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On The Road: Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground

May 16, 2013 at 9:02 am by Claudia

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The Ancient Burying Ground is just a block or two from my apartment. The city has grown up around it, so it is surrounded by tall buildings, the hustle and bustle of city life, horns honking, sirens blaring. (I call Hartford the City of Sirens. Honestly. I’ve lived in several big cities and I’ve never heard as many sirens as I do here. Even in Manhattan.)

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I visited another graveyard much like this one last year. I’m fascinated by these sacred places, by the stories that the old and crumbling headstones tell. The Ancient Burying Ground was in use from 1640 to 1803. It was also used as a grazing pasture for horses, cattle and sheep. As in England at the time, graves were dug and people buried, not in family plots, but anywhere a space could be found. As the numbers grew, people were buried on top of each other. Eventually, a church was built on the land – over many graves – but this was the custom in England, where many were buried within churches and that was considered an honor.

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What I find remarkable is that this plot of land has over 6000 graves. Only a few headstones have survived. I imagine most people couldn’t afford a headstone.

The church you see is Center Church, erected in 1807. It replaced the original church, which was built in 1636.

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That obelisk honors the founders of Hartford.

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I love the carving on the stones. As is often the case, many of the stones commemorate women who died young, most likely in childbirth.

This story is especially poignant.

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Here lies a young man who died at the age of 29 in 1803. He drowned in the Connecticut River. (Note the spelling of drowned at the time – drownded.)

Then you look to the left of the stone, and you see this:

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His son, just a baby when the father drowned, died 3 years later. What a terrible loss for Eliza Watson.

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As you stand there in the cemetery, birds chirp and fly among the headstones, trees are in bloom, grass grows.

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I had no idea, as I took these photos, that there were 6000 people interred in the grounds.

You can read more about the Ancient Burying Ground here.

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A little bit of Hartford for you.

Happy Thursday.

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Playing With Blocks

May 15, 2013 at 8:58 am by Claudia

That sneaky scamp, Scout, took over my blog yesterday! I don’t know how she did it. But she’s a Border Collie and they are very smart, indeed. Thank goodness I’ve taught her some manners; she responded to all your comments in her inimitable, slightly sassy, way.

I finished all the blocks yesterday, then, on a rehearsal break, laid them out on the carpet. Then I climbed on a chair and stood on the kitchen counter to take this photo:

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This is my home-away-from-home version of a design board. I’ve found that taking a photo helps me to see any problems with the layout.

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The nice thing about being in this apartment is that I can do something I never could at home. I can leave the blocks on the carpet. No dog hair, no curious Scoutie walking all over them. Since I don’t have my own space at home that I can contain with a closed door, this is a refreshing treat! I kept glancing at the layout throughout the evening and found I didn’t like the concentration of vivid red at the top of the photo, so I kept playing around with block placement. The vertical row of blocks on the left will actually be the top of the quilt.

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This is what I ended up with. Although now that I look at it here, I’m going to tweak a couple of blocks.

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There. I tweaked it. It’s almost impossible to get a good photo in this space, but this gives you an idea of the look I’m going for.

The finished quilt is supposed to measure 63 inches by 74 inches. As you know, we don’t have a lot of wall space in our home, due to an abundance of windows and the sloped-attic-type walls upstairs. I started to wonder whether I should go with the 5 blocks by 5 blocks layout or make it 4 blocks by 5 blocks. Now is the time to make that decision. So I called Don and had him measure the available space on the staircase wall. When we first moved in to the cottage, I had a quilt hanging there. It’s sort of the perfect place for a quilt.

Turns out there is just enough room. I don’t want this to be a throw. I really want to hang it because the colors are so wonderful and they really go with the colors in our living room and kitchen – as well as in my studio. And the great thing about hanging it in that space is that I will also be able to see it from my studio. I like the simple, graphic quality to it and the patterns and colors make me happy. (Hopefully, I’ll still feel the same way when I’ve finished it!)

