Live Music in Sharon!

Well, in his never ending effort to find out exactly what folks want at his newly re-done and re-opened Black Goose Grill in the plaza in Sharon, Rob Caeners has taken the old Raven/Waldorph/Ironworks/Country Corner to a new and previously untested waters in Sharon. He has added live music on a kind of trial-basis situation. His first try with it was in late November when he had a fund raising event for the Sharon Fuel Bank. That night, he had invited four different bands to participate. He gave them a small corner of the small restaurant and let them work out the rest. He charged $10 cover to get in and from 8 till 11 the place was packed with all kinds of folks. He sold food. He sold wine and beer (he had just gotten his liquor license days before). He gave away munchies. The place was wall to wall people. I bet more than one hundred and twenty people came and went that night. And the important thing.....everyone had a great time! And the fuel bank got a nice shot in the arm.

Jump ahead to this past Friday evening and Bob had his first night of music that was sponsored just by him. His Chef Kevin had done up a new special menu just for the night. The very local band, Swamp Yankee was back (they were one of the four the first time in November) and the music began at eight sharp. Clare and I went for dinner at 7:15 or so and had a delicious meal. By 8:05 the place was full and by 8:20 it was standing room only. The music was loud, but the songs were great and having all our local friends in the band, and all local folks in attendance, it was far more a party than a place with a band. Everybody knew everybody. The laughs were plenty, and the singing was totally fun. I spoke with Bob and he said he did a lot of food and drink that evening so that was really key. Bottom line here...we want this place to exist. We don't want to be without a place to eat in Sharon.


In respecting peoples right to privacy when out in a eating/drinking/dancing scene, I only took this little shot with my iPhone.

So, I believe this past Friday was a great success, and there are more nights scheduled. The group Wooden Nickel is coming in soon, Feb. 10th (love these guys) and Swamp is coming back in late February. I grabbed this shot of their poster which is hanging at various places in town. If it's something you might like, I strongly urge all my readers to give it a try on one of the music nights for sure. And I sure hope you try The Goose out other times as well, to enjoy the quality and choices that Kevin and Robb are offering. I think that you'll be quite surprised and pleased, if you haven't been there already.

"fire on the mountain, run boys run..."

Actually, it's more like fog on the mountain.......

T'was a rather wet morning around here on Friday morn......picked up my tux at Sap's for our annual jaunt to the big town to go to the Met on Wednesday. This year's performance will be , Anna Bolena. Opening night. Whoa!

Fiat 500

So today I got to see, up-close-and-personal, one of the new Fiat automobiles. My reaction? Pretty cool. I talked with owner who is absolutely in love with it. They have another car, which is  a older, and bigger, and has all-wheel drive, so when it snows, or they need a car with room, they still have it for their use. But if it's around town driving, over to Torrington for shopping, or Barrington for lunch with friends, they jump in the Fiat. They are getting like 27 miles per gallon on local short-hops, and close to 40 when they get out and go someplace. The tank only holds ten gallons or so, so she enjoys not releasing a paycheck to just get fuel. It has plenty of power she feels for what they need and have yet to find anything they don't like about it. Her husband is about 6'4", and they did their research ahead of time....the model with the sunroof has less headroom, due to the sunroof being on a track which must drop down into the car when opened. Her husband is totally comfortable with the "standard" model.

They bought there car in West Springfield at the dealer there. (she told me the salesman was far nicer) And right now apparently, there is zero-interest loans. Her husband said that closed the deal.


So....for under 22k and you can get a brand new car which gives great milage, rides and drives great, and is zero-interest loans? Not too shabby I'd say. Not too shabby.

Dead duck(s)

On our weekend in Maine, one of the somewhat interesting things we stumbled into was this story. We came upon three or four men,(I can't remember which) with a boat, and the boat and they were all in camouflage. They were coming out of the bay and had just loaded their boat on a trailer behind their Suburban or whatever big SUV they had. Now, it's around freezing, and these guys are in camo coming out of the ocean and I am wondering what the devil is going on here? 


So, what better thing to do than to ask? So, with camera in hand, I approached, though somewhat hesitantly, but still extremely curious. When I got close to them it all became clear. As the picture below shows, they had been duck hunting, and they were laying out their take for a picture for themselves. I introduced myself, explained my curiosity and they were only too glad to explain. They were doing late winter hunting for "treasure" birds, that would be, if they were good enough, stuffed and used in a museum display. They had had extraordinary luck they said and they felt that all of these would be able to be used for the organization that had asked them to do this hunt. They said they had been here other times and had not seen hardly a bird, yet this time they came away with such a huge amount of success.


