leaning tower of tree-za

leaning, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Or: going, going...
I got a tip about this tree the other day - it started to lean after a big storm last week. It looks pretty dangerous to me - is someone planning to take it down, I wonder? It's on what I believe is state property, as far as I can tell. (Between the sidewalk and the road.)

tall tree small car

tall tree small car, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This car is parked on the lawn in front of what my kids and I call the ghost house - it's so spooky looking we don't even stop there at Halloween.

Pointillism on main street

pointillism, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I'm working on a new series of houses around Sharon - I've got a few in the bag, and am open to suggestions. Do you want your house featured in this world-wide forum? Invite me over!

brilliant hills - it's almost over

brilliant hills, originally uploaded by jahansell.

we had a lot of rain and wind over the last few days, ripping the leaves from the trees. This picture was taken a few days ago - but these colors are already fading and many trees are bare and brown now.

Another collage of the season

collage, originally uploaded by jahansell.

A few times a year I do face-painting at a kids event - this one was the North East Community Center's Fall Fun Day. My favorite - the sullen little spiderman.

distorted

distorted, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Everywhere you look, trees along the roadside have giant gouges carved out so they don't get tangled with the power lines. It's good for public safety but it distorts the trees' shapes pretty dramatically.

Great story, no picture

[Edited, at long last, to add in the missing picture!]
My camera is (temporarily, I hope) missing, hence no photos for the last few days. In it, is a picture to illustrate the following story. On Rick's suggestion, my daughter and I went to visit the Sharon Pheasant Farm - less than a mile from my house, I drive by it every day but have never noticed it before. We drove up and parked by a very large enclosure - it seemed to be the size of a couple of soccer fields and had an entire corn field inside. Oh, and what looked like a thousand pheasants.

The house looked dark, and I didn't see a car there, so I wasn't sure whether I wanted to explore very far. We walked just a few steps closer and all the birds set up a huge squawk and started flying away down to the other end. I was about to leave, for fear of upsetting the birds while the owner was away, but I noticed a red-winged blackbird was stuck in the fence - it was a wide chicken-wire, and the bird's head and neck had gone all the way through the hole. I would have had to go inside the enclosure to rescue it, so I ran over to the house and knocked just in case someone was there. No luck.

Ella and I had a quick conference: trespass and save the bird? or leave it there? She and I agreed: save the blackbird, save the world! I went through the first door, past an outer enclosure, and through another - lucky it was unlocked!

I felt around the bird's body to see if the wire was embedded in its flesh, but it wasn't - I thought it probably hadn't been there very long. The bird tried to bite me when I wrapped my hand around it, but couldn't get its head around. Its feet were gripping the mesh, and I was pretty sure I couldn't unwind the toes without hurting it. At first I tried to push its head backwards to get it out (though it would still have been stuck inside the enclosure) but it wouldn't go backwards, so then I pushed its shoulders down and through the hold its head was in - bingo - it immediately flew out of the fence, but was still inside the outer part of the cage and was flapping against the fence on the ground. It was simple to corner it and gently grasp it. I brought it out to show Ella, and of course take a few photos. Finally I let it fly away, and it winged up into a nearby tree, seemingly unharmed. And that's the last time I saw my camera! I have another one, and will catch up soon, but I hope I find this one as I like it a lot! And I really wan to show you the photo that will prove my story is true!

Deja vu branches

orange branches, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I'm sure I've posted pictures like this before - maybe even of this very branch. I'm in a rut and need some new subjects!

Lilypads

lilypads, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Maybe I liked this photo because I've been trying to choose a new countertop for my kitchen and dark slate grey is the color I want!

Fishing

fishing, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Someone is always out on Mudge Pond, fishing. What do they do with what they catch? Eat it, or throw it back? Are young people today capable of sitting in silence for that long, or do they bring hand-held video games or their cellphones with them?

Swamp grass

grass, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I have no idea if this is swamp grass. Or even if it's grass! But I liked the shape and the color.

I'm so glad Jazzy tagged me the other day - I've had more fun comments than in months! To answer some of the questions that were asked:

I don't sing jazz much anymore - for the last 8 or 9 years I've been involved in a Gilbert & Sullivan group. But I still sing the old standards to my kids as lullabies. In fact, here's a story: when I was pregnant with my first child I used to sing "Our Love is Here to Stay" to her (or him - I didn't know which at that point!) When she was first born, she wouldn't stop crying - until I started singing that song to her. She calmed right down, gazed up at me as if she knew it well. To this day, nearly 9 years later, she loves that song!

