New Haven: The Comfort of Nature

Gray Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis) at McDonald's in Connecticut

November of 2010 was a tragic month. I had to return to Connecticut to try to help Anna and Aaron and to attend the funeral of Aaron's little sister Toni (click here, here, and here).. We had just met Toni seven months earlier when John and I went to New Haven in March. On this November day, I stopped at the McDonald's in Rocky Hill, Connecticut for lunch and thankfully found many sparrows and a squirrel to photograph. Wild animals have always provided me comfort during these tragic times.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.

But even the hairs of your head are all counted.
Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

“Look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?”

Too often, we feel as if we are all alone. It feels as if the entire world is indifferent to us. I spent time with the birds and the camera as different verses floating through my mind. After a long while of meditation, I knew I was part of Creation and was able to sadly smile and continue to New Haven.

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No, No, No

Signs such as this sign on a private association beach on Long Island Sound litter the Connecticut shoreline. Legally, all people have rights to be on public beach, which is defined as the area below the mean high tide mark. This area is marked by debris, driftwood and seaweed. There is dry and wet sand.

The Connecticut shoreline is nearly all privately owned. The landowners are well-to-do. For ages they have blocked access to the intertidal zone and trespassers were prosecuted. Inner city kids couldn't experience the beach without paying exorbitant fees. They could go to the crowded and commercial state beaches that were not free. In the 1970s Ned Coll, a political activist in Hartford, agitated and won access to the public beaches by walking the high tide mark from Stonington (on the eastern end of the Connecticut shore) to Greenwich (on the western end).

Yet forty years later, there are still squabbles about how one is able to get to these public lands. A July 2009 article, Public access to the shorefront not always easy, in connpost.com, explains the various ways different shoreline towns restrict access to public land. The State of Connecticut makes the law very clear in the Connecticut Coastal Access Guide. Yet it is nearly silent about how one should get down to the public land.

Signs such as the one I photographed show that the conflict is still going on. I am old enough to remember the court fights and Ned Coll's march. I am so disappointed with the hostility and exclusivity that this sign represents.

A Weekend in Old Saybrook Set

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Driving to Connecticut

I have an irrational fear of being a passenger while driving through heavy traffic. When we went to Old Saybrook in September, John drove the truck. To keep myself busy and calm, I began to record the heavy southern New England traffic. It worked. I didn't shriek out as often. None of you will be interested in watching this long, pointless video. But it has lots of memories in it for me. Watching this, for me, is identical to riding a hellish roller coaster (which I will never do). I get the same dropping feeling in the pit of my stomach.

If you click on the times below, you will be taken to a new window in youtube. Then, click "more" on the right hand description of the video, then click the time section again that you want to see. After the video loads, you can watch just that section that you clicked.

0:00 - 1:30 The video begins in Wallingford, which is just north of New Haven. The truck windows have never been cleaned. See how close the trucks are? How fast people drive down there?

1:31- 3:33 Traffic comes to a scary, screeching halt just outside of New Haven. It's always like this. For miles. Until i-95 which takes you to New York City. Which is why it's always awful.

3:34 - 3:46 We move to the right lanes to get off of this insanity. We can use GPS to go through the city streets of New Haven to get to Anna's house.

3:47- 6:08 We exit at the police station and train station. The train station is old and pretty. The police station looks like a fortress. Traffic is just as awful but at least it isn't as dangerous. The bridges in New Haven are unique. To me. We have to cross one of them in order to get to Anna's place on Long Island Sound.

5:30 a man gets out of a car next to us because it's quicker to walk to the train station than to drive.

6:09 - 7:35 We leave Anna's place after picking up a desk that she has for Amy. We now get onto i-95 North (towards Providence) to get to Old Saybrook from New Haven. You can see New Haven Harbor and the oil tank farm at 6:10. I counted a dozen construction cranes building stuff. Somebody's economy is doing good. The road is more narrow but traffic is better. It's easier to drive the further you get from NYC.

7:35 - end We are in Old Saybrook on the road that the weekend house is on. The road is on the Sound which you can see a bit of. Then we get to the house and I tape that.



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A Weekend in Old Saybrook, Connecticut

The Girls

On a weekend in September, John, Amy and I drove down to Old Saybrook, Connecticut to spend a weekend with Anna, Aaron, Aaron's family, Marcia and Suzi (Andrew and Dan couldn't make it this time.) The weather was good half of the time. The food was great and the company wonderful. Here are my girls: Daisy is Anna and Aaron's tiny dog. Anna is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. And behind Anna, Amy is taking off her shoes to wade in the surf. It never got warm enough to go swimming. I'm posting sunset photos of this weekend on my Photo A Day blog. In the near future there will be birds, scenery, and sea life posted.

A Weekend in Old Saybrook Set

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Connecticut Sparrows

I went to New Haven last week to visit my daughter Anna. We went to Stony Creek in Branford, where I found a bunch of sparrows on this rose bush. Sparrows are very plentiful on the shore, unlike here. If you know what kind of sparrows these are, drop a comment!

Sparrows Set on Flickr

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