My Neighborhood (4)

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend come inside, come inside. Won't be much in the way of captioning today, simply because I'm plum fresh out of verbiage. But them again, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll?

And if you're thinking dirty about that last sentence....CONGRABULATIONS!!!!!!

A random scenic shot at the Hemlock Hill campground. See all the pretty leaves on all the pretty trees? That's because there was once a little girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead, and when she was good, she was given every single little thing that her twisted little heart desired. In this case, trees with pretty leaves...and a writer who writes recycled cartoon dialogue/MAD Magazine dialogue masquerading as intelligent captioning.

Random scenic house shot in Litchfield (I think). Not to be confused with the lame show House or the parody show This Old Shack (found on old episodes of America's Funniest People) or the song by Madness called Our House or the old t.v. show featuring Wilfred Brimley, Shannon Doherty and Deidre Hall called Our House.

Damn! I am just on a roll today ain't I?

Contrary to what you're seeing, this is not picture of my boot, nor Das Boot nor Kinky Boots nor the show Picket Fences. Somewhere along the bottom rail is a chipmunk. Not Chip and Dale, nor Alvin, Simon or Theodore. We had a chipmunk that hung ten (or is it 12?) a good chunk of last summer. But aren't those green leaves purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrty?

Random scenic shot taken while not Walking in L.A. nor was it taken while not Driving My Life Away. Again, aren't those Leaves of Green (movie featuring Ed Norton) purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrty?

Random side street shot located Downtown, where all the Uptown Girls hang out. And remember kids, this isn't taken from the van down by the river, but it's taken by the HALL MONITOR!!! (SpongeBob Squarepants).

Okay, so I ran out of gas, ran out of juice, ran out of steam, ran out of time, and just plain ran out. So hire Sioux City, Sioux New and sue me. But make sure you have the Boy Named Sue as the judge. Because....because...oh skip it.

My Neighborhood (3)

Welcome to part three of my neighborhood. Since this is my blog, I decree that my neighborhood should stretch beyond the immediate vicinity of my little section of town and cover the area I drive during the summer and fall when I travel to the northwestern corner of the state.

This nifty little house and hot dog stand is located on Route 4 directly across the street from one of the regional high schools located in the Burlington/Harwinton region of the Farmington Valley. I'm sure that they got good food there, but seeing how I'm always driving by it on the weekend, I'll never really be certain about that statement.

A fantastic example of the beauty that is the Farmington Valley during the Autumn season. This tree, that you can see just a sliver of in the previous photo, along with its companion, are truly special in the Autumn. To get this wicked shot, I sat down on the picnic table located underneath, leaned back and pointed upwards.

A distant shot of the Litchfield hills, taken from the commuter parking lot located directly across from the entrance and exit for Route 8. For those of you not from Connecticut, Route 8 is a major highway that connects with US 44, I-84 and the Merritt Parkway (US 5/CT-15). At this particular entrance, the sign points towards north towards Torrington, with the southbound entrance on the other side of the bridge that takes you towards Stratford and Shelton.

Rock formation directly across from the commuter parking lot. Yes, that is my car in the foreground. And yes, I was too lazy to shut the door.

My Neighborhood (2)

Welcome back to my neighborhood. Today we'll explore a wider cross section of what I call "my neighborhood". Don't worry, you'll have a good time time with me an all the gang, learning from each other, while we do our thing.

Once again, we have another shot of one of my favorite locations: Cedar Mountain. Usually when I take my walks to the post office, this particular section of time usually allows an unencumbered view of the mountain, so I take all kinds of shots during the seasons. The building to the left of the foreground, is Keeny Mnfg (the owner's of the funky water sculpture that seems to crop up about every other series). The building in the right foreground is Skank of America,and the building in the right background is the post office.

Another one of my favorite places to shoot is the front of Market Square Apartments. They always have some fantastic landscaping in the spring and summer that makes for some pleasing subject matter (and you thought the government couldn't do anything right). This shot is of the trees, which as you can see are just now being prepped for coloring by Father Nature (which is the only thing that Mother Nature feels he can handle without screwing up).

