascinating. But if I'm stopping to rest anyway, the camera comes out. This stretch of Route 41, heading into Sharon, is a pretty long, steep hill, and I needed to catch my breath for a moment.

Corn

stalks, originally uploaded by jahansell.

There's something about this photo I like - the corn all looks like it's waiting in a crowded starting line for a race, jostling for position, and as soon as the gun goes off they'll take off down the road! Or like they're being buffeted by a storm.

sharon mountain

sharon mountain, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I always start humming when I drive past this sign, in on West Cornwall Road. There's a little lullabye I used to sing my daughter when she was a baby, called "Snows are Falling on Douglas Mountain..." of course, I always changed it to "Snows are falling on Sharon Mountain, snows are falling so deep, snows are falling on Sharon Mountain, putting the bears to sleep. " And I'm sure there are many bears in these woods - I've seen them myself!

Heron through the trees

heron through the trees, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I drove up Route 7 along the Housatonic River yesterday and spotted this Great Blue Heron out in the water. I couldn't get much closer - my lens isn't long and as soon as it spotted me it flew.

PS the odd post that was here for a while last night and this morning really belonged on my triathlon diary - sorry for the error!

Reserve your tickets now...

richest and rankiest, originally uploaded by jahansell.

for the Light Opera Company of Salisbury's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Iolanthe," Labor Day Weekend. Here are Katie DiFiglio (as Phyllis), Craig Martin (Lord Mountararat) and Paul Tomasko (Lord Tolloller), rehearsing on Monday night. I play a fairy (truly) - my husband is a peer, and my 2 girls are in it too (as little green fairies.) It's going to be great, as always!

Cutting garden

flowers, originally uploaded by jahansell.

One of the nicest sights around here is the rows of flowers the farms plant to sell as bouquets. I can't quite recall the name of the red and orange ones (it will come to me, or one of you will tell me!), but the sunflowers dancing in the background are so lovely!

Zinnias

zinnias, originally uploaded by jahansell.

What's a summer garden without zinnias? All around Sharon, gardens seem to be more beautiful than ever - a combination of not-too-hot temperatures, sunny days plenty of rain has made for perfect conditions.

Grey barn grey day

grey barn grey day, originally uploaded by jahansell.

We've had beautiful weather for the last few weeks - it's only rained at night. But today it's dark and gloomy - this barn up on Jackson Hill Road looked gray and silent.

Need a hat?

hats, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Paley's sells a lovely collection of gardening hats. All shapes and sizes - there's one meant for you!

Once in a lifetime

michelles army, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I call this photo Michelle's Army. (Yes, it's a Harry Potter reference.) If you live locally and have children you know Michelle, children's book guru of the tri-state area. We all volunteered to help run her Harry Potter Party and it was a blast. And hundreds in our small town came to enjoy an evening of owls, magic, craft projects and finally, dozens of teenagers running down the street yelling "I got my book! I can't wait to start reading!" I got home at 12:45am, read til 4, and finished just before midnight on Saturday. PS I'm Prof. Trelawney in this photo! (As usual, lots more photos at my flickr page!)

windmill

This shiny metal windmill is in the fields at Paley's farm market in Sharon. Lovely, isn't it?

Boat launch

boat launch, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Back to Sharon, back to Mudge Pond...a friend has told us we can borrow her canoe but I haven't tried it yet!

street painting

streepainting, originally uploaded by jahansell.

One last picture of the Family Arts Festival - we closed the street and painted blocks along it for folks to paint - it's all washed away now but for a few hours on Saturday it was an art gallery to rival any in town!

Big zuke

big zuke, originally uploaded by jahansell.

And that's not even the biggest one! Zucchini (courgette, or Cucurbita pepo) should be eaten when it's no more than, oh, 6-8" long, I'd say. But if you miss one on the plant, and let it grow for a day or two too long, it turns out like this!

Why am I including this photo on SharonCT Daily photo? Well, it is farm country!

Inspired!

inspired, originally uploaded by jahansell.

At the Family Arts Festival, this little girl was entranced by the dancers of Solas an Lae, who were dong Irish step dancing (most wonderfully!) I think she was ready to enroll in lessons!

Evening walk

evening walk, originally uploaded by jahansell.

If you were walking down the rail trail in Millerton last night, you might have encountered this unusual sight. Later today or soon, I'll explain and share more photos of yesterday, which began at 8:30 am at the Farmer's Market and didn't end til late in the evening as the Family Art Festival concluded. (Both are sponsored by the North East Community Center and I was photographing as I worked a 14 hour day!)

Sharon Ridge

Sharon has one housing "complex" with more affordable homes - and here it is! Otherwise it's getting awfully hard to find a house within reach of ordinary working people - the ones I see advertised right now, like this one, or this one, are all sky high, at least to me! This one seems pretty reasonable - for someone good at fixing things! Then of course, at the other end, are incredible estates, like this for Seven Million Dollars! Or this one, for only 3.9 million. Actually this one is pretty cute, for only $349K ... that's not bad! (Though it's kinda small.)

That's entertainment

entertainment, originally uploaded by jahansell.

What do people want at a farmer's market, besides produce? Music!

Lakeville

Yesterday's sign took us away from Sharon, not toward it. We've ended up back in Lakeville, at the lovely Lake Wononscopomuc (or something like that - most people just call it Lakeville Lake!)

Heading back out of town

Leaving Millerton now (though we will come back soon!) we head home a different way. But, uh, which way should we go?

Greenscape Farmer's Market

We did it - we pulled off a wonderful Farmer's Market on Saturday in Millerton. We had nine growers (ten next week, but Heron's Roost Farm didn't bring their pies because their gooseberries weren't ready!) and a steady flow of happy customers. It was festive, the weather was perfect, and boy were we exhausted at the end of the day! Five high school students are working as interns, staffing stands for some of the farmers who can't get away (or, in the case of the folks at Camp Isabella Freedman, can't work on Saturdays) and doing all the hard work moving tables and setting up tents. They had such a good attitude and I think are really enjoying it. Now we just have to do it all again next week, and the week after.... See all my other market pictures here.

Oblong Books and Music, Millerton, NY

oblong jr millerton ny, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Oblong really started it all -the renaissance in Millerton. They have a great selection of books and CD's, their kids department has only creative and well-made toys, no junk, and a fantastic selection of literature. Michelle, who runs that department, has probably taught every kid in the tri-state area a love of reading. She and I will be running the Harry Potter party on the 20th - she'll be Prof. Sprout and I'll be Prof. Trelawney. (I have my crystal ball ready!)

Long live the independent bookstore!

Sapersteins, Millerton NY

sapersteins millerton ny, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Our local department store, with shoes and clothes for kids and adults. Apparently the Carhart brand of work / farm clothes became a fashionista must-have last year, and people were coming up from NYC oto buy it from Saperstiens. I buy the kids' sneakers, snow boots, and watershoes there - the price and quality are just right.

Main Street, Millerton, NY

The Irving Farm Coffee Shop represents the New; Terni's, the Old. Both together make up what is so fine about Millerton. You can get a cup of Sumatra Mandheling coffee, (or granita, or soy latte chai, or whatever floats your boat) and then pop over to Phil's for a Pendleton sweater, a hunting rifle, or a REAL milkshake. (Don't tell him I told you about the milkshakes.)

And hey, happy 7/7/7 everyone! Cool, isn't it?

Weeping Willow

willow, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Still on our way to Millerton down Sharon Station Road.... a stop to admire this immense and elegant willow tree. Another interesting tree note - no picture yet, but I'll work on it: there's an organization here promoting a species of Elm that is resistent to Dutch Elm disease. When I was a kid my street was lined with graceful, arching elms - but they all died off -- in fact in this enlightening blog post, there's a photo of a Detroit street, before and after the disease struck. (Not my block, but perhaps close!) So this group, Elm Watch, which is based here, is promoting a disease-resistant strain of elms, which Home Depot now stocks. I'll get you a picture of one, ASAP, with more of the tale - it will be our arrival in Millerton.

A Visit to Millerton

Sharon St. RD, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I haven't shown much of Millerton, the town just over the border in New York State where I work. We'll get there via backroads -- actually yesterday's corn post was along the same road as this - Sharon Station Road.

Then I'll show a bit of Main Street and some events and activities in Millerton. There's a real downtown there - it's become quite a center of activity, with stores, cafes, the Moviehouse, the bookstore... it's even going somewhat upscale with a new wine store and other fancy shops. But it's still mostly farmland -- in fact, a new Farmer's Market opens Saturday and since my organization is sponsoring it I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share!

Cornfield

cornfield, originally uploaded by jahansell.

There are bare fields, and then suddenly, there is corn! I've posted cornfields, and also pics of this farm, on Sharon Station Road, before, but it struck me as so lush and quintessentially representative of this area so, here it is again!

Happy Fourth of July - I've got nothing especially patriotic to post (my daughter outgrew her American Flag dress, to her lasting regret)-- but this is in the category of "Americana" I suppose!

Project Troubador 2007

A great annual event, Project Troubador brings an interesting array of musical acts to the Grove at Lakeville. The funds raised support their work to bring global harmony through music -- as they write, "Project Troubador works to bridge cultural, racial and ethnic gaps while modernizing the ancient concept of the troubadour. By sending musicians, dancers and mimes to developing areas of the world, we strive to provide another view of America and Americans through performance and interaction with our audiences. By bringing our experiences back to American audiences, we work to raise the public's awareness of distant cultures and to illuminate new ways of integrating the "world family."

We support that mission, plus it's a tremendous community event, very kid-friendly - we see everyone we know there! I took a bunch more pictures, here.

Sailboats

sailboats, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Saturday night we went to Project Troubador, a great annual music festival in Lakeville. Tomorrow I'll post a little photo essay (including a shot of the double-rainbow!) and after that we'll take a tour of Millerton, NY.