Re the stone wall from yesterday. If I recall correctly, it's quite recent - built within the last few years, to imitate the old ones that still exist around here. I don't know who lives there though.

And Kim - 2 inches of hail - that's incredible ! We get it here sometimes, but not like that!

Stone Wall

Stone Wall, originally uploaded by jahansell.

It was very foggy this morning so I took a detour on my way to work, up Mudge Pond Road. (I was late already!) I'll post some photos in the next few days, but this one is of an estate across from the lake - it's stone wall is typical of this area.

Tinted trees

tinted trees, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Just playing, today - tone, light and shadow, lines, all that.

Meanwhile, I've been tagged! Thanks, Jazzy!

I'm supposed to tell you eight things you probably didn't know about me. So here goes:

1. I used to be a courtroom sketch artist
2. I've studied four or five languages seriously, but can't speak any of them well - they all get tangled up in my head and any random word from any of them might pop out when I'm trying to speak one of them!
3. I once interviewed Koko The Gorilla in a live chat on America Online.
4. I once sang (jazz) at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village.
5. I am terribly afraid of spiders - the idea that one might descend on a string and crawl on me at night makes me shiver.
6. I have been known to scoop peanut butter from the jar with my finger.
7. I have terrible allergies and asthma - I sometimes go through a box of tissue in a day.
8. I think I'm too serious - I wish I laughed more!

Now, who to tag? I'll have to scope around the DP family and see who hasn't been yet! Stay tuned!

So far I've tagged:
Gerald from Hyde
Felicia from San Diego
Bill from Delta, CO
... and I think I'll stop there! I visited a dozen other blogs and they'd all been tagged already! And several of them pointed out the spamminess of tagging, so rather than further annoy people I'll leave off now, and hope that Gerald, Felicia and Bill aren't too annoyed!

These are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

Road in fall

fall road, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Another shot from Canaan Valley Road - the greens and yellows not yet faded into red.

Fall path

fall path, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Fall color isn't just red and orange - I love the greens and yellows at this time of year - they just glow. This is up in East Canaan, on Canaan Valley Road.

An Evening in Tuscany

evening in tuscany, originally uploaded by jahansell.

The annual fundraiser for Sharon's all-volunteer Fire Department is not to be missed. Last night the talented committee turned the school into a Tuscan villa and it was spectacular. Everyone in Sharon goes, and they dress for it like it's a once-in-a-lifetime spectacular.

I meant to take more photos - of the gowns, the decor, the band, and of course the Fireman's Parade, which is always the highlight of the event. But I found myself at a table with so many good friends that we didn't want to stop eating and laughing - we sat there for at least an hour after everyone else had gone up for the parade and dancing. By 9:30 I turned into a pumpkin - had to pick up the kids and get them to bed. So we missed the great band and the entertainment provided by the crowd itself - rumor has it a brawl broke out a few years ago. I couldn't say whether it's true, and as far as I know last night was perfectly decorous. Just a handful of additional photos here.

Any Given Saturday...

parents at the game, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Lined up in folding beach chairs, at hundreds of thousands of fields all over the country - the children race up and down the field, and the parents wait and watch. And shout: "Go Caroline, stay with it!" "You got it, Shelby, just kick it!" "Go Go Go!" And we gossip, and we plan, and we catch up with old friends who are now on the opposing team. Where once we were part of a greater community, we have now hardened into sides, based on what town we live in. Will I still be friends with those who live in Lakeville, or Cornwall, when my children have been playing against theirs year after year? Of course I will!

Drifting

drifts, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Driving home yesterday, I was struck by the soft little blanket of cloud hanging lightly over the hillside. I took about a dozen shots (holding up traffic on route 361) trying to capture the lovely sight. This one comes close - but maybe this one is better?

Path to the woods

Sometimes the subtler colors are even more beautiful than the brilliant ones.

That time of year

Leaf peepers come hither - the color is peaking soon!

misty graveyard

misty graveyard, originally uploaded by jahansell.

We've had some foggy mornings lately - creating lovely scenes all around. There's a cemetary clean-up day coming up soon, sponsored by the historical society - volunteers needed to clean the headstones. I hope I can make it.