The next step is to start sewing the blocks together. Today, however, I will have to be at the theater most of the day. Final tech rehearsals in the afternoon and evening, then the first preview tomorrow morning. Morning, you say? Yes. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the first preview is a student audience at 10:30 in the morning. That means we lose another afternoon to run through the show before an evening preview. Believe me, if I was still an actor, I would not be happy about teching until 10 or 11 tonight and then having my first performance at 10:30 in the morning. For students. I do not know a single actor who likes morning performances.

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Tomorrow I will have a post about my visit to Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground, which was in use from 1640 to 1803. I took lots of pictures.

Happy Wednesday.

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Scout Blogs

May 14, 2013 at 8:18 am by Claudia

Scout

What the heck is going on?

First my dad goes away for what seems like forever. Then Mom goes away for a couple of days and boards me. Then we both go away for a couple of days. (Much better.) Then Dad comes back. Then Mom goes away for a long time. She comes home. She leaves again. What the ???

I don’t like this. My life is based on routine. And this is seriously messing with my routine. Not to mention the fact that the pack should be together and it isn’t.

But there is a bit of a silver lining here. A chance to change things up.

I’ve been working my dad (who isn’t always clear on mom’s rules about food and treats) and I have to say, it’s been pretty cool. Here’s what I’ve done:

I start bugging him for treats by performing a few of my patented moves. Sometimes I do my pounce. Everyone loves that. Sometimes I just look unbelievably cute. Dad’s a sucker for that. Sometimes I bark incessantly and Dad asks me if I need to go outside. I don’t. I keep barking. Do I need water? No. I keep barking. Then I perform my final and, if I do say so myself, charming move. I walk out to the kitchen and cock my head toward the cupboard that holds my treats. I fix my big green eyes on the cupboard and then I flick them back to Dad, then back to the cupboard.

He gives up and gives me a treat. Sometimes more than one.

I have him in the palm of my paw, as we say in the doggie world.

Let’s face it. I’d rather have a treat than the same boring old food that Mom and Dad give me. Every single day. It’s endless. And once I start getting a lot more treats, I don’t want to eat that stuff anymore. So, I start nosing my dish and push it all over the room. All you can hear is the sound of my metal dog dish sliding around on the wood floor. And my dad gets frustrated because I won’t eat. This goes on for a while. Sometimes he gives me a treat just to see if I’ve totally lost my appetite because he’s worried I might be sick. (Mom does this, too.) And I score another treat!

Then trouble comes. Because he picks up that thing he talks into and calls my mom. And she figures out what’s going on and says (I can hear her through the thing) “Stop giving her treats until she finishes her food. If she doesn’t finish, no treat. You have to be tough. She’s working you.”

Uh oh. Busted.

And suddenly, all the time and effort I’ve put into this whole thing, all the barks, the pounces, the eyes-toward-the-cupboard-move, the dish nosing (I can push it all the way across the room and under the chair,) – all of it is for nothing. The other day, he put the phone on speaker and I heard Mom’s voice. (What? Where is she?) And she said, “Scout, eat your dinner. NO TREATS until you eat your dinner. Eat your dinner.” Yikes. I looked around for her but she wasn’t there. It sort of spooked me. I looked right at the thing Dad was holding. No Mom.

Hmmm.

Anyway. It’s not working now, so I have to eat my food. Or I won’t get any treats. Dang.

Oh, and the other night I went all hyper in the living room and dad couldn’t get me to calm down. He couldn’t figure out what was going on.

So he picked up that thing again and I heard Mom’s voice coming through it. She figured out that Dad had completely forgotten to give me my carrots. The carrots that Mom cuts up for me every night between 5 and 5:30, whenever I can get her butt off the chair and into the kitchen. Or that Dad cuts up for me when Mom asks him to (because she’s too lazy to get up.) I had to dance and pounce and bark like a performing dog in order to get something that I should have had 3 hours earlier.

Cripes.

I miss my mom.

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But there is an upside to all of this. Dad takes me on lots of walks and for rides in the car. He’s better at this sort of thing than Mom is. Mom always has something she’s working on. Or she’s blogging. Dad is more fun. We go on lots of adventures.

Though Mom does pounce with me.

I wish these two people would just stay in the same place for a while. I’m not at all happy with this coming and going.

Can you talk some sense into them?

Scout

On The Road: Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground

Playing With Blocks

Scout Blogs

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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