While this picture may be somewhat disturbing to some, when I learned that they would be used in a museum, for educational purposes, I thought differently than I did at the initial sight, and I congratulated them on their successes. They also said this was the last weekend, or very near then end of  the season that was open for these birds, so they also felt extremely fortunate in so many ways. They did name them off, but this storekeep from the hills of Connecticut totally missed all that. But that was also part of my learning process for camera work. Next time, I should have taken their picture with their kill, and also jotted down what kinds they were exactly.


There sure is a learning curve to this blogging business. :)

a couple more shadows..

~today was just a grey, melting day. Nothing interesting did I see. So, I'll just bounce up one more from yesterday. A little more low winter sun shadows.....

Tracks...and shadows.

Finally had a little ground snow cover after Friday nights snowfall. Thus, tracks for the first time in a long time.


Caption: You go your way, I'll go mine.....

Gone.

We all do stupid things from time to time, right? I'm not alone in this am I?




So,  for way to long I have been putting up with a real bad thing in my life. My furnace at the store. It was old. It was inefficient. It was health hazard. Recently it became a fire hazard. Yesterday, Thursday, it went to the boneyard, and a sparking new, hopefully far more efficient unit took its place. A lot of money when I really didn't need that expense (when exactly is a good time for a large expense?) but I feel very good about it.

Think I'll post a picture of my new unit in a day or two. I need to clean the area up around it first. The new unit is putting the rest of my back room to shame......

Shark-infested breakfast room..

Back up in Maine, we discovered an extremely popular bakery/eating establishment named The Wild Oats Bakery in Brunswick. We had read of this place in Down East Magazine a month or so back, so we were on a mission to check it out. Amazing! Thats all I'll say about it at this the. Amazing.


I told you that to tell you this. While eating our breakfast the other morning, out from a shop next door in this indoor little plaza, which was all about slot cars (Slot Car Junction) and really cool toys, came a floating, flying shark. It was about five feet long, was filled with helium, and its tail fin would flap back and forth  to give it forward movement through the air. It had a fin which moved to make it change directions, and it had a weighted, motor-driven piece on the bottom on a track which could move and make the shark go up or down. Push it forward...nose dive. Back it up and up it would go. And all remote controlled. How totally cool! I don't know who was more amazed...this fifty-something or a set of twins who were about three or four at the oldest.


Totally fun!

Is that snow I see?

Shortly before leaving work this evening, it started to snow. Since our Feb-tober blizzard in October, which did so much tree damage throughout the state, we have had about maybe two inches of snow(and that might be a bit high). So, this is like....news! Not sure how much we are getting, but I came home and put the plow on just in case it becomes "measurable". Stay tuned for further updates. :)

Time off.

Continuing with my Maine side-trip for my blog.......


Lobster season in Maine tends to be busiest during the summer months. Demand is highest due to tourism then. That also is when the lobsters are closest to the land, thus making fishing for them the easiest. During the winter months, they move off shore, requiring bigger and stronger boats, and what with winter storms at sea and the cold, it becomes a much harder task. Fishing does still continue, but by fewer lobstermen.


With all that said, we saw lots and lots of traps in peoples back yards, front yards, side yards, driveways, docks and just about any place else we looked on this tiny island chain of Great, Orrs and Bailey. The group pictured below was one of the more "organized" that we did see. I would venture to say they did their repairs pronto and are just waiting for the winter to roll on by so they can get back at the catch next summer. Perhaps they are working on their boat now? Whatever, I enjoyed the makeup of this shot and was very happy with how it came out.

Happy Birthday....

to Jack Dolan!


:)


Hope it was a great one!

Long-time passing...

Wow, the days have gotten away from me. I have not done a post in a good while so in order to keep this blog "active", I better get something out there. My blog does not have to be done daily, nor does it have to be on Sharon. 


With that in mind, today's posting is for all the guys like me who played with Tonka toys when they were kids. This past weekend we traveled to Maine and did a whole bunch of things and saw a whole bunch of sights. One of the sights we saw is this really huge crane in the skyline of Bath, Maine at the B.I.W. (Bath Iron Works). In the picture, it's hard to really tell just how large this machine is. Let me just say I am probably more than a quarter of a mile away from this when I snapped this shot. It would make sense that to build a U.S. Navy ship you would need rather large equipment. Well, here is one really large piece. It fills the skyline from a great distance.


