Whimsical Windows - The Old First Church

Toby hosts the architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors. Today I offer views taken by Patti of the Old First Church in Bennington Vermont. 

The present sanctuary was designed by architect Lavius Fillmore completed in 1805, restored in 1994. Of interest is that the poet and Bennington resident Robert Frost is interred in the old burial grounds aside the church. These were taken by her in early October - Fall foliage and New England pair perfectly. The seasonal traffic and spectators attest to that!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Sequential

Seq.1 - Menu

Seq. 2 - Apéritif

Seq. 3 - Accompaniment

Shadow Shot Sunday returns again to the past, and of restaurant meal treats from Sage of Steubenville Grandpa. When he visited the family in Connecticut, we would all go to the old Marco Polo in East Hartford. As the photo gatherer in these situations, he did like to have a sequence of photos as a memory. Family siblings might remember that: 1) Holding up the menu; 2) Holding up his beer bottle (either Miller High Life or Miller Lite); 3) Holding up the wine bottle (always). Item 1 was usually taken by the waitstaff, the others by my father, conspicuously absent...always fun when he treated!

Tina's Pic Story - March Flowers

Tina's fun meme Pic Story returns and we follow the simple process: we post photos that follow the weekly theme kindly supplied by her, which this week is March Flowers. My choice for today involves daffodils. The lovely Patti picked these last year from our yard and placed them in a stylish pitcher - this view is now framed and and has been placed in a home show sponsored by a local arts organization gallery...hopefully a paying customer has space on a wall to display this! The yellow color represents Spring and sunshine and warmth that we hope will arrive soon!

Ruby Tuesday - Winter sky

Sunset outside our living room window...facing west-southwest, Ansonia. CT

As spring began last week, a picturesque pink late winter sky seems perfect for Ruby Tuesday. This bold pastel derives from the ruby, so the color is good. And with no leaves on the trees, the colo is not hidden. We who are tired of cold and winter cannot wait for spring...however, the cold days do have their nice points, and a great pink sunset is certainly one of those...

Whimsical Windows - Bastogne Battle Star

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors where we look for items of fun or perhaps history. Today it is the latter - the US memorial Mardasson at Bastogne in the Ardennes in Belgium. This was built as a memorial to the fallen in the battle in December 1944 Siege of Bastogne - where the US army's 101st Airborne division successfully repelled, at great cost,  the siege if the Nazi army and defeated their planned capture the Belgian port city of Antwerp.

I took this on a 1982 vacation visit to Bastogne and was impressed with this structure. I believe that it appears as a star from the air. From the ground, the (then 48) states are engraved. It was impressive when I was there decades ago. The scanned print was faded in color so was edited in B&W. An amazing monument to bravery and being on the right side of history...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Parking apparatus

Strubennville and steel, 1955

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 is back, and a recently scanned, steel town Steubenville shot of slight shadow is chosen. The car at the upper left, a 1955 Packard Clipper suggests this is the year. This is probably downtown and it is a stacked mechanical parking lot/car park (referred to as pigeon hole parking) and taken from a roof of a nearby building. It appears that the elevator takes the vehicles to the level and slot the car is/was parked. In the distance looks to be one of the steel mills that once dotted the banks of the Ohio River. The grit of the industrial contrasts with the nice cars parked by the downtown shoppers. A shadow in time...

Tina's Pic Story - Happiness

Sleeping children in their car seats make parents happy.

Tina's Pic Story is back, and she allows for the weekly theme of happiness. In this seen before photo, happy is in our two children, grown now but babies once. We were happy that they were healthy...and happier on this day in 1990 when the slept peacefully in their car seats. Happy both ways!

Whimsical Windows - Pirelli/Armstrong Building

Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors is a fun architectural meme hosted by Toby. We look for interesting portals and today is the highly visible Pirelli in New Haven CT. This building was opened in 1970 and in a Modernist style designed by architect Marcel Breuer, who used cast concrete for the exterior while draped over the steel frame. 

It was built for the now defunct Armstrong Rubber Company as their corporate headquarters until acquired by Pirelli. When IKEA purchased the land for its blue and yellow big box, the city requested that the landmark building remain in place - and IKEA accommodate that request. The detail seen in the vertical view just above the window is a stylized slanted A that represented the Armstrong logo - perhaps the advantage of working with the malleable concrete. The past and present can coexist...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Streetlife serenade, shadowy of course

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 occurs on a quiet Friday afternoon when I happened to be on Elizabeth Street in neighboring Derby. I was on the way to the Gallery@37 and had the camera with me to take views of the area. With an eye toward shadows, the hazy and high clouds allowed for a shadow or reflections even as tomorrows rain clouds were gathering. 


Alas, I forget to check the batteries and they ran out - so these four views are what I have, Clockwise from the top: The Sterling Opera House, Derby Elks (deer and antlers too :),  my all winter sand covered and unwashed Doge van, and the old AT&T building. Nothing extraordinary is here on this early afternoon - nothing but shadows. I will have fresh batteries next time...