Scarecrows in Salisbury

collage2, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I spent a chunk of the afternoon in Salisbury (read more here about what I was doing there) and took a quick walk around to take pictures of the scarecrows in the Fall Festival. A tour of the day's events, here.

Blues Bear

bluesbear, originally uploaded by jahansell.

The Blues Bear lives on the front porch of what everyone still calls the WKZE building, though KZE moved to Rhinebeck a couple of years ago. (WKZE was, and is, a wonderful independent radio station playing music you won't hear anywhere else (except maybe on tiny college stations.) The town bought the building and it stood empty for about a year, until Marshall Miles rented it for his AM station, WHDD. A lot of the folks who had worked for KZE also now have shows on the new RobinHoodRadio.com - an internet-only station that (I think) is based out of this Sharon location as well.

Shakesbear

shakesbear, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Rick from the wine shop told me a neat story about this bear tonight. It's across the street from the shopping center where his store is, on the front porch of Amy Schuchat's law office. He says people drive up there every day, following the "bear trail" and take photos. Yesterday (the same day I took this picture)O a woman drove up, unloaded a severaly handicapped child from her van, and took his picture next to eh bear, and then they went off to find another bear. It so happens that, at a meeting I was at tonight, a woman complained bitterly about these "ugly plastic bears" - she wants to complain to the organizer, I guess for littering the landscape. (By the way they are temporary.) I just don't understand why. I think they are whimsical, charming, and bring art to the public realm in a very accessible way. And they provide people (not everyone, obviously!) with pleasure!

Catch of the Day

fishing bear, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This bear, by Tanya Dowd, is in front of Prindle Insurance on West Main Street in Sharon.

Landscape bear

landscape bear, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This bear is also in Salisbury - it's just a few yards away from the other, in front of the pharmacy. it's by Eric Forstmann, and it shows the view from the top of one of the mountains - it's gorgeous.

A Bear Affair

jaunty bear, originally uploaded by jahansell.

So many towns have have animal invasions - the Cow Parade, or pigs, or dogs... it only seems appropriate in the northwest corner of Connecticut that we should get Bears. The Bear Affair was organized by the Northwest Council on the Arts, and I was on a committee to help select the original designs, of the several hundred that were submitted. I'll be seeking out and showing some of the dozens that are now on display all around the region. This one, by Donna Lee Woolcott, is in front of the Salisbury Bank and Trust on Main Street in Salisbury.

Grave with a view - Monthly Theme Day

grave with a view, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This is one of the first photos I ever posted on SDP - I always imagined that I'd love to have this view for evermore!

As usual, more than 100 City Daily Photo bloggers are participating in this theme day. (Evidently I never actually signed myself up, as I'm not on the list, but perhaps a few people will stop by here anyway!) Please pay them a visit!

St. Louis (MO), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - New York City (NY), USABoston (MA), USA - Mainz, Germany - Hyde, UK - Arlington (VA), USA - Cape Town, South Africa - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Toulouse, France - Arradon, France - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Joplin (MO), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Seattle (WA), USA - Baziège, France - Baltimore (MD), USA - Chandler (AZ), USA - Sequim (WA), USA - Stayton (OR), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Anderson (SC), USA - Orlando (FL), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Nashville (TN), USA - Tenerife, Spain - Manila, Philippines - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Jacksonville (FL), USA - River Falls (WI), USA - Chateaubriant, France - Quincy (MA), USA - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Inverness (IL), usa - Lubbock (TX), USA - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Moscow, Russia - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Crepy-en-Valois, France - Minneapolis (MN), USA - New Orleans (LA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Toruń, Poland - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Christchurch, New Zealand - London, England - Paderborn, Germany - The Hague, Netherlands - Selma (AL), USA - Sunderland, UK - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Stavanger, Norway - Fort Lauderdale (FL), USA - Weston (FL), USA - Portland (OR), USA - Forks (WA), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Boston (MA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Wellington, New Zealand - Montpellier, France - Jackson (MS), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Petaling Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Evry, France - Saarbrücken, Germany - New York City (NY), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - North Bay (ON), Canada - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cypress (TX), USA - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Paris, France - San Diego (CA), USA - Wichita (Ks), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Prague, Czech Republic - Zurich, Switzerland - Budapest, Hungary - Paris, France - Saigon, Vietnam - Grenoble, France - Zurich, Switzerland - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Naples (FL), USA - Toronto (ON), Canada -