Amazing!

Morning light...

~just for those of you whom may never see the dawn's early light.....a great start to the day over Sharon mountain recently....

Black Squirrel(s)

Out behind The Singing Hollow Operetta Building on Main Street, Sharon, Connecticut.


Why is it I went almost fifty-eight years without seeing a single black squirrel and now in recent months I have seen three? Is it an epidemic? Or overpopulation? I told you about a month ago I was getting overrun with grey squirrels at home and was considering lead poisoning, but thus far I haven't gone that route.


Hmmmmm. Mother Nature is up to something.

Rick...do you have your camera with you?

"you might want to run out and shoot the sunset.....Over the plaza...again? People, and myself included, are so tired of seeing the empty laundry. But, thanks, I'll go look"......Whoa! Sure wish I had been elsewhere to capture, but beggars can't be choosers....

Sinking winter sun.....

full of such blaze and splendor,
.....think 


for a moment, double-click on the picture and 
just think....

Standing Room Only...

...at the transfer station? Before you say why on earth was it so busy, think holidays. Christmas was just a week ago, of course followed this week with the New Year celebration. More than likely, lots of folks really got into cleaning up this weekend from Christmas and Tuesday morning was the first day they could visit the transfer station with all their used gift wrap and boxes and food garbage and all. Fortunately for myself, I was up-and-at'm, so I was on my way out as the crowd was really descending. I had to stop and take a picture though as I had never seen it quite like this..... :)

Did somebody call for the police?

If you needed a policeman in Sharon today, we had them. Four actually for a period of time.....Unfortunately, there was an automobile accident in front of the plaza this afternoon. Apparently a car exiting the plaza drove into the direct path of a southbound pickup truck on Route 41. Though the crash did send one person to the hospital with some injuries, I was told that it could have been far worse. So, if that is true, I am thankful. I keep waiting for the big one to occur there , and I fear that it will happen. Thus far, the accidents over the years have generally been small in nature. But with the tendency of cars to speed down the hill,and POOF, they are in a shopping area, with direct cross-street exiting of cars from the gas station and the plaza, some day I fear there will be a tragedy there. I pray not, but I bet it will happen. I have hoped for some time that the plaza would go to a one entrance-exit on 41, basically in the center of where they are now, and close the two existing driveways. Basically, across from the law office, perhaps a bit south by just a little bit. It would stop the cars that shoot back and forth from gas station to plaza, or vice-versa. Just seems like that could help possibly help prevent a tragedy from occurring. Sort of like where you turn into the parking lot at the movie theater in Winsted, on 44, east of the town. It would require a bit of road widening perhaps, but hey, it might be the life of someone we all know and love who gets saved if that were to become a reality. And then a traffic light at that location would also help slow vehicular traffic in general in the area.


Are you listening Mr. Mayor?

Too good to be true?

I don't think of myself as much of a weather watcher. Today I took a look ahead. It is currently 34 degrees by my little outdoor thermometer, and that is as high as it is going to be for the next two or three days I am told. The lows will be near zero degrees Fahrenheit.  Uggggh. No wonder all those former Sharonites moved to Arizona or some barrier island off Florida! It was too much fun for them here. Chickens!


The sun was shining for most of the afternoon, but the temps were falling and the wind, well let's just say you wouldn't want to go fly a kite in it. Old sol didn't help do much but provide light it seemed today. No snow of any value (if snow has value) yet but that is okay with me. I had twenty four inches in October. That was enough for now, thank you very much!


So, I offer you this look at our late afternoon sky, which is right in the direction from where the current cold blast is coming from. Hope all my neighbors are snuggled up and warm for the evening.

Angel's in the clouds?

So a few months back, maybe less, I was scrolling down the Facebook™ activity page and I found where a friend who lives locally (and is quite a photographer I might add) has a picture of a cloud, and they said something about the cloud being an angel. I looked back further through the history, and found where they had indeed posted other photographs of clouds that also had this image of a body and wings and, well if you let your mind wander a bit, you could see what they were referring to. Today, on my way home from church, I looked up at the sky while climbing Jackson Hill Road. Off slightly to the southeast I saw two amazing clouds. I almost ended up in Austin's field, paying more attention to the sky than the road!  I couldn't get to the top of the hill fast enough, and dash out of the truck, camera in hand to see if they were still there. They were!


So, you tell me. Have you ever heard of doing this, or seeing these shapes in clouds? I hadn't, or if I had, sure didn't recall it. But the camera doesn't lie..........does it?