Tina's Pic Story - Spiky

Statue of Liberty/ Statue de la Liberté in Paris, April 2005

Tina's Pic Story is back, the rule simple: we provide the pictures to match with the weekly theme she kindly provides. This week's theme is pointed or spiky...either Patti or Allegra took this in Paris and the familiar silhouette of the Statue de la Liberté replica on the L'île aux Cygnes. The spikes are seen on the crown of the monument to liberty, while the Eiffel Tower in the distance has a bit of a spike on top also. It looks to be near sunset and the raised arm holds its torch, a beacon still to liberty...

Ruby Tuesday 2 - Vintage b-day

Ruby Tuesday 2 today goes back to a child's birthday party in 1983, the guess based on the growth stage of the nieces and nephews celebrating the day. 

Some ruby is there, fulfilling the basic red required...All the kids then are parents now - great kids back then. Outstanding grown-ups now...Follow the trail of more rubies at RT2! 

Whimsical Windows - Collapse aftermath

Surveying the damage from the 24th floor

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, and we look at details of interest. Today is a scan of a unique view from the 24th floor of the United Technologies building in downtown Hartford Connecticut. I date the view from February or March 1978. The persons are my father and grandmother as they look down at the collapsed roof of the Hartford Civic Center which fell on 18 January 1978. The view is on the floor my father worked on looking west toward the building. The pattern on the reflection is the facade of the then Hartford National Bank building next door. The print was damaged and faded so it is now in B&W. A unique look at a disaster in which no one was hurt...

SOOC - Sunsets over the Sound

SOOC - Straight out of the Camera - brings us to a deck overlooking the New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound. The sun is setting under a deck of stormy clouds that hang over the nautical scene. However, the golden solar orb setting over the horizon stands out far more powerfully than the dissipating and dark sky. Tomorrow will be a fine day as the unpleasant weather will have left the scene... 

Shadow Shot Sunday - East Hartford Easter Edits

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 is back on a snowy day, today's 7 inches (18 cm) ironically is exactly one month since the Blizzard. Beyond complaining about the weather, I am trying to fix damaged film prints from the past. Easter in the past is what is presented here. The prints are from 1968, my Grandfather dressed up for the Holiday, included the well blocked hat. To the right is my sister and a neighbor both dressed in their retro back then Easter finest. Grandpa was the photographer and brought two German SLR cameras (an Exa and an Exacta, built in Dresden) and so took B&W and color shots at every visit...the prints may be in bad shape - but never the memories!

Tina's WW - Flag in the Mist

Our daughter caught this in Paris...what I like best here is the gray morning mist shrouding all but the Tricolour flying proudly above it all...See Tina's WW

Tina's Pic Story - 'M' is for...

Route US-1 south, just past the Pennsylvania state line, humid day

Another hazy, warm and humid day, Interstate 195 east of Providence, Rhode Island

1960 Mack B-61 truck - probably seen on any of these three roads 50 years ago...

Route US-22 west, about 25 miles/40 Km west of Pittsburgh

Tina hosts her fun meme Pic Story - we provide the pictures to the weekly theme she supplies, which this week is the letter 'M'. For this post, I have a motoring theme. Three of these were taken by a passenger as I drove (the safer way :). 'M' is all over with statism towns and trucks supplying the thirteenth letter for today...

Ruby Tuesday - Colorful Church Glass

Ruby Tuesday 2 and stained glass - are a perfect pairing. We attend a Congregational church in nearby Derby. Built in 1821, the sanctuary structure is the usual Puritan stark* - white, wood, angular and no frills nor style. Just like its 17-19th century dour practitioners. However, the offices and meeting room were built after 1900 have many a stained glass window that were donated by worshipers. These portals look magnificent with sunlight light filtering through the artistic and colorful effects. Lots of ruby for RT2...


* - Unlike the US Episcopalian church which derived from the Anglican/Church of England - those churches tend to be more ornate than the white buildings that dot the New England town squares. Not Westminster ornate perhaps, but not undecorated white wood either...

Whimsical Windows - Stained Glass Puritan

Inside the modern day puritan house of worship. Taken by Patti

Inside the stark white church, a hint of color. Also taken by Patti

Toby hosts the most excellent architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors. Today, I am at our Congregational church in the neighboring town of Derby. The church sanctuary was built in 1821, and the Congregation tradition actually goes back to the Puritans from England - that means that those dour practitioners had a severe austerity in their viewpoints...and in their architecture, the stark white buildings with nary a frill in design which precluded stained glass in those days. Yet, the office addition was built later, perhaps around 1900. And this side has lovely stained glass windows, donated by parishioners at the time. Not austere, but beautiful additions to the colonial style. See more building style at WWDD

SOOC - Skimming the tops

Photo artist is also captured on an EMB-145 jet heading east...these are clouds, NOT snow...

SOOC - Straight out of the camera is back. A few years ago, daughter Allegra was taking a trip to Michigan, and prior to this, my well-known interest in aviation and flying prompted my request for a couple of in-flight photos, which she did - this view is from a 50-seat jet between she Cleveland and Hartford in a 50 seat jet. No need for an edit here with the bold blue sky and fluffy white cumulus clouds (not Snow - looks like our front yard two weeks ago)...A bonus here is the 3-D UFO like camera lens staring back at the photographer. An unedited look at a friendly sky...