washington ct - 53 project week 20

Oh look -- I now have 53 followers of my blog & 53 project!  For those of you who are new here, I just turned 53, and this year instead of a 365 project I decided to do a 52-week project but give it an extra twist for my 53rd year.  And so, here we are, 20 weeks in and 53 followers later.  Good karma.

I'm still catching up from my trip to Washington, Connecticut, where my great-grandmother Isabel Esther McCormick Abbot lived in the nineteen teens and twenties.  You can see some of my posts about her, her family, and my grandmother here.

Washington is a little town still mostly untouched by industry and overbuilding -- it sits placidly on the top of a mountain in western Connecticut.  My great-grandmother, grandparents, and father all have markers in the cemetery there.  Dad's marker, unfortunately, is discolored and in need of some TLC, so I didn't get a shot of it.  The sun came out as I drove up the mountain, and big puffy clouds danced across the sky.  My grandfather, an architect, designed the headstones.

And a heart-shaped cloud floated by just as I was turning to leave.

the 53 project : week 4

My 365 project, which wrapped up in December, was focused mainly on words and signs.  I've been having a little withdrawal from that project, so I decided to look around me at work this week and see if I could find some words that inspire or amuse.  Here's what I found.

 Men reading books.  We like them.

 Chocolate.  We like that too.

 A little self help.

 What keeps it all together.

 Historic lifesaving.

 Modern lifesaving for that woman of a certain age.

 And a little extra advice never hurt.

 That's me.

 Find your roots.

 Slugs and princesses -- we have it all.

The end.

What words sum up your week?  Share some with us in the comments.

behind the scenes at the sturgis library

I've been taking a series of photos of the "hidden Sturgis Library," partly for fun and partly to highlight our interesting building as we embark on a building preservation project. For those of you who haven't already heard it a zillion times, the Sturgis Library is the oldest library building in the country -- the original portion was built as a meetinghouse in 1644. You can see the photos here.

gunn memorial library

I've been corresponding with a man in Washington, CT who owns a house next door to Grandma Abbot's old house on Old North Road. (To see his comments on an earlier post, click here.) He has been researching the history of his house, and in doing so found that the Gunn Memorial Library and Museum in Washington has a framed calling card belonging to Grandma Ab and Grandma Loomis. He sent me the image you see at the right.

Also,about 10 years ago I donated some of Grandpa Loo's watercolors of Washington to the Gunn Library, along with photos of Connecticut doorways taken by Grandma Loo. I can't remember if I made copies of the watercolors for everyone? If not, you can see the images here.

dorothy's visit last march

When Dorothy came east for a visit in March, I didn't have a camera and so I wasn't able to document our time together. Dorothy took a few pictures, and here they are. Thanks Dorothy! We took a day trip to Provincetown on a cold rainy day. Provincetown, for those of you who haven't visited there, is (in the right season) a glorious extravaganza of fun shops, restaurants, galleries, and every kind of people you can imagine -- artists, merchants, fishermen, families, tourists, gay, lesbian, transgendered, and straight. All surrounded by wonderful ocean views on all sides. On a gray rainy day in March, most shops are closed, year-round residents are working or tucked away at home, tourists and visitors haven't arrived, and the views are truncated by fog and clouds. But it felt like an adventure as Dorothy, Nick and I trudged through the puddles, had a great lunch at a cool restaurant, and ended up at (where else), the Provincetown Public Library, which features a half-sized model of the ship Rose Dorothea.

Click here for a great video that gives you a sense of the summer life in Provincetown during Carnival from a partyer's point of view-- the crowds aren't much different on regular days. So Dorothy -- watch it and see what you missed! And turn up the volume!

Dorothy & Nick in front of a fabulous house with a sculpture garden.

Nick and Lucy @ the Provincetown Public Library.

Rose Dorothea (nice name, huh Dorothy?)