And yet, another one of my favorite places to shoot is this small grove of trees and pine trees. Over the years I've gotten some funky seasonal shots and this one is no exception. If you can recall, that orange flavored tree in the foreground previously graced the front page of my main blog, only that time it was festooned with purple and white blossoms.

Yup, another self portrait. Over the past few years I have talked about my main outdoor writing area. Well gang, here it is. I am sitting between two trees, with the mountain some fifty feet away from me. And yes, this what my side yard on the other side of the fence (which believe it or not, is state property. long story behind that) looks like in the spring and summer. And yes, this is how I carry/hold my pen when I'm in between scribbles. Remember, I suffer from this malady, so it's easier for me to store my pen in mouth when I'm writing. This was probably taken on a Saturday or Sunday, since my appearance looks so "natural."

And just like last week's post, I have no idea as to why I took this shot. However, going back to my disc and looking at the proceeding shots, the best I can tell you is that it was taken on one of my trips to Litchfield. Beyond that, not a clue. But the trees shure are purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrty and beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutiful ain't they?

The Neighborhood (1)

Good day and howdy doody everyone!

Before we get into the first series of posts celebrating Indian Summer/Autumn in Newington, I would like to announce a slight formatting change. Because I don't have a lot of photo discs on tap for the moment (currently, one developed, one waiting to be developed and one that still has photos waiting to be created), I decided to change the current posting pattern of 5/6/5/6/5 (27 pics per disc) to a new posting pattern of 4/5/4/5/4/5 (27 pics). For you that means six weeks of fun as opposed to five weeks of fun. For me, it means that I can stretch things out until the finances improve to the point where I can pick up a few more disposable cameras on the cheap.

And now, on with the show. Today's post kicks off a new category called, "The Neighborhood", which is pretty much self explanatory. But for those of you who may be new readers of this blog, you should know that one of my favorite places to photograph, no matter what the season (Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter), is my immediate neighborhood and Cedar Mountain.

So without further ado, here is The Neighborhood.

I have taken quite of few shots of this particular tree over the past couple of years and the reason why I do is that it has character, which is always a good thing to have. This tree sits in the front yard of my daughter's friend's house. It has weathered many a storm and many a toilet papering over the past forty odd years, and yet, it still stands tall, proud and defiant of the world surrounding it. You can also see a pretty good view of the street as it gracefully bends to the right. The street isn't very long and in the winter time, the town does a fantastically crappy job of plowing it. Just to give you a basic idea on what the past winter was like here, the town piled up most of the snow from not only the street you see but the street I'm standing on at the stop sign/street sign you see. They piled it so high that the street sign literally disappeared from view.

Another one of my favorite spots to take pictures of is the town green located in the downtown area. The white sign you see is the main sign that is used to make all kinds of official announcements for town events and local happenings, be they for sports, entertainment, or even politics. This was taken from the diagonal opposite corner from where the local Congregational church (also a favorite topic of choice to shoot) sits. Pretty good shot don't you think, in the way that the traffic lights so completely blend in with the trees in the background that you wouldn't know that there were any at first glance.

 This is looking towards the center of the previous shot, southbound. To your left is the back end of the town green, to your right is the local plaza that features Quest Diagnostics, Rite Aid, Subway, Starbucks, Mojo Tanning, Cozy Nails and Stretch's Pizza. On Saturdays, which is probably when this photo was taken, the street is usually jam packed like this, with people either on their way to a sporting event, fishing, or out to the country for traveling and visiting the countryside, or the fairs and festivals. About where I'm standing is where I usually cross the road on my walks from the center, which is due to the fact that it's easier to cross two lanes unimpeded than it is to cross five lanes. And you can see how the leaves are starting to turn all kinds of nifty colors.

Not entirely sure as to why I took this picture. Well, I just went back to the picture disc in question to see what I took after this photo, and unfortunately for me, but not for you, there was no discernible logic or method to my madness as to why or where I took this picture. So I guess we're gonna wing it for a caption.

Here goes.

I took this picture because I saw that the lawn was such a nifty shade of green, especially since we had a distinct lack of rain this past year, so I figure I would take a picture of this nifty looking lawn. As a bonus, I got a good old American flag flapping in the wind. And as another bonus, I got some nifty shrubbery in as well. Ain't it